Categories: "All About Solar Power"

01/12/22

  04:29:00 am, by Jim Jenal - Founder & CEO   , 304 words  
Categories: All About Solar Power

Amanda takes Flight!

Anyone contacting Run on Sun in the past year or so has had the opportunity to speak with our Project Coordinator, Amanda Watson.  An avid cyclist - we seem to attract them! - and former racer, Amanda has thrown herself into her new gig with the same zeal that she demonstrated in her racing career.

While working in solar has a pretty steep learning curve, one aspect of how we do solar here at RoS is especially challenging - getting licensed and qualified to operate our drone.  Since we fly the drone commercially - we use it on site evaluations and for after-project photography - to operate it legally the Pilot in Command has to be licensed by the FAA (Part 107).  Central to getting licensed is passing the Part 107 written exam, which is no mean feat, requiring the student to master the complexities of sectional charts (one of the densest data visualizations ever created!), the arcana of acronym-dominated weather printouts, and a host of details that frankly, have way more to do with being an aircraft pilot than a drone pilot!

I am proud to report that this past week Amanda passed the exam on her first try with an 82 (70 is passing).  Once her license shows up she will be legal to operate the drone for us!  Of course, passing the test and getting your license doesn’t teach you how to operate the drone!  So earlier this week we went down to the Rose Bowl and Amanda got a chance to make her first flight in the park adjacent.  She did great!

  Amanda flying Oscar

Amanda at the controls of the RoS Mavic Air, Oscar!

Mastering the drone is just one step in Amanda’s evolution.  She is presently enrolled in courses at PCC, paving the way for her ultimate NABCEP certification! 

Way to go, Amanda, the sky is no longer a limit!

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01/05/22

  02:15:00 am, by Jim Jenal - Founder & CEO   , 174 words  
Categories: All About Solar Power, Residential Solar

Guess Who is Certified to Install IQ8?

Readers of this blog know quite well that the long-awaited Enphase IQ8 microinverters are almost here.  (Enphase reports that shipments have started, and our distributor is promising to have them in numbers by next month.)  But there’s one slight catch: in order to commission a PV system with IQ8’s, you have to be certified by going through an online training at Enphase University!

So guess who just got certified?

IQ8 certification for Jim Jenal of Run on Sun

Jim Jenal - newly certified IQ8 Installer!

The training takes you through all of the four use cases for installing IQ8: solar only (no backup or storage components), Sunlight Backup which allows partial backup even without adding any storage components, Partial Home Backup and Full Home Backup. Each of these use cases has different components, and those components need to be properly configured to guarantee that the solar system owner has the best possible experience.

We are excited to be at the forefront of this exciting next step in our partnership with Enphase, and with you, our cherished clients.

Let’s make 2022 one for the record books!

02/27/21

  11:13:00 pm, by Jim Jenal - Founder & CEO   , 217 words  
Categories: All About Solar Power

Welcome Amanda Watson!

Amanda WatsonPlease join us in welcoming Amanda Watson as the newest member of the Run on Sun team!

Amanda is new to the solar industry with roots in nuclear energy, bicycles, politics, and piñatas. Originally from the mountains of central PA, Amanda obtained a bachelor’s degree in International Relations from Fordham University. Despite an addiction for NYC’s energy and architecture, Amanda’s love of government and (slightly) warmer weather lured her south to DC after graduation, where she spent the next 16 years arranging international shipments of uranium, racing bicycles, and developing her own style of piñata engineering and artistry.      

 In 2018 Amanda finally migrated to LA, where she is happily putting down roots on its hilly east side. When she is not climbing a roof (or, as here, servicing a combiner box from a scissors lift), she can be found climbing (& descending) mountains on her bicycles, hiking treacherous trails, and hitting the skatepark. On the rare chance she is sitting still, Amanda is likely covered in dirt and tending to her many plants, or covered in glue and making a piñata, while talking about politics.  

Amanda is our newest Projects Coordinator, so you are likely to hear her voice on the phone asking for a year’s worth of usage data, or scheduling our next site evaluation or installation!

Welcome aboard, Amanda!

11/24/20

  07:01:00 am, by Jim Jenal - Founder & CEO   , 494 words  
Categories: All About Solar Power

From Drone to Done!

Back in February we wrote about how Run on Sun had taken a giant step forward technologically in entering the Drone Era for doing site evaluations.  That giant leap was enabled by our learning about Software-as-a-Service provider, Scanifly and the super cool software that they had developed to transform individual drone images into a three-dimensional model that would allow both a detailed shading analysis and precise layouts to be performed at your computer without ever going on the roof.

Sadly, no sooner had we gotten on-board with Scanifly than we went into Covid-lockdown and lots of things got put on hold.  But now that we are building projects again, we thought it would be worthwhile to compare how closely our Scanifly model compared to the real world!  Check it out…

Starts with the Drone

The process begins by a drone flight that captures both contextual images - using a Point-of-Interest flight where you identify your center point, back off to a radius that will include all shade elements, and then fly that circle taking images every 2 seconds or so (our drone, a Mavic Air, does that automatically) - and detailed images closer in to where the array will be placed.  Here’s an example of a contextual image:

Context drone image

The garage face is where the array will go, and we are far enough away that surrounding trees will be included when we fly our orbit.  Now here’s an example of a detail image:

Drone detail image

Here we are much closer to the surface of interest.  The beauty of what Scanifly does is that it takes these disparate images (we used a total of 113 separate images) and stiches them together into a model from which you can do your layout.

