Our solar production

[TonyWilliams]

Date......Monthly....Year to Date..Daily Peak

Jan 2012: 937 kWh, 937 kWh, 39.79 kWh
Feb 2012: 970 kWh, 1910 kWh, 43.57 kWh
Mar 2012: 1210 kWh, 3120 kWh, 50.72 kWh
Apr 2012: 1267 kWh, 4380 kWh, 54.18 kWh

 

[dgpcolorado]

You guys have gigantic systems! But my little 700 Watt array produced:
Jan 2012 93 kWh
Feb 2012 89 kWh
Mar 2012 115 kWh
Apr 2012 107 kWh

I'm hoping to add another 1300 Watts later this summer, which should cover all LEAF driving and 100% of household use (~4.8 kWh/day). My local power co-op doesn't like us having excess solar because daytime power is off peak in this climate zone, since there is no AC used here in the mountains, for obvious reasons.

 

[RegGuheert]

...and 100% of household use (~4.8 kWh/day).

Impressive! I'm going to go out on a limb and guess you don't heat with electricity. Not even water?

My local power co-op doesn't like us having excess solar because daytime power is off peak in this climate zone, since there is no AC used here in the mountains, for obvious reasons.

That's interesting. But since your personal loads almost certainly don't all happen during sunlight times, then you will be cutting into base even if you just balance your overall usage. What do you think they would do if you were a net producer for the year? Are there any penalties?

 

[dgpcolorado]

...and 100% of household use (~4.8 kWh/day).

Impressive! I'm going to go out on a limb and guess you don't heat with electricity. Not even water?

That is correct. Furnace blower and ceiling fan are it for electrical loads when heating. I also have a gas stove for cooking.

My local power co-op doesn't like us having excess solar because daytime power is off peak in this climate zone, since there is no AC used here in the mountains, for obvious reasons.

That's interesting. But since your personal loads almost certainly don't all happen during sunlight times, then you will be cutting into base even if you just balance your overall usage. What do you think they would do if you were a net producer for the year? Are there any penalties?

There aren't any penalties but the power co-op limits solar arrays to 120% of total usage*. The reason is that the cost of net metering is spread over all customers. Large solar generators would need some sort of wholesale contract to be fair to the co-op.

Although I am not on TOU billing I found out what the peak and off-peak times would be to see if it would be better to charge my car during the day. So now I charge it during the day when the sun is out, which is most days here. That way I can use my solar, and that of my neighbors, directly most of the time. And it helps the power co-op because my charging is mostly off-peak. Peak times here are mornings and evenings.

Not that one LEAF makes any difference. But it helps deal with troglodytes who complain about EVs being "coal-powered". Not mine, most of the time. My LEAF is Sun-powered.


*The co-op used to reconcile excess usage in mid-June (of all months!) and pay wholesale for any excess power generated over the previous year. Last year we net metering customers got them to change that and to allow us to carry over excess credit for as long as we want. Saves them the trouble of doing the calculations and mailing checks. So, spring/summer credit can be used in winter now. Late spring is the highest solar production here; summer days tend to have afternoon thunderstorms.

 

[DaveEV]

You guys have gigantic systems!

Yeah - makes me wish I had another kW or 2 of PV on my roof. My numbers for 2012:

Month, Month total, Daily peak:
Jan, 274 kWh, 11.6 kWh
Feb, 326 kWh, 14.9 kWh
Mar, 439 kWh, 18.3 kWh
Apr, 479 kWh, 20.7 kWh

 

[RegGuheert]

Yeah - makes me wish I had another kW or 2 of PV on my roof.

That's the good thing about the Enphase systems: it's straightforward to add more. My original plan was for a system 2/3 the size of what we have, but my wife pushed me to max it out. "You know you'll always be thinking that you want to add more if you don't get the full 10 kW now," and "You might not be able to match the panels if you try to buy more later." As always, she was right!

The good news is that the new Enphase inverters have higher output power, so they won't limit in cold weather, slightly higher efficiency, and a 25-year warrantee to match the panels. So you will have a better system because you waited on part of it!

