{"id":2255,"date":"2018-07-30T13:42:07","date_gmt":"2018-07-30T20:42:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.westernsolarinc.com\/?p=2255"},"modified":"2020-12-11T11:50:41","modified_gmt":"2020-12-11T19:50:41","slug":"july-featured-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.westernsolarinc.com\/july-featured-project\/","title":{"rendered":"Case Study: Doug & Bridget M. in Bellingham"},"content":{"rendered":"
Doug has a great solar resource on his property, with a large southwest-facing shop roof and little shading. The lack of significant shading and the ability to group the modules together in strings of 8+ allowed us to use a combination of the standard Itek Energy 300-watt modules with a Fronius Primo 10.0 string inverter. I was unable to access the roof itself during the site visit, so I took what measurements I could from the ground of the foot print of the building. I then found a vantage point to scan the roof for any vents and obstacles, and verified my measurements using satellite images back in the office.<\/p>\n
Due to Doug\u2019s high usage, the maximum system size for residential solar (12kW) was not large enough to offset all of his electricity bill. I designed and modeled a 25 cash flow analysis for a 12kW residential and a 22.8kW commercial scale solar system to compare the respective costs and savings. After having a conversation about the merits of a residential over a commercial scale system, we agreed that the higher incentives available for the 12kW system would be of more financial benefit to Doug, offering him a quicker payback on his investment.<\/p>\n
Once the system was installed, Doug had concerns about how how much energy his system was producing and if he was on track for the payback he was projected. We set up the Fronius Monitoring App on Doug\u2019s phone which shows his system\u2019s production in real time \u2013 with this he could see he was generating power exactly as expected and was on track for his 6 year payback.<\/p>\n
This installation came out fantastically \u2013 I had the privilege of being onsite with our installers for the day they installed Doug\u2019s project, and it was a joy to see them work. Their attention to detail in aligning and \u201ctruing\u201d all of Doug\u2019s modules meant the finished installation looks perfect. Not only that, but they managed to complete the entire installation in one day, delivering the highest quality of service with the minimum inconvenience to the customer.<\/p>\n