Winter - effect of snow Part2

So the snow built up until February 7th at about noon. That was when the snow guards holding back such a mass of weight said "no more". The courtyard area has a standing seam metal roof that pitches toward it and had built up with quite a curl of snow. I estimate that it was 4ft thick of ice and dense snow and went back a good 20ft from the eave toward the ridge of the roof.

Heavy snow weights about 20lbs/cubic foot. 4ft tall drift x 60ft long gutter x 20ft from eave upward = 4800 cubic feet of snow, or 96,000 pounds. That my friends is a lot of weight. Snow guards were torn free, and it crashed into the courtyard.

We have a mini excavator handy and dug a path to see what was buried. The inverter obviously took a hit on the roof as you can see from this photo. It is made to withstand outdoor environments, but never was envisioned to be under such a blast of weight. The blue canopy shown in other photos over the inverter was a light gauge cover to shelter a technician when they would service the equipment. Needless to say, it was destroyed.

The inside corner also house the air conditioning condenser unit. We created a canopy cover to protect the unit from snow during the winter time. Little did we know it would be crushed under the impact.

So my next post will discuss the recovery from the event.

Winter - effect on solar Part1

As we entered winter, I'm often asked - how does that affect the electricity generation from solar panels? Certainly the shorter daylight hours reduce the potential for kwh, but this year the question was more often related to the snow we have had. In CT this winter, our ground has been covered by snow since the Xmas-NewYear holiday until March. More than 90days! In fact, we received some record snowfalls.

Our panels are on a pitched roof and rather tightly spaced. Thus, the snow can start to slide off as you see in these photos. Our standing seam metal roof has snow guards to limit hazard below, because as you can see, when that accumulation slides, it slams (look at snow splat on pavement below). What was unexpected was how much snow we got (2ft in one storm) over the winter with no thaw period between storms. It did get to be a problem as to where snow could be pushed, and still maintain access to the yard for materials deliver.

After several storms, buildings started collapsing. Usually barns at farms or storage shed industrial structures that were light engineered on the limit of building code allowances. Still, we weren't taking any chances and started shoveling snow off our office roof (the only flat roof area we have). You can see by this photo that it was a lot of snow, up to our shoulder as we shoveled it away. The right photo is our courtyard area where some equipment for the solar array is located. The snow on the pitched roof area has curled and built up substantially. It couldn't be simply removed, and the buildup was worrisome.

It snowed and snowed and snowed!! It was quite the winter!! Despite the snow shed from our panels as shown in the above photo , we were getting a "DC fault" code causing the inverter to cease generating any electricity. We couldn't access the roof safely to confirm what was causing the fault, but the "DC" indication confirms it was at the panels. My next post will show the effects.

Sunny Statistics 2010

The PV Solar System has completed it's 2nd Electric Year (2009Dec17 thru 2010Dec19). As comparison, look to the results for the 2009 Electric Year found hear.

For the 2010 Electric Year:

• The system was in place for 368 days (29 days of which there was no production due to equipment issues, snow load prevented access to equipment repairs in Feb/Mar).
• The average system output was 330kwh/day.
• The average consumption of our operations was 295kwh/day.
• Highest daily electricity generation was May10 with 724kwh
• 112% of consumption was generated from the PV Solar System.

January, November and December (and March due to equipment shutdown) were the only months when the PV Solar System didn't generate more than our entire operations electricity consumption. Since the system was installed on 2009Mar23, enough electricity has been generated on-location to power all of the company's operations.

Recognizing the excess generation capacity, during this year, items that were powered from other sources were replaced to electricity fueled such as hot water heaters and one vehicle vehicle. A sewer pumping station that was operated separately from our company previous to 2010, but which served our property and that of 3 adjacent parcels, was connected to our infrastructure and is now powered by solar generated electricity.

With there still being an excess of power after these changes, further avenues of efficient utilization and conversions will be examined in 2011.

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Solar Panels on Frosty Morning

An interesting thing regarding solar panels is their configuration or setup. Our 525 panel array is configured so that several panels are connected in series as a "string", and then combined with other strings to send their DC current to an inverter where the output becomes AC current.

One design challenge is that the panels in that string need to be working well together. If 3 out of 7 panels in a string are not functioning - the entire string is unable to make production. On Nov1, we had an exceptionally clear and cold day. The panels had a frost that settled on them, and with the early morning sun rising clearly and slowly, the melt of the frost followed the shadow line as the sun rose in the sky. As you can see by the above photo, that meant that some panels, though being struck by sunlight, were unable to pass along their energy generation because other panels in the string were not producing energy due to frost blocking the light.