 

[hill]

You guys have gigantic systems! But my little 700 Watt array produced:
Jan 2012 93 kWh
Feb 2012 89 kWh
Mar 2012 115 kWh
Apr 2012 107 kWh

I'm hoping to add another 1300 Watts later this summer, which should cover all LEAF driving and 100% of household use (~4.8 kWh/day). My local power co-op doesn't like us having excess solar because daytime power is off peak in this climate zone, since there is no AC used here in the mountains, for obvious reasons.

Typically, daytime IS on peak because that's when business runs ... so how is it your daytime is off peak?

 

[dgpcolorado]

Typically, daytime IS on peak because that's when business runs ... so how is it your daytime is off peak?

Peak here is mornings and evenings. The power co-op territory is mostly residential so the few businesses don't have much impact I would guess (large power users are on demand billing, which is completely different). The morning peak is extended to noon, but I believe that is just to have enough hours to make the peak demand charge work. Noon to 5 PM is off-peak.

 

[jspearman]

Our system is finally commissioned and operational after 9 months of wrangling, new roof, new 200-amp service, redesign, etc. The system is 15.3kW, with 66 Sunpower E18 230 panels, and Sunpower SPR-1001f and Sunpower SPR-6501f inverters. 36 face south, and 30 face west. The system is a lease, but we bought out the lease up-front. Perfect Power Solar, here in Phoenix, did the install.

The first full day of production has churned out 89.53 kWh of power, and I saw them maxed out today at a little over 14 kW. Sunpower's estimated production for the system is in the 24,000 kWh range, so we'll see how it goes when the sun's not up so long and the dust storms hit.

I estimate that our daily usage is around 73kWh, but we haven't been through a full summer here yet, so it's hard to gauge accurately, especially since our house was built in '74 and has crazy vaulted ceilings with little insulation. We drive the Leaf approximately 40 miles per day, have 2,800 s.f. of air-conditioned space with a 10-year-old 12 SEER A/C unit, a variable-speed pool pump, an electric stove and a Blink charger. Those are our big draws, and we hope to add a Chevy Volt in the next year to replace our Honda, which is driven about 15 miles per day. We have gas heating and a gas cooktop, but I plan to replace the gas hot water with a hybrid electric model in the next few months. Can't give up cooking with gas, though, unless I can afford an expensive and large induction range.

Would be happy to talk to anyone in the Phoenix area about the system and hoops we had to jump through along the way.

 

[Yanquetino]

It's been nearly 2 months since I took delivery of my Leaf. I was therefore intrigued to see what today's electric bill would show about how charging has affected my solar output. I was elated to see that I am still producing more electricity than I use, regardless:

Two Months Driving on Zero in my Nissan Leaf

 

[RegGuheert]

Our system is finally commissioned and operational after 9 months of wrangling, new roof, new 200-amp service, redesign, etc. The system is 15.3kW, with 66 Sunpower E18 230 panels, and Sunpower SPR-1001f and Sunpower SPR-6501f inverters. 36 face south, and 30 face west. The system is a lease, but we bought out the lease up-front. Perfect Power Solar, here in Phoenix, did the install.

The first full day of production has churned out 89.53 kWh of power, and I saw them maxed out today at a little over 14 kW. Sunpower's estimated production for the system is in the 24,000 kWh range, so we'll see how it goes when the sun's not up so long and the dust storms hit.

I estimate that our daily usage is around 73kWh, but we haven't been through a full summer here yet, so it's hard to gauge accurately, especially since our house was built in '74 and has crazy vaulted ceilings with little insulation. We drive the Leaf approximately 40 miles per day, have 2,800 s.f. of air-conditioned space with a 10-year-old 12 SEER A/C unit, a variable-speed pool pump, an electric stove and a Blink charger. Those are our big draws, and we hope to add a Chevy Volt in the next year to replace our Honda, which is driven about 15 miles per day. We have gas heating and a gas cooktop, but I plan to replace the gas hot water with a hybrid electric model in the next few months. Can't give up cooking with gas, though, unless I can afford an expensive and large induction range.

Would be happy to talk to anyone in the Phoenix area about the system and hoops we had to jump through along the way.

Wow! Massive system! It sounds really nice!

Since you are in Phoenix, I will suggest that you consider cooling your garage with any excess electricity to try to keep the batteries in your LEAF and future Volt cooler. Might be a bad idea if your garage is not insulated and with your current 12 SEER A/C units, but perhaps when they die it makes sense to install 21 SEER units and insulate the garage.

