Clarification on Solar Related Tax Credits - 2020

Click on each graphic to view in larger form, or right click and select view in its own window----allows scroll magnification.

It took me a few hours to bone up on the Tax Credit forms for Federal and State, since I had not done so for many years.    I also had to spend hours with my personal and business expert tax preparer to figure out 2019 credits in which I did a Solar PV Air-conditioning system for myself.    I also did another Large PV Aircon in 2020. 

A close look at the annotations below and if need be, a call to Steve should clear up how to handle the tax credits on:

1) Solar PV Air Conditioning

2) Solar PV Electric Power

3) Solar Integrated with Battery Storage

4) Solar Attic Fan

5) Solar Hot Water

2021 The Solar Hot Water Tuneup Explained, What and Why

What is the Solar Tuneup?    Why do the Solar Tune-up?

Very Important to do the Tune-Up at least every 3 years, to protect your system and keep warranties in effect!

Resolve to take better care of your Hot Water Solar. Scroll down to see what the tuneup is and why you should do it every three years.   In the long run it sets you at peak efficiency/ higher savings and avoids costly maintenance.   A lower system changeout runs $4000 to $5000 and panel changes can be up to $2000 each.

Doing the Solar Tune-Up is EASY!   It just takes an EMAIL to

solar@pacific-energy.com

or a phone call to 265-5971, and we will make it happen.


TUNEUP Sale Price until 3-31-2021----    $295 all tax included, Normally $415 plus tax

If your pressure relief valve doesn't work when it needs to (solar=high temp=high pressure), you can rupture up your house piping and if the piping is under the concrete slab, it can cost $8000 or more to fix.

Email (best) or call to be assured of a slot in the sale price.    We try to do 3 Tune ups a day, in the same neighborhood, so after you Email (or call) we will contact you with a proposed  date for the neighborhood.

What is the Solar Tuneup?

The tuneup takes time and skill, it is a serious service: We replace 3 important parts, not JUST an anode change which some people pretend is a "tune up".

Tune-up prevents rust out, extends system life and prevents over pressure pipe leaks.

Hawaii’s water can be hard on hot water systems, the water chemistry is not good, with calcium and silica being the main culprits.    Hawaii water is corrosive. A small investment now can prevent huge repair bills later.

Email to solar@pacific-energy.com
(or call 265-5971)

There are THREE important parts that require periodic replacement, and we do a complete check on the system, controller, pump, valves, temperature sensors.

1)      Sacrificial Anode Rod (keeps the whole system from rusting, just like a Zinc on a boat)
2)      Pressure and Temperature Relief Valve (P&T) – Keeps pipes from bursting in the house or under the slab
3)      Pressure Relief Valve – Same, keeps pipes and the solar panels from bursting, except up at the roof level. 

4) Coat all rooftop insulation with a special UV coating, that insulation takes a beating on the hot roof.

5) Re-seal the pipe penetrations through the roof if they need it.    This is your number one change for a leak, so getting it re-sealed is a strong protection.
6) And we will do a thorough flush of the whole system, including the tank, solar pipes, and panels.

Do you know that the customer is supposed to be doing an annual flush of the tank and panels?    It only takes ten minutes?    Do you know how?    If not this is the perfect time for the technician to give you the training or retraining, on what you should be doing.

See picture at the right...a clogged up P&T relief valve.    This may not open, causing a house pipe to over pressure and rupture.

Recently, we have heard about companies offering a “Tune Up” service, and rather than replace the Pressure and Temperature Relief Valve (PTR), that state that they will “inspect” the parts and replace if necessary.   We find this to be misleading, since you cannot inspect a P&T Relief Valve in the field.    It would have to be done in a lab/shop.    It's really just a way for them to get out of there more quickly, while leaving you at risk.

We always replace the PTR. If the PTR fails to operate when your tank gets hot and the pressure builds, that pressure might blow a hole in any of your pipes.Those pipes may be on your roof, or underground... Or under your house. If something were to happen, and Murphy got in the act, where would it happen?   Of course it would be in the most expensive place to fix, under the house slab

We always replace the Pressure Relief valve at the panel which protects your panels and piping.

We always replace the Anode which keeps your system from rusting.

All taxes included, does not include any other system problems that we may troubleshoot for you if you are indicating that the system is not performing properly.

See Standard Pricing Sheet the technician will have----for replacement of other components like pumps, controllers, temp sensors, etc.    Email us if you want a copy via email.


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If you don’t already have a Solar Attic Fan or would like an Additional Solar Attic Fan let us know ahead of time, we do a $150 discount on the Solar Attic Fan, which comes with a 25 year warranty and is the best on the market.  

