Hello all,

Thought I'd share my experience planning and installing a 9.1kw DC system this spring.

After finding solar circle and discussing install costs with a neighbour and a solar broker, I realized DIY would cost my about a third of what having it installed would. I started planning in December, using a drone shot of my roof to plan the layout around the many vents on our second-story south-southwest roof.

Applied for a permits in mid-January, which ended up taking until mid-February for approval as my application email had gotten blocked, unbeknownst to me.
Getting the building permit required engineer review of the roof structure, conveniently the original owner left the construction drawings with the house, and I am an engineer so I didn't have to hire that out.
Once I had the electrical permit, I applied to ATCO for microgen approval, which ended up taking 7 weeks, perhaps because I was sizing my system partially for the smaller heat pump I'd installed the previous winter, and partially for the larger heat pump I had just bought to allow me to disconnect gas service (had installed a heat pump water heater prior).
By that time, the DS3-S I'd based my design on was not stocked, so went to the larger DS3-L, and am adding a CHINT meter to bring the peak output down a bit, as on a cool, sunny day, the extra output once popped the fuse in the disconnect. Still not sure I needed that disconnect versus just using the breaker, but it was pretty cheap and I figured easier than failing an inspection.

Once I had all that, I picked up the panels, inverters and racking, and once weather permitted, began installing. It took me about 5 days to do the main install by myself, used a bike hoist from a ladder to get the panels first onto our first-story garage roof, then from there another ladder and hoist up onto the second story. Also needed two ladders at each level so I could climb up to grab the panel once I'd hoisted it.

Permit inspection was pretty straightforward, mostly they just checked I had the racking bonded (which he looked at from the ground), and that there was overcurrent protection at the panel.
Then ATCO was fairly quick at doing their commissioning, which they wouldn't schedule until I had a completed permit inspection report, but they came out, checked that the panels weren't outputting anything with the meter removed, and swapped the meter, humourously to an older one due to some quirk in their billing system at the moment.

Lessons learned:
-The JA Solar datasheet on wire length is kinda confusing, but just know that the wires come just past the long edge of the panel, so the furthest you can have two panels apart in landscape is about 8", but then the microinverter is in the middle, and APsystems recommends the inverters not be exposed to direct sun and rain, so I needed to get a few DC extension cables the bring those panels further apart to avoid my roof vents (picture below is from before I had the extension cables)
-I didn't realize how JA Solar specifies landscape panels to be clamped (along the long edge, meaning the rails must run along the long edge), so I couldn't use mid clamps as planned, had to buy more end clamps
-Top microinverter mounts get in the way of landscape panels sitting flush on the rail, so I had to buy some side microinverter mounts
-I didn't fully compare my truss layout (which varies a bit at the ends and in the middle for the attic access) meaning I needed extra L-brackets and roof mounts to not exceed the max spacing (I also reduced the spacing near the roof edge per Roof-Techs design data as my panels are only ₁.5' from the roof edge
-I have architectural shingles, their uneven surface means I ended up needing all the supplied extra butyl pads (5 pads per box of 20 mounts) for levelling, I ended up buying 5 more pads for the 68 mounts I had
-Minor, but the EZSolar JB 1.2 box doesn't come with cable glands, you supply your own to fit the cable you're using, I bought 3/4" glands from the hardware store

Altogether it went pretty smooth, I still need to:
-install the rodent mesh (bought 8" mesh online as it was a bit cheaper and I thought 6" would be kinda small, 8" is tall but I flexed the lower edge and it sits nicely)
-move my main stack slightly as I forgot to measure to it before placing the lower rail, and I didn't want to relocate the rail having just put all those screwholes in the roof. Whoops. Oh well.

System has been on for a week now, yesterday was a near-perfect day for lack of clouds, generated 61kWh, the heat didn't seem to affect output much. Signed up for solar club rates starting Monday. It's pretty wild to see how much power only ₁/4 of our roof can generate (panels are only on the upper level, one side, nothing on the lower house or garage). Mowing the lawn (corded mower) for the first time this year using the power of the sun was a pretty cool feeling. That and using the oven during the day, and knowing even when that big element kicked on, the sun is powering it, pretty satisfying.

Thanks to Travis for putting up with my multiple whoops-I-need-more-parts orders, and for the solarcircle team for creating this awesome resource, it's allowed me to save just a crazy amount of money versus hiring an installer.

Hopefully the above is of help and feel free to ask questions below.

Dave