Did you add 200 A of *additional* service, or did you upgrade from something lower? I'm curious because we have 200 A service here, and I see about a 2 V rise (out of 250 V) at our meter when we are producing 8 kW. How much rise do you see at your meter when producing 14 kW?

 

[RegGuheert]

Well, April 2012 set all new records for our system: The highest production in a single day was 67.0 kWh on April 6, and the monthly number was also a record. Average daily production came in at 49 kWh/day.

May set a new record for monthly production, but since it has one extra day, April 2012 is still king for the daily average.

Here are our numbers so far this year:

Jan 2012: 0870 kWh
Feb 2012: 1080 kWh
Mar 2012: 1350 kWh
Apr 2012: 1470 kWh
May 2012: 1480 kWh
-----------------------------
2012 Tot: 6250 kWh

 

[SilverLeaf]

Solar Production for my 6.9 kWh SunPower system (30 x 230w)

May 2012
-----------

DC (per my Tigo Reporting) = 1,452.47 kWh

AC (per Sunny Explorer ) = 1,416.16 kWh

I record AC production directly from my SunPower/SMA inverter via Sunny Bluetooth Plus to both Sunny Beam and Sunny Explorer.

Another month of 100% free power to my 2011 Nissan LEAF

 

[TonyWilliams]

Date......Monthly....Year to Date..Daily Peak

Jan 2012: 937 kWh, 937 kWh, 39.79 kWh
Feb 2012: 970 kWh, 1910 kWh, 43.57 kWh
Mar 2012: 1210 kWh, 3120 kWh, 50.72 kWh
Apr 2012: 1267 kWh, 4380 kWh, 54.18 kWh
May 2012: 1390 kWh, 5770 kWh, 53.6 kWh


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[sparky]

I finally got around to upgrading my system with another 2kW of panels. The $5k LEAF rebate more than covered it. As usual, procrastination was my friend; panel prices have nose-dived since I got the LEAF rebate last year. It cost me $3.8k or ~$2/W (before the 30% fed rebate).
I have a lot of shading issues with these new panels, so I went with Enphase inverters to keep the shading on one panel from taking out a string.
I didn't want to buy the Enphase network monitor since I thought it was overpriced but, I'm glad I did. In the first 2 days, the monitor picked up a temperature problem with one of the inverters. I sent a note to Enphase. They logged onto my system and called me the next day saying they were sending a new inverter. Probably would have been a hassle if I didn't have the network monitor. The whole process took a week from problem report to inverter at my doorstep.. nice service.
May was by far my best month ever... 1050kWh.

Jan 2012: 157 kWh
Feb 2012: 290 kWh,
Mar 2012: 443 kWh
Apr 2012: 585 kWh
May 2012: 1050 kWh May 2011: 655

 

[Yanquetino]

May was likewise the best month ever for my solar array.

kWh-per-Day:

kWh-per-Month:

kWh Daily Average:

 

[QueenBee]

They logged onto my system and called me the next day saying they were sending a new inverter. Probably would have been a hassle if I didn't have the network monitor. The whole process took a week from problem report to inverter at my doorstep.. nice service.

The extra piece of mind knowing that its keeping track of everything and will alert me to any problems is very nice.

So one question I have is if you replace it your self do you still qualify to receive the payment from them for the labor replace it? Did they give you the loss of production credit automatically?

 

[sparky]

So one question I have is if you replace it your self do you still qualify to receive the payment from them for the labor replace it? Did they give you the loss of production credit automatically?

They didn't offer and I didn't ask for the cost of labor. It was a 15 minute job for me to swap it out. They offered the loss of production credit. I declined, since it seemed too small to be worth filling out any forms.

 

[Boomer23]

May was cloudier here than last May, so I was down to 843 kWh versus 888 kWh last year. Still decent, though, the third best May since I started keeping records in 2007.

 

[dgpcolorado]

My 127 kWh for May was the best May in the four years my system has been in place. But June 2011 remains the best month with 134 kWh.

I am in the process of tripling my system from the current 700 Watts to 2100 Watts. That ought to be enough to cover all my LEAF driving (~6000 miles/year) and household use (~4.8 kWh/day).