Solar Install 2/3 - SMA Sunny Boy and Wiring

SMA Sunny Boy Grid Tie Inverter is now installed :-)

Today, after Roland Garros tournament - no parking available nearby and non stop bad weather, my contractor came to finish - almost - the Solar installation started in october 2012

First, we had to make some room in the kitchen cabinets for the inverter and the solar junction box/sub panel 

Here they come, in the morning sunshine, start unloading and bringing up their stuff 

Recently changed utility meter and old - but very sturdy - main AC breaker

Solar junction box / sub panel before install: Some lightning fuses on the floor will be added later in a larger panel which will accomodate them along with my outlet for the ESS 

A lot of stuff on the dining room floor: DC, AC cables, connectors, tools, etc

Access is clear now after unscrewing the groceries racks

A close look at the SMA Sunny Boy 3000 waiting in the corridor, apparently a used unit from the few scratches on the enclosure, but in mint condition inside (again this inverter should be there only for a little while waiting for their "home made" special inverter

Beautiful German quality unit 

Holding bracket screwed in the cabinet
Some 20mm holes for the hot air exhaust on top of the inverter, which is naturally air cooled - no fan - 

4mm2 Solar Cables: Red for Positive, Black for Negative ...

Solar DC cables are pushed from the appartment, up to the attic, to end up on the roof

32kg SunnyBoy is now mounted on its heavy duty thick metal bracket

Junction box / Sub panel is mounted right underneath, accessible at human height

Close up: they added a 220V outlet I provided to plug in my ESS directly: from left to right: Differential AC circuit breaker, outlet, DC circuit breaker - for solar DC cables - 

So it all fits nicely in this rather narrow cabinet, where the consumer panel is, next to the fridge

Damaged MC4 connectors: At my request they replaced all the MC3 connectors on the Uni-Solar PVL panels with MC4, the new standard, this is a lot of crimping on the roof, and my contractor could not finish everything in one long morning
But he promises to come back to finish very soon ... 

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Inverter cover and cables

They left the Solar DC cable rolls here

I should have an SMA Sunny Boy 3000 Inverter installed soon

I recently talked to my solar contractor and since his home made grid tie inverter is delayed for now, he proposed to install a regular inverter few weeks ago, and last tuesday, he said it would be an SMA SunnyBoy 3000 (with galvanic transformer)
If you remember, bmy Uni-Solar PVL124 and PVL68 had been installed on the building zinc roof back in october ...
We talked a lot about the details, junction box, Wattson sensors, integration of my LiFePO4 ESS, etc
We are now waiting for the bad weather to go away  !!  :-)

Solar Panels Installation - 13 Uni-Solar PVL 124W 68W 31W

Today is the Big Day !

When I woke up, I discovered a very clear blue sky (what a relief !)

I had to take my day off to be there when it happens, but still I could not sleep anymore 

I checked right away and noticed that the forecast had not changed :-) and that it should be a nice day (all day)

My contractor called me to tell me he would come with one or two employees from another project nearby to help him out here and that he should show up right after lunch break so that the roof would be dry

And now they are here, the boss and one employee, on the roof installing the panels :-)

My last recommandations given showing pictures of the roof (from the sky) & Uni-Solar PVL technical documentation, ...

... my wife and I helped them passing the panels to put all of them on the roof

The ladder and opening to access to the roof

They installed some safety ropes between the chimney stacks

and started cleaning and scrubbing the the zinc so that the tar would stick better

It is getting hot on top of this roof in direct sun :-)

More pictures taken by my contractor:

All this was installed in only two hours and the employee told me it was the first time he installed this kind of panels and that it was easy

The PVL 68W and PVL 124W have been placed on either side of the U shaped building roof, avoiding attic air conduits, East and  West, in two strings of 3 68W and 3 124W; The additional small 31W has been added to the East chain

Here is a particular problem I was afraid of: the zinc sheets, overlapping each other, create a bump; I ask my contractor to be extra carefull at these points and not to try to put too much pressure on them because it would damage the solar panels ... He followed my advice and did better: he added a some silicone sealant between the zinc and the panel, blocking water and sticking this part too, which is a good idea :-)

Closer look at the nice result
I know, we have a lot of shade from the chimney stack, because winter is coming ..., but these panels are working do not really need direct sun to work well, they are fine with a white/grey sky
Also, if the shade is really bad, the cells affected are automatically shunted (each cell has a diode for that prupose), allowing better current flow only in sunny cells 

Awesome ! I am very happy with the job they accomplished :-)

Now I will have to be patient because their "Super" inverter is not ready yet, butI think it is worth the wait (I talked about it with the boss for an hour after the employee was gone)

Their website: Ecogelec

Sweaty Sunday ... Taking my 13 Uni-Solar Panels upstairs

This sunday I sweated a lot !! taking my 13 Uni-Solar Panels from the basement all the up to the 5th floor ... no elevator here, so 6 stories up and down
I was preparing for their installation on the building zinc roof the next day
After weeks of cold and bad weather, when I saw the sunny forecast of the next week, I insisted that my contrator comes to install themn, and saturday he talk to him on the phone and he said he could come monday ...

Uni Solar Panel #PVL-124 124 Watt Solar Laminate

Somebody asked me where I got my Uni-Solar flexible panels and I am happy to share this eBay link with you in case you are interested

Cheapest I found, delivered in one week to France from the US (Farmingdale, New Jersey)
Just added 744 W to my solar roof project for 1000 EUR including shipping :-)
This guy has a huge stock of them

eBay Link: Uni Solar Panel #PVL-124 124 Watt Solar Laminate

A video (in 2 parts) about it this very panel the PVL-124:

Building Roof where the Uni-Solar flexible solar panels will be mounted

Some pictures of my building roof, where the Uni-Solar flexible solar panels will eventually be mounted
I am now in the process of finding a contractor to help me put them up there