One solution to this is micro-inverters that would convert the DC current on each individual panel into AC current. It is an interesting concept, which this NYTimes article discusses more.

The photo is from 8:30am, and the array kept going in and out of operation as the sun glinted just enough light and energy on the threshold of operating. During the day total, there were 452kwh generated, the most in nearly a month.

As of Nov1, the array has generated all electrical needs for the company, even with us switching gas heaters to electric and adding an electric car that charges it's battery here. In fact, the array generated all the needs, and created excess of over 14,000 kwh. The credit of kwh generated and pushed to the grid beyond our consumption pulled from the grid, will be drawn down upon during the winter months when we do pull more than is pushed to the grid.

Hot Water Heater - Electric vs Gas

The hot water heater in the manufacturing area serviced wash basins and a bathroom. It was gas fired, 50 gallons, and needed replacement. We switched to a 6 gallon electric which we believe will yield substantial savings.

A physical review revealed that use of hot water occurred only at end of work periods (break-time, lunch, end of day). Otherwise, the system was maintaining 50 gallons of hot water during off periods (such as evenings and weekends).

An on-demand system would not work due to the heavy load that occurs upon lunch time as an example, when all the workers are using actively washing up before a meal.

A 6 gallon tank was found to be the right size for our peak use. The tank takes up less room, and doesn't require the venting like the former natural gas fired tank.

The comparison of costs and determining payback of investment is offered via this government website.

The system has been in place for 2 months, and functions as projected. We have ample electricity surplus from our PV solar array, so we have eliminated a natural gas purchase for the energy, as well as have eliminated the pollutants from burning the gas. All hot water in our facility comes from electric heaters, with electricity gathered from our Photo-voltaic array of panels.

Electric Vehicle Public Charging Station

Just this month, we installed a weather proof outlet to charge our Tesla electric vehicle at our Derby location to harness the "free" solar electricity rather than power a car by hydro-carbon fuel.

As early adopters to such means of transports, the challenge for electric vehicle drivers is finding places to charge up quickly. After we installed our equipment, we thought: why not offer free charging to other electric vehicle owners? One hour of charging on our 220v 40a outlet would only cost us about 40 cents. If someone were to spend an hour charging their vehicle, it would put another 25 miles in their "tank", and while they waited they could enjoy some food and bring business to our favorite pizza joint across the street, Apollo Pizza (tell Gus we sent you).

We put together a webpage describing our charging location and what we offered, and made mention of it on the forum pages of the Tesla owners website. To my knowledge, IDA International is offering the first free public charging location for electric cars that is powered from the sun in the State of Connecticut - maybe the USA?

It didn't take long!! On 2010/Sep/20 we had our first visitor with Mike from New Jersey! On his way toward home from Massachusetts, he stopped for a quick top-off while he toured our factory where we explained how the solar array functioned that was currently filling his car with energy.

Visit our Derby location and we will offer you free electricity for your car that we've gathered from the sun. And you might enjoy a good pizza!!

Electric Vehicle Charging

If you read this blog, you will know that the company's operation in Derby, CT has a solar array that provides all our electricity needs, and then some (114% of our consumption since the installation went live in 2009Mar).

Rather than sell that electricity to the utility (in March the electric company sweeps out any kwh we have "banked" and pays us based on the average rate of the New England Regional market, which is about 5cents per kwh), the value is in deferring buying electricity from the utility (which in total of all the line items on your electric bill is about 21cents per kwh).

As mentioned earlier, we have a diesel powered delivery fleet of light-duty trucks. With a round-trip delivery of apx 150 miles, they might one day be served by electric power. We are testing the viability of this with the only pure electric vehicle available to non-fleet owners as a purchased vehicle, the Tesla Roadster. While not a "delivery" vehicle, it is a real-world case study in how electric vehicles perform in hot or cold weather, and the reality of their charge time that yields miles driven. Our methods and purpose is not unlike Google's fleet of vehicles.

An issue often raised is that there needs to be a charging station infrastructure for people to adopt to such vehicles over internal combustion engine power. While there are outlets most everywhere (the Tesla can charge on 110v 15a), a quick charge requires power and that comes in 220v 40a or higher.

