I’m extremely lucky to have a neighbor who both a) installs solar power systems for fun and profit, and b) is actually good at it.
Also, the social security thing could have happened at a worse time because I’ve spent the past few months replacing things that were on their last legs, like…
Those four old panels were cast-offs from Landlady’s old system, which I acquired in 2016. They were kind of iffy then. They’re at least 20 years old and I have lately had reason to suspect that they aren’t working very well anymore. So I asked Neighbor S to come over at his convenience and confirm or disprove my suspicions. Not surprising, those panels are pretty much done. Happily, he gave me the neighbor price for a couple of bigger, more modern and brand-new panels he had kicking around his yard.
Taking the old panels down and reconfiguring the racks is going to be a chore. He wanted to hook up the new panels where they are and make sure my issues go away before going to the trouble, I thought that was a bad idea because it pretty much guaranteed a windstorm but we compromised by strapping them down good. Naturally it’s Monsoon so the sky is clouding up for the afternoon storms, so right now I can’t really see by watching my voltmeter whether there’s a big performance improvement.
