The Installation
Guest post by New England Clean Energy Customer C.J. Siano
We had our roof replaced at roughly the same time as installing solar, and our roofer and N.E. Clean Energy worked together so the solar mounts were properly mounted and flashed and the roof worked with them. Both companies did a great job keeping each other informed.
The N.E. Clean Energy crew is young and energetic. I showed them what I wanted and they spent about an hour with me discussing how to run wires and where to install equipment. My original location for the inverter didn’t meet code, so we found an alternate one that frankly works even better. (The inverter does make some noise, so don’t put it in a living area.)
My biggest fear was ugly wire runs. Our house meets modern fire safety code, so there isn’t a central wire chase from the basement to the attic. This makes any such runs very difficult. The crew worked hard and only needed to cut a small piece out of the garage ceiling to drill a hole for their conduit. The hole was patched up and with a little mud and paint was virtually invisible. Every other place they were able to snake the flex-conduit inside the walls.
All the electrical equipment was tagged with nice neat red signs that clearly explain that the pieces are a solar power source. The meters indicate they are fed by two power sources and where the location of the other meter is. (The main meter on the house was swapped with a special one that registers power flowing in both directions, and we have a certified production meter next to the inverter measuring what we produce.)
The men who were doing the wiring were all electricians and knew their stuff. They answered questions and made sure I understood everything that was being done.
Up next: Post-Installation and Beyond
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