I would need to run the wiring for the panel along the side of the building to my window. My window is the second one.

Delays

I woke up Friday morning with no e-mail regarding the shipment of my order. I knew this probably meant it hadn't shipped, and I fearfully called Sundance. The clerk confirmed that the order had not shipped, but it would go out today. The problem was that the order was coming via UPS Ground, and UPS, unlike FedEx, did not leave their facilities open on Saturday for package pickups. I asked Sundance if they could mail the shipment FedEx, and I was transferred to Ed, who told me they gladly would I would just need to schedule a pickup. I called FedEx, then UPS. The problem was, while FedEx Home Delivery (the residential arm of FedEx Ground) delivered on Saturdays, they needed at least one business day notice for a pickup request. FedEx Express, however, did offer same day pickups. However to have Express deliver on a Saturday (with either FedEx or UPS) one needed to use their most expensive service, Priority Overnight. Solar panels and batteries are heavy, and to have everything shipped Priority Overnight would cost me upwards of $60 with the Saturday delivery fee (as opposed to the very reasonable $14 Sundance charged me for Ground). I called Sundance back and asked them to ship the order via UPS, but also confirmed the dimensions of the solar panel, so I could at least build the platform for the panel over the weekend; wiring the system which would have to be done on Monday wouldn't take more than an hour by my estimates

The Supply Trip

With the system not coming till Monday, I had nothing on my schedule Friday afternoon, so I called a friend and we set off on a trip to Home Depot. While our trip was delayed by a series of off-schedule buses (we ultimately had to take a cab down to the store), we arrived at a reasonable hour and set to work. We concluded that I had included more than enough structural support and in the interest of money and the quantity of wood we could carry back on the bus, we would eliminate the horizontal supports I had planned for in the original specifications for the platform to hold the panel up. We purchased 30' of 14 gauge wire (which was the size Sundance recommended I buy) in red and black, electrical tape to seal the ends, screws to fasten everything together, and all lumber I would need for the platform. In the interest of stability, we purchased concrete screws to anchor the platform into the concrete of the balcony. As my friend was having the wire cut for us, I went over to the tool rental center. At home, I would have had easy access to a power drill, but at college, I had nothing of the sort, so I would need to rent one. Unfortunately, the tool center could not locate its power drill when I was there, they knew another department in the store had borrowed it but couldn't track it down for me. Instead, I took the number of the store and promised I would call them in the morning, hopefully by then they had located it. While it meant an extra trip to the store, at least access to the CCTA buses was free thanks to UVM. After waiting another twenty five minutes for a bus, we loaded our purchases on the bus and rode back to UVM. Later in the night, I received a notification of shipment e-mail from UPS - at last the equipment was on its way.

The wood, wiring, and parts for the platform awaiting construction once I secured the drill.

Finally, I have the drill!

The Platform

Upon returning, I immediately set to work building the platform. The night before, I had marked all the screw locations for the wood. Now I just needed to align the support pieces and screw them down to the platform. This wasn't too hard a task, all it took was some precision and careful measuring.

Positioning the support planks exactly where I wanted them.

Attaching the support planks to the platform.

Monday

I awoke Monday morning to the perfect weather for installing a solar panel. It was sunny, with no clouds in the sky, 79 degrees, warm, but not too hot. I checked UPS tracking - the packages were on the truck and scheduled to be delivered.

I spotted the UPS truck on the way out to class. Sure enough, when I checked the tracking entry before class began, the package had been delivered. But wait - there were two packages. The battery in one and everything else in the other. The other one still showed "out for delivery." After class, I went down to the mail room in our building, and looked in my box - there was no package slip. I explained that I had a package waiting for me at the desk, and the clerk suggested that since I didn't have a package slip it was probably still at the UPS facility. It was not, I insisted, it was scanned as having arrived. The clerk went back to look, and, sure enough it was there.

I carried the package to my room but wondered - what about the other box? I was holding the battery (I could tell by the size and the weight). When I arrived at my room, I called UPS. After waiting on hold for 12 minutes, UPS informed me that the package was scheduled to be delivered today, and it most definitely would. The UPS representative suggested that there might have been a large load today, and it might be coming on a second truck. A reasonable enough explanation, but I was still worried.

Since the solar panel wasn't in yet, I decided that I'd at least get the wiring done. I needed to run the wires I had bought from the balcony to my window. There was a small opening in the bottom of the window which the wires fit through, fortunately. How would I get them in my window? The answer came in the form of a wooden pole that I found in the closet of the suite. I jammed it in the window, so it stuck out like a flagpole, and then tossed the bundles of wires over it. Then, I went into my room and pulled the wiring through.