The defining characteristic is power (kilowatts) input into the batteries. Returning to your basic science: Watts = Volts x Amps. Thus, 110v x 15a = 1650w, or 1.65kw. Plug in for an hour and you have 1.65kwh. Go with a 220v x 40a for an hour and it = 8.8kwh, which equates to substantially more miles from the contribution to the battery's storage of power.

To put this in real world terms from our actual experience and data, charging a Tesla for 1hr at 110v = 5 miles of driving. 1hr at 220v = 25 miles of driving.

PV Solar - Excess generation payout

Ever wonder what the utility would pay if you generated electricity for them?

In Connecticut where our facility is located, utilities (electric, water, etc) are regulated by the Dept. of Public Utilities (DPUC). Photo-Voltaic generated electricity is considered a Class 1 Renewable Energy Resource, and the DPUC has a ruling on how generators of such energy should be dealt with.

In our region United Illuminating Co. is the electric utility. UI delivers our electricity, and in our case we also purchase our actual electricity from them as a provider (since deregulation, you can also choose to purchase electricity from other providers, re-sellers or aggregators - but everyone must deal with UI who owns the poles, transformers and "grid" infrastructure to deliver the power).

UI has a "Class 1 Renewable Net Energy Rider (NEC1)" to accompany their tarrif schedule and abide by the DPUC ruling. The rider states:

• Net energy billing shall be performed monthly, and payments for excess sales to the Company shall be made on an annual basis, for the period from April of each year to March of the following year.
• During the annual period, if energy sold to the Company in any month exceeds energy purchased, the excess sales will first be credited to the customer in the current billing period and any remaining net sales will be carried forward for crediting on a per kwh basis in the next billing period or a subsequent billing period within the annual net energy period.
• Any excess kwh remaining at the end of an annual period shall be paid at that time according to the Average hourly Connecticut ISO-NE real time locational marginal price (RT-LMP), for the hours 10am-4pm during the annual period.

In plain english: If the array generates more kwh than consumed in a month, the credit kwh carries forward to the future period. If there is a kwh credit at the end of the annual period, the value is paid to the generator. Value is determined by the peak period prices posted by the Regional Transmission Organization (Independent Systems Operator - New England) for our location within their system.

From 2009April till 2010March (billing periods) Our Photo-Voltaic array generated 8480kwh in excess of what was consumed. The ISO-NE RT-LMP for that period is .04663 per kwh. Thus we made $395.42 for the excess power generated. The true value of our PV system is deferring purchase of kwh from the utility.

To put this into relational terms, 8480kwh is approximately 6months of electricity for the typical household.

PV Solar System - First year results

This is a press release of IDA International Inc.

Derby, CT (March 29, 2010) - IDA International Inc. today announced the results from 1 year of operating a photo-voltaic system at its facility in Derby, CT.

You can read the unveiling "operational" announcement of the system here. Data points:

• First year operations period 2009-Mar-23 thru 2010-Mar-23.
• System size is 525 photo-voltaic panels with a 100kw DC to AC inverter.
• Generated 111,266kwh of electricity, thus providing in excess of all consumption needs for operations on-site.
• Single day record of 695kwh was set on 2009-May-19.
• Nine months had more electricity production than consumed by operations, the exceptions were Nov, Dec, Jan.
• Based on data from the EPA for our electricity provider (United Illuminating), this clean generation avoided 103,032 lbs of carbon dioxide, 263 lbs of sulfer dioxide and 96lbs of nitrogen oxide from polluting the air.
• The "credits" from our renewable energy generation (as opposed to generation from coal or gas) were sold to the Ct. Clean Energy Fund.

See how clean the electricity you consume is via this EPA webpage.

Contact: thomas.harbinson@ida-intl.com

Sunny St Patrick's Day

Today provided an opportunity to illustrate just what a sunny day is like in it's impact on the earth.

Our Photo-Voltaic Solar Array records all it's statistics on a server every 5 minutes. This data can then be analyzed, or for today's purposes graphed. If any educator / researcher would like the raw log data, please contact me via email.

Data:
PV System size: 525 panels.
Inverter capacity: 100kw DC to AC.
Date: 2010/Mar/17 (St Patrick's Day)
Weather: Clear, no clouds, high temperature in the 60's.
Begin civil twilight 6:33 a.m
Sunrise 7:01 a.m.
Sun transit 1:01 p.m.
Sunset 7:01 p.m.
End civil twilight 7:29 p.m.
Electricity Creation begin 7:04 a.m.
Peak Generation (88.8kw) 1:39 p.m.
Electricity Creation stop 7:09 p.m.
Total Electricity for day 597kwh

Sunny Statistics

The PV Solar System is currently down for repairs.

