Should I DIY My Solar Panel Installation?
Having decided on installing a grid-tie solar system, the next question is, do I install it myself, or hire a contractor. Being a DIY sort of a guy, I was disappointed that doing a solar install yourself in my area, (I live in Ohio) was not possible. There are two reasons for this. The first one is codes and permits in my county requires all electrical work to be done by a licensed electrical contractor. Additionally for a solar install, the electrical contractor had to be NABCEP certified. Additionally, my electric company also required the solar panels be installed by an electrician with a NABCEP certification. In spite of me having to pay a NABCEP certified electrician, it is still worth it to install solar panels.
Solar Installation With Ironridge Rails And Enphase Microinverters
Given how much I was able to spend, my solar installation consists of twelve Q Cell 255 watt solar panels which makes my solar array 3.06 KW, or 3060 watts. The whole system is mounted on my roof using the IronRidge XR-100 roof mount system. On the underside of each solar panel is an Enphase Microinverters is their web interface called the Enphase Envoy. This allows the homeowner to monitor in real time the power output of each solar panel in your system Here is a link to my Enphase Envoy monitor. Additionally it allows Enphase techs to login remotely to my system for quick troubleshooting if necessary. Using Enphase’s Envoy system also allows me to automatically send my power generation data to other web sites. My system sends its data to PVoutput.org.
Do you know when these were added:
Enphase added an EMI ferrite noise filter to the output of their microinverters. With this addition, the EMI ferrite core filter mentioned below is no longer necessary. I have kept the following two paragraphs in this post for reference –
Hello, I’m sorry but I don’t know when they added the EMI filter.
You might want to call Enphase about that. Their tech support is good, and they should be able to let you know. I wouldn’t be surprised if they could tell you a hardware version.
— Mike