How to make access to your roof safer in winter.

Safer Method to access a snow covered roof:

Attention:   Please refer to my previous posts on roof access and using ladders safely.

This has been a very snowy winter.  I thought that we had seen the last of the snow in March.  I have strict rules about accessing my roof in winter.  We had a large snow fall several days ago on Sunday.  I went to clean the snow off of our panels and achieved it with all but one panel.  This panel was 70% clear and simply not producing any real power compared to its neighbors.  We are waiting for better weather to fix 3 problems that have developed.  This means that we are already down by about 400 Watts peak.  I wanted to get up and clear the remaining snow off of that panel safely.  The panel is located at my ridge line of my south facing roof.

Monday and Sunday afternoon we had periods of great sunlight.  As Monday promised to be a great solar day, I took my broom and cleared several locations on my east facing roof and let the sun do the rest.  On a great day, we have about 60 kW of energy hitting the roof from 11 am to 3 pm.  It didn't take long to see wet black roofing shingles with steam rising from the roof.  I could now enter and exit the roof safely.  I could also move from the garage roof to the house roof without any problems.  I was able to quickly and safely, clear the panel and our two sky lights. The power from the panel shot up to 225 Watts almost immediately.  As an after thought, one could also tie a rope to one of the rail anchors and use it with accessing the roof year round.  Solar is about harvesting the pennies that will turn into dollars over the month and years of the installation.  We are hoping to clear after interest and capital depreciation about $100 per week for the year.That is not a lot of money but again it is equal to another old age pension coming in and the end of paying for your electrical bills for ever.

 Let me clear that up, ( Many people have the wrong idea about solar panels.) you will make more money selling the power that you generate verse what you will use for your home.  Grid-tie is the way to go and NOT an expense battery system. The power generated fluctuates much too often as clouds pass by the sun.

 The money that you earn could also be used to pay for:

•  all or most of your monthly mortgage ($100,000 over 20 years)
•  take 2-3 nice vacations a year.  
• Golfing green fees
• Boating fees

I know that this is only 4th of March but at the end of February I forecast that we hoped to exceed 70 kW hrs by the end of March.  Well even with our 3 problem areas, we harvested almost 69 kW hrs on Monday. I also predicted that we would average 40-50 kW hrs per day.  Even with  one very poor day due to the snow, we are averaging 40 kW hrs per day.  It's too early for the month but we are on track.  Weather permitting, we should see even higher peak days as the month progresses.  Early in the month we should expect on a so, so day, 30-40 kW hr (we got 35 kW hr) and later in the month around 40-50 kW hr per day.  It is very important to harvest the most that you can during the off days when the sun doesn't really come out from behind the clouds.  I am always amazed to see 5 or 6 kW's of power with dull sunlight.

• Your best months of the year run from March to October.  You want to cover your expenses during the other months.  In February 2014 we grossed $383. of power generated.  In short, we made money in one of the poorer months of the year. We expect to more than double this amount in May. This is dependent on the weather.  Last summer was extremely wet and cloudy.  Perhaps this summer will be back to sunny normal.

We are very happy with our system and the income that it is producing.  To us it is a no brainier, but you must be really careful.  I would love to post the BS that others told me but I am being kind not to. Please trust me when I say that we now have seen 3 roofs with panels on the north side in Windsor.  With normal string inverters that would limit the output to the lowest value.  Also there most likely is no monitoring system so the owner can't see what is happening.  Horrible installers, run from them and give Flexible solar a call.  Remember that there is a consumer alert against Canadian Solar of Windsor.

If you are thinking about going solar, then I give my highest recommendations to Flexible Solar Solutions serving Windsor and Southern Ontario.  They will tell you straight up if it is good idea or not.

 Just call:

Steve -519 962 9218

If you are already a microfit power producer with a DC limit on your installation, please write to the Energy Review Board to ask that it be removed so that you can have a real 10 kW microFIT installation limited only on the AC side.  IMHO, this DC limitation is a direct violation by OPA to discriminate against the small home owner.  The next jump is to a FIT program from 10+ to 500,000 kW.  Very few do the max so they are not limited at all.  Permit the home owner to produce the maximum green energy that they can with the 10 kW limit.  I also believe that should be a 20-30 kW limit and not 10 kW.