About 4:30 as we were having our tall cups of wake-up juice, a noticeable shift could be felt in the air. The humidity suddenly spiked, and you could feel the pressure drop. It smelled like storm. The temperature was also up significantly from previous mornings. It would prove to be a long, hot, and humid day up on the roof. It was like a sauna. By days end, we would both end up with a slight sunburn despite long sleeves and pants, and a touch of heat exhaustion as well.
Up on the roof, one last double check of everything was in order in the pre-dawn light.
Everything looked as good as we could expect, so it was time to install the first couple of solar panels to make sure our layout and wiring strategy were going to work like we thought.
Getting the first panel installed is always kinda exciting because a lot of work goes into getting everything ready for the panels.
Once two panels were installed, we were able to verify that both our home run and panel-to-panel wiring strategy were good. With that verified, it was time to pre-fab all the home run PV wires and terminate them, then lay them out in their respective places in the mounting rails that also act as a sort of wiring trough or conduit.
Once the home runs were all installed, we came down off the roof for a quick breakfast, and then began preparing the panels themselves for the roof. This consists of pulling them off of the pallet that the skiddy is carrying, installing a couple of wire retaining clips in strategic spots, and putting a meter on each panel just to do a simple voltage check to make sure the panel is functioning before we install it. Once that’s complete, we have a stack of them on the reach lift and use it to boost them up to the roof where we can then install them.
In order to optimally place the panels in a spot that is clear of obstructions, and as far away from the roof edge as is practical for safer working, I have Denise up on the roof directing me on where to hover the panels above the roof with the reach lift. Cutest spotter ever!
One of our arguably cool tools is our ancient, pile of crap scissor lift. It’s ugly and terrible but has saved our ass on a number of jobs. We have another nicer smaller one-but it is strictly for hard smooth surfaces. This old beat up one has soft tires and can go on dirt-although it has to be pretty damn flat and smooth dirt. This lift is old, has an outdated scissor design that sways like a drunken sailor, and is slow AF, but it reaches a full 20 feet and is still a thousand times better, faster, and safer than an extension ladder. Joel/Wash 11 had the great good fortune to spend some time in this lift, and it’s his favorite piece of equipment to run. He says it’s fun-like being in a rowboat without a life preserver in a big ocean storm.
Something I forgot to mention-when we install the rails and then later the panels, we set up a string line to help us keep all the components all neat and tidy. Pretty much laser-straight is how we want everything. It maybe doesn’t matter, but we are pretty picky about the aesthetics as well as the functionality of every part and piece we install. We feel like it makes for a system that is not only pleasing to look at, but easier to work on down the road should the need arise. My background is commercial and industrial electrical, and that’s a world where everything you install better be neat, level, plumb, and parallel-and if you can’t install your stuff in that manner, get the F off the job because they will find someone else who can. So, yeah, we are kinda picky about how everything is installed.
The rest of the day, we doubled down and threw everything we had at the project, and by the time it was too dark to work anymore, we had just over half of the panels finally installed on the roof.
It had been a long day, and a long week, but Thursday went well without any real issues, and we managed to get closer to back on schedule. By end of day, we estimated that we had gone from two days behind schedule to only one day behind, so that felt pretty good.
Something pretty cool happens on most of our jobs. We end up building a really great relationship with our customers. Many of them become friends, and most of them we stay in contact long after the job is done. Very often, after we arrive on site, people pretty much make their house our house. We have been offered up the use of peoples cars, SXSs, property, houses, and all manner of things. Many of our customers express how we made them feel good and confident about not only their decision to use us, but how comfortable they are having us not only on their property, put having the run of it and whatever else we may need. I don’t mention this to brag or anything like that. I mention it because it is a great honor of ours to be so trusted and have people so confident in our abilities and integrity. It’s a great feeling to be so trusted and welcomed.
Well, this job turns out to be no different, as the camp emptied out on Thursday, and all the staff needed to go elsewhere for a day, so we were handed the keys to an entire 4H camp facility! LOL-a personal best as for the scope and value of things we were given the control and keys to.
We had also agreed to stay up till 10 pm to shut down the generator that powers the camp, and to restart it at 6 the following morning. Which was cool, but meant that I had to stay up way past my bedtime to make sure that happened. More on the camps existing generator setup later.
The humidity and feeling of impending storm that had rolled in that morning, turned into a full blown mountain thunderstorm around 9 pm, complete with the rolling cannonade of thunder that only comes with lightning storms in the mountains. It also meant that I had to scramble for rain gear to go secure everything and shut down the camps generator.
Finally at about 10:30, with everything done and battened down, I crawled into bed.
Friday would be a big push to see if we could get the project back on track…