Removing "those" Trees:

Eliminating Shading on your Roof.

One of the first things that you learn is how terrible shading can effect the output from your panels.  We have 5 trees to deal with.  Three beautiful green Cedar trees which we cut the tops off just below the roof line with little problem.  All of our power lines are under ground and we have 60 ft wide lots so the neighbors trees and houses do not have much of an impact 1 hour after sunrise.  They DO have an impact during that period but they refuse to have their upper floors removed so that we could make 40 cents per day more. (humor).

The two 40 ft 18" diameter Pine trees are another issue.  They should have NEVER been planted that close to the house and then forgotten.  These trees can grow to 100 ft. Even before going Solar, I wanted to remove these trees (I love trees and gardens) because of a future problem with my neighbor's roof and under ground roots.  The trees were planted on the property line on our side of the fence.

An electrician told me simply to clear a path between the trees and cut off the branches to make a natural ladder so that I could climb to the top of the trees.  That was a great idea.  I have heard that some people charge anywhere from $3,000 to $20,000 to cut down trees.

Here are some Suggestions: 

Never do something that you know that you can't do like this.  

Hire a handyman or someone to do this for you.

1.0 Safety first, last and always.

2.0 Always have a ground person

3.0  Always buy top quality ladders with a 1A -300 lb rating (don't use if you are heavier that 280 lbs).

4.0 Go slowly, you can cut a tree down in one day or 30 days.

5.0 Always make sure that the foot of the ladder is on firm foundation - have your ground person stand on it.

6.0 Tie the top of the ladder to the tree with a 1/2 in jute rope.

7.0 Make a safety belt out of piece of rope or belt  like those used by professional loggers.

8.0 You can use a small bow saw to cut most branches off.

9.0 NEVER reach for a cut.  Move the ladder.  

It's not the fall that hurts, but the sudden stop on the way down.

10. When cutting down the trunk, make your first cut on the back side where you want the piece to fall.

11. Always tie the truck with some rope and secure it to the back of the tree so  you can lower it down once cut.

12. Some people screw in eyelets for the rope to the section and main truck so that it can be lowered slowly.

13. Trucks of trees are very, very heavy.  Cut into very small sections. 1 - 3 feet.

14. After cutting on your side, the section will fall to the other side and most likely hit the truck where is is tied off.  That protects you from it when it falls.

15. Don't over do it.  I cut one to two pieces per day and called it quits for another days work.

16. Plan your work before you make any cuts.

17. In addition to tying off the ladder, I like to secure it around those 18 in branches so it can't possibly move.

18. Use eye protection.

As for equipment, I purchased a 21 in Bow saw from Princess auto for $5 on sale.  I then went for a 16 inch electric chain saw.  Make sure that you use a good 14 gauge cord with with.  The back support rope was a bit scary to use at first.  I always triple checked the knots and kept them in sight as I leaned back on the rope so that I could operate the saw.  I like the electric saw as I can wait until I am almost ready to cut before plugging the saw in while I am up the tree.

Results:

We have thus far eliminated shadows from all but one panel when the sun hits it at the crack of dawn.  Once the sun comes up higher,  the main shadow no longer hits any of the panels.  Once the trunks are cut back another 3 feet, this too will disappear.  Here are the results after we eliminated the major shading issues.

I thought that this was going to be a beautiful sunny day to test out our system.  Due to high level clouds, the solar emissions were reduced by about 9% in the morning.  Things got a bit better after noon time.  You can see that a little bit more harvesting has occurred in the afternoon when a lot of the high level  clouds had gone.  The great bell curve is because most of the panels are south facing and with the sun tracing from South of East to South of West the panels receive light at 7:45 am until around 16:30 PM.  Total days harvesting around 38 kW.  Noon peak was lower due to light high level clouds seen around the sun.  I was on the roof at around 15:30 PM time and slightly raised the East Panels facing West.  You can see a slight improvement in harvesting as I was tweaking the system.

We will never totally eliminate all of our shading issues.  Some panels are shaded from roof peaks at different times of the day and year.  I have noticed that the best panel location is along the ridge line of our south facing roof.  That is where we should relocate any panels to in order to maximize exposure to the sun.