Design Time

Now that the images have been uploaded and Scanifly has created the model - a process that takes about a day - we are ready to do our design.  The software allows you to build in “keepout” areas for things like fire setbacks, as well as obstructions like vents or skylights that cannot be moved.  You select the PV module that you will be using and then the software creates a placement for you that you can then modify as necessary.  Here’s what that looked like for this project:

We have placed the array at 18″ off the ridge, and we are really going from edge-to-edge!  (The yellow dots are the vertices that we marked in the model, the red line is our setback line.)  We are using LG 350’s as our modules, and we really have no room to spare - these dimensions have got to be right!  So how did we do?

Build It!

I have to say, I like how this turned out!  Click on the buttons to fade from the design image to the as-built (thanks to Sophia Mazurek for getting these images to line up).

How cool is that?

We’re hooked! Many thanks to the entire team at Scanifly - you have made our work safer, easier, and better!

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08/14/20

  02:55:00 am, by Jim Jenal - Founder & CEO   , 828 words  
Categories: All About Solar Power, Residential Solar, Energy Storage, Solar Repairs

Building on a Legacy: Enphase Opens Ensemble to Earlier Generation Micros!

On Tuesday, August 11, 2020, Enphase sent out a notice to its top installers alerting them that starting in December, the Ensemble Storage System would support earlier generation microinverters and not just the IQ series as had been originally announced.  We contacted Enphase to learn more, and here is our report…

Some Background…

Last November we wrote about the coming Ensemble rollout.  In describing how Ensemble could be incorporated with existing systems we wrote:

First, you need to have IQ microinverters.  At least as of the initial rollout of this system, the older microinverters are not supported.  That means that the M and S-series of microinverters have to be replaced to IQ-series microinverters to work with Ensemble.  (I do not know if this will change in the future, but it is the guidance that we are getting at this time.)  It is possible that there will be some sort of replacement program (like Enphase did with the legacy M-190 customers), but I have not gotten any word about such a plan yet.

As we were told by Enphase CEO, Badri Kothandaraman, at SPI last year, it was important for Enphase to focus on a successful launch of Ensemble, and the way to do that was to concentrate on pairing it with the more capable IQ series of microinverters.  It had been disappointing news, but understandable given the challenges of bringing a product as technically sophisticated as Ensemble to market.

So I was more than a bit surprised when I saw the announcement from David Ranhoff, Chief Commercial Officer at Enphase, that Ensemble would be able to support M215 and M250-based systems as of December!  Of course this raised nearly as many questions as it answered, so I reached out to Enphase for more details.  

What We Know Now

I was able to speak with Utsav Ghosh, Senior Product Manager, about the details behind the announcement.

Our first question was: What about the S280’s?  They are more capable than the M-series, so are they included?  Sadly, no, not at this time.  Given that the M215’s and M250’s are the largest segment of the non-IQ installed base, they generated the greatest number of inquiries, and so they got the staffing attention.

I remarked that given the relatively short window between when Ensemble was available for the IQ micros and when it will be available for the M-series, why not just say that they would be supported.  The answer, it seems, is that in refining Ensemble, they realized that it would be easier than previously thought to fold in the M215/250’s.  This, of course, gives me hope that the S280’s won’t be far down the line.  Squeak, squeak!

Enphase M215 microinverter will now work with Ensemble Storage System  Enphase M250 microinverter will now work with Ensemble Storage System 
Enphase M215 Microinverter is Eligible…  As is the M250 to work with the Ensemble Storage System! 
Alas, the S280 is out of the picture, for now! 
Envoy S

Our next question concerned communications - the M-series micros communicate via Power Line Communications (PLC) via the neutral and hot conductors.  The IQ-series does not bring a neutral to the roof, so it communicates PLC from hot to hot.  How does this get resolved?  

Turns out quite easily, assuming you have an Envoy-S, like the one on the right.  So how do the IQ8 microinverters in Ensemble communicate with the Envoy?  As it turns out, the same way that they do in an IQ system - via the add on Comm Kit that adds Zigbee capability to the Envoy-S.  The even better news is that Comm Kit is part of every Ensemble Storage System, so there is no additional cost for M-series systems over IQ systems!  Yay!  (The Envoy-S will need a new software version, but that is a free download.)

Our next concern had to do with speed issues: the M-series micros just aren’t anywhere near as computationally powerful as their IQ cousins.  Would the seamless backup functionality promised with the IQ series still apply?  Yes, we were assured.  Cool!

Which brought us to our final question: What ratio of legacy inverters to IQ8 inverters will be needed to allow the microgrid to operate?  Recall that with the IQ series we are presently being told that the ratio is 1.5:1, that is, an Encharge 10, that has 12 IQ8 micros inside, can support up to 18 IQ 6 or 7 micros on the roof.  (While we are hoping to see some movement on that front, that is the present design guidance.)  So what will the ratio be for the M-series?

Great question - no precise answer as of yet, other than “it will be more restrictive."  There is testing ongoing to establish precisely what those limits are, which is why the availability is being cited for December and not now.  Obviously we will be following this closely and will update you when we know more, watch this space!

I want to thank Utsav Ghosh for being so responsive and generous with his time.

And I especially want to thank Enphase for responding to the cries of their clients in getting this much-needed functionality addressed.  Great job, folks!

Now about those S280’s…

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Jim Jenal is the Founder & CEO of Run on Sun, Pasadena's premier installer and integrator of top-of-the-line solar power installations.
Run on Sun also offers solar consulting services, working with consumers, utilities, and municipalities to help them make solar power affordable and reliable.

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