ugly solar installation

[micky]

Someone in a townhouse not far from here got solar panels, for free. The electric meter is in the front and that's why they ran 1.5 or 2" conduit up the front of the house to the roof, and put in a 3" long junction box where the conduit had to bend almost 90^ to go on the roof.

I think it's uggggly.

What should they have done differently, even if the homeowner had to pay?

Can conduit be painted and how long would it stay approximately the same color? Is there any conduit or useable alternative that is already colored? White? Brown? Mariner turquoise?

Even that wouldn't be very good but it's the easiest most obvious.

How is it properly done when put on a roof?

Down through the stack to the basement, I presume, and the electric connections and the solar control box (2 or 3 times the size of the meter) are put in the basement????

[Wayne Boatwright]

On Tue 15 Aug 2017 02:49:41p, micky told us...

In two instances I have used gutter downspouts to conceal (contain)

220 volt cable that was then buried to feed our hot tub. I also used it to contain (conceal) the replacement freon lines running between the compressor and the condensor (the original had been buried in the poured concrete slab of the house). The downspouts were then painted the same color as the house and barely noticieable. Besides, downspouts look normal on a house wall, not like an ugly cable.

Since this insallation is already in place, painting the meter and control box could also be painted.

I'm sure there could have been better alternatives, but it's too late now.

[trader_4]

Plus the bigger problem is solar panels themselves are ugly. Put on the front of the house, where you can see them, they look terrible. Elon Musk has some new ones just coming out that look like shingles, but they are a lot more expensive so far.

You can paint PVC conduit, but it would certainly have been easier before it was put up.

[micky]

So you mean put the cable inside the downspout! I thought he just meant put the conduit in the corner between the downspout and tthe wall??

Was it an actual downspout with water in it when it rained?

Actually those two things look okay, and the meter isn't even visible from the street (though I painted mine, all but the glass, to match the house.

Right. They've been talking about this on our new neighborhood mailing list, and I pointed out how bad it looked and how it could have looked better. last I looked, this particular neighbor was on the miailing list, but if she is, so be it.

Then someone else posted as both the salesman and the 5-star reference for one of the companies. She said " I have [this brand of] panels and my elec. went from about 290 to $47.50 and with my XOOM elec&has my bill is about 22" This sounds very unlikely to me. I asked how big her array is and how many watts, and if I could go see her house.

I myself don't think solar panels are ugly, only that bloomin' pipe.

[Wayne Boatwright]

On Tue 15 Aug 2017 07:28:30p, micky told us...

Yes, the cable was put inside the downspout.

It was not an actual downspout to carry water. It was a section of downspout bought specificaclly for this purpose. It didn't connect to anything.

If I were iclined to put solar panels on my roof, I would definitely ut them on the back side of the roof, as well as any associated equipment either mounted on the back wall or in the basement, if there is a basement.

[joe]

Agreed! I'd penetrate the roof (like a plumbing vent) with PVC electrical conduit and place the controls in a basement/utility room.

[micky]

In my neighborhood post, I suggested that, and added that that part wouldn't be free. The other part is not free but you don't have to pay anything in advance. They collect it monthly and also promise your total bill will be lower or at least not higher than it has been.

The other pretty big thing they've been putting outside is the FIOS (fiber optic) cable box.

My DSL keeps taking breaks of some sort. Sometimes the webradio (a separate program) will play for long periods of time with no interruption, while the web seems to stop, even email will sometimes stop. OTOH, sometimes the webradio sometimes stops while the other things work fine.

A) If I had FIOS would that solve things? B) Is Verizon intentionally messing with DSL to get people to change to FIOS, or was it always like this?

[DerbyDad03]

Incline? No pun intended, I assume. ;-)

The layout of your house may dictate where you install the panels. You may lose some production, depending on which way the rear roof faces as well as the slope.

My rear roof faces north so I'll lose production just from that. The trees won't help either.

This site contains a study done on north facing panels.

[My 2 Cents]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and free electricity looks pretty to me. Suggestion; move to a HOA and enjoy utopia.

[Ed Pawlowski]

The solar company gets all the tax benefits and you get the potential cost liability. You usually have a long term lease that leaves you liable when you want to sell the house. Not for me.

In some areas around here Verizon stopped installing FIOS. It may fix your problems but talk to your neighbors that have it to see how well it works for them.

[Wayne Boatwright]

On Wed 16 Aug 2017 04:37:12a, micky told us...

