Residential Solar

Didn't the new federal rate go up to 30%?

 

Wow, you are right. Thank you for pointing that out.

 

Town inspector and solar company PM met here Thursday for inspection. First time I've met the town inspector - seems like a nice guy and easy going. I thought he would need to come in and look at the breaker box, but the PM handed him an 8x10 picture and he said that it looked good. Although he did inspect both the outside boxes and the cable pipes, I think he spent more time applying pressure to all the red stickers because, "you don't want those coming off"





Although there was 1 minor issue that needs to be corrected, the cable on one panel on the east side is drooping, he signed the paperwork so the solar company could get the process started with the utility company.

Solar company has put in a work order for the repair and will send the inspector pics when done. He may, or may not, show up and take a personal look-see but he won't need to disturb me for that.

The inspector said there are lots of solar projects going on in town. Although what "lots" means in a town of about 6,000 people, in a town that I would classify as lower to middle class, I don't know. I do know that I've seen a couple of projects go up on both residential and businesses along the two main streets and he said he just inspected an installation a couple of blocks away from me.

 

I just had my inspection last week and we got our Certificate of Approval. Now we wait until the utility company comes out to put the two way meter on....

 

The utility company came out yesterday afternoon and switched out the meter so I got to flip the switch after that was done. I guess the wait wasn't too bad - they have 20 business days to do so (which would have been 11/28) and it only took them 13 business days. Of course they picked a day that was full of snow/sleet/rain so probably not much production was actually made.

I still need the monitoring account set u so I understand what is actually happening. The solar company needs to monkey around to set it up as I got over-excited when I got the email from enphase (way back before the array was fully installed), and signed up immediately (which I guess I wasn't supposed to do until after the array was activated) so the process isn't straight forward.



I can't beleive the solar company said that most people can't tell when the meter is switched out, so they place a piece of tape on it as an indicator


I mean really? People can't tell there are all sorts of new doodads on the cover (not to mention the display rotates thru several screens)?

 

I'd think zero miles on the meter would be a dead giveaway too!

 

I know, right?

 

If our utility rates keep going the way they are...UP every month. I'm gonna have to do something. Was thinking about building a dam on the stream out back and installing a water driven turbine to spin a generator.

 

Finally got my Monitoring system set up and thought I would share. Keep in mind,

• This is not an optimal time of year to produce solar electricity with the sun staying so low in the sky and it sets to the SW.
• The first day it snowed/iced/sleeted/rained all day - and it still produced (installed about~10:30 am)
• The west facing roof is really WNW, so not optimal orientation

I am seriously happy about the results so far. I am also happy we came to agreement about installing on the west facing side. And super happy that I upped to 20 panels from the recommendation (different companies went from 15-18 panels).

Four pictures: first is the install day production, second is today's production as of 10:45 this morning. third pic is total production per panel as of 10:45 this morning, and fourth gives me a picture of "Energy independence".

 

My system is finally up and running! It came online sometime late in the day on Friday. I'm still playing around with what they offer online to monitor it but am excited to be making energy.

 

Wow very cool!! I didn't realize all meters weren't 2 way. I still have the same meter, it's a smart meter. but it works both ways. The old non smart meter did too.

Thanks for sharing.

 

So.....

You produced 43.7 KW but used 50.8 KW ??

Am I reading that wrong?

 

So her new system produced 78% of what she used on those days...that's how I read it...not bad considering the poor conditions for production.

 

Thats the way I read it too. I would have thought the production would be higher. Wait until summer time I guess.

 

Yeah and less snow and cloud cover..
Friends that have it in area; draw from grid Oct-March obtain credits remainder of year.
Also assuming bogieb house in a neighborhood not an ideal location or directional setup; she’s pretty frugal; we have met she is top shelf!

I see this as a perfect real world case and am following. Hoping this and mini splits work for shoulder season. So I can duplicate.

 

That is true - so I will pay for what I've pulled from the grid.

I never thought it would produce that well during the short days of winter - especially with the sun angle so low, being on the side of a hill (hill, so taller houses to my east) I figured if I would be lucky to get half of my use (and did not count on even that much). I have trees all along the back and a couple on the south side. Sure, there are no leaves, but the trunks and branches still throw shadows. I figure the production is pretty good since the real production this time of year is only 10 am-3 pm (sure, there is a little bouncing around starting about 8, but not much). The sun "sets" behind some tall houses.



I am downright shocked that the west side is producing so well - I truly thought that it would basically be zero but summer would be the huge production time to make up for it.

I never thought I would be grid independent - but would get at least a wash, plus a bit of extra, by the time I've gone thru a year's cycle. I think that is why some people are disappointed by their systems - they don't manage their expectations and don't realize that so many things affect production.

 

Lyle, be aware that I am not using my mini-split at this time. I am using the pellet stoves only since those use a lot less electricity and I have wicked cheap pellets to burn. That was my plan all along, knowing that I would have no "overage" going into this winter. Next winter, I will be able to use the mini splits.

 

Right. Total it all up when a year has passed.

 

I haven’t spent much of any time yet playing around on the monitoring site. From what I can tell so far though is there a 1-2 day lag for the energy produced to show up.

 

Here is a lesson on shade effects. I thought I had an under-performing panel on the east side. Then I realized that this time of year, with the sun angle so low, the chimney is shading the one panel. The first pic is of a cloudy day - in which production of all panels on the east side are close to the same production. Second pic is a sunny day, where it looks as if the one panel has an issue. Come late spring, when the sun angle is higher, I don't believe there will be such a difference, but that remains to be proved out.




This is my total production since the install. Here is another lesson - most people believe the east side will produce more than the west during winter (I certainly did). But that is not the case in my situation. The west side (Array 1) is producing more than the east (Array 2) even though it gets basically no direct sun. The lowest producing panel on the west (4.70) is on par with the highest producing panel on the east (4.76). That is all an effect of the minimal shade I receive from tree trunks on the east side. Also note the panel that is shaded by the chimney, at 3.08, is really lagging. Of course the south side, even with some light shading, is outperforming all


At this point, I have produced 84% of what I have used. That will go down as I wasn't home for almost 5 days, so I actually exported energy on those days.