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WE HAVE THE SAME GREAT LOW PRICES BUT LEAD TIMES ARE LONGER DUE TO THE INCREASED DEMAND FOR SOLAR MODULES! Please email or call for prices and products and availability.

EMAIL FOR DESIGN ADVICE AND SPECIAL PRICES FOR UTILITY INTER-TIE OR OFF-GRID PV SYSTEMS.

UNIRAC SOLARMOUNT PV MODULE ROOF MOUNTS The easiest, fastest and safest way to install a PV array on the roof of virtually any building. Now available for Top-Down and Bottom-Up mounting. EMAIL for details.

THE CALIFORNIA RESIDENTIAL REBATES ARE DECLINING EVERY SIX MONTHS AND THE CALIFORNIA STATE TAX CREDIT HAS DROPPED TO 7.5%.

BUSINESSES ARE ELIGIBLE FOR A 10% FEDERAL SOLAR TAX CREDIT AND 5 YEAR ACCELERATED DEPRECIATION. FEDERAL SOLAR INCENTIVES ARE AVAILABLE IN ALL 50 STATES. EMAIL FOR DETAILS.

USEFUL INFORMATION Use this simple method that professional installers use to select modules. (1) Decide how many watts you want to meet your power requirements. (2) Select your inverter to meet your power needs and current surge requirement and determine your DC primary voltage. For example, our system's SW4048 inverter can handle up 4,000 watts, 4-times current surge and requires 48VDC so we bought nominal 12-volt modules in 4-module increments. The Sunny Boy SB2500 high voltage inverter requires approx. 340 VDC so you must buy 18 to 24 nominal 12-volt modules. (3) Determine how many modules fit on your south-facing roof and draw a layout of your PV array in primary voltage groups to make wiring easier. (4) Match your PV array to your budget. Your PV array will be approximately 50% of your PV system cost. PV systems are modular so you may be able to buy part of your PV array now and add more modules later. If you need help, email a sketch or photo of your roof and your parts list. We will advise and give you a quotation.

Want a battery-less PV system? The SUNNY BOY SWR2500U is the most popular 2.5 kW battery-less inverter. And the new, improved Xantrex SunTie 2.5 kW inverter is back.

Greetings to Organic Gardeners Hundreds of people read about Joel's Ozark mountain solar powered home in the November 1981 Organic Gardening magazine and bought their PV power systems through the PV Bulk Buy. Now we are helping a new generation of urban and suburban organic gardeners go solar.

Interested in solar vehicles? July 2004 was the 20th anniversary of the world's first solar vehicle. Click SUNRUNNER

DOES PV WORK WHEN IT IS CLOUDY OR RAINING? Yes. Solar modules convert light energy to electrical energy. The brighter the sun, the more power your system will produce. On an overcast drizzly June day, Los Angeles got 1/2 inch of rain, but our system produced 1.5 kWh/day. This is about 1/10 of our system's full-sun output. On July 5, at 6:40 AM PDT with the sun just rising above the northeast horizon and shining BEHIND our solar modules (9 degrees altitude, 69 degrees azimuth) the PV array produced 54 watts. Later the same morning at 9:00 AM with the sun at 37 degrees altitude, 85 degrees azimuth, the array was producing 780 watts. Still later the same day at 10:20 AM with only 38% of full sun striking the array, we were producing 1260 watts and our electric meter was turning backwards. On March 31, at 7:00 AM Pacific Standard Time our PV array was producing 240 watts. THE POINT IS that long-lasting PV systems are designed using long-term climate data - not daily weather data - and average PV production takes into consideration daily weather fluctuations.

A survey by RKS Research and Consulting found that 1 in 10 affluent U.S. households (11%) owns some form of emergency backup generator. Reasons are protection, control and independence.

More people are installing urban and suburban PV systems. The first Bulk Buys in the early 1980s were mostly for small PV arrays less than 200 watts and shipped to rural homes. From 1998 to 2001, the majority of Bulk Buy shipments were to urban and suburban homes and businesses. PV arrays averaged 750 watts with several 1600-watt and larger PV arrays. Most people bought 4 kW inverters and installed batteries for backup power. Since 2001, most people have been getting battery-less inverters and installing 2500 watts of PV modules.

USEFUL INFORMATION Your electric meter tells how many kilowatt hours you consume. The same meter with the help of a clock that measures seconds and some simple math can show you how many watts your appliances use. The disk that rotates in your meter has a black reference mark. On the dial plate, usually in the lower right, is a conversion factor for that particular meter (for example Kh=7.2). To read watts, start counting seconds and disk rotations when you see the mark. Stop counting after a minute or after several disk rotations. The formula is watts = (Kh x number of disk rotations x 3600) / number of seconds. For example, you count 5 rotations in 64 seconds (7.2 x 5 x 3600) / 64 = 2025 watts. You can measure your whole home consumption or you can turn everything off and measure one appliance at a time. You may be surprised to see your meter turning when every appliance, including your refrigerator, is turned off. That's because "phantom loads," devices that are on even when you turn them off are still using power. Televisions, phones and answering machines with "power cubes," VCRs, etc. are some phantom loads.

USEFUL INFORMATION "Consumer Guide to Home Energy Savings" $13.95 is an excellent 273 page book that lists energy efficient appliances and what you can do to cut your energy consumption. Cut your energy consumption 50% and you cut your PV system cost in half. Available from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, 1001 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite 801, Washington, DC 20036 Tel: 202-429-0063 <http://aceee.org> Highly recommended.

USEFUL INFORMATION Want an excel spreadsheet that calculates wire size? Send an email request.