I need to add some explanations why we built it the way we did. In most cases, this heavy structure isn't really needed. Matter of fact, one of the solar arrays in my area that was installed after mine uses far lighter materials making a fixed, non-tilting, non-tracking array. I wanted to be able to tilt the array to try to squeeze out some extra kWh's compared to a fixed mount system. Since I made that choice, I had to put in a much heavier structure to resist the wind loading at every possible tilt angle. I did not want a tracking array, because trackers can malfunction and I don't know how to fix them.
The system was not mounted on the roof of our home for two reasons. The most important reason is, my wife said no. She didn't want me climbing on the roof to clean them periodically {and possibly falling off}, and didn't want the potential leaks in the roof.
The other reason was that our roof is not facing close enough to true South to get the best results.
Performance has been what I hoped it to be. In the first year, we made a bit over 9,900 kWh's, year two we made a bit more than 10,200 kWh's. Dividing the total to date by the 882 days since it went live, it's averaged just slightly under 27 kWh's per day. I have been truly blessed to be able to afford to build this and I smile every time I look out back and think about generating our own electricity. To date, we are just over 46% paid back in tax credit {30%} and power generated {> 16%}. Thanks for letting me share.
