On Tuesday Nathan's father-in-law who is an electrician came by to give me a hand wiring the master panel. I knew where connections were to be made. I just didn't feel confident to actually make them. Again in just a few hours, we had all the major connections made. Over the course of the next few days I connected the solar panels to the combiner box and brought the system online. That was around 11 AM Wednesday morning. I was so excited! The first thing I did was plug in my little refrigerator and unpack my cooler.
Meanwhile, Nathan, Wade, and Matt built a pergola, a set of steps, trimmed out all the doors and windows, and completed about 80% of the siding. To make sure they had all the material they needed. I made one trip to builders supply in Fort Payne and three trips to Daniel Millican's sawmill. Nathan loaned me his long trailer to make the job a lot easier.
By Thursday afternoon, I felt the battery had charged enough to run my window air conditioner. So I ran it for several hours while I went to get a load of siding. It was nice to come back to a cool room. By Friday morning, I felt like there was enough juice in the battery that I was willing to let the carpenters use solar power to run their tools. They used a small air compressor, a 10 inch table saw, and a 10 inch chop saw. Everything ran as well as if plugged into Cherokee Electric. I am now officially off the Genny. Quiet and peace has once again settled on Richmond Woods.
