Category: Solar Power

This is being typed on November 16th. We still have not closed with Rocket Mortgage after 3 weeks. I got a call-back from my Acct Manager at Rocket, and he explained the issue. So far, I have had 3 separate appraisers show up to walk through, take pictures, etc. The problem is that none of them can find an equivalent house (new construction, 1400 sq foot, metal roof & walls, on well (with reverse osmosis plant) and powered by solar cells) to develop comps with.

Rocket has escalated the issue and has some mid-level managers involved with trying to resolve the issue. I am expecting one or two more appraisers over the next week or so.

Over the past couple of weeks, I have been on half-power from the solar arrays. When I was working on the electrical system to get approval from the County Building Inspectors, I discovered that batteries went into self-protect mode. I did some further troubleshooting and discovered the Inverters DC battery input were shorted together on one of the two inverters. I disconnected the faulty inverter and was able to bring up 120 of the 240 VAC. Fortunately, the side that remained up was the MBR, and most of the Kitchen and Living Room.

I contacted Signature Solar and reported the issue. I forwarded pictures and video of me measuring the shorted inputs. It was immediately escalated to second level response. After a week of nothing heard, I called up and rattled their cage. Last week I received a FedEx shipping label. That same afternoon I packaged up the bad inverter and shipped it off. Later that week I was notified that the replacement would be shipped shortly. Latest info that it should be delivered on Saturday.

The good news is that I have demonstrated that I can go a day, or even two with heavy overcast with only half of solar panels. Once I get the replacement inverter, I can bring the full power back up in the house.

The past week or so Jill’s tiny house has moved forward. The goal is to get the foundation poured before the weather gets too cold, and erect the structure early in the spring.

Also, we dug the trench and ran the water line from my crawl space up to the foundation.

Finally, we got the washer and dryer installed. Note the dryer is electric and needs 240VAC, so it is waiting the new inverter.

In a Catholic school cafeteria, a nun places a note in front of a pile of apples, “Only take one. God is watching.” Further down the line is a pile of cookies. A little boy makes his own note, “Take all you want. God is watching the apples.”

Today is Sunday, October 16,2022. I am woefully behind in updating this blog. Below is a walkthrough of the house. AT is hoping to finish up the house and get an occupancy permit by the end of the week. Also, Kate is coming for a visit this Saturday (10/22/22).

The siding is mostly done, lacking the corner pieces. We still need to pour a 20′ parking apron in front of garage.

Off to the left are the solar panels. There are two panels not installed yet. I got 30 with the package I got. The minimum to reorder is 10, due to packaging requirements, so I will add two when we order Jill’s. The wires from the panels run underground to the panels in the garage.

This is the South wall of the garage. The rack mount of 6 batteries is in the center. The two boxes labelled “EG4” are the main inverters that produce 240V to the Main Breaker panel to the right. The large white box to the left is the demand hot water heater. /

The master bedroom is currently the staging area for trim work. Note the ceiling fan (one in each bedroom) and the trim work.

The living room. Note the ceiling lights in the living room and kitchen. The red blotch in the living room is for smoke detector. The butcher block on the kitchen counter is covered by protective cardboard. The cardboard covered black thing by the front door is the range waiting to be installed in the kitchen.

The microwave is installed over where the range will go. The cupboards are in, but still need handles.

This is the bedroom at the front of the house. The window looks out at the front porch and door. The closet to the right of the laundry area will be the linen closet. The two boxes under the window are monitors for Kate to try out this week.

The second bathroom, with the magic toilet. Need to install some sort of glass around the shower.

This is the master bath. Note the slightly larger shower with built in window.

The patio off the dining room. Note the trim work is done on the house, along with the patio lights under the eaves. From L-R we have two MBR windows, Master bath window in the shower, window over the sink, patio doors and finally window in the office/bedroom.

Front of the house, note the large pile of dirt and big bank is knocked down. The solar panels on the left.

“Let there be Light!” in the garage. Note the attic stairs in the middle, and the garage bathroom and water heater on the right.

That’s the house as of 10/16/2022.

In other news, here’s some looks from back over the three weeks.

Mike, Jan, Jill, and I erecting the poles for the solar panels. Photo taken by Dawn.

My three sisters, Dawn (Sis), Jill, and Jan after finishing erecting the poles.

My middle Jon, who spent the last couple of weeks helping out tiling in the showers and helping out immensely with the putting together the solar panels and the power system.

I suddenly realized I am woefully behind on updating you about the progress on the house. You are welcomed by the front yard antelope that greeted me one day last week.

We are making progress on several fronts. First of all we have completed all of the wallboard, completed mud work and wallboard finishing, texturing and painting. For those of keeping score the exact shade of white is “Platinum”, a very light grey.

Moving on to flooring, we started back in the Master Bedroom.

The flooring is mostly light shades of greyish wood. It is Luxury Vinyl Plank with interlocking pieces.

Continuing to the Master Bath, we can also see the greyish shaker-style vanity.

The flooring runs from the Master Bedroom down the hallway and into the Living Room/Kitchen area.

In addition to the flooring, we have started putting up the kitchen cabinets starting with the corner pieces. The general theme for the kitchen cabinets (as well as bathroom cabinets) is a simple grey Shaker style. In other news this week, we have installed the garage door.

Since my last update we have also installed the side door into the garage. The siding installation has encountered a minor problem in that they ran short of “J-channel” pieces. They should get it finished up next week or so. Also note the patio off to the right

Also, during a brief rain shower this afternoon the cement truck arrived to put in the poles to support the solar panels.

You can see 7 of the 8 poles standing proudly erect. We ran a little short while emptying out the cement truck (we ordered 2 cubic yards of cement. Over the next week we will rent a mixer and buy some bags of cement and fill that last hole.