Why do I care about roof rafters? How do I bend conduit? Why am I lying in an attic pulling cables down from the roof? And what the heck is a weeb?
All these questions were answered two weeks ago on Sept. 12, when I participated in Grid Alternative’s Annual Solarthon in Oakland. In this massive undertaking, 300 people gathered on a drizzling, overcast Saturday to install solar panels on 16 houses in one low-income community, in one day. GRID Alternatives is a non-profit organization making solar electric systems a reality for low-income homeowners who otherwise could not afford the systems. GRID does this through an innovative business model where they train volunteers to do everything from designing a system on a sheet of paper to mounting the final panel on a roof. With drastically reduced labor costs, a team of 10-15 volunteers can work slowly and steadily under the guidance of a GRID employee to deliver a complete system at almost half the cost of a typical solar system.
Volunteers
At this event, besides corporate sponsors like Google, there were cleantech advocate teams like the one I had joined, Cleantechies. As part of the Cleantechies team, we had undergone our “installer” training a few weeks prior. We also all had to pledge to raise at least $250 before we got up on the roof. The houses had all been built by Habitat for Humanity, and some of the proud owners were working side by side with us.
When I got to Oakland, I was cranky, tired, and uninspired by the weather. But it was hard to keep that way as a buzz of adrenaline ran through the crowd. The coffee and breakfast provided helped to cheer me up, and I was feeling excited before you could say: “Put on your hardhat!”
Now, I’m no stranger to rooftops and solar installations. Through my work at Antenna, I’ve found myself on rooftops in San Jose to military solar installations in Nellis Air Force base. Some rooftops have been precarious–”just try to hang on” and others have been relatively welcoming and flat. And I’ve also seen tons of different panels. But did I ever know how much a panel weighs, or how to carry one? (37 pounds and facing inwards, FYI). And had I ever installed one before? No. This was going to be a first for me, and I couldn’t wait to get started.
Taking instructions
I was told we would have the opportunity to use power tools. Being non-mechanical in nature, I was excited that someone was trusting enough to empower me with a drill. I was also relishing the thought of mounting the inverter and doing all sorts of construction-y things.
(Un)fortunately, most of the power drilling in the afternoon ended up being done by someone else on the ground team, mainly because mid-day when they asked for roof volunteers, I had already knocked old ladies to the ground in my eagerness to get to the front of the line. I left the others to mount inverter boxes and wire circuitry behind me without a second thought.
Before I clambered onto the roof though, we had to raise the panels up onto the roof, which involved a human chain system of people on different levels of scaffolding passing the panels from the ground-up.
The human supply chain
Check back next week for Part 2 where the real fun begins with the installation: wiring, ratcheting and the admiration of a job well done.
