I guess the first thing I had to do in order to put together a MicroFIT application was to look at the physical orientation of the property and building. Google maps is a good resource for this but I usually find the resolution to be lacking once you zoom into the home or property in question. I find that most municipalities generally have a mapping feature on their website with air photos of the area. I like using the air photos as they usually provide a better picture of the property or roof in question. On top of that most of the local mapping software also has measurement tools that will allow you to get an idea of how much square footage you have to work with on your roof. I've included both the google maps and air photo pictures of the property I am applying for.
At a very high level i first took a look at space, orientation and shading issues.
On the space side of things I think it's rather obvious that a ground mounted system is out of the question in this scenario. Not only is there no room for such an installation but the house and garage present another issue for and ground mount installations, shading. In the early morning and late afternoon the patch of land in between the garage and the house is partially shaded. Therefore the performance of our system would be greatly reduced during these times.
The next logical step from here is to go up. The roofs on both the garage and the home are perfectly oriented in that there are good sized pieces of roof facing almost due south. When installing solar panels the general rule of thumb is to orient so that they are facing as close to due south as possible. The two pieces of roof are perfect in that regard.
The next orientation issue that we need to look at is the tilt of the panels. Since I am going to be installing these on the roof we are going to have a fixed tilt that is dictated by the slop of the roof. This will allow for the simplest installation with the least amount of materials. The tilt of the roof is most likely around 30 degrees or so, which in my area is right around the optimum tilt for solar panels. As a general rule of thumb for a fixed system (meaning a solar installation that is always tilted at the same angle) you take the latitude of where you are (in this case roughly 42 degrees) and subtract 15. So at 30 degrees we are pretty much in the right ballpark.
There has been much debate over what exactly the best tilt for your panels are, for anyone who is interested or who is looking at possibly using a seasonal tilt type system (changing the tilt at the start of each season) read this article for an interesting look at these issues.
As you can see from the above pictures there are no tall trees, utility posts or buildings in the area of the home or the garage. Therefore there should be no shading issues associated and my panels should be able to bask in the sun for the entire day.
One thing that I am going to have to look into would be the possibility of locating panels on both the house and the garage. I was able to use the measurement tools on my local mapping service to determine the amount of roof space and I don't think that I will be able to fit a full 10kw on just the house or just the garage. I am going to have to look into the possibility of locating half the project on the garage and the other half on the home. However I am not sure that this is allowed from a Ontario Power Authority / microFIT stand point. For that I will have to go through the microFIT website to find some more answers.
That is all for now, I should be submitting my application soon and I will keep you informed.
No comments:
Post a Comment