In alt.home.repair, on Wed, 16 Aug 2017 07:14:40 -0700 (PDT), trader_4
wrote:

On Wednesday, August 16, 2017 at 8:33:17 AM UTC-4, My 2 Cents wrote:
On 8/15/2017 5:58 PM, 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)
220 volt cable that was then buried to feed our hot tub. 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.

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

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and free electricity looks pretty
to me. Suggestion; move to a HOA and enjoy utopia.

He may have to when that neighbor reads what Micky said about how
her house looks in that newsletter. Sounds like a good way to start
a war to me.

I'm sure she doesn't read this group.

OTOH, the neigbhorhood list I mentioned (a subset of nextdoor.com) has
about 30 of the 100 of us subscribed. They had an online list of all of
those 30 subscribers and I should have checked it again before the
similar comments I made there, but I don't think she's a member yet --
I just checked and she's not -- and if she joins later, she won't see
earlier posts. I don't think there are archives even if she wanted to
look at old posts.

However not only did I say the installation was ugly, but the next day a
woman from outside the n'hood posted and said she was selling the
systems and her bill went from 290 to 48 dollars (and then when she
switched electric companies it went to 22 dollars).

I"ve never heard a claim of a 242 dollar / month savings, and I asked
how big her array was, how many watts it put out, and asked if I could
see her house. I don't trust her.

I'm sure I annoyed her, which is okay, but because I thought only my 100
neighbors would be reading all this, I used my real name. Now I see we
get posts from maybe a dozen nearby n'hoods, and I really don't want to
fight with someone who knows my name.

So I just signed up a second time, but I have to give my home address.
They would accept my cell phone number, but I'm not telling them that,
and they would accept a credit card number but I'm surely not telling
them that. So that only leaves a postcard. OTOH, my neighbors know
there's no one else living here, unless I keep him chained in the
basement. Maybe I can keep this new listing's address out of the
n'hood list.