People are going solar right here in North Carolina. Three cheers for the Angyal's in Gibsonville, NC.

Featured Producer – Contributed by Andrew and Jennifer Angyal in Gibsonville, NC

We have installed a 3kW interconnected solar residential system along with a solar hot water system on our farm in northeast Guilford County. Both have operating well now for over two years, but it took several years of careful planning and consultation with several solar contractors before we decided what we needed and where to install it. We had always been intrigued by the potential of solar energy and had wanted to install a solar system in our home. We had been without power through several hurricanes and ice storms and did not want to be without the power to use our well, or have power and hot water for the house. We were put off by the economics of solar power until North Carolina passed its 35% solar tax rebate, the federal government offered a 10% tax rebate, and NC Green Power came into existence. There also were design and technical issues to be resolved, beginning with where to put the panels and whether to be on or off grid.
We have a seventy-year old farm house with an original metal roof shaded by large trees to the southwest, so it did not make sense to install panels on the house roof. After ruling out a ground or pole installation, we decided to mount the panels on the south-facing roof of our garage, a separate building about one hundred feet from the house. First the garage had to be enclosed, since it was an open tractor shed, and finished with a separate utility room for the inverter. We started the project as an off-grid installation, but after going on the Guilford solar tour and meeting our contractor, Tom Honey, we decided on a grid-connected system. The failure of our electric water heater three years ago made the installation urgent, so we installed an 80 gallon REEM-Richmond solar water heater with electric backup until the solar hot water panels could be installed. Then we had to dig a 100’ trench from the garage to the house to accommodate the pipes and electrical conduits. Tom Honey installed a two-panel indirect glycol/antifreeze system using 4’ x 8’ Chromagen panels.
Then our solar PV system was installed, consisting of fifteen GEPVp-200 watt panels mounted on UniRac solar mounts, two Outback PS2 power systems and MX60 charge controllers. We were hooked up to Duke Energy using the Small Customer Generator Rider (SCG) and connected with NC GreenPower. We use eight Deka 8L16 6 volt batteries for backup storage in case of a power outage. Our system produces on average about 11.5 KWH per day and has reduced our power bill by about two thirds, as well as generating over $300.00 per year in income. In the spring and fall we often net out with no power bill at all. So far we have been very satisfied with both of our systems, which have been trouble free. Our only maintenance is to top off the batteries every six months.