It is NOW or Never for the microfit Solar Panel System

The roof mounted Ontario microfit system started at 80.2 cents per kW, then 54.9, then 39.6, then 38.4 and soon it will be down to 29.4 cents per kW.

How much can you earn per year from a Microfit Solar Panel System

You can earn about $5000 per year from a microfit solar system dependent on your layout up to a maximum of about $8000 per year based on 39 cents per kW hour.

Still the costs are about the same if not more than when we installed 2 years ago at 39.6 cents per kW.

You will have to pay the $1500 connection fee for Hydro-One, engineering analysis of your roof, local building permit charge per panel of $10, plus higher installation and higher panel costs due to the drop in the Canadian Dollar.

If you have availability in your area.  If the numbers work out for you at 38.4 cents per kW then you

MUST ACT NOW!!

I remember when people baulked at 80.2 cents and others refused the 54.9 cents contracts.

I find it interesting that rates are dropping so low, you would think that the Conservatives won the last election.  The Ontario Energy Review Board failed to monitor or put limits on what Hydro One charges for connection fees.  They even allow them to charge you $6.10 every month when Hydro One pays you for the power that you produce.

If you are thinking of going Solar then I recommend that you read this blog starting from our first post.

Avoid straight string inverter systems.  You can read why to avoid them in my blog.

Avoid people who just want to rent your roof area and pay you pennies for it's use.  You can get a line of credit loan for about 3% interest and still make money.

Avoid people who do not use SolarEdge inverter systems with optimizers.  Make sure you specify Schletter Racking systems.  Make sure that your roof is less than 7 years old before you install the system and put in the best roofing that you can with the best backing system under the shingles for the entire roof area.  Also make sure that they seal all of the penetrations and use alum or SS flashing materials available from Schletter also.  Recommend that your system be wired for 2 strings per inverter for future expansion.  Get the extended warranty for the inverters.

Get 3 quotations including Flexible Solar.  Recommend next generation poly panels from Canadian Solar.  See my review on these panels.

GETTING EVERY THING IN WRITING - ALL OF THE DETAILS AND DO NOT PAY LARGE AMOUNTS OF MONEY UP FRONT.

On a 10 kW system with no shading, you should be able to produce 12 MW per year depending on your roof pitch and location.  Email me or call me if  you have any questions.  You can google my name and use our photography link.

West facing solar panels are no good...or that is what we were told!

Designing a Roof Mounted Solar Harvesting System"

Getting our fundamentals correct will result in the best or optimum solar panel harvesting system.

We have 4 orientations that we can use for solar panels.  Unless under extreme conditions, I would never use north facing panels.  You will get some energy harvested from north facing panels, especially in the summer months but it is far from ideal.

A microfit solar panel harvesting system injects a limitation of 10 kW inverters into all design considerations.  There is a limit of what the electrical lines feeding your house can carry.  For a 200 A system that is around 16-17 kW or so peak or maximum power output.  The lines are under ground which keeps them cool which is a good thing.

Anything that limits the amount of solar energy hitting your roof, like fog, clouds, shade from trees, poor roof angle, etc, hurts you. We have a 22.5 deg roof which we can not change.  It is great from April to September and poor at other times of the year.  That said, it is optimum when we have the longest days and most sun energy to harvest.  One feedback comment recommended 30 deg was ideal and that seems to me to be good or correct.  A 45 degree slope will help with snow melting off in the winter.

My Golden rule is this:  Grab or harvest all the sun's energy when ever you can.

Maximize your output first from your south facing panels followed by east and then west facing panels.  OPA should strongly encourage harvesting from the east and west because of the electrical peaks that need to be met at this time of day.  They do not do that.

If you are new to solar, South facing panels give you your best ROI or return on investment.  East and West facing panels are great from sunrise to sunset respectively, and help significantly to harvest more energy when it is need the most before your south facing panels get going.  You need a combination of all 3 to maximize energy production.  Of course, solar trackers would be the best but that is not a roof mounted system.


We were initially told that west facing panels do not work well.  That simply is not true at all.  We need west facing panels to produce power for the 6 and 7 pm peak demand.  In the summer, west facing panels start producing over 100 W as early as 10:30 AM  and of course continue until sunset. East facing panels stop producing around 5 pm.  South facing panels also have reduced output after 6 pm.  Choosing solar panels that produce the best off axis harvesting is also an important decision.  See my reviews of some solar panels, especially the newest generation of poly panels.

I noticed in Windsor area that in the fall, we get early morning fog and dew on our panels.  This makes having some west facing panels important to have as you lose the effect of your east facing panels on many days.  We are seeing excellent results in August, September and hopefully the other fall months as well.  I will admit that the fall of 2014 was very poor.  2015 is looking for +20% for September over 2014.  It all depends on how much cloud cover we get.  The sun light is always there.

The sunlight has to travel further though the clouds in the fall/winter/spring because of the lower angle of the sunlight due to the tilt of the earth on it's axis.  Add the shorter days for that time of year and production will diminish.  On over cast days, all of your panels work about the same, including any north facing panels.  I am against north facing panels for obvious reasons.

With the microfit limitation on inverter output, you want to reach maximum inverter output as fast or as early as you an and to maintain that output for as long as you can.  SolarEdge is outstanding for this as you can mix east, south, west facing panels with no penalty.  The smart inverters simply turn off some panels when maximum power levels are reached and the bus voltage is increased at this time to help lower the current flow and hence reduce the power line losses.  The inverters themselves do not seem to get hot ever.  The microfit program should never have been limited to 10 kW but rather 50 kW and individual limitation based on the maximum allowable current flow back to the transformer.  For our house that would be 15 kW but we can only dream of that.  Never add more inverters to your system.  We put our two 5000 W inverters on the north side of our house to keep them cooler in the summer and to reduce exposure to rain and snow.  They are also beside the electrical meters with easy disconnect if needed.  When shut down, bus voltage drops to 1 V dc per panel and NOT 600 V by some manufacturers.

In conclusion, choosing the right inverters from the start like SolarEdge will give you the opportunity to produce the maximum power from your system.  Remember this, at 39 cents per kW, if you harvest only 1 kW hr more  per day, you will get $3000 over the twenty year contract.


Beware of contractors.  We have had no problems with Flexible Solar.