Hi Phil I have not heard of the Solectria inverters...I need to look into those.....recently a radio ad has been played locally looking for emplyees in the neighboring city of Greenville SC, for people to build PV inverters...it a German company which has been around here for years...Prettle Electric.....They are also big into automotive, making wiring harnesses etc etc. since there is a BMW manufacturing plant here nereby.
Germany, in general, is way ahead of US.
California leads the US, and here is their list -- most of US across the US use them as the Go-To information source. >>>
http://www.gosolarcalifornia.org/equipment/inverters.phpFor TMI, wiki has a fair background on Grid-Tie Inverters >>>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grid-tie_inverter
From this area's closest corner to the house service panel is about 75 feet, if I bury the cabling in underground conduit and ....go underneath of through the house foundation and enter from the bottom to the service panel.
Might need to have a labeled knife blade lockable disconnect in there, as well -- Check with your utility, and inspector. They usually speak in a 1-Line diagram. You are familiar, or no?
However I do have the room to sit the panels off the ground closer to the grid meter on the side of the house and cut the panel reach to the inverter to about 30-35 feet.
If I went this route I would have to build the rack system...probably out of 6x6 treated lumber and use a rail system like some use from angle iron.....this would as ghurd mentioned some time ago allow more air flow to keep them cooler...lol if that's possible in the SC summers! However if I build the racks I could also hit the proper angle the panels need to be situated on if my current situation is not close to the proper roof angle.
There are some long-term corrosion / dis-similar metal issues to consider. Steel and Aluminum in direct contact are not usually considered such a good long term plan. Galvanized and Aluminum are generally considered ok, if not near the coast, and the top-end uses Aluminum mounting frames to hold the Aluminum framed panels. The commercial ones double as the grounding system, as well.
Some areas also require building permits (in addition to electrical) for structures and mounts.
Questions:
How is the enphase system grid tied? I went to their web site and that information was kind of murky... apparently its passing code in other parts of the nation, however if I go that route I need to be sure I can pass code here in my region...not that we are anything different from the rest of the nation...but just needing to be certain. If I go this route I would like to present this to the building inspector so as to be certain before any purchase was made.
For TMI, their manuals all have connection diagrams . . .
http://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1GPEA_enUS364US364&aq=f&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=enphase+install+manualAgreed you should speak to your local inspector, in advance. We find they typically have concerns with the overall system grounding and array grounding. When you consider that you/we are putting a lot of metal framing up in the air, that may be insulated from ground by being mounted on a wood building (aka, an un-grounded lightning rod), this a very good thing to do correctly. We can do those details on here, as well.
You may want to take along (whatever breed and brand) the UL 1741 / IEEE 1547 certification. Those are the specification(s) that show the equipment will automatically disconnect if the grid is lost. Your power company will want to see that, too.
Chances are there are some special requirements from your utility, as well. When you have complied with their requirements, it usually ends up with a "interconnection agreement," that spells out your responsibilities to be a grid-tied producer. Most utilities now have a set go-to person who are specialists on dealing with folks like us.
Lastly, I like the idea of being able to see your output on a daily weekly or monthly basis, but can this be done without reoccurring fees?
Most of the inverters have their own local display of some sort. When it all goes on-line, lot of different deals. The on-line systems vary. Lot of games in this regard.
Solectria plays like things are free -- but the on-line portion needs a paid account. PV-Powered -- the hardware is about $200, and then on-line to their site is free. Sunny Boy (SMA) has some hardware you buy, and then I think their on-line is free. Overall, I am not too happy with any of them.
Looking at building our own hardware (current transformer and potential transformer / energy monitor) and then bringing the data into our own website. Since we will be able to tell much more detail from doing that, it looks like we can use it to tell when there is some array or inverter problem in the field -- even way before the customer notices.
Did not see you ask about REC (renewable energy credit) metering, nor the Lock-Out service disconnect, yet. You already familiar with that part, or should we cover it?