Passivhause Solar PV: Garrett County, Maryland

Homeowners, Bill and Fran, opted to add solar PV as part of their new home.  They elected to build the house to a rigorous Passive House standard to minimize the energy footprint of the home and ensure that their new home would be comfortable and inexpensive to operate.

The 9-kW solar array is made up of thirty SolarWorld 300W modules.  The solar modules are mounted to the standing seam roof with S-5 clamps which eliminate the need for drilling through the metal roofing material.  SMA inverter equipment converts the DC power from the solar to AC which powers household circuits and turns the utility meter backward.   Special thanks to Larry at CHIPS Network for his help with connecting the inverters to the world wide web.  Production data like that shown below (sunny day in April!) is uploaded and stored on the SunnyPortal website.