North Facing PV System?

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mnlara

Member
Location
Oakland,California
I have been getting a lot of this from our salesforce. Knowing the lost of over 60% production in the system, We encounter so many clients who wants their panels on the North facing roof at the back of the property? He/she does not want people pulling up outside the front of his house and looking at the panels. How can we better convince these people that this wrong. Running the EPPB is not appropriate since it doesn't take into account the solar ray harvest.
 
Besoeker

Besoeker

Senior Member
Location
UK
mnlara said:
I have been getting a lot of this from our salesforce. Knowing the lost of over 60% production in the system, We encounter so many clients who wants their panels on the North facing roof at the back of the property? He/she does not want people pulling up outside the front of his house and looking at the panels. How can we better convince these people that this wrong.
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Make the front of the property north facing?
Or convince them to move to Australia?
 
K8MHZ

K8MHZ

Senior Member
Location
Michigan. It's a beautiful peninsula, I've looked
Occupation
Electrician
petersonra said:
there is no reason that could not be made to work. it might look a little strange but it could work.
Click to expand...

How? Using mirrors?

For the OP. Why not just have one at the store you operate from facing north connected to a load and a meter and just show the customers what they would get? That way if they still buy, you did all you could to convince them otherwise.
 
gadfly56

gadfly56

Senior Member
Location
New Jersey
Occupation
Professional Engineer, Fire & Life Safety
K8MHZ said:
How? Using mirrors?

For the OP. Why not just have one at the store you operate from facing north connected to a load and a meter and just show the customers what they would get? That way if they still buy, you did all you could to convince them otherwise.
Click to expand...

+1 I like that; show-and-tell for people whose reasoning skills never left kindergarten.
 
G

GoldDigger

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Placerville, CA, USA
Occupation
Retired PV System Designer
Some friends of mine put in a "patio cover" on the north side of their house to hold an 8kw PV array. It effectively faces south since the side farthest from the building is about the height of the roof peak. But it does not show from the street.

Tapatalk!
 
kwired

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
GoldDigger said:
Some friends of mine put in a "patio cover" on the north side of their house to hold an 8kw PV array. It effectively faces south since the side farthest from the building is about the height of the roof peak. But it does not show from the street.

Tapatalk!
Click to expand...

Exactly -may take more work or materials then on a south facing side.

I have same thing with my TV satellite dish. Did not want it on the front (south facing side) of the house, but it needs to face southerly to pick up the signal. It is on the backside roof but far enough down to not be seen from the road in front of the house.
 
cadpoint

cadpoint

Senior Member
Location
Durham, NC
People don't grasp the requirements of what needed, they generally don't understand all
the "design" aspects that's required to make a system - correct. Most times it not limited
to your OP subject.

Sometimes people are happy to have something and not worry that it's function...

My suggestion is to review your sales practices, maybe you can turn it into three or four
different pitches. I'm sure you meet up with customers of various levels of understanding.
Fine tune the sale pitch.

Having a structural wing of solar panels set oddly of a roof line is a tough sale...
 
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kwired

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
cadpoint said:
People don't grasp the requirements of what needed, they generally don't understand all
the "design" aspects that's required to make a system - correct. Most times it not limited
to your OP subject.

Sometimes people are happy to have something and not worry that it's function...

My suggestion is to review your sales practices, maybe you can turn it into three or four
different pitches. I'm sure you meet up with customers of various levels of understanding.
Fine tune the sale pitch.

Having a structural wing of solar panels set oddly of a roof line is a tough sale...
Click to expand...
Then people wonder why there are contractors out there that take advantage of customers. Part of the problem is the customers are sadly too stupid to know any better, until they find out later that something was not worth it or even their own idea they wanted was a poor choice.

If customer is too stupid to realize that taking a panel that takes energy from the sun and converts it to something that can be used in the home and facing it away from the sun is not going to effect how well it works...... deserves to be taken advantage of I guess. If OP will not install what they want, they will just find someone that will, and will certainly not get the same return on their investment they were maybe promised.

No different then homeowners I have seen that wanted a big home with lots of windows - then they complain that it costs so much to heat the place.

One guy I remember had a fairly new house (on a farm) and complained about how many mice were in the garage, yet you seldom ever drove by the place and did not see at least one garage door open:slaphead:
 
G

ggunn

PE (Electrical), NABCEP certified
Location
Austin, TX, USA
Occupation
Consulting Electrical Engineer - Photovoltaic Systems
kwired said:
If customer is too stupid to realize that taking a panel that takes energy from the sun and converts it to something that can be used in the home and facing it away from the sun is not going to effect how well it works...... deserves to be taken advantage of I guess.
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I emphatically disagree. It's not stupidity, it's ignorance, and for those of us who are solar professionals it is on us to enlighten our customers as to how the technology works and does not work. A simple ROI analysis of a system on the south facing roof as compared to one the same size on the north facing roof should make it clear. That said, there are customers who for whatever reason do not care about such things. For those folks, lay out the facts and then build them what they want. As long as they know what they are getting for their money they are not being taken advantage of.
 
6

69gp

Senior Member
Location
MA
mnlara said:
I have been getting a lot of this from our salesforce. Knowing the lost of over 60% production in the system, We encounter so many clients who wants their panels on the North facing roof at the back of the property? He/she does not want people pulling up outside the front of his house and looking at the panels. How can we better convince these people that this wrong. Running the EPPB is not appropriate since it doesn't take into account the solar ray harvest.
Click to expand...

I think a lot of this has to do with how you dress the system out. I have had panels on my house for 3 years now. the The builder down the street who is also an electrician did not even realize i had panels on my house until i told him. I have brown architectural singles, 24 solar panels with bronze frames. All the exposed aluminum racking, conduit and hardware I painted with a bronze paint. Since I was using weeb clips between the racking and the panels for grounding I also painted the mid and end clips so you do not see all the clips. Blends in nice.
 
G

GoldDigger

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Placerville, CA, USA
Occupation
Retired PV System Designer
The first generation of solar shingles were temperamental, hard to install correctly, and not as durable as a roof component needs to be.
The current, second, generation has not gotten the installed life experience yet to prove that the original problems have been overcome.
JMO, YMMV.
 
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