PACIFIC ENERGY STRATEGIES LLC

Monday, December 17, 2018

Don't Squander This Opportunity to Upgrade Your Old Microinverter System at Low Cost

Enphase, the best microinverter company on the planet, is making a spectacular offer, allowing "early adopters" to upgrade not just their microinverter, but also the electrical cabling on the roof, and the monitoring device (the Envoy).

ORDER NOW, PAY in JAN or FEB!

I have run through the system myself -- and so far it looks easy. Enphase is also very responsive via email and phone, and I got 15 minutes with the program manager today.

Those customers (almost all) who have the M190, the M175, the M210, and the M215 know that there is a fair amount of inverter failures, and these can be costly to change, especially if they are being done one at a time. We expect that of the earliest technologies, almost all the

inverters will fail over the life of the system, say 25 years.

Bottom LINE -- Your labor costs to keep changing inverters over the years and decades is going to be higher than just doing this SPECIAL UPGRADE PACKAGE NOW.

Also, they will not charge your credit card until the product ships to you.    So to get past the holidays and all those expenses, simply direct them to not ship until late January 2019.    We plan on doing most of these conversions in Feb 2019.

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Enphase is throwing A LOT of "balance of system" items for FREE!

Let's take a medium large system of 28 panels and microinverters.   If you have to buy all the parts at list price it would look like this.

28 7IQ Microinverters @ $126 =    $3,528
32 Trunk Cable connectors @25 =    $800
3 End Terminators @ 15 =                  $45
4 Closure Caps @ 5 =                         $20
IQ Envoy and CTs =                           $750
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Total                                                  $5143 Materials if bought at list price.

But Enphase, is, AMAZINGLY, charging just $67.5 for the inverters and throwing in all the other materials for free, so the material cost is ONLY $1890 to upgrade a $30,000 system.   NOTE that you reuse the same panels, and we will quote labor, miscellaneous materials separately.     Note that except for the rails, this is pretty much a complete system rebuild at the rooftop.

Honestly, we are only going to run this program for 6 weeks, so we will only be able to upgrade about half of the systems.      After that we need to get on to Preventive Maintenance Services for Solar Hot Water.

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The customer (you) initiates the process and does the purchase of the reduced rate materials.
List Pacific Energy Strategies LLC as your contractor, and everything will start flowing together.

Depending on your layout, and the particulars of your string design, and obstructions and gaps, we can coordinate with Enphase to make sure the right stuff is shipped directly to your address.    Not having enough trunk cable, or clsoure caps, or end terminators would make the installation day a nightmare.    We will bring extra parts of course, but it better to have the right stuff on site out of the gate.

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Your payment information has been confirmed.

Enphase Upgrade Program for Early Adopters

Thank you for choosing Enphase.

Check on the status of your upgrade

Thank you for placing your order for the Enphase Upgrade Program. You can check here on the status of your order as we work on next steps .

Order status

Order placed
Equipment shipped
Installation complete

Address of system to be upgraded

94-1093 Hanauna St

Waipahu, HI, US 96797

Your order

Item	Standard Price	Upgrade Price	Quantity	Total
Upgrade Package	$126.00	$67.50	11	$742.50
Tax	—	—	—	$33.41
Shipping		$0.00	—	$0.00
			Total:	$775.91

Order placed date: 12/17/2018

The cost of equipment is calculated as a flat price of $67.5 per panel. This includes Enphase Microinverters, the Enphase Envoy, and any additional accessories required by your installer. We will work with your installer to ensure that they have all necessary equipment to perform the upgrade.

If you have questions about your upgrade or need help, visit the Upgrade Support page to contact a team member.

Order process & what to expect

Step one: Confirm your payment details

Confirm your payment details using the form above. Your card won’t be billed until the order is verified and the equipment is shipped.

Step two: We verify the order with your installer and schedule the shipment

Once we receive your payment information, we’ll coordinate the logistics with your installer, including verifying all equipment and accessories needed. When the product is shipped from our warehouse, your card will be billed in the amount approved above.

Step three: Your installer performs the upgrade

The equipment will arrive at your system address before your installation date (unless otherwise specified by you or your installer). On the scheduled date of the installation, your installer will replace your legacy microinverters with new equipment, and they will bill you separately for the labor costs of the installation.

Step four: You’re up and running!

Once the new Enphase equipment is installed and your system is online, your installer will haul away your legacy microinverters to be recycled. And that’s it! You’ll be up-and-running with your upgraded Enphase Home Energy System.

Upgrade Package: Product Detail

The Enphase Upgrade includes Enphase Microinverters, the Enphase Envoy, and all additional accessories required by your installer to perform the upgrade.

Enphase IQ 7 PD Microinverters

The IQ 7 PD Microinverter is built on our newest, seventh-generation technology and is powered down to be compatible with your existing system components. It’s also an order of magnitude more reliable than our legacy products, undergoing over a million hours of power-on testing and enabling Enphase to provide an industry-leading 25-year warranty.

Download the data sheet

IQ Envoy

Compatible with the Enphase IQ System, the IQ Envoy enables remote monitoring and update capabilities while offering you energy insight and storage control. This will replace your system’s existing Envoy and is included in the Upgrade Package price listed above.