The windows in my room just happened to have a convenient space for threading wires. Had I not had this gap, I likely would have had a much more difficult job. The window closes nicely around the wires, also.

With the wiring in place, I grabbed a bus back to Home Depot to return the rented power drill. I was hoping by the time I returned UPS had arrived. They hadn't. There was no package slip in my mailbox, but I stopped at the desk anyway. I explained my situation to the clerk and asked if UPS ever made more than one delivery per day. In her memory, they never had, which was what I thought. Since I still couldn't rule out mail clerk error (assuming UPS just forgot to scan the box as delivered) so as she was talking my eyes were glancing behind her, scanning the mail room for any hint of the box. I couldn't find anything obvious.

I decided to head over to the library to write an essay I had due the next day, so that when the solar panel arrived later, I would have time to set it up. Given my schedule for the rest of the week, I really wouldn't have time to set the panel up - I wanted to get it done today.

At 4:30, there was still no sign of UPS. I called them again, and explain that I needed to have the package today. I would even be willing to go to their facility (just beyond the Home Depot I had purchased all my equipment at) and pick up the panel if necessary. They took my name and number and told me someone at the Burlington UPS depot would give me a call within the hour.

Sure enough, forty five minutes later, my phone rang. The UPS representative I spoke to said he had e-mailed the driver and that he had the package. He wanted to know if I could meet him at the UPS Drop Box outside my building at 6:35, which was the time he usually came by to empty it. I told UPS I'd be glad to, thanked them for the time they spent locating the package, and checked the time. It was 5:35. I passed the time working on this site and at 6:25 went out to stand guard at the UPS Drop Box.

So much for the perfect solar day: the sun was setting as I left my building, but I was glad that I would at least be getting my equipment. The UPS truck showed up at exactly 6:35, the driver gave me the package and appologized, saying it slid to the back of the truck in the morning and he had not seen it. I told it was no big deal, as long as I had it now, thanked him for bringing it by and headed back towards my building.

Wiring the Panel, Outside

I unpacked everything from the box, which included the solar panel, the charge controller, the voltmeter and the inverter. Since the wiring to my room was already done, all I needed to do was place the solar panel on its mount and connect it's wiring to the wiring running to my room. This was a fairly simply procedure that simply involved twisting the wires together then wrapping them with enough electrical tape to insulate them from each other and the elements. Ultimately, I would secure them to the mount underneath the solar panel, to provide the connections with the most amount of protection possible. Ultimately, I may use some type of sealer to seal the connection, but for now I'll see how it holds up.

The Wrench

Sundance had provided a very nice, easy to use instruction sheet with the panel and as I hauled the contents of the package to my room, I pulled out th sheet. The second instruction was "Locate the charge controller. Using o-ring connectors, connect the -negative wire (black) to the -negative side of the battery (black). Do not fully tighten yet." I suddenly realized I had nothing to tighten/loosen the battery terminals with. At home, setting up the same system would have taken a fraction of the time, having access to the power and hand tools I needed. The challenge was not necessarily constructing the system itself, but rather, the environment I was constructing it in. It now being 7:00 PM, my calls to local hardware stores all went unanswered. Home Depot was open till 10, but the buses to the store had already stopped running. I suddenly had an idea. Radio Shack was open till 9:30 and their web site indicated they had just the wrench I needed for $3. I checked the bus schedules and decided to take the 8:20 bus after dinner.

I finished dinner at 7:40 and decided to walk to the Mall instead. As soon as I began, I noticed a side street that seemed like an excellent shortcut to the mall. After 15 minutes of walking, however, I realized my error, there was a four lane highway between the mall and I. I briefly considered trying to run across it, but there was a tremendous amount of foliage between the highway and I, in addition to the fact that running across an interstate highway is not exactly a bright idea. I found myself in the pitch black standing in the middle of a farm field. I was somehow able to navigate my way back to UVM, and as soon as I approached the main road to the mall, I watched as the 8:20 bus wailed past. It would have been shorter to just have waited for the bus. To make a long story short, I walked to Radio Shack, then grabbed the bus back to my room.

Wiring the rest of the system

Back in my room, I unpacked the wrench and went to work. I removed the lugs on the battery, then connected the charge controller as instructed. The controller was then connected to the solar panel wiring I had snaked in my room earlier in the afternoon. From there, I connected wiring from the battery to the voltmeter, and also to a fuse and the DC adaptor that would allow me to connect my devices to be powered by the battery. After a little over an hours work, the entire system was wired and online, and I anxiously checked the weather report for the following day.