[RE-wrenches] Successor to SunEye 210?

Mon Mar 7 15:39:04 PST 2016

Pathfinder now makes and app. for microsoft tablets that works great!  Give them a call and they will be happy to tell you all about it.
  Andrew KoyaanisqatsiPresidentSolar Energy Solutions, Inc.Since 1987,Moving Portland and Beyond to an Environmentally Sustainable Future.503-238-4502
www.SolarEnergyOregon.com "Better one's House too little one daythan too big all the Year after." 

    On Monday, March 7, 2016 2:58 PM, William Miller <william at millersolar.com> wrote:

 #yiv4449929903 #yiv4449929903 -- _filtered #yiv4449929903 {font-family:Calibri;panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;} _filtered #yiv4449929903 {font-family:Tahoma;panose-1:2 11 6 4 3 5 4 4 2 4;}#yiv4449929903 #yiv4449929903 p.yiv4449929903MsoNormal, #yiv4449929903 li.yiv4449929903MsoNormal, #yiv4449929903 div.yiv4449929903MsoNormal {margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;font-size:12.0pt;}#yiv4449929903 a:link, #yiv4449929903 span.yiv4449929903MsoHyperlink {color:blue;text-decoration:underline;}#yiv4449929903 a:visited, #yiv4449929903 span.yiv4449929903MsoHyperlinkFollowed {color:purple;text-decoration:underline;}#yiv4449929903 p {margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;font-size:12.0pt;}#yiv4449929903 p.yiv4449929903MsoAcetate, #yiv4449929903 li.yiv4449929903MsoAcetate, #yiv4449929903 div.yiv4449929903MsoAcetate {margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;font-size:8.0pt;}#yiv4449929903 span.yiv4449929903EmailStyle18 {color:black;}#yiv4449929903 span.yiv4449929903BalloonTextChar {}#yiv4449929903 .yiv4449929903MsoChpDefault {} _filtered #yiv4449929903 {margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;}#yiv4449929903 div.yiv4449929903WordSection1 {}#yiv4449929903 Wrenches: This approach is emblematic of the cheapening of the solar industry.  If a contractor cannot be bothered to get on a roof to provide an accurate assessment of the site, I wonder if they will be honest if it turns out there are shading or other issues not anticipated?  The entry level installer will never notice shading problems.  If there are undocumented shading issues, the consumer may never know they are being cheated out of some of the return on their investment. This is true also about the condition of the roof and electrical infrastructure.  We have seen the contracts offered by some of our competition.  They get the job by low-balling estimates and then make up the difference by contract “adders.” I believe that at some point a competent professional needs to get out of the office and in the field to evaluate each and every job before the contract is offered or the customer suffers.  I caution consumers:  if no one looked carefully at your roof and your electrical then you are not dealing with a reputable contractor. William Miller PS:  The Pathfinder is still a reliable, accurate alternative.  If you apply the values on the chart to a model adjusted for pitch, azimuth and local insolation you can get very accurate values for shading.  Those who can create a spreadsheet tool will find the results can be tabulated in short order. Wm 
Lic 773985
millersolar.com
805-438-5600 From: RE-wrenches [mailto:re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org] On Behalf Of Andrew Truitt
Sent: Monday, March 07, 2016 12:30 PM
To: RE-wrenches
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Successor to SunEye 210?  I think the fact that no manufacturer has jumped in to fill the void left by the SunEye is an indicator that remote shade analysis tools like Aurora (my favorite) are the likely path forward for the industry.  These tools can typically make it possible to generate a full rendering and shade analysis in less than 15 minutes for the experienced user, without ever having to get on a roof.  NREL did some validation studies (here's Aurora's) and found a few tools to produce results as good or better than the SunEye, which makes sense to me since the analysis is based on an integral over the whole roof surface as opposed to a few point measurements.  Of course the "garbage in, garbage out" principle is very applicable.    For a brighter energy future,

Andrew Truitt Principal
Truitt Renewable Energy Consulting, LLC(202) 486-7507LinkedIn ProfileCompany WebsiteNABCEP Certified PV Installation Professional ID: 032407-66Colorado Journeyman Electrician License No.: 600132

"Don't get me wrong: I love nuclear energy! It's just that I prefer fusion to fission. And it just so happens that there's an enormous fusion reactor safely banked a few million miles from us. It delivers more than we could ever use in just about 8 minutes. And it's wireless!"

~William McDonough       On Mon, Mar 7, 2016 at 12:56 PM, Dan Fink <danbob88 at gmail.com> wrote:Hi Peter;My understanding is that the only thing left of Solmetric at Vivint is the PV Analyzer, and though they stated a year ago that they were going to "streamline" the PV sales process so that the site survey could be accomplished on the same day as the sale, I've seen nothing else from them.Very happy that I've kept the heavily-modded Solar Pathfinder that I bought in 1994, with a real tripod adaptor. For quicky site surveys and semi-interested customers, I use an Android smartphone app, which is pretty accurate IF you build a tripod adaptor for the phone.I'm surprised someone hasn't leapt in to claim this market share. Not all of us are big-city no-battery PV installers who can use the new Google tool that  estimates tree heights. My class experiments with this were a bust....it only sorta kinda works. Ground truth is the only thing I trust. Maybe I should just start building and marketing my Pathfinder and smartphone tripod adaptors. 
Dan FinkAdjunct Professor, Ecotech InstituteIREC Certified Instructor™ for: ~ PV Installation Professional~ Small Wind InstallerExecutive Director, Buckville EnergyNABCEP Accredited Continuing Education Providers™
970.672.4342
  On Mon, Mar 7, 2016 at 10:27 AM, Peter Parrish <peter.parrish at calsolareng.com> wrote:
Can’t seem to find a SunEye product on the Solmetric website. Is it tucked away on the Vivent site or somewhere else hard-to-find? Peter T. Parrish, Ph.D.President, SolarGnosis1107 Fair Oaks Ave.Suite 351South Pasadena, CA 91030(323) 839-6108petertor at pobox.com _______________________________________________
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