diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 63c99928f7..26e62d879c 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -1,38 +1,75 @@
+# Based on
+# http://conda.pydata.org/docs/travis.html
+# https://github.com/xray/xray/blob/master/.travis.yml
+# https://github.com/scipy/scipy/blob/master/.travis.yml
+
 language: python
-python:
-    - 2.7
-    - 3.3
-    - 3.4
-env:
-    - PD_VERSION=0.13.1
-    - PD_VERSION="0.14.*"
-    - PD_VERSION="0.15.*"
-    - PD_VERSION="0.16.*"
+sudo: false # if false, use TravisCI's container based build
+
+matrix:
+    include:
+    - python: 2.7
+      env: CONDA_ENV=py27-min
+    - python: 2.7
+      env: CONDA_ENV=py27
+    - python: 3.4
+      env: CONDA_ENV=py34
+      addons:
+          apt:
+            packages:
+            - libatlas-dev
+            - libatlas-base-dev
+            - liblapack-dev
+            - gfortran
+            - libgmp-dev
+            - libmpfr-dev
+    - python: 3.5
+      env: CONDA_ENV=py35
+      addons:
+          apt:
+            packages:
+            - libatlas-dev
+            - libatlas-base-dev
+            - liblapack-dev
+            - gfortran
+            - libgmp-dev
+            - libmpfr-dev
+
+addons:
+    apt:
+        packages:
+            - ccache
+
+cache:
+    directories:
+        - $HOME/.ccache
 
 # setup miniconda for numpy, scipy, pandas
 before_install:
     - echo "before install"
-    - wget http://repo.continuum.io/miniconda/Miniconda-latest-Linux-x86_64.sh -O miniconda.sh
-    - chmod +x miniconda.sh
-    - ./miniconda.sh -b
-    - export PATH=/home/travis/miniconda/bin:$PATH
-    - conda update --yes conda
-    - sudo rm -rf /dev/shm
-    - sudo ln -s /run/shm /dev/shm
-    - date
-    - uname -a
-    - python -V
+    - export PATH=/usr/lib/ccache:$PATH
+    - if [[ "$TRAVIS_PYTHON_VERSION" == "2.7" ]]; then
+        wget http://repo.continuum.io/miniconda/Miniconda-3.16.0-Linux-x86_64.sh -O miniconda.sh;
+      else
+        wget http://repo.continuum.io/miniconda/Miniconda3-3.16.0-Linux-x86_64.sh -O miniconda.sh;
+      fi
+    - bash miniconda.sh -b -p $HOME/miniconda
+    - export PATH="$HOME/miniconda/bin:$PATH"
+    - hash -r
+    - conda config --set always_yes yes --set changeps1 no
+    - conda update -q conda
+    - conda info -a
     
 install:
     - echo "install"
-    - if [[ $TRAVIS_PYTHON_VERSION == '2.7' ]]; then conda install --yes python=$TRAVIS_PYTHON_VERSION numpy scipy pandas=$PD_VERSION nose pytz ephem; fi
-    - if [[ $TRAVIS_PYTHON_VERSION == '3.3' || $TRAVIS_PYTHON_VERSION == '3.4' ]]; then conda install --yes python=$TRAVIS_PYTHON_VERSION numpy=1.8 scipy=0.14 pandas nose pytz ephem; conda install --yes pandas=$PD_VERSION --no-deps; fi
-    - test $PD_VERSION != 0.13.1 && conda install --yes "numba>=0.17" || echo "Not installing numba"
-    - conda install --yes coverage
-    - pip install coveralls
+    - conda env create --file ci/requirements-$CONDA_ENV.yml
+    - source activate test_env # all envs are named test_env in the yml files
+    - conda list
+    - echo $PATH
+    - ls -l /home/travis/miniconda/envs/test_env/lib
+    #- pip install . # use pip to automatically install anything not in the yml files (i.e. numpy/scipy/pandas for py3*)
+    - pip install scipy # won't do anything if already installed
     - python setup.py install
-    # for nosetests to actually work since it alters the path
-    - python setup.py build_ext --inplace
 
 script:
     - nosetests -v --with-coverage --cover-package=pvlib pvlib
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 98064de804..a3b996507e 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -127,9 +127,9 @@ License
 Compatibility
 =============
 
-pvlib-python is compatible with Python versions 2.7, 3.3, and 3.4, and pandas versions 0.13.1 through 0.16.2.
+pvlib-python is compatible with Python versions 2.7, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5 and Pandas versions 0.13.1 through 0.17. Note that our Numba-accelerated solar position algorithms have more specific version requirements that will be resolved by the Numba installer.
 
-For Linux + Python 3 users: The combination of Linux, Python 3, NumPy 1.9, and SciPy 0.15 has some bugs. The most common place for these bugs to show up when using pvlib-python is in calculating IV curve parameters using the ``singlediode`` function. Downgrade your NumPy to 1.8 and SciPy to 0.14, then install whatever version of pandas you want but without dependencies. The conda commands for this are:
+For Linux + Python 3 users: Continuum's Python 3.x SciPy conda package is not compiled properly and has a few bugs related to complex arithmetic. The most common place for these bugs to show up when using pvlib-python is in calculating IV curve parameters using the ``singlediode`` function. We reported [the issue](https://github.com/ContinuumIO/anaconda-issues/issues/425) to Continuum and are waiting for it to be fixed. In the meantime, you can compile your own SciPy distribution, or you can use this trick on Python 3.3 and 3.4 (not 3.5): Downgrade your NumPy to 1.8 and SciPy to 0.14, then install whatever version of pandas you want but without dependencies. The conda commands for this are:
 
 ```
 conda install numpy=1.8 scipy=0.14
diff --git a/ci/requirements-py27-min.yml b/ci/requirements-py27-min.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..1cd6103267
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ci/requirements-py27-min.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+name: test_env
+dependencies:
+    - python=2.7 
+    - numpy==1.8.2
+    - scipy
+    - pandas==0.13.1
+    - nose
+    - pytz
+    - ephem
+    - pip:
+        - coveralls
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/ci/requirements-py27.yml b/ci/requirements-py27.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..52d8d575f2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ci/requirements-py27.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+name: test_env
+dependencies:
+    - python=2.7 
+    - numpy
+    - scipy
+    - pandas
+    - nose
+    - pytz
+    - ephem
+    - numba
+    - pip:
+        - coveralls
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/ci/requirements-py34.yml b/ci/requirements-py34.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..efcf7848a2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ci/requirements-py34.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+name: test_env
+dependencies:
+    - python=3.4
+    - nose
+    - pytz
+    - ephem
+    #- numba
+    - pip:
+        - numpy
+        - pandas
+        - coveralls
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/ci/requirements-py35.yml b/ci/requirements-py35.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..219a1025e8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ci/requirements-py35.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+name: test_env
+dependencies:
+    - python=3.5
+    - nose
+    - pytz
+    - ephem
+#    - numba
+    - pip:
+        - numpy
+        - pandas
+        - coveralls
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 912882a085..231dbd0e0c 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -26,12 +26,12 @@
     exec(f.read())
 
 # check python version.
-if not sys.version_info[:2] in ((2,7), (3,3), (3,4)):
+if not sys.version_info[:2] in ((2,7), (3,3), (3,4), (3,5)):
    sys.exit('%s requires Python 2.7, 3.3, or 3.4' % DISTNAME)
 
 setuptools_kwargs = {
     'zip_safe': False,
-    'install_requires': ['numpy >= 1.7.0',
+    'install_requires': ['numpy >= 1.8.2',
                          'pandas >= 0.13.1',
                          'pytz',
                          'six',