Going Solar

[Texas Proud]

Earlier in the thread I had mentioned about a house down the street that had put on on their house... the problem IMO was the trees...


Well, today I was a passenger in the car and asked DW to slow down so I could look... sure enough, at 4PM the tree was blocking 100% of the panels... I am assuming that there was partial block starting at 1PM...


I think they will be lucky if they get 3 hours of sun in a day... what a waste

 

[nash031]

Earlier in the thread I had mentioned about a house down the street that had put on on their house... the problem IMO was the trees...


Well, today I was a passenger in the car and asked DW to slow down so I could look... sure enough, at 4PM the tree was blocking 100% of the panels... I am assuming that there was partial block starting at 1PM...


I think they will be lucky if they get 3 hours of sun in a day... what a waste

Yeah, that’s... pretty dumb. Could it be a solar pool heater?

 

[street]

Thanks and hope it works well for you. In NET metering there usually is two meters one for what you use and one is what you are putting back out on the line.

I would almost be they Utility has AMR (automated meter reading) meters whish sending the reading back to their office.

 

[tb001]

Street, I think you must be right. I can see usage from 24 hrs ago broken down in 15 min increments. Everything is delayed by a day, but it’s still pretty timely information. Looking forward to having it in real time.

Nash, ours took a little longer but it was mainly waiting for the city to approve. We got hoa approval at end of September and they told us today we’ll be up and running tomorrow for the inspection. A week later we should be able to turn on. We hit the highest tier very quickly, so we’re really looking forward to having the panels up.

 

[TwoByFour]

Thanks and hope it works well for you. In NET metering there usually is two meters one for what you use and one is what you are putting back out on the line.

I would almost be they Utility has AMR (automated meter reading) meters whish sending the reading back to their office.

For us, there are 3 meters: energy generated (in KWH), total energy used by the house, and energy consumed from the utility which can be (+) or (-). The utility company only uses the last one. If it is (-), they give us credit, if it is (+) we pay them. The last value is just the difference between the first two.

I just went and looked - our net usage over the last 18 months is -2.4MWH (we gave that amount to the power company above and beyond what they sold us). Because we are on a level-2 program and cannot sell them more than we consume, all of that is free electricity for the power company. I overbuilt our system because it is supposed to power a wood shop which isn't quite happening yet.

 

[nash031]

Street, I think you must be right. I can see usage from 24 hrs ago broken down in 15 min increments. Everything is delayed by a day, but it’s still pretty timely information. Looking forward to having it in real time.

Nash, ours took a little longer but it was mainly waiting for the city to approve. We got hoa approval at end of September and they told us today we’ll be up and running tomorrow for the inspection. A week later we should be able to turn on. We hit the highest tier very quickly, so we’re really looking forward to having the panels up.

We hit the highest tier this year for the first time in our coastal home, 1400sqft. Just moved a few miles inland, much warmer in the summer, 2600sqft. This is a pre-emptive strike, but I was pretty conservative with my estimate of additional electricity usage. One month in, we're up about 25% from last year, I estimated 20% in my calcs, and I'm betting it'll be higher when it's hotter.

I need to get smarter on how the metering is going to work. As I said, selling back wholesale, the net metering wasn't quite the concern as much as trying to offset peak usage, but I need to know it. I know how I can monitor my system, need to smarten up on SDGE.

 

[nash031]

Up "on the grid" Tuesday night. From start of install to on the grid was 8 days. Total from first contact to on the grid was right at four weeks. Final system was 21 325W panels for 6825W system install. At 8AM Wednesday morning, system was putting out about 3000W, covering the full load. Net metering in effect and we'll now be billed once per year. System cost was $17450, not including any incentive credits.

Monitoring is setup, but waiting on the connection and website details to be able to monitor system performance. It's rained the last two days here, so I'm not missing much anyway. I'll update some data as it goes and track real payback. One of my calculations had as little as 4.1 years payback (after incentives) but I think between 5 and 6 years is probably going to end up being real. We plan to be here through unborn daughter's elementary school years, so 10+.

 

[Another Reader]

30 percent in rebates means a net cost of $1.79 per watt. Sign me up for that deal! How was the construction process?

 

[nash031]

Practically transparent to us in the house after the first half day hammering and drilling. Physical install took two days. Then they had to mount a placard and get SDGE to inspect and accept the system. So three total days of work. They aligned everything and once approved, I flipped it on and ran a simple pairing process myself. Last step is getting the monitoring up and running.

Our roof is a 17 degree grade, so you can barely see the panels on the roof in the first place. While that grade is suboptimal for this part of the country, ideal is close to 30, our system should still meet 100% of our peak output need. If anything, it’ll reduce how much power we sell back to the grid wholesale, so I doubt that’ll impact us much.

Otherwise, this has been extremely painless with this specific contractor.

 

[nash031]

Quick update:

Halfway through the first full month on grid, our net energy use is -65kWh. Obviously that's not a direct payback since most of that power is either off peak (weekday daytime) or super offpeak (weekend) generation, but our on peak use (weekday evenings) is usually 1/3 or less of our off peak generation. This month has been particularly cloudy with relatively crappy weather for San Diego.

Our best day thus far is 25.7 kWh generated, with a peak production of 4.09kW (system is 5.44kW peak). It'll be interesting to see how this tracks through the various months. December and January are likely the worst production months year over year.

