If you have been following along, and even if you haven’t, the solar power system for our house is now moving along nicely. Over the weekend Blue Turtle Roofing came and sealed up all the mounting posts for the solar panels on our roof so that the whole system is sealed and ready to mount and install the solar panels.

Now we are at the point of installing the rails that the panels are attached to on the roof, laying in the electrical conduit, connecting the panels electrically and installing the inverter on the side of our house.

We are getting a 2.4KW system installed by Solar City on their SolarLease plan. This has enabled us to get this system put in for a very small down payment up front and then monthly lease payments on the system. When you average out our power usage we should come out about even in terms of our monthly payment. Instead of paying money to PG&E for our electrical usage we will be paying for the solar lease. Plus when we are not home and the system is creating more solar power than we are using it will go back into the grid and we get credit for that power generation from PG&E.

So today Mike and his crew from Solar City are cutting the rails, installing the rails to the mounts on the roof, installing the inverter on the house and beginning the conduit runs to tie it all together. He tells me that we should be installing the solar panels tomorrow.

I am looking forward to the day when we can switch the system on and be generating solar power. However once install is done we have to get the city inspector out and then finally a sign off from PG&E before the big switch. I am hopeful that will not take more a couple weeks at most.

Right now Solar City is offering a terrific deal where they will let you get in on this program for $0 down. It is only good till 12/15/09 but if you are thinking of going solar but cost has been an issue you should really look into this offer. If you do please tell them Kevin Rockwell sent you and they will treat you right.

The installation of our Solar City solar power system for our home has moved forward nicely. One of the things we had to have done was a bit of upgrading to the rafters in our attic so that our roof can be structurally sound and support the panels effectively.

We have a low slope roof and thus our attic is pretty tight with barely enough room to stand in the middle of the house to very tight out on the edges of the roof. The Solar City crew ended up taking out my solar fan and cutting a larger hole in our roof in order to access the attic, load in lumber for the upgrade and do the job. Dave and the crew had to work in tight conditions but thankfully the warm weather we had been having cooled down on the rafter day and so it was not roasting in there.

After they had completed the rafter upgrade Octavio from Blue Turtle came by to seal up the footers for the panels and the reinstalled solar fan which the Solar City guys had used as access to the attic. It is a three step process, one to install the wetsuit coating around all the areas where the roof has been penetrated by bolts, conduit, and the fan. Then there is the primer coat of solar reflective paint, followed by the final coat of the solar reflective paint.

Next comes the panel install on Monday of this coming week, installation of the electrical connections, and inverter installation on the side of our house. If all goes well this next week we should be all set and ready for city inspections and sign off by PG&E so that we can turn on the system. Fingers crossed that his will only take a few weeks to get the official blessing for our system to be generating power for our household.