46, a former general contractor; Eric Opela, 35,
NABCEP-certified in solar thermal; and trainees
Oscar Huerta, 39, and Dax Valdez, 35.
Both Huerta and Valdez had plenty of
construction experience. Huerta, a single dad,
recently acquired three different wind and solar
certifications at Denver-area schools. He eventually wants to be a full-time windsmith. Valdez has
done roofing, electrical and general construction
jobs. After experiencing layoffs in general construction, both men were glad to be working for
a growing company with a backlog of projects:
According to Dave Lyskawa, vice president of
sales, SolSource expected to hire another 20
installers over the summer.
This was a straightforward job. The garage
roofs face due south, so it was a simple matter to
bolt down the ProSolar rack system (prosolsar.
com) with a three-inch standoff. “That should
provide air circulation but keep the pigeons out,”
Carr said.
By 8: 50, the leads had screwed safety-rope
fixtures at the roof peaks and two guys on each
roof were roped in, working with tape measures
and chalk lines to mark the roof penetrations.
The trick was to hit the 2x4 roof joists, on 24-inch
centers. Below, Meyer and Niles roughed in 2x4
supports for the three Sunny Boy 3000US invert-
ers ( sma.de/en_US.html), one at the inside
southwest corner of each garage. The junior guys
got to work with utility knives, cutting slots in the
asphalt shingles, into which would fit 22 posts
per roof. By 10:00 a.m., they got out the battery-
operated drills and began sinking pilot holes and
lag screws, two per post. Each post got a TTI
flashing plate, with a bead of silicone caulk run
in an inverted U on its bottom.
at 11:00 a.M., the crew took its first
break. Even in the day’s comfortable weather,
it was a welcome chance to give the knees a
rest and rehydrate. The talk was about trade.
Lyskawa talked with Dalton about sales calls
and helping new customers to find financing
in time to qualify for Xcel’s expiring 55-cent-
per-watt rebate. Opela talked about his biggest
water-heating installation, 102 modules on an
aquatic center in Adams County. An Xcel Ener-
gy utility truck pulled up to install meters for
the townhomes, and the crew guys talked about
the utility pole at the southwest corner of the
lot: It meant a high-voltage line passed within
about 8 feet of all three roof peaks. Huerta sug-
gested handling the racking rails from the east
side, to avoid that line.
after Break, Rosenbaum, using a Saw-
zall and working in the shade, started cutting
and assembling racking rails. Huerta carried the
rails around to the east side and handed them up
to the roofs. By 12: 45 p.m., at lunch break, the
last of the footings was secure and half the rails
bolted down. The most useful tool in this phase
was the Unibit, a step-tapered drill bit that let
the installer punch the hole diameter needed in
the rail, for a post bolt or linking clamp, without
changing bits.
The crew worked steadily, without rush,
backing each other up as they shifted from task
to task. It was an orderly progression, taken at an
efficient and safe pace. Tacitly, everyone on the
job understood that a pro takes the time to do
the job right the first time.
after lunch, the last of the racking rails
went up, and the leads bored 3-inch holes for the
flashed-in pass-through boxes for the wiring. At
2: 10 p.m., coils of bare copper grounding wire
were passed up and the crews ran it to grounding clamps on the rails. Then the insulated cables
were labeled and tied in place. All wires were set
above the rails, where they’ll ride clear of con-
Seven hours after drilling their first holes, the SolSource crew was ready to bolt down and wire up the
modules.
tact with the roof, or with ice and snow. “This is
the easiest circuit ever,” Niles said. “One string,
positive and negative, around here and through
there. That’s it.”
On the ground, the inverter installations were
complete except for external connections and
the serial numbers checked on all 30 PV mod-
ules. This is important because, in the event of a
system-performance issue, SolSource will check
the individual modules against flash-testing
data provided by Solar World. At 3: 10 p.m., the
southernmost roof was ready for “modulating.”
Vasquez and Rosenbaum began handing mod-
ules up the ladder, one at a time.
It took less than an hour to square up and
bolt down the 10 modules on this roof. By 4:00
p.m., the guys on the ground had loaded up the
four trucks and closed the garage doors. It was
back to the warehouse. Tomorrow morning, a
smaller crew would install the modules on the
other two roofs and wire up the disconnect
boxes. The rest of the guys would scatter to new
locations. SolSource had three more residential
systems to install that week. ST
