Mike S.’s Solar Installation

Meet Mike Striegl. Mike recently installed his own Grid-Tie System with Enphase Energy  IQ7A Microinverters and Combiner.

Mike has been a custom home builder for over 30 years, and he installed the racking for a 60 panel array at his last shop so he had a pretty good idea of how to get this project going. 

He said, “There really wasn’t any problems with the physical part of the installation. The issue was as in the logistics of the grid supply. I had a meter on my house and on my shop. The 18 panel array is installed on the shop roof. Our utility supplier will not allow putting solar on one building and supply power to another structure, so I had to combine the house and shop to create one meter. This added around $2,200.00 to the overall cost of the project.” 

For the most part he did everything himself except combining the two service meters. He buried and ran all wires to combined them and had the electrician hook up everything. His son helped hand up the panels onto the roof and his wife helped him get the first row fastened. 

We asked Mike to share what additional tools were needed and how long his install took. He said, “I did pick up a torque wrench. The rest were all standard tools. I was required to get a hard plastic, engraved, plaque for the meter and the disconnect. This was beyond what the code requires. It is just something my utility supplier required. The racking took between 8-9 hours. I was able to use Romex wire, so running the two feeds to the combiner box took about an hour. It took my son and I about 30 minutes to hand up the first set of nine panels (from the back of my trailer). The first row of nine panels took around 3 hours (with my wife holding them from sliding) to wire and install to the racking. The second set of nine panels I did myself in about the same time since the bottom row kept things from sliding. After refining the way, we handed them up, it only took about 20 minutes. I spent about an hour installing the Soladeck roof penetration junction box. Around 3 hours for the combiner box, disconnect, and consumption/production metering equipment installation. 

We asked Mike who else he considered before choosing Unbound Solar? 

He said, “I checked out mainly suppliers that had complete packages. Then narrowed it to Unbound Solar and one other. I was impressed by the response, professionalism, and overall product available of Unbound Solar. Everything that was promised was delivered from Unbound Solar.”

Thanks for sharing your story, Mike! 

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