During the heavy snowstorm of late February, a disruption to our array occurred. The direct current generation was "off" and caused the inverter to trip a fuse (as it would normally do to protect it's electronics). The system as a whole has worked well with little down time since it's installation nearly a year ago. There were 8 days in 2009 where the system as whole was non-functional. Circuit boards in the inverter, or power outages from the grid caused such lack of output. Note that I don't say mis-function, as when their is a power outage, our PV Solar System will not push energy into the grid.

In 2009 electric year (2008Dec18 thru 2009Dec16):

• Our system was in place for 269 days (8 of which there was no production).
• The average system output over those days was 343kwh/day.
• The average consumption of our operations in that same period was 301kwh/day.
• Highest daily electricity generation was May19 with 695kwh.

November and December were the only months that the PV Solar System didn't generate more than our entire operations electricity consumption. Overall since operational, there has been more electricity generated from the sun than is needed to power all our lights, computers, and equipment in the entire office and manufacturing plant. Since 114% of consumption was generated from a "renewable energy" source, state regulations require that the excess kwh be carried forward as a "credit" on the utility account, to be drawn down upon in a future billing period.

Photovoltaic Energy in winter

The PV Solar array has some data from winter months operations we would like to share.

There are less daylight hours during the winter time, the angle of the sun is lower in the sky and at times there is snow covering the array. Still, we have been successful in generating significant amounts of our total electricity consumption.

In November we generated 98% of our consumption, December was 65% (due to an equipment problem), January thus far is 75%.

During the winter months, we draw down on the credit on our account due to excess generation from the summer months. In April, if there remains a credit of kilowatt hours, it is swept clean and paid to us at a "wholesale" rate based on the New England regional electrical pool's cost for electricity generation (ISO New England).

As of today, our credit, or "banked" kwh is over 10,000 which represents a month and a half of consumption. Our forecast is to easily complete a year of solar generation come mid March 2010, where we operated our entire manufacturing and office facility off the sun.

How Photovoltaic Energy works.

The Connecticut Clean Energy Fund is the provider of contributions on behalf of the State of CT. The CCEF has put together a very nice website (flash based) to demonstrate how PV Solar, and other clean energy methods function.

I highly recomend it as an educational tool for those who want to learn more.

As our system enters the shoulder season of fall into winter, the daylight hours diminish, and the angle of the sun lowers in the sky. Both reduce the total kilo-watt hours produced by our system, but we are still generating more on a monthly billing basis, than what has been consumed. Since March 2009, when the system went live, we have generated >120% of our consumption from the sun.

http://www.ctcleanenergy.com/innoflash/#/solar/how_voltaic

"Sunniest" days in June?

One might assume that the most sun would shine down on our photo-voltaic array in the longer daylight periods of June, but there are other factors at work in the system to creating electricity.

Certainly the longest day of the year is the summer solstice of Jun21. However, due to the orientation and location of the array, we don't immediately benefit from the sunrise start of the day, but the sunset lingers right till the end.

Next, is the typical weatherman forecast for the summer of "hazy sunshine". There is a difference between a crystal clear day in the winter when the sky is azure blue, and the summer sunshine day when the sky is a bit brown and yellow from smog.

Finally, is the nature of the polysilicon panels. They lose efficiency when warm (about 10% between a winter and summer day).

All that said, our Derby, CT location has had abnormally cool days this summer thus far, and also abnormally high amounts of rain this summer. The latter washes debris off the panels such as accumulated pollen, but the associated clouds cause lack of sunshine.

During July, we had the system down 6 days for service, yet still have been generating more electricity from the sun than what we consume for our entire office and shop operations.

The Naugatuck River Valley is where we are located, and there are several large PV arrays here(Thule in Seymour, Basement Systems in Seymour, Honey Cell in Shelton, and BJ's in Derby). To my knowledge, we are the first manufacturer in CT that entirely operates off the sun. Since Mar23, 126% of our electricity has come from the sun.

The local paper did a story (includes photo and video) on the local trend which you can read here.

Photo-Voltaic: Proof in the electric utility bills

The electric utility bills have been received for two billing cycles of operation (April and May) and prove the viability of the installation.

We designed our PV system output to match our historical usage. During the implementation, we made efficiency improvements, dropping our usage below what we expected to generate.

