First of all, as technology often does, newer things are available these days that make a solar system in the North East a better proposition.  Secondly, the solar business has done better than I expected.  As a result, I don’t often have much time to work on household projects.  That means that this years “capital improvement” budget has gone unspent for the most part.  Finally, I would like to offset some of the extra income tax from the profits.  What better way than to invest in the technology myself.  The Federal Government offers a 30% income tax incentive and the NY State government offers a 25% tax income incentive up to $5,000.00.  This will cut the overall cost of the installed system by almost 50%.

There are a number of considerations:

1. How large of a system should be installed.  I decided that I wanted to offset 70-80% of my annual electrical use.  In this climate and environment, that equates to about 4.1 KW DC PV system.  This leaves a little downward room in case I decide to replace the electric stove with a gas unit.
2. Where can it be installed.  Since the south facing roof has the solar hot water system, the PV system needs to be mounted on a sun shade type structure in the yard.
3. What type of technology.  I was initially looking at a grid tied with battery back up, however, after I looked into the newest type of inverter, the Enphase microverter, I decided that this was the way to go.  A battery backup can be added at a later date.

The Enphase microverters are really cool.  The way this system works is every solar panel has its own small inverter instead of one large inverter for many panels.   The advantages of this type of system are thus:  In conventional system, shading of one panel can cause the entire solar array to turn off, making it ineffective.  With the microverters, the shaded panel may turn off, but the rest of the unshaded panels still put out full power.  In the Northeast, trees grow everywhere, it is nearly impossible to have a completely shade free site, nor should home owner’s be expected to clear cut their lots to accommodate a PV system.  The Enphase microverters mitigate some of those concerns.

Also, multiple inverters create redundancy.  Any one inverter can fail, leaving the other nineteen still operational.  There is automatic web monitoring for a small annual fee, or the modules can be monitored manually.  I may write a small web based program to monitor and post my energy output here.  The inverters themselves carry a 15 year warranty, whereas most other inverters carry a 5 year warranty.

Finally, there are no DC voltage losses to account for, making the entire system operate much more efficiently.

In anycase, the order has been signed, checks have been written and the excavator has been reserved for this weekend.  The first step is to dig and poor the footings for the sun shade.

More to follow.

Or have term limits.

Anyway, here are a few pictures from our walk:

Entrance to the pedestrian bridge from the Highland side

We all have our eyes closed

Western shore of the Hudson River north of bridge

shadow bridge, good look at steel support structure

shadow bridge on the water with sky relected below

Looking south about mid river at the Mid Hudson bridge

We went out to the half way point and turned around because Eliza was tired and hungry, at one point laying down and insisting that she could not continue one step further until she has something to eat.  The poor dear.

I am very glad we got there a little early, as when we were leaving there was a traffic jam of people looking for parking spots.

This Saturday, October 17th, the bridge/state park is being named a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark, which is quite the thing.  The leaves along the Hudson should be peaking soon, so if you are planning the trip, better make it soon.

Poughkeepsie Rail Road Bridge (Library of Congress hhh.ny1625)

On a late spring day in 1974, the east end of the bridge caught fire.  I remember my aunt, who lives in Poughkeepsie, calling and telling my mother about it.  They both were quite shocked.

From that day, the bridge changed hands many times, falling further and further into disrepair.  There were talks demolishing it in the early 1990’s, which would have been a shame.   In 1998, a group came together to raise the 38 million dollars to convert it to a walkway.  It is an excellent addition to this area’s tourist attractions of which there are many.  One local congressman has said it will be like the Eiffel Tower.  Perhaps that might be overstating it slightly since Poughkeepsie is not Paris, but the sentiment is correct.

We are planning a walk across sometime soon, when the weather is a little nicer, perhapes next weekend when the autumn colors are peaking.

I also feel a little guilty about not posting more often.  However, a while back, I decided that I would limit the off topic posts as much a possible and try to created good remodeling and construction content that would be both informative, meaningful and perhaps entertaining.  I also got rid of a good deal of dead weight in that I took down all the extra Amazon stores.  Since I have been super busy over the summer, nothing of note has been done around here.

If that changes, you’ll be the first to know.  In the mean time, check out the big list if you have a moment or two.