4Kw in Greeenwich

This is a residence in downtown Greenwich, CT. Located just blocks from downtown, this installation was built atop a renovated garage-converted-apartment. Designed by John Roundtree of Westport Solar Consultants, he re-oriented the axis of the roof peak, so that the array could be facing south.















It's a crowded neighborhood full of people who want the quaintness of Greenwich, whose characteristics include full-service traffic guards (instead of traffic lights) at many busy intersections, a familiar downtown Main Street type of setting, as well as a quick commute into New York City.















I find myself standing on top of solar panels in the rain, wondering why... Why am I on top of a solar panel in the rain? And what's stopping me from falling? Why is it my shoes don't slip, and how come I'm taking a picture?

I guess it's a comforting feeling when you have a harness on, because even if you slip and fall off a roof, there's a point where the harness is going to say, in actions not words, hold on. Wait a minute. You're not falling. Harness is my friend.





Here is the inverter. This is one of the little guys that i percieve would be the kind that we would install for apartments. This is actually a slightly larger system than any one bedroom apartment would require, but it's similar to the size of system i was describing in my post about grid tied solar apartments.










Here are the rails. If you look very closely, the panels sit inside a channel built into the rails, and then they can slide in between the rails like windows in a frame. It's a fairly good system, but one of the reasons why I have to stand on top of the panels in the above picture is because there are strips of metal that fasten into the rails, which when the panels are on, can become very difficult to reach.

Would you want to live there? Maybe. But it's Greenwich. I bet this solar powered garage/studio apartment is not cheap by my standards.