SOLAR INSTALL DAY 1

At 6:30 yesterday morning, Patty said "do you hear something outside"? My answer was "no", and I thought to myself, that's almost like asking Ray Charles if he can see the sunrise. What she was hearing was the two guys from Esmay Electric, starting to install our residential, electric, solar charging system. They were supposed to start at 7:30, but just as it was becoming light outside, they were about an hour early, and were climbing up on our south facing roof over the garage. It's now 6:27 am, and they just pulled into the driveway this morning.

Fourteen 230 watt panels will go on the roof over the garage, and 6 more will be on the back roof which faces east. All of the solar panels will be tilted toward the south, in order to maximize their exposure to the sun.

For 8 hours yesterday, the effort was to get all of the mounting posts secured to the sub roof, with the concrete tiles cut to fit back over the posts, and the metal flashing placed underneath the tiles. I didn't count the mounting posts, but by the time the guys left, there were somewhere around 30-40 of them. In some cases, up to 4 tiles had to be cut in order to secure one post to the roof. This was not an easy job, and this crew worked non stop, finishing for the day around 2:30 pm.

Today, the work will continue on the roof, and the residential inverter will possibly get installed inside the garage. This entire project is expected to last through Friday, and maybe into next Monday.

Patty talked to Nancy yesterday, and she will be flying back to Yuma tomorrow to pick up her brand new Tiffin Phaeton Motor Home. Before we left Yuma, she agreed that it would probably be a good idea for her to stay in Yuma for a night or two, and get more familiar with all of the systems on the new rig. By doing that, if she has any questions, or if anything needs to be fixed, she will be right there. La Mesa RV has a store in the Sacramento area, so she will have the resources of her selling dealer fairly close to home. We'll be headed down to Yuma, probably Saturday, or Sunday, to help with the transition, and I think the plan is to drive back here, before Nancy heads off on her own.