Jeff Butera's posts

Thanks Chris - as a resident of Massachusetts, I was already leaning towards Evergreen for the better rebates (and I was aware of the differences in production), but hearing another confirmation is good.

For inverters, I was considering Xantrex or SMA, but I'll take a closer look at Fronius as well.

Thanks

I'm not looking to start a relgious war, but I'd love to hear people's thoughts about recommendations on both PV panels (sanyo, kyocera, mitsubishi...) and inverters (SMA, Xantrex, Fronius...)

If it matters, I'm looking at a grid-tied system around 2.5 kW

James - this is a proposed system in Western MA. I really want to install PV spring 2007 but have a couple of concerns to address.  First, we may not stay in our house due to jobs, so I'm seriously looking to install a system I could reasonably move with me to another house.  While my roof pitch/orientation are near perfect for this (MA) location, my roof is extremely high (almost 45').  Since I will be installing much of this myself and I want the possibility of easily relocating, a ground mount system is far more appealing at this time.  I have open, unobstructed space on my lot so I can optimize orientation and adjust angle through season easily with ground mount.

I'm looking to install somewhere between 2 and 3 Kw, ground mounted on my lot about 150' from house, so I'm allowing 200' including running wiring through basement to interverter to be located near main panel.

I'm on grid and because of both startup costs and proximity of inverter to gas water heater and furnance in basement, I'm not installing a battery bank at this time (yes, I know there are safe H2 venting solutions).  Thus I'm looking for some panels, inteverter, meter/cutoff mains and associated wiring . 

I'm open to thoughts/insights.

I have a need to install my PV panels about 200 feet from my inverter/main panel.  My concern is about voltage loss due to resistance from the larger distance.  Thoughts?  Would running my panels to output  48V instead of 24V or 12V make any difference?  Should I just not worry about it?

I'm seriously considering a drainback DHW system but want a PV powered pump to avoid the penalty of AC power.  However, I'm not clear about controls for a PV pump - I understand that PV will only run pump when sun is out but in particular how you have a high temp cutoff?  All differential controls I see are AC based units, so I'm not sure how the high temp cutoff works for PV.

Any insight appreciated.