Hi Steve et al.,

A lot of excitement at our house today... The panels were installed
and our inverter was attached to the house,
but we still have some wiring to do tomorrow. Meanwhile, our own
/Community Champion/ Bruce Karney and
others from several other cities were at our house today for a
photo-shoot for an upcoming piece in /Fast Company/
magazine to be published soon (folks were saying June). Perhaps this is
why we were able to get our installation
happening faster...

According to our salesperson, the SolarWorld panels have a slightly
higher output, than the BP one, but looking
at the respective spec sheets quickly, I do not see much difference, but
will look at them more closely when I have
more time. [I uploaded the specs for the two PV panels on the mvsolar
yahoo group website.] The Excel spreadsheet that
they do the math with seemed to back that up, and the price was the same
so we went for them, though there was some
concern about curb appeal. (Now that they are installed, I like them,
my wife Mary thinks they are better than she was expecting)... Someone
today was indicating that the black on the BP panels absorb more of the
light than the silver of the SolarWorld, effectively
reducing light to the solar cells... I don't know how your dealings
went, but we had many questions and went through
many different options with regards to possible layout and how to
maximize energy generation and curb appeal at the
same time... It seems very likely that there would be many different
configurations. I would say that for most of the
discussion they were pushing the BP panels and the SolarWorld came in
toward the end...

A month to be legal? Well, the way our luck has been going, we are
hoping for sooner, and will let everyone know.

Cheers,
Chris Dateo
Montalto Dr [was tired on first post, it is Dr not Ave ...]

Stats are still the same.

>
> Steve Lacy wrote:
>>
>> Hi Chris and everyone else!
>>
>> I've got my panels up and (almost legally) running. City inspection
>> passed last week, and I got a mailing from PG&E that said they would
>> be out to inspect and install the Net Metering in the next 2 weeks.
>> So, it'll be just about a month after the system was installed before
>> it was legally operational.
>> This weekend, I produced about 7 kWh on Saturday, since it was a bit
>> cloudy, and 20.1 kWh on Sunday, with just over 100kWh lifetime. I
>> leave the system on during the weekend, since its unlikely that the
>> inspectors will show up and scold me. :)
>>
>> Did you choose the SolarWorld panels, or did they recommend them? It
>> seems like there's quite a difference between panels and systems that
>> SolarCity is installing, and I'm wondering what factors influence the
>> decisions.
>>
>> (And, in the tradition of all internet groups, I'll put my "stats" in
>> my signature)
>>
>> Steve
>> Velarde St.
>>
>> 22 * BP4175 175W Panels
>> Xantrex GT-3.8 inverter
>> CEC rating 3.1 kW AC
>>
>> On 4/7/07, *cedateo* <jdateo@...
>> <mailto:jdateo@...>> wrote:
>>
>> Hi Bruce and others,
>>
>> We got a call Thursday night saying a slot opened up and SolarCity
>> could start our installation in the morning. We went for it (after a
>> couple of questions about tenting for termites after once the panels
>> were installed - answer: should not be a problem). Team showed up
>> and
>> they put the bracket holders on our roof yesterday, and will be back
>> on Monday to install panels, then Tuesday for inverter and
>> hook-up to
>> power. We should be ready for inspections (city? and PG&E) by
>> Wedneseday. The crew told us that they had just finished up an
>> installation on Rustic Ln, just down the street.
>>
>> Soon there will be at least 2 Cuesta Neighborhood installations
>> completed to add to your tally.
>>
>> We are very excited!
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Chris Dateo
>> Montalto Ave
>>
>> System stats:
>> 27 SolarWorld California, Inc. SW175 mono/P modules.
>> 1 Xantrex Technology, Inc. GT5.0-NA-DS-240 inverter.
>> System's CEC Rating 4.082 kW AC (CEC)
>>