Recent content by devprius

We just hit our 1 year anniversary on our rooftop system. Our system is 4.94 kW DC / 4.31 kW AC, comprised of 26 Suntech 190W panels and a PowerOne Aurora PVI-5000 central inverter. Full month stats: Aug 2012 699.1 Sep 2012 643.0 Oct 2012 501.6 Nov 2012 357.5 Dec 2012 256.3 Jan 2013 407.8 Feb...

It's California law that you must have smoke detectors in every bedroom, and a carbon monoxide/smoke detector in the hallways outside of the bedrooms. It is totally within the powers of the building department to demand to see them before signing off on the permit for the EVSE. While we didn't...

I was that prius owner. And to be clear here, this was the Leviton electrical contractor who was trying to gouge me on the permit fees and such. Ultimately I told Leviton to take a hike, got my $100 inspection fee back, bought a new-in-the-box AV unit from cwerdna, and had my friend the...

I'll play: 4.94 kW DC / 4.31 kW AC leased system from Sungevity. 26 Suntech 190W panels hooked up to a PowerOne PVI-5000 central inverter. Array is pointed at 116 degrees azimuth, with a 15-degree pitch. Installed in June 2012, and went live towards the end of July. Estimated annual production...

I don't know if the Leaf's do the same thing, but when I use the timer charging function of my PiP, when I plug the PiP in, the EVSE turns on briefly for about 10 seconds, and then shuts off until the timer fires. I'm assuming that the PiP is making sure it's got valid power for charging later...

I was the person who bought cwerdna's EVSE. I haven't had any problems with the EVSE, despite some torrential downpours we've had recently this month. The handle is always either plugged into the car, or plugged into the holder in the EVSE, so there's little chance for water to get into it...

You should have a portable EVSE. It came with your car, plugs into a 120V socket, slowly charges the car. Any of this ring a bell? :-)

Trying to tie this system into your EVSE directly is highly dangerous, and probably illegal. You would effectively be backfeeding your "portable" solar system into the house's electrical system. That sort of stuff requires all sorts of annoying things like permits, inspections, electrical...

Over on a solar power site I frequent, this very same topic came up: http://www.solarpaneltalk.com/showthread.php?7688-charging-electric-cars-without-an-inverter" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; While that post talks about doing a direct DC charging system, a lot of it pertains to...

Our 4.94 kW DC / 4.31 kW AC Sungevity system was officially turned on last week. It took 6 weeks for PG&E to come out swap the meter and bless the system. System details: 26 Suntech STP190S-24/Adb+ 190 watt panels 1 Power One PVI-5000-OUTD-US inverter 1 Locus LGate 101 solar monitor...

We'll be on E6-TOU, if PG&E ever gets around to swapping the meter. 2 weeks and counting. They have 30 business days, or 6 calendar weeks, to do the swap and let us turn on the system for real. So in theory we have another 4 weeks to wait. PG&E's website is contradictory with regards to NEM...

PG&E has done a pretty poor job on their website explaining how net metering and credits is supposed to work. I finally found the section that says that if you produce a surplus of electricity, they'll pay you for it, but at wholesale rates. In another part, they talk about how you can carry the...

Phoenix, are you on a net metering rate schedule? I'm told that the law recently changed and now utilities must write you a check if you have a credit at the end of the year (or whenever your 12-month true-up cycle ends). You should now get a check for $300. We just put a 4.94 Kw system on our...