In asphalt shingle, the NET cost after tax credits is around $380!   Do this before you suffer through another summer or have to pay high air-conditioning bills.
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Email to solar@pacific-energy.com today to schedule your 3-Year Preventive Maintenance Service at this low price!

Easy Method To Stop A Leak At The Yellow "Combination Valve"

It's really easy to stop a leak at the yellow valve with the long handle.Remove the valve handle by turning the outer nutBelow that is another thinner nut shaped device.   This adjusts the "valve packing" and turning it clockwise will tighter the pressure on the packing and seal off the leak.We ask customers to try this fix so we don't have to spend hours on a truck roll for something that can be fixed in 3 minutes.

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Enphase Lithium Battery $1000 Rebate, Ends March 15th. It's Called Encharge And Comes With Auto Transfer Switch

 https://go.enphase.com/rebate-register?utm_campaign=IQ%20-%20Ensemble%20Upgrade&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=115075046&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8xqbJa7sI0Uj5GN0HNtTD3Nq_hTWVP_sTxz7x0zPtdmZ69z5otMMgrHWgs67nlxzTaE9nSllYWEoaWGeIp-M5UGgDMCOJfhauwhjQjpr9--tc1BwM&utm_content=115073709&utm_source=hs_email

The above is the link to upload install agreements and then if you get it installed by June 30th 2021, you can get the rebate.

https://go.enphase.com/rebate-terms

Enphase Energy Promotion

Terms and Conditions

Hurry! March 15, 2021 is the last day to upload agreements

Subject to the following terms and conditions, Enphase will pay Eligible Participants a $500 rebate for each qualifying Enphase® Encharge™ 10 battery storage unit, and a $166 rebate for each qualifying Enphase Encharge 3 battery storage unit, newly purchased between December 7, 2020 and February 28, 2021, and fully commissioned between January 1, 2021 and June 30, 2021 (up to a maximum rebate of $1,000 per household).

Enphase Energy Promotion Terms and Conditions 

Promotion Period: This Enphase Energy Promotion (“Promotion”) starts on December 7, 2020 and ends on June 30, 2021.

Promotion: Subject to the following terms and conditions, Enphase will pay Eligible Participants a $500 rebate for each qualifying Enphase® Encharge™ 10 battery storage unit, and a $166 rebate for each qualifying Enphase Encharge 3 battery storage unit, newly purchased between December 7, 2020 and February 28, 2021, and fully commissioned between January 1, 2021 and June 30, 2021 (up to a maximum rebate of $1,000 per household).

Eligible Participants: The Promotion is open to only to residents of the 50 United States and Puerto Rico who own an Enphase IQ™, M215, or M250 microinverter-based PV system that is installed and fully commissioned (as reflected in the Enphase® Enlighten™ system) prior to the Promotion Period (each a “Qualifying PV System”).

 Storage Product Purchase Period: Enphase Encharge 10 and Enphase Encharge 3 battery storage products newly purchased for use with a Qualifying PV System between December 7, 2020 and February 28, 2021. Encharge battery storage units purchased for PPA and leased systems are not eligible for this Promotion. 

Registration Period: 8:00 a.m. December 7, 2020 until 11:59 p.m. March 15, 2021 (all dates/times are Pacific Time).  

Commissioning Period: Qualifying Products must be commissioned between January 1, 2021 and June 30, 2021 to be eligible for the rebate.

Registration Process: During the Registration Period, Eligible Participants must (a) enter into a new agreement to purchase at least one (1) Qualifying Products and (b) complete their Program registration at https://www.enphase.com/go/rebate-register. Registration will not be complete unless Eligible Participant provides all requested information and uploads a copy of their new Qualifying Product purchase agreement reflecting a purchase date during the Registration Period (the “Purchase Contract”). Only newly purchased Qualifying Products shown in the Purchase Contract uploaded during the Registration Period and fully commissioned (as reflected in the Enphase Enlighten system) during the Commissioning Period will qualify for the rebate.  

Miscellaneous. This offer is invalid and rebate checks are void if not cashed within 90 days of issuance and cannot be re-issued. If the address at which the Qualifying Product is installed and commissioned, as reflected in the Enphase Enlighten™ system, (the “Site Address”), does not match the address reflected in the Eligible Participant’s registration information (including, without limitation, the Purchase Contract) Enphase will have no obligation to pay the rebate. All rebates will be mailed to the Site Address within six (6) weeks of the Qualified Product(s) being commissioned. Delivery to P.O. Boxes is not accepted. Enphase reserves the right to request additional information to validate rebate claims. This offer is non-transferrable. Enphase’s Privacy Policy (https://enphase.com/en-us/legal/privacy-policy) applies to all personal information submitted in the Promotion registration process. Enphase will not be responsible for garbled, incorrect, incomplete, or delayed submissions, nor will Enphase be responsible for problems uploading or downloading the Purchase Contract or for any other technical malfunctions of networks, the internet, electronic equipment, the Enlighten system, or websites. Enphase reserves the right to suspend or terminate this Promotion without notice. This Promotion is void where prohibited, taxed, or restricted by law.