April billing period we generated 123.3% of our consumption. May was 131.4% of consumption. Connecticut is a net-metering state, which means that you push electric into the grid, and you pull electric from the grid - paying on the net consumed. This net calculation is done during the three segments of rates from the utility: periods of peek, off-peak and shoulder. Thus, it's not a true "spin the meter backwards" concept over a billing period.

Our shop opens at 5:30AM and starts consuming electricity, but there is no solar generation at that hour, so we do cause a "demand" of electricity off the grid for which we are billed, the kwh consumed though is zero from the utility - we actually generate an excess of kwhs.

Our utility (United Illuminating) allows the credit to accumulate on your account, and it can be drawn down on - say if the inverter is out of service, or the winter months when daylight is shorter and snowpack on the roof may limit generation. If there is a credit on the account as of April each year, the balance is swept to zero and we are paid for that electricity generated. The price is based on the average spot market for the New England regional electric pool. It gets complicated, but in laymans terms: we get paid a wholesale rate of apx. 6cents per kwh for the excess.

The value in a PV (or other clean energy generating device) is to avoid purchasing electricity at apx. 22cents per kwh. The size of the system design should be close to your consumption to yield the best return on investment.

Announcement of 96kw Photo-Voltaic Electric System: Operational

This is a press release of IDA Internationl Inc.

Derby, CT (March 23, 2009) - IDA International Inc. announced today that it had completed installation of a 96kw photo-voltaic system at it's facility in Derby, CT.

Company President, Thomas Harbinson, recognized this as an exciting milestone for the company. "I'm pleased to announce that our facility will now be generating over 90% of our electricity needs, purely from the sun. This is an investment in our company's future and it's location in Derby, CT. While this is a decision that has taken significant time to implement, this has given us time integrate many decisions that will yield the optimum of results. We believe following our company's vision with emphasis on a "green" standard will be rewarding to the company from a financial perspective, and earn respect from it's customers, vendors and community as a company that sets environmentally sensitive standards."

The photo-voltaic (PV solar) system is a 525 array of panels mounted on the south facing roof of IDA's manufacturing building, a structure that dates to the late 1800's. Buildings then were often constructed in a "solar oriented" manner to take advantage of the sun lighting the workplace through windows and skylights, making this location ideal to take full advantage of solar electric generation potential. Our location is Lat: 41.324845, Long: -73.098274 Our building compass reading is 223-226 degrees (a "true" or "solar" reading adjusted for magnetic declination is 210-213 degrees). Our building roof pitch is: 25 (degrees). This data yields a Solar Pathfinder Annual Average of 98%

The location has a history of "green" energy use. The building was constructed adjacent to a canal where hydraulic power was taken from the river to run manufacturing machinery. One of the early occupants was a munitions company that built cannons. The building later housed a fabric dye and printing operations that were not clean operations by modern standards. The Hull Dye and Print Works was the last such entity, closing after a fire in the mid 1980's which substantially damaged the facility, leaving contamination from dyes and chemicals that needed remediation. The property was purchased from the City of Derby in the late 1980's and the long task of returning the property to viability began.

The project was partially funded by a grant from the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund’s On-Site Renewable Distributed Generation Program, which provides qualified projects funding that can equal as much as 50% of a project’s cost. Combined with federal investment tax credits and accelerated depreciation, solar projects in CT can realize returns in the range of 15-20%.

IDA International Inc. is a turn-key operation for curtain-wall and other building facades. IDA serves the greater metropolitan area with engineering, fabrication and installation of construction elements that create a structure's building envelope. For more information regarding IDA's solar system, contact thomas.harbinson@ida-intl.com, or visit the company's green manufacturing page at their website, http://www.ida-intl.com/

Solar Operations - Witness Test

UI has observed testing of the PV system's inverter in operation.

Commonly referred to as a "solar system", a photo-voltaic (PV) system has many components. First of course are the panels where photons are converted to electrons. Those electrons move in a direct current (DC) type of manner - much like electricity in your automobile. This current is sent to an inverter which changes the electricity to an alternating current (AC) with correct phase, frequency, voltage and other aspects that will match what is being delivered from the utility so it "marries" properly. Lastly, the meters record what is being consumed and generated for the utility company.

Important to the utility company is correct equipment that "marries" with theirs and will not damage their infrastructure. They confirm this through testing that they witness - thus the term "witness test".

We did our test today, and were given the ok to run our system. Once we have some averages and time to generate reflective data, I'll update the blog with information. Till then, here is a video of our installer's representative explaining our witness test while it was happening.