I know nothing about Verizon's FIOS. However, in central Phoenix Cox's fiber optics interface box is always mounted on the rear wall of the house, as arer other interface and control boxes for other uses. Cox's Intrnet speed tops out at 300 Mbps. We chose 100 Mbps and have had amazingly good performance for all purposes, virtually uninterrupted with the exception of power failures.

[Wayne Boatwright]

On Wed 16 Aug 2017 06:10:56a, Ed Pawlowski told us...

If it's a choice then you have options. When Cox went with fiber options in major portions of the city, there was no option to still have standard cable. Our monthly bill was barely affected, and it has been more reliable, as has been the signal quality.

[trader_4]

Do you mean that Verizon stopped installing FIOS to new areas not already served or that V stopped installing it for new customers in areas that already have it? I thought they just stopped deploying it to new areas and that occured several years ago.

I don't have FIOS, but I would expect it would be very reliable and fast like cable internet. DSL has inherent big problems, it tries to use new tech to push data over old wires.

[trader_4]

He may have to when that neighbor reads what Micky said about how her house looks in that newsletter. Sounds like a good way to start a war to me.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Both for a while. They had problems in at least one area but that may have changed. ATT also slowed and perhaps stopped in new areas. They also sold off their landline service to Frontier.

[micky]

I'm sure she doesn't read this group.

OTOH, the neigbhorhood list I mentioned (a subset of nextdoor.com) has about 30 of the 100 of us subscribed. They had an online list of all of those 30 subscribers and I should have checked it again before the similar comments I made there, but I don't think she's a member yet -- I just checked and she's not -- and if she joins later, she won't see earlier posts. I don't think there are archives even if she wanted to look at old posts.

However not only did I say the installation was ugly, but the next day a woman from outside the n'hood posted and said she was selling the systems and her bill went from 290 to 48 dollars (and then when she switched electric companies it went to 22 dollars).

I"ve never heard a claim of a 242 dollar / month savings, and I asked how big her array was, how many watts it put out, and asked if I could see her house. I don't trust her.

I'm sure I annoyed her, which is okay, but because I thought only my 100 neighbors would be reading all this, I used my real name. Now I see we get posts from maybe a dozen nearby n'hoods, and I really don't want to fight with someone who knows my name.

So I just signed up a second time, but I have to give my home address. They would accept my cell phone number, but I'm not telling them that, and they would accept a credit card number but I'm surely not telling them that. So that only leaves a postcard. OTOH, my neighbors know there's no one else living here, unless I keep him chained in the basement. Maybe I can keep this new listing's address out of the n'hood list.

[micky]

That would be okay. It's probably what he meant.

I'm sure you didn't have a 3" right angle connection that was hanging in mid-air by a few inches.

I wonder if she got both the front and the back. I can see the front, but that side points north east. The south west side would be better, plus, because we're on a hill, you can't even see the roof on the back of the house.

Another neighbor put a light on the side of his house and instead of running elecricty to the attic and then through the wall to the light, they ran aluminum conduit from the porch light 20 feet sideways and 20 feet up. It sure looks ugly.

Other houses I've seen put in floodlights and instead of running cable in the bedroom wall up one foot from a indoor receptacle and out, they run conduit from the porch light outside the wall and it looks ugly too.

I don't think they know anything about construction and it doesn't even occur to them how to do it right.

[micky]

This is a great page, except for one mistake, as I read it. "The sun is overhead in the summer, when the array is most productive?so the arrays are nearly identical during the most crucial times"

He does say "nearly" but I still think it can be misleading to a lot of people. The sun is always above our heads, but it is never directly above our heads or north of the the line going straight up from our heads. That is, even on the longest day of the year, the sun is never farther north than the Tropic of Cancer, which goes through Mexico and along the northern coast of Cuba. So even Florida and Texas don't get direct sunlight, ever. There is always some angle. But the angle is less during the summer -- That's what makes it summer!

[trader_4]

ay lose some

es won't help either.

facing-solar-modules/

How much sun does the north side of a roof in your area get even in summer? It's not about summer just summer months, it's about how much sun falls on a given roof face during the entire year. South facing is best, sw is still very good. North, forget about it. I've never seen an array facing north, have you?

There are calculators that give you the exact data for a specific location. It's what the installers use.

[micky]

About 20 years, I think. So you're expected to pay off the loan if you sell your house? That makes sense.

I guess I was thinking the new owner would take over the contract, but even if he continued the agreement so they continued to get their payments, it would be like a subtenant and the original tenant, who had moved out, would still be ultimately liable for the rent if it doesn't get paid by the subtenant.

Very good idea. I should have thought of that.