Solar Hot Water -- The New Control Technology is Far Superior -- Consider an Upgrade If Your System is Sketchy

 Steve here -- The new technology is both digital and with a user friendly display that provides easy to understand data to the novice user, 

And can provide high level troubleshooting from us, the solar experts, using just phone support and simple questions.

We have been using this for around 10 years and they are highly reliable.   We use nothing else, except if servicing a legacy system and the owner does not want to upgrade.

You also get 3 brand new temperature sensors (its not compatible with the old technology).

The sensors are one of the most likely items to fail on a solar system, especially the roof sensor that really takes a beating up there.

So it tells you the temperatures:

1) At the solar panel on roof

2) Water in the Tank

3) Water going into your house

And it has a VACATION MODE and I will tell you why it is important.  It's not as fun as going to Disney or Vegas, but it can literally save your system.

If you leave for more than 2 days, your system is going to be piping hot if no water is used.    Then the tank cannot absorb any more heat, and the controller/pump will not pump to prevent tank overheating.    

But at that point, your panels are now "stagnated" and that is the worst thing for them.    The temperature will go up to around 250F and at that point the pressure will be so high, the pressure blow off valve at the panel will open and release some water and pressure --- hopefully it closes again.

At high temperatures the calcium and silicates (glass) come out of the water and plate out on your panel surfaces.....also NOT GOOD.

The Old Technology cannot do "Vacation Mode" and thus cannot protect your system.   But even if you don't need the Vacation Mode, it is still an awesome controller in every other way.

From the manufacturer....a list of their features

 

 

 

Fed & State 2020 Tax Form for Solar Credit - Form 2695 Fed, For N-342 State

  Fed Residential Energy Credits Form 5695 for 2020.

Forrn 5695

 

 Hawaii State "Renewable Energy Technologies Income Tax Credit" Form N-342 for 2020

Form N-342

 

Solar Attic Fans, New Or Upgrade, We Are The Only Ones With 60W Fan Mounted Solar Power

This is the star of the year, a great conjunction between a solid housing and fan/motor and the biggest PV panels of ANY solar fan, at 60W.    Compare to 6 years ago at 20W.

We are the only ones that have this fan setup as shown.    And it comes with a 25 year warranty on everything, and a company 10 year leakage warranty.    Put simply, they will not leak, ever.    

You can see how well the fan housing "flashes" under the shingles, creating what the industry calls a "positive drainage plain", relying only on gravity and not on sealant.

Of course we also use sealant to prevent a wind driven rain from sneaking upward. 

 

Advanced Troubleshooting of Enphase EMU Monitoring Device and Web Connection / Firewalls

 Hello Steve,

This is Jason with Enphase. There are a couple of ways to get the Envoy reconnected.

https://enphase.com/en-us/support/envoy-offline/envoy-r/ethernet-bridges

If it disconnects: https://enphase.com/en-us/support/how-do-i-set-envoy-if-there-firewall

Wifi--------------------------

Fastest: https://enphase.com/en-us/support/envoy-offline/envoy-s/wi-fi-wps

If your envoy says it's connected but disconnects you may have a firewall problem. 

We developed a new process using the Enlighten Mobile application. A video walkthrough is available here: https://enphase.com/en-us/support/reconnect-your-iq-envoy-or-envoy-s-wi-fi-network-using-enphase-enlighten-app

This is a walk through to assist you in getting your Envoy manually configured to connect to your home WiFi. A similar video walk through can be found at: https://enphase.com/en-us/support/reconnect-your-envoy-s-or-iq-envoy-manual-wi-fi-setup

1.) Locate the Envoy device. This is a little black box (or circuit board) in the solar breaker box with 4 LED lights on it.

2.) Enable AP mode on the Envoy, which is the first button under the first set of LED's. Simply press, DO NOT HOLD and the light with the "cell phone and arrow" icon will turn solid green.

3.) Now, on your smart phone, go to SETTINGS and then WiFi and connect to the new network labeled Envoy_xxxxxx (the numbers will be the last 6 digits of your Envoy's serial number).

