Striving to be good stewards of the earth
All Saints Wolfeboro is passionate about caring for the earth and to honor God in the face of all creation. We do that in a variety of ways from sustainably caring for the small part of creation God has blessed us with at the corner of South Main Street and Christian Ridge Road, to advocating and our Solar Saints ministry to help individuals, other faith communities and non-profits reduce their carbon footprint by swapping out any energy inefficient incandescent and CFL light bulbs with LED’s. Our Lord & Tailor Thrift Shop and Summer Fair ministries are ways of promoting reuse and recycling, keeping tons of items out of landfills.
A leader in solar for faith communities
The All Saints Solar Electric System was the first solar photo-voltaic installation owned by a house of worship within the entire state of New Hampshire. When the solar array first came online on September 9. 2016 they contained the state of the art components. The array contains 88 solar panels with 48 panels located on the front roof (southwest) array and 40 panels on the side roof (southeast) array. Having a combination of panels both oriented in a south easterly and southwesterly orientation means that the array generates electricity from very early in the morning to late in the afternoon. Having the solar arrays generating throughout the day means that a large amount of the electricity produced is used directly by the church.
There are actually two different types of solar panels. The southwest array is made up of LG 300 W panels with a combined maximum output of 14.4 kW. The southeast array is made up of LG 270 W panels with a combined maximum output of 10.8 kW. The larger southwest array was designed to accommodate the higher electricity usage that typically occurs in the late afternoon. This solar array was also shifted to the east to minimize shading from the steeple as the sun sets. Each of the 88 solar panels is equipped with individual “optimizers”. Optimizers allows each individual panel to produce electricity even if nearby panels are shaded or snow covered. Optimizes also allow us to assess the performance of every individual panel both in real time and historically.
The dc electricity produced by the solar panels are fed into two “inverters” located in the church’s utility room which convert the dc current to an ac current compatible with the local electric company feed from the town. When the panels are producing electricity, they supply our needs and send the excess to the town. When the panels are not producing electricity, we continue to receive power from the town source. This back-and-forth exchange is transparent but kept track of with a special net-metering system located outside the church.
Our system was designed and installed by Frase Electric of Tamworth, NH. Doug Smithwood and Don Holm and others provided coordination on the church’s side. Click through the pics below for a closer look at some of the components of the system.
