In alt.home.repair, on Tue, 15 Aug 2017 22:58:18 GMT, Wayne Boatwright
wrote:

On Tue 15 Aug 2017 02:49:41p, micky told us...

Someone in a townhouse not far from here got solar panels, for
free. The electric meter is in the front and that's why they ran
1.5 or 2" conduit up the front of the house to the roof, and put
in a 3" long junction box where the conduit had to bend almost 90^
to go on the roof.

I think it's uggggly.

What should they have done differently, even if the homeowner had
to pay?

Can conduit be painted and how long would it stay approximately
the same color? Is there any conduit or useable alternative
that is already colored? White? Brown? Mariner turquoise?

Even that wouldn't be very good but it's the easiest most obvious.


How is it properly done when put on a roof?

Down through the stack to the basement, I presume, and the
electric connections and the solar control box (2 or 3 times the
size of the meter) are put in the basement????


In two instances I have used gutter downspouts to conceal (contain)

So you mean put the cable inside the downspout! I thought he just
meant put the conduit in the corner between the downspout and tthe
wall??

220 volt cable that was then buried to feed our hot tub.

Was it an actual downspout with water in it when it rained?

I also used
it to contain (conceal) the replacement freon lines running between
the compressor and the condensor (the original had been buried in the
poured concrete slab of the house). The downspouts were then painted
the same color as the house and barely noticieable. Besides,
downspouts look normal on a house wall, not like an ugly cable.

Since this insallation is already in place, painting the meter and
control box could also be painted.

Actually those two things look okay, and the meter isn't even visible
from the street (though I painted mine, all but the glass, to match the
house.

I'm sure there could have been better alternatives, but it's too late
now.

Right. They've been talking about this on our new neighborhood mailing
list, and I pointed out how bad it looked and how it could have looked
better. last I looked, this particular neighbor was on the miailing
list, but if she is, so be it.

Then someone else posted as both the salesman and the 5-star reference
for one of the companies. She said " I have [this brand of] panels and
my elec. went from about 290 to $47.50 and with my XOOM elec&has my bill
is about 22" This sounds very unlikely to me. I asked how big her
array is and how many watts, and if I could go see her house.

I myself don't think solar panels are ugly, only that bloomin' pipe.