Solar Panel Installation

We have gone solar. Installation started on the 9th of March, 2015. I have been taking pictures, to document the event.

I was concerned about the quality and durability of the panels. American Array Solar sent me this link. Right click on
the link, and choose "Open In A New Tab" to get to the YouTube page.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6v2lDa8Hos

These are the panels that American Array Solar uses in the set up.

Here is the sign in the front yard.|
 

Starting installation. Measuring, and installing the "Ironridge Flashed Foot Composition Roofing Mount" which slides
under the composition shingle, creating a leak barrier.

For those interested, here is how the hardware is mounted to the roof.

Putting the roof mounting under the shingles.
 

Starting the framework

Two panels waiting.

Two end panels placed to space out the framework.

Most of the bottom row complete, last panel going into place

Last panel of the top row.

All in, now just the wiring, and hooking up through the electrical panel to the gird and house.

Here the panels are hooked into the circuit breaker panel. On the installation validation today, 11 March, 2015, I got
watch the PG&E power meter run backward! The panels put out 2.79 kW/hour of AC current, and we were using
only 1.2 kW/h, so some went back into the power grid.

Now we wait for the inspectors. Can't turn on the panels until the inspectors check out the installation and gives the O.K.

12 panels, two rows. 3.3 kW (DC) output of the total panel array. Each panel has it's own micro inverter (for the
non-electronic types, solar panels output direct current. An inverter switches the DC to alternating current - AC), so
that if any panel is in shade, only that panel output is decreased. The actual amount of alternating current power
the panels output is calculated on the RMS (Root Means Square) value of the AC sinewave. The RMS value of
a sinewave of AC voltage or current is essentially, the effective value of the AC corresponding to the DC values
that will produc the same heating effect. Essentially, it is the actual work eqivalent in AC of a DC current. How
it is calculated, believe me, you really don't need to know. Ha.

The old system, where all the panels came into the circuit breakers through a single inverter, any shade, and the
whole output died.