Solar operations - Metering

UI has installed meters to record both what is generated, and what is consumed.

With solar installations, you both consume an amount of electricity and generate an amount of electricity at the same time. Some solar installations areas are able to get by with one meter. Consumption tries to move the meter forward (as it normally operates), while generating tries to move the meter backwards. If the solar array generates less electricity than what we consume, the meter's pace toward moving forward is reduced. This is what's called "net-metering".

Connecticut is a "net metering" state under Dept of Public Utility Control regulations. At our location, United Illuminating is the delivery agent for electricity. You can buy your electricity from a number of sources (including UI), but the delivery infrastructure (poles, lines, transformers, meters, etc) are owned by UI. It is UI as the delivery agent that carries out all the metering and billing work.

If over a billing period, we generate more than we consume, the "bill" for electricity "use" will be a negative number, and UI's billing system can not properly address that (UI likely has algorithms that monitor usage patterns to detect fraud). Thus, UI requires 2 meters to be installed. (see above photos) Meter A records how much we consume. Meter B records how much we generate. Meter A minus Meter B is what we are billed upon.

Installing the new meters required co-ordination with IDA's workplace, as the power was required to be shutdown to the building. Before UI would install the 2 meters, the City of Derby electrical inspector was required to close-out our permit with an inspection. Before that could happen, some final housekeeping work had to be completed on the DC side of the system on the roof - which was difficult due to weather. Delays, delays.

So, finally after weather improved and final workmanship was completed, we could schedule the City of Derby inspection (which Derby delayed a week due to scheduling conflicts). When the electrical inspection was done, we scheduled to have the meter work done (which UI delayed for a week due to scheduling conflicts). Now with meters in place - we can schedule a witness test of the entire system.

Solar Panels in Final Testing

Cold weather has impacted the 3rd parties who must test the solar array.

We had a very cold winter in Derby, CT this year with lots of snow and prolonged sub-freezing cold periods. This has impacted the testing and 3rd party verification of the array since the roof is accessed from the north facing slope which is in the shade most of the day with the low winter sun, causing snow or frost to linger and make it unsafe to climb. Also, the inverter and associated equipment is in a courtyard where snow sheds off a standing seam roof - see the photo to the right to see the look after a partial snow-slide. Safety is not an option in putting this solar array together, so we had to wait out mother nature.

The photo-voltaic array has been operational, and only testing has been complicated by the weather. The interconnection agreement has been signed with the utility, and it calls for 3rd party verification of equipment attaching to their infrastructure. They also have to witness a test that the system will automatically shut-off in case of a local area power failure. Although the system is fully functional, I am prohibited from even running it in parallel to the electric utility's system - so I must wait.

The utility additionally relies on local building inspectors to confirm that the work interior to the private property is done to code and they have issued a "CO" or "Close-Out" (sometimes called a Certificate of Occupancy) of the work. Derby's electrical inspector is part-time 1day per week, thus far he has only inspected the AC side of the system, and the DC side of the inverter requires access to an area where this snow was causing hazard (snow guards were planned to be installed once this roof access activity was finished). Also the building inspector must say the structural work was completed according to the structural engineer's design (I hired a 2nd structural engineer to inspect the work as the building inspector asked me to provide that verification - besides the welders license that my employee had who did the work).

There have been NUMEROUS questions about our array and when it will be throwing out electricity, how much power is generated, etc. We will have a webpage to dynamically present that data, but till then I offer the following photos taken when we briefly tested the system. During the 5min of operation at 3pm (sun getting low in the sky), the air temp was mid 50's, sunny sky clear with no clouds. Input was DC 375Volts at 178Amps. Output was AC 61.3Kw.

Inspections

We have reached a point of completion where inspections are done. The City of Derby electrical inspection was done last week and everyone was satisfied. Today a Proffessional Engineer looked at our truss work and that was satisfied. So the system has reached a completion point, but due to some weather issues (today is a snow storm) we have had to hold off on flipping the switch until after the holiday.

I have focused on the hi-tech side of our installation, but the building structure itself had to be reinforced to satisfy the design engineer and building dept. It was a very difficult to access area that required some special rigging of ladders and safety harnesses, and the work was done by one of our employees who is a certified welder from Local 580 Ironworkers Union in NYC.

The below photos are a closup of a truss, a view of trusses over the shop manufacturing space, and a view of the trusses over the warehouse area. The building was constructed in the late 1800's with primarily riveted steel construction, and was first used to make cannons.