Note;

--- At this point please stay close to the Envoy as it does not broadcast very far.

--- Your phone will likely tell you there is no internet connection when connecting to this network. This is good in this case and means you are doing it correctly.

4.) Open a web browser on your phone, such as Safari, Chrome, or Fire Fox. Don't use the Google search bar found on your home screen though, this is still the internet, but is not technically a web browser.

5.) In the web browser enter 172.30.1.1 into the address bar and hit enter.

Now you should see an Enphase web page. If you get page could not be displayed, just make sure the phone is still connected to the Envoy network and refresh the page.

6.) Scroll down to the "Monitoring" section and click on WiFi. You will be prompted to log into the 172.30.1.1 page. Please enter the Envoy's username and password below. (We will enter the WiFi info soon)

Username: envoy (all lower case)

Password: xxxxxx (This is just the last 6 digits of the Envoy serial number)

7.) You should see the current network the Envoy is trying to connect to, and below that a link that say, "More Information", click this and then select Forget Network. This may take up to 3 minutes.

8.) We should land back on the previous WiFi Configuration page, so hit "View Networks" and select your current WiFi network and input the password you created for your WiFi.

It will take a couple of minutes and once connected it will tell you connection successful. If it tells you connection has failed, try it again.

Final notes;

---The "Cloud" LED on the Envoy should be solid green if the Envoy is connected to the internet and reporting data to Enlighten. During this process it may turn green and then go back to red several times. Don't worry about this as long as we see the Envoy is connected on the web page. If you see a red light next to the Cloud after a few hours, this may indicate an issue.

---The microinverters will not immediately start reporting data in Enlighten, the Envoy has been holding onto all their data for a while now and will need to upload all of the old stuff before it can show anything live. Don't worry this is normal, and it should only take about one hour for each day the system was not communicating.

Thank you for contacting Enphase.

Jason Wall

Enphase Energy | Customer Support

office 877-797-4743

Certicate of Vendor Compliance

2020 Microinverter Upgrade Program Expanded! Very Low Net Cost to Upgrade to Latest Generation and Be Battery Ready, Add Panels With HECO Approval

Old Micro-Inverters Failing!  Replace Them All Now at Less Than Manufacturer's Cost for 7th Generation 7 IQ Microinverters. Interested?  Enquire by Email Here 2020@pacific-energy.com

7IQ Upgrade – (4) Bullet Points to Understand it – It’s a complete component rebuild on the roof.

1. Early Microinverters Have a High Rate of Failure, And a high labor and programming cost to repair.  Upgrading the whole system will be cheaper than paying the repair costs over time.
2. Enphase is offering to Upgrade to 7^th Generation Micros at LOW COST
3. Enphase throws in free cables, and a free better quality Envoy/EMU monitor with wireless capability.
4. Your warranty, which is going away quickly, is EXTENDED for 25 years…..starting 2019!!!

Let’s say you had a $35,000 car, and you had 70,000 miles on it and it was started cost you a bunch in repairs.    If the dealer came to you and said, heh, for $4000, we will give you a new car, with a 25 year warranty……WOULD YOU TAKE THAT DEAL?

REALLY? IT GETS BETTER!?

5) The 7IQ is "Battery Ready", The M190 will never be Battery Ready.   Call Steve to discuss, battery costs and quality and longevity have taken huge strides forward.    And Enphase will be rolling out their "Plug and Play" battery system, that will "play nice" but only with the new 7IQ Inverters!

6) The new monitor (EMU/Envoy) comes with Current Transducers, that PES et al, can install for you if you want, at extra cost.    These provide valuable information on your actual power production, and times where you import energy from HECO.   This allows a good engineer to properly size a battery system, without buying too much!   

The 7IQ Upgrade program is like getting that NEW CAR, at 10% of the cost!
Interested?  Enquire by Email Here 2020@pacific-energy.com

I have upgraded my system in Kunia, and there were a few bumps and learning curves, but overall, it is a great project, and I am ready to roll it out for all my customers, who have the old style Micros (M190, M210, M175).

If you have the M215 or M250, Enphase is NOT ALLOWING you this upgrade at this time.

If you don’t know what you have, just enquire solar@pacific-energy.com

 
The original Enphase Microinverter warranty was 15 years.   For many people that is ½ or 2/3 gone ALREADY.

We re-use the same racking system, and the panel hold down clips.    We expect some stuff to break, as that is just the way Murphy works, and we will cover all miscellaneous small part breakage, up to $200 per customer.   We haven't had to ever charge more to a customer.

Interested?  Enquire by Email Here 2020@pacific-energy.com