Archive for January, 2010

posted by katlupe on Jan 18

Solar Baby is touched by the big arm of the FTC Blogging Disclosure

Solar Baby is touched by the big arm of the FTC Blogging Disclosure

What is this page about you ask? This is another of the constraints of our wonderful FREE country. I have to and so does every other blogger in our country have to post this….. FTC needs a blogging disclosure so that my readers understand that there are times that I may be getting paid for the links in the material I write about. I also have Amazon and other links on the side of the text that I think may be of interest to my readers. I have tried to use reputable companies to affiliate myself with. As of December 1st 2009, I’m required to disclose this for the material I write on.

My text is always about me, my lifestyle, my family, my thoughts or how I did things. Sometimes I write about a subject that I didn’t actually do because a reader had contacted me with a question. Then I go out and do the research on that particular topic and write about it. Not from my own view but from my research.

I never receive anything free from any company or anyone to write a biased text. My content is usually based on my own or my husband’s opinions on our own alternative energy system or on how I do various jobs around my homestead. I do things different than most people and do not expect you or anyone to follow my example. If you want to set up a system you need to do your own research. I will never write a good review about a product that I don’t feel deserves it. I try to be very honest in all my posts whatever the subject.

What I am trying to explain here is that I am an affiliate marketer as well as a blogger. When I choose to write about my experiences with a product and/or service, often times I will have an affiliate link attached to that product. If so when you buy that product I will get paid a small commission. It’s not much but keeps my site going. So thank you if you do click my links and make a purchase. I appreciate it.

According to the new law from the FTC, I need to disclose this to you.

Kathleen G. Lupole

January 18,2010

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posted by katlupe on Jan 9

In November we purchased two more solar panels and the equipment needed to FINALLY move them onto the barn roof. The barn roof gets the most sun all year long. If you study it as we have done over time you will see the areas of your property that get the most sun. We purchased two Kyocera solar panels from the alternative energy store. They did not have anything to mount them on the roof with though. My husband contacted their customer service and asked some questions and because our panels have been purchased over a period of ten years they are not all uniform in size, so nothing they had would work for us. The customer service rep was very rude with my husband on the telephone and wanted us to replace the older panels we had with new ones so they would be the same?????? Now what kind of advice is that? Must be in sales! He lost their company a sale that turned out to be over $600.!!! Which is what we spent at Affordable Solar for the roof racks.
These panels will give us almost double the power we have presently. They are Kyocera KC85T 85W 12V so will give us 170 more watts for a total of 360 watts of power. Plus putting them up on the barn roof will mean our panels will be have longer periods of sunshine even in the dark days of winter here in upstate New York. Unfortunately, our roof racks did not get shipped very fast from Affordable Solar and then all the parts came except for the parts that needed to go on the roof first. So by the time those parts came……our weather turned bitter cold and now we have our usual amount of snow and ice. So that is on hold and our two brand new solar panels are in our barn waiting for the much wished for January thaw.
We Purchased the Clicksys roof mounting system manufactured by Unirac. Here is a link to it and no, I am no an affiliate of their’s. Just a customer. http://www.clicksys-beam.com/  We wanted our panels to be secure on the barn roof as it is a high roof. My husband is building a front porch on the barn which will have have a walkway above it to clean off the panels when leaves or snow accumulates on them.

solarbaby box

In November we purchased two more solar panels and the equipment needed to FINALLY move them onto the barn roof. The barn roof gets the most sun all year long. If you study it as we have done over time you will see the areas of your property that get the most sun. We purchased two Kyocera solar panels from the alternative energy store. They did not have anything to mount them on the roof with though. My husband contacted their customer service and asked some questions and because our panels have been purchased over a period of ten years they are not all uniform in size, so nothing they had would work for us. The customer service rep was very rude with my husband on the telephone and wanted us to replace the older panels we had with new ones so they would be the same?????? Now what kind of advice is that? Must be in sales! He lost their company a sale that turned out to be over $600.!!! Which is what we spent at Affordable Solar for the roof racks.

New Solar Baby panel

These panels will give us almost double the power we have presently. They are Kyocera KC85T 85W 12V so will give us 170 more watts for a total of 350 watts of power. Plus putting them up on the barn roof will mean our panels will be have longer periods of sunshine even in the dark days of winter here in upstate New York. Unfortunately, our roof racks did not get shipped very fast from Affordable Solar and then all the parts came except for the parts that needed to go on the roof first. So by the time those parts came……our weather turned bitter cold and now we have our usual amount of snow and ice. So that is on hold and our two brand new solar panels are in our barn waiting for the much wished for January thaw.

Solar Baby System

We Purchased the Clicksys roof mounting system manufactured by Unirac.  Here is a link to it and no, I am not an affiliate of their’s. Just a customer.

http://www.clicksys-beam.com We wanted our panels to be secure on the barn roof as it is a high roof. On Unirac’s web site they said that the connections are secured with just a click and it completely eliminates the bolts and nuts you would normally have to use. Cuts out at least forty percent of the labor that the other types of roof racks need done. My husband was all for that! Saved time as well and he wants to get them up there and quick as possible as he does not relish the thought of doing all that work on the barn roof. On their site they say, “The new innovative design of CLICKSYS™ offers the most cost effective flush mount solution in the residential marketplace. Pricing starts as low as 10 cents per watt. Save time and money with the most revolutionary PV mounting system in the world!” My husband is building a front porch on the barn which will have have a walkway above it to clean off the panels when leaves or snow accumulates on them.

The Google campus in California had  9,000 panels to rack and a variety of roof styles to deal with so they had Unirac perform a custom engineering analysis of the site to make sure that the product they chose would work best for each of the individual roofs.  So a non-penetrating racking system was used for the standing-seam roofs which Unirac was able to provide. I like the idea of it being non-penetrating on my barn.

Solar Baby barn roof

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