There are several different options available when it come to installation. The main requirement is that the system be installed according to the National Electric Code or NEC Code.
The State of California will allow the home owner to do his or her own installation but will deduct 15% of your rebate amount. There is no special license required, you will need to pull your own permit with your local municipality and your system will need to be inspected. On the other hand if you hire someone to do the installation, he or she will need a contractors license in order to do the work.
We can recommend several C-10 licensed electricians that have plenty of experience in the installation of solar electric systems. We can also refer you to individuals who posses C-10 licenses that can act as a consultant, should you choose to do the work yourself, but just need a little advise.
One word of warning though ! We receive phone calls almost daily, from individuals and companies who want to get into the solar electric business and want to their buy components from our company.
The calls range from individuals with absolutely no experience in solar or electrical work, to companies who have done electrical work but have no experience in solar. If you're shopping around be careful !
Using a C-10 licensed electrician is fine but most electricians have little experience with DC circuits or especially experience with programming or using inverters, charge controllers, metering etc. All of the C-10 licensed electrician that are on our recommended list have been specially trained in these important areas. And you can count on them to provide you with a safe, professional installation.
Solar Home, Inc. a privately held company located in Victorville, California. We are the nation's largest high volume dealer of alternative energy products. Last year we received an award by one of the nation's largest manufacturers of alternative energy products for out selling every dealer in the country ! We achieved this goal by offering our customers the best service and the lowest prices in the industry.
We've been in business for many years, with thousands of satisfied customers throughout the US and abroad and have been selling alternative energy systems long before "Y2K" and the current "Energy Crisis". Unlike the many companies who in the last few months have jumped on the energy crises bandwagon with little or no expertise, you can count on us to give you the service and support that you deserve.
STC in an acronym for "Factory Standard Test Conditions" which is 1,000 watts per square meter solar irradiance, 1.5 Air Mass and a 25 degrees C. cell temperature. PTC is an acronym for "PV USA Test Conditions" which were developed at the PV USA test site at the University of Davis, California. The PTC rating represents a more real life condition of 1,000 watts per square meter solar irradiance, 1.5 Air Mass, and 20 degrees C. ambient temperature at 10 meters above ground level and wind speed of 1 meter per second.
The ambient temperature rating is a better standard than factory conditions
because silicon solar cells average about 20 degrees C. above ambient
temperature in the real world, cell voltage drops as temperature increases. A
module's power output in real life conditions is lower than the power measured
at the factory where cell temperature is maintained at a controlled 77 degrees
F. (25 C).
Cell voltage drops about 0.08 volts per degree C. in environments which exceed
25 degrees C. Thus, an STC rating of 17 volts can actually become a PTC rating
of 15 or 16 volts. Using Ohm's Law, volts times amps is equal to watts which
equals power, so a reduced voltage, means reduced watts.
When shopping for a solar electric system for your home or business, make sure that the dealer that you are speaking with is quoting you in actual PTC rated kilowatt hours per day. We have noticed several dealers that are listing only STC kilowatt hours per day which are not real world numbers. Make sure when comparison shopping that you are comparing apples to apples. Insist upon receiving an actual system PTC rating which includes the efficiency rating of both the modules and inverter. Solar Home always quotes real world performance with every system we sell and will back that up in writing !
Fun facts about
renewables
Solar Fun Facts
According to the Department of Energy, the costs of solar photovoltaics (PV)
have dropped 200 percent over the last three decades. Costs today range from 10
to 40 cents per kilowatt-hour.
The PV market is worth $2 billion today, but is expected to grow to $10 billion by 2010. The annual growth rate of solar PV products has grown by 20 percent annually and is expected to double every three years for the next 20 years.
The U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory underscored the benefit of installing solar PV in our nation's urban centers in a recent report. Seven major outages -- including one impacting the San Francisco area in June 2000 -- were analyzed from the perspective of the quality of the solar resource during the exact times of the power losses. In all but one of the outages, conditions for optimal solar electricity generation were above 90 percent. Interestingly, solar conditions were close to perfect (99 percent) for generating electricity from the sun on June 14th, 2000, the day 100,000 customers in the San Francisco area lost power.
The strongest market for solar PV is Germany, where laws that went into effect in 2001 require payments of 48 cents/kilowatt-hour over 20 years for solar PV installations of any size, up to five megawatts. Funding earmarked for the program would pave the way for 300 megawatts over the next five years, a solar market representing $3 billion. In Japan, demand for solar PV has jumped from 20 megawatts in 1997 to 60 megawatts in 2000, a 44 percent growth figure.
A study by U.S. Department of Energy showed that if covered with solar PV panels, the roofs of California's city and county buildings could generate 200 megawatts of clean electricity! School roofs covered with solar PV could add another 1,500 megawatts to the state's peak power supply.
California could theoretically generate all of its daytime electricity from the sun if every available commercial and industrial roof was covered with PV panels!