MBK Solar installs the latest in energy management systems

FALLBROOK – Mark Kirk invited a small group of people to join him for a little celebration they were having at the Richard and Sarah Bruck Estate in Bonsall at the end of August. Enphase, one of the more prominent players in the solar energy management field, was having a commissioning celebration for Kirk and his company MBK Solar.

The reason this event was special for MBK Solar and for Enphase, account manager Jeffrey Gill explained, is that Kirk had sold one of the most advanced energy management systems available right there in Bonsall.

Kirk began putting this project together in the early part of January and contacted Gill for help. He wanted to backup up as much of the over 5000 square foot estate as possible so that the Bruck’s could continue to function in their own home comfortably during the outages that were being imposed upon them by their utility company.

After doing a lot of research, Kirk, with Gill’s help, agreed that the new Encharge System about to be released by Enphase would most likely fit the bill. Gill explained that Enphase works very closely with its contractors and in doing so with Kirk had discovered that a different type of reading mechanism was needed to effectively be able to read the system with the conditions imposed on this property rather than the one that was built into the system.

Kirk interjected that many of the properties he installs systems in do not have a direct line of sight to the equipment from the array because of groves and accessory buildings and other objects that interfere with direct line of sight communications and that a wired communication was necessary.

Enphase immediately looked into Kirk’s observation and discovered that other contractors also needed the benefits provided by the hard wire connection.

Kirk asked for a cat 6 type wired connection that would allow a low voltage run up to about 300 feet, but Enphase took the issue even further and developed a fiber optic wired connection that would allow better clarity in the signal as well as further distance between the array and the Encharge equipment.

As with most Enphase products developed, this reading system is a step above any other reader on the market. Kirk also sold the first and only system to date, with the 40 KW storage ability, in all of Southern California.

The system can handle an 80-amp subpanel loaded with refrigerators, a couple of air conditioners and all but the real heavy loads that are not considered necessary in a shutdown. This system outperforms any other system he investigated by almost double, explained Kirk.

Gill proceeded to describe how Kirk’s company had gotten notice from the powers that be in the main office for his continued and steady performance in handling their product.

“Enphase is very proud to have Mark as one of its representatives,” said Gill.

At the Bruck estate, Laura Galavis, Enphase’s chief field engineer for Southern California, and Rafael Urbina, lead electrician and installer with MBK Solar, worked to download the operating system for the solar array on to Urbina’s phone so that he could do the programming from it.

Galavis explained some of the settings achievable with this system. One setting tells the system to use as much power generated on the site as possible without feeding the solar back into the grid.

The system does this by grabbing the excess generation from the solar panels, sending it to the batteries during the daytime, instead of to the utility company, then using the batteries for over usage instead of the grid down to a preset level once production has stopped on the panels.

With this system and proper energy management by the household, a climate conscious person could effectively generate and use all their own generated power on site and virtually none from the grid.

Another setting, which the Bruck’s are staying on during fire season, allows them to maintain full charge on all of the batteries. This way the batteries stay fully charged in case of a fire event.

In that situation, the house reverts to what is identified as a mini-grid which takes control of the power to the estate. During production hours, the panels restore the batteries to full charge while also keeping the mini-grid fully activated, so that by the end of the day, the batteries are fully charged and ready for the evening.

In the event the Bruck’s run a lot of air conditioning and the batteries run down before the morning, then the connected Kohler generator will automatically start and keep the mini-grid operating while also re-charging the batteries until such time that the panels take over production from the sun.

Robert Nagle, head of the County Building Inspectors Division, came to perform the final inspection on the new solar system and have his first look at this new system.

Knowing Kirk for more than 30 years, Nagle knows his work quite well but cut him no slack and wrote up two apparently minor corrections needed to pass the final.

Kirk explained that he appreciates inspectors checking his work closely as he wants to make sure every little detail is done correctly. Nagle complimented the clean and organized work performed by Urbina and the nice filter cloth installed to prevent erosion and weeds under the solar panels.

For the celebration, Richard Bruck passed out food and conversed with the workmen. Bruck said that he had called Kirk from a referral and at the first meeting he decided that Kirk was the contractor he wanted to work with. He has been very happy with that decision throughout the process.

It was a tough job, Bruck said, but “Mark did a beautiful job of tackling the obstacles. He built this beautiful little building for the equipment to go into and it looks like it was built the same time the house was built. My wife, Sally, wanted to keep the little window in the bathroom, so Mark dropped that section of the little room down two feet into the ground to get the head clearance.”

Bruck added that Kirk “did all of this very time-consuming work of digging over 700 feet of trenches through the grove using hand labor, crossed my brick driveway in two places and none of it looks like it was ever disturbed. “

Kirk’s company also installed a new automated pool cover and overhauled the pool heating system. “It all turned out beautiful. I also had Mark install one of the current 80-gallon hybrid water heater systems in the main house and it seems to be a very good piece of equipment, said Bruck.

For more information on MBK Solar, visit https://mbksolar.com/ or call Mark Kirk at 760-728-4619.

Submitted by MBK Solar.