We went to Pine River to visit RReal, the local solar experts and installers. We talked with Jason, Jan, and Scott. Here's a summary of what we learned:
Jan came out to the site with a solar pathfinder to look at the site for both solar PV and passive solar house gains.
- 7/12 pitch to 12/12 pitch range - 9/12 is optimal
- Snow impact: May want to assume no output Dec - Feb. Can't remove the snow from the panels safely.
- Rule of thumb - 2x height away will capture 90% of solar energy. 5x height away to get to 100%.
- December is always a problem in this climate. Won't get enough passive heat to matter anyway due to the sun at a 21% angle. Can't generate enough PV or solar. Will be on the grid in December. December is also typically cloudy.
- Roofing choices - asphalt or metal is fine. Looked at mounting options and if the roof is on a shed, it doesn't really matter. We can use standing seam metal or asphalt.
- If you mount the PV panels horizontal, there is less outages from snow - typically the bottom 6 inches of the panel must be clear if it is mounted vertically - and this is where the snow will accumulate. (note from energy fair presenter)
Jan came out to the site with a solar pathfinder to look at the site for both solar PV and passive solar house gains.
- Solar PV: The shed roof at the top of the hill will make a great site. The trees will be cleared at a 45 degree angle from the shed to allow for the driveway anyway - clearing the solar array for the entire year.
- Passive Solar house: The house site is another story. The neighbor's house or the hill is not the problem that we thought it was - those do not significantly block the solar gain. The trees would need to be cleared for 150 feet down the shoreline to really have a strong solar south. Although the trees loose their leaves, they can still cut down 40% of the solar gain because the woods are so dense.