Download the data sheet

Cabling & Accessories

Along with your Enphase Microinverters & Envoy, we’ll make sure your installer has all the cabling and accessories needed to install the upgrade, including the Q Cable, Q Seals, Branch Terminators, and Production CTs. All accessories are included in the Upgrade Package price listed above.

Wednesday, August 22, 2018

How to Turn Off and Turn On A Sunny Boy System

There are 2 disconnects on a Sunny Boy system, and maybe a third disconnecting means at the
rooftop if the design called for it, but to just shut the system down, you can ignore any possible rooftop disconnect.

The order of shutting things down is critical, because the Sunnyboy Inverter monitors the incoming utility power for Voltage and Frequency.

As a safety, if the Voltage and Frequency are out of Standards, the Sunny Boy will go into an "Error Mode" which can be very problematic to get out of.   I don't like it, but that is the way it is.

So, it's very do-able, just follow this, print it out is even better.

So 2 aspects:   Shutdown and Re-Start.

On shutdown, you need to turn off the DC Disconnect first.   The Sunnyboy and it's brain run on DC power.   So if you shut down the DC power, the "brain" won't be concerned when the utility AC goes down later.

SHUTDOWN:
Turn off the DC disconnect first, then
Turn off the AC disconnect

On startup, you need to do the opposite.

STARTUP
Turn on the AC disconnect, then
Turn on the DC disconnect.

On startup, once you turn on the DC disconnect, the Sunnyboy will first check to make sure the AC from HECO is OK and within specs.   If the HECO power is not there....it will go into an error mode, that can be a big problem.   Then the upper light will start flashing green if all is OK so far.

After a while, maybe 30 seconds, that light should turn solid green.   That's GOOD!   Anything else is bad, and you could retry the process, or may have to do a trouble call to PES.

Monday, February 26, 2018

Draining A Water Heater

Draining a Water Heater can take a long time.   So sometimes customers don't mind doing this simple step to allow their work to get done earlier in the day so they have a tank of piping hot water later that evening.

The most important thing is to make sure power to the heating element is turned off.   If the heating element is not covered in water, and turned on, it will fry in less than a second, guaranteed.

1) Turn off power at the circuit breaker or the disconnect.   Circuit breaker is easier and better.
2) Turn off solar pump (usually mounted on tank) by unplugging it.    if it is a 240V pump, you can't unplug it, but turning the heater breaker off will remove it's power.
3) close the 3/4" Ball Valve on the cold water supply to the pump.
4) Attach a hose to bottom drain and open the bottom valve with a screwdriver.
5) Lift the P&T relief Valve handle to a straight up position, this lets air into the tank, which is necessary for the water to exit.

It could take 30 to 60 minutes to drain, longer if the bottom is heavily sedimented.

Thursday, February 22, 2018

Solar Tax Credit form for 2017

Here is the Fed & HI State solar energy credit form for 2017.

Fed tax credit is 30%

Here is the link to download the form.

Form 5695 Residential Energy Credit

Hawaii tax credit is 35% or Up to $2,250.

Here is the link to download the form.

Form N-342 Renewable Energy Technologies Income tax credit

Testimonial

“Because of the amount we save each month on our bill from having solar hot water I’m able to stay home from work. It’s the best investment we’ve ever made. It pays for itself very quickly and has reduced our electricity bill by half.”

- AAnn, Ewa Beach

“Our 16 panels and micro inverters have dropped our electricity bill by $250 a month. We have a 7500 square foot house and our goal is to get our bill down to zero. We will definitely use Pacific Energy again to expand our system. The tax credit process was simple and we can track how much electricity we produce. This investment has been worth it. Energy costs are only going to keep going up and it will take us around five years to recoup what we paid for our system. You can’t get that kind of return anywhere else.”

Mark, Waialua

“Our system has produced 6000kWh since May 2008. That’s around18kWh a day with 16 panels. I am very impressed with Pacific Energy and appreciate their service. Every time something needed to be done, they were here. The installation was also very fast. We now only pay the HECO service charge and generate all of our own electricity.”

John, Waianae

“Pacific Energy is a great company to work with. The quality is excellent and the installers were very professional. We have 20 panels with micro inverters. Our bill was previously $160-180 and now we only pay the $18 service charge and have 113kWh of credit.”

Glenn, Royal Kunia

Thanks for the ‘aftermarket service check’. The key information that we are both interested in is the system is working every bit as well as you said it would. I received my first (after solar panels) electric bill and it was the $18+ administration fee. The nice thing is the bill also reflected how many Kw of credits were generated last month. Not a huge amount, about 3 day’s work of credits based upon past historical use.

I’m really pleased with the system, the care with which your folks worked and the professional manner throughout the entire process.

I brag about the system and your company every chance I get and encourage neighbors and friends to contact you and either add to their systems or do a complete install.

I’m hoping after paying income tax I’ll be even more enthusiastic about the whole thing.

Place me in the very satisfied customer stack and being able to monitor the system, even when in Thailand or the Philippines gives a real sense of security. Great job!

Kap khun mahl krab, as is said in Thai. Thank you very much.

Chris, Ewa Beach