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At last writing, we were just about to go
into pre-town meeting, held a few nights
before town meeting. At that meeting I
learned that the proposed bylaw could not be
amended on the floor of town meeting.
Since there were some technical issues with
the bylaw, my son Russell (with some
persuasion from me) decided to have the bylaw
passed over. By passing it over, we will be
able to bring it up at the next town meeting
(if we didn't pass over the bylaw and it
failed, we would not be able to bring it up
again for two years).
Overall, it was a great learning experience
for both my son and me. We are looking
forward to November...
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Here is a 3.96 kw system on a roof in
Northborough, MA. (click on the image to see a
larger version)
On this project, we had plenty of roof to
work with and
were able to install 22 Evergreen Solar 180 watt
panels. By tilting the panels up from the
roof angle, we were able to improve system
performance by 6 to 8% per year. The higher
angle will improve the fall, winter, and
spring performance, allow the panels to shed
snow a bit better, and get the panels cleaner
when it rains.
This was an interesting home to work on. It
is a "Deck" house (http://www.deckhouse.com/).
Deck houses are known for open construction
and plenty of glass to let in the sun. In my
humble opinion, Deck Homes are quite
attractive, however they do have a quirky
roof structure which made for a
challenging installation.
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What is magnetic
declination and why should you care? Read on...
When mounting solar panels, particularly with
the pole mount structures, we point
the panels directly towards the south pole.
This will maximize their production of
electricity. We call this mounting direction
the Azimuth. The ideal azimuth for solar
panels is 180 degrees or "polar south."
Unfortunately, if you use a compass to orient
your
panels, you won't find polar south, you'll
find magnetic south and on much of the
planet, polar south and magnetic south are
different.
This difference between polar and magnetic
direction is called magnetic
declination.
In eastern Massachusetts, polar north is
about 14.5 degrees west of magnetic north.
(face north and turn slightly to your
left). So to set our panels properly, we
must aim them 14.5 degrees east of south.
Magnetic declination is constantly changing
and varies by location. To learn your
declination in the US, visit the National
Geophysical Data Center, enter your zip
code, click "Get Location," then click
"Compute Declination."
What if your house does not face polar south?
Just move your house. :-)
In eastern Massachusetts, solar panels facing due east or west perform anywhere from 13% to 23% lower than panels facing due south (depending on mounting angle) but panels facing polar southeast or southwest are only about 7% less productive than panels facing due south. So even if your house does not face perfectly
south, you can still take advantage of the sun...
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Use a fan instead of an air conditioner, turn off the lights, switch to compact fluorescent bulbs, put computer gear on a power strip and turn it off at night, unplug unnecessary appliances, ventilate your attic, take shorter showers, walk instead of drive, ride a bike, group your errands, inflate your tires, grow your own food, eat locally-produced food, recycle, use your most efficient vehicle, get a hybrid vehicle, wash your clothes in cold water, buy less packaging, use a clothesline instead of the dryer, drink tap water, print with narrower margins, use both sides of the page, buy less, compost, install a renewable energy system...
Thanks for Reading the Energy Miser,
 Mark Durrenberger
New England Breeze, LLC
phone:
978-567-WIND (9463)
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