 

[NW-Bound]

... Final system was 21 325W panels for 6825W system install...

... Our best day thus far is 25.7 kWh generated, with a peak production of 4.09kW (system is 5.44kW peak). It'll be interesting to see how this tracks through the various months...

Please keep us posted.

I still have not wired up my 5.5kW panel array, but have learned from studying the subject that one cannot expect the peak output to come even close to the nameplate rating. The panel specification is based on 1kW/sq.m. of solar radiation, with the panel facing the sun squarely, at 25C (77F) temperature (panel output degrades with temperature), and no loss in DC/AC conversion.

 

[nash031]

Please keep us posted.



I still have not wired up my 5.5kW panel array, but have learned from studying the subject that one cannot expect the peak output to come even close to the nameplate rating. The panel specification is based on 1kW/sq.m. of solar radiation, with the panel facing the sun squarely, at 25C (77F) temperature (panel output degrades with temperature), and no loss in DC/AC conversion.

Exactly. Panel size, orientation, inverter efficiency all drive the final peak output. SolarEdge rates my system at 5.44kW, down from the 6825 mentioned, which is almost 80%. Standard I’ve seen is 79%, so makes sense. Will be more telling in the summer months to see what peak output is. Sun angle is low now.

 

[COcheesehead]

I just read a major power company, WE, is asking for approval of a surcharge on solar power because those users are not paying their fair share.
https://www.jsonline.com/story/mone...-could-cut-savings-solar-power-20/1279743001/

Reminds me of when we were told to conserve water and then the following year they raised water rates because there was a revenue shortfall.

 

[skipro33]

I just read a major power company, WE, is asking for approval of a surcharge on solar power because those users are not paying their fair share.
https://www.jsonline.com/story/mone...-could-cut-savings-solar-power-20/1279743001/

Reminds me of when we were told to conserve water and then the following year they raised water rates because there was a revenue shortfall.

That's one side of the argument. The other side is that utilities are or soon will be, depending on where you live, to go renewable, environmentally friendly energy sources and by having solar, you are helping them meet that need and you should charge them for the cost of them meeting that regulation.

The utilities are taking proactive measure to counter this presumption of owing the solar providers for their overhead when they are the ones who are being mandated to reduce carbon footprint. It's gonna bite 'em in the arse though; battery costs are getting more affordable and a few on your home will negate hooking up to their grid at all. When enough residents disconnect, they'll find their overhead to service a community as well as meet their carbon reduction mandates to hurt their current business model and they'll have to rethink their way of servicing their rate payers.

 

[REWahoo]

Here's an article about the planned construction of a seven square mile solar farm out in West TX. Interesting that one of the partners in the deal is Facebook:

A 4,600-acre solar farm will soon make its way into Andrews County, initiated by Longroad Energy, which partnered with Facebook and Shell Energy North America.

https://www.mrt.com/business/oil/article/Andrews-to-be-site-of-4-600-acre-solar-farm-13916566.php

 

[NW-Bound]

^^^ With a peak output of 379MW, this is a serious solar installation.

However, dividing that into the 4,600-acre area, that's only 82.4 kW/acre, or 2W/sq.ft. That's awfully low. This means the panels are quite spaced out, and not mounted as close as they can be.


PS. Forgot to include some numbers for comparison. My solar panels have the dimension of 61" x 41" or 17.37 sq.ft. They have a rating of 327W, or 18.8 W/sq.ft.

 

[jimnjana]

Adding 2.7kw to my pv system in conjunction with getting a new roof. Will bring system up to a bit over 12kw. New inverter has plug I will be able to plug into if power goes during the day. Will be able to draw 2kw.

 

[Another Reader]

Prices have shot up here since last Fall. With the end of the tax credit looming, the installers are all really busy now.

 

[nash031]

FWIW, updating here, we've been up about six months. Current estimated electric bill for the past six months is -$75.33. We'll see what it amounts to when the annual bill comes in in November. In our smaller coastal house last year, we ran up about $450 over the winter months in electricity usage. The big damage last year started in June, peaking in September where a bill was $450 by itself, in what was a relatively mild summer. I'd guess we'll end up with a smaller negative bill come November. Tough to know exactly what we're saving since this is a new house with no history prior to the solar install, but extrapolating from our use at the old house and being further inland, I'd say $2500-3000/yr is reasonable.

My system often peaks right around 6kW on sunny days in May. Production has gone up steadily since December. I love it when the AC kicks on during the day and I don't even care one bit. Wife and I tend to do laundry and run appliances during daylight now. We're selling quite a bit back during off-peak hours, even with the nanny and young kids at home, so it's optimal usage.

We still watch our usage of lights and such. Most of the house is on LED, but I'm replacing anything that's not as it burns out. Probably could've gone with a smaller system, but we'll see once summer really rears it's ugly head. We've not had many days above 80 yet, but they're coming.

 

[scrinch]

PG&E has owed us about $50/yr on average at true-up time for the past 13 yrs for our 3kw solar system. So we've bought a plug-in hybrid vehicle (Kia Niro) to use up some of that electricity/money we're leaving on the table each year. We're just using a 110v outlet in the carport for charging. I've programmed the car to charge the battery at night using off-peak rates. I'll be interested to see what our true-up looks like next June.