Posts tagged as:

garage

Bronze Garage Plaque

December 1, 2024

I recently made a plaque for my garage out of solid silicon bronze.I created a form in Fusion 360, making sure to give any vertical surfaces a draft angle of 5 degrees (maybe I’ll do a little more next time!) The CAD software can even generate the estimated MASS of the finished item, useful for […]

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Solar vs Snow!

January 12, 2019

I love my solar panels, but how much power do they produce when covered with SNOW!? Since we’re now going into our SECOND winter with solar, let’s find out! First off, YES! Solar panels DO make more power when they are cleared of snow! As you can see in the first video, clearing the snow […]

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December Electric Bill

January 10, 2019

I just got my December electric bill! What will it be this month? December is notoriously cloudy in my area, and has the fewest hours of daylight of the year. Is this the electric bill I’ve been dreading? Let’s open it up! Unfortunately, I have to actually PAY an electric bill this month! I haven’t […]

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The Long Shadow – Winter Solar Shading

December 17, 2018

We’re coming up fast on the winter solstice! It’s been sunny the last few days, a nice change to all the cloudy weather we have had for so long! However, the sunny weather also reveals the LONG shadows cast this time of year! My garage does NOT have IDEAL solar access, but it’s pretty good. […]

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November Electric Bill

December 15, 2018

I recently got my November electric bill, but set it off to the side until I had the chance to open it on camera. Since installing solar, my electric bill has often been NEGATIVE, but with the bad weather and short days, what would it be this month!? After opening the bill, I saw that […]

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Spinning the PowerMeter Backwards

April 29, 2018

Spring has returned to Wisconsin. Although we had a blizzard last week, we are finally in clear skies and warming weather. In fact, it’s been almost ideal weather in my area for solar power production lately. My garage has 24 solar panels, each paired with an Enphase brand micro-inverter which can output up to 225 […]

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Snow-cover on my Solar Panels!

December 9, 2017

I woke up this morning to a gray half-light, and a blanket of snow covering everything…. including my solar panels! Hmmm. What would this do to my solar power production? To find out, I thought I would clear the snow off as many of the panels as I could and see what the difference would […]

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Solar is LIVE!

June 6, 2017

Bam! My solar is now fully operational! This morning, the electrical inspector stopped by. I pulled off the cover of the MidNite Solar AC Disconnect Box for him to look inside. That was about it. VERY simple inspection for the solar. I also had a sample of the Enphase trunk cabling to show him. After […]

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Wiring for Solar

June 2, 2017

We got the wiring for the solar done! My electrician, Ross, came over and we set to work on the wiring. I already had mounted electrical boxes to the racking on the roof and connected the Enphase Engage cable to the boxes with liquid-tight cable strain reliefs. I also made the conduit connections from the boxes […]

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Electric Boxes for Solar Roof

May 28, 2017

I had to double-check and saw that it’s been over TWO WEEKS since my last solar garage update. I’ve just been busy, working out of town and on the weekends. In the time that I’ve had, I’ve chipped away at getting the racking installed over the course of several evenings. After that, I also installed […]

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