Halco Installs a 5.52 kW Solar Electric System for Danby, NY Customer
Challenge
This homeowner wanted to better understand renewable energy and whether solar is the best option for them.
Solution
This 5,520 W (5.52 kW) grid-connected solar electric (PV, photovoltaic) system was installed as a roof-mounted array of twenty-four (24) SunPower 230 W solar modules mounted on the garage roof. The array is arranged as four rows of five modules in landscape with four other panels in an additional row. The modules are mounted on the south-facing garage roof using a UniRac SunFrame racking system and flashed connections to the roof to ensure a water tight connection. The array layout is designed to maximize system size, while allowing only minimal losses due to shading and ensuring the system is aesthetically pleasing and well-integrated with the house. The system is configured electrically as three (3) DC circuits (strings) of eight (8) series connected modules providing input through one (1) DC disconnect switch to one (1) SunPower 6000m, 6.0kW inverter. This inverter provides grid-synchronous AC output and interfaces to the electric utility through a dedicated circuit breaker in the Customer's main service panel, as existing infrastructure allows. System power production (kW) and cumulative energy (kWh) monitoring is provided by a SunPower datalogger and online portal, as well as by a digital display on the inverter and an electromechanical meter. As designed, this system should generate an average of 14.2 kWh/day (5,193 kWh/year), where daily energy production is both weather and seasonally dependent. This energy production is equivalent to 90% of the customer's present home electrical usage, and corresponds to a CO2 (greenhouse gas) emissions savings of 18.5 lb CO2 per day (6,751 lb per year).
