Our solar production

[Boomer23]

Moved my production figures to a Google documents spreadsheet:

https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AnSYHt_rpvYydHhpdHdwTEtLX0taeDZyXzdFY0QxWGc&hl=en&authkey=CPOvlYAD

Best production day yet yesterday.....26.63kWh!

It's really getting to be fun and addictive to watch your output climb, right Mike? You won't be able to contain yourself come July.

 

[DaveEV]

It's really getting to be fun and addictive to watch your output climb, right Mike? You won't be able to contain yourself come July.

I'd bet a slice of pizza that peak daily power will be in May and not June/July...

 

[Boomer23]

It's really getting to be fun and addictive to watch your output climb, right Mike? You won't be able to contain yourself come July.

I'd bet a slice of pizza that peak daily power will be in May and not June/July...

It certainly was last year, drees. Last May was my peak month ever in almost 4 years of generation.

 

[lonndoggie]

I'd bet a slice of pizza that peak daily power will be in May and not June/July...

It certainly was last year, drees. Last May was my peak month ever in almost 4 years of generation.

2010 was our first full year of solar (installed Dec '09). April and May were our most productive months--but, here in coastal San Diego, we had one of the least sunny summers EVAR. A colleague told me a week ago or so that we'd already had more sunny days in January than we did in July (fewer daylight hours, of course, but still).

Hoping for better this year.

 

[LEAFfan]

It's really getting to be fun and addictive to watch your output climb, right Mike? You won't be able to contain yourself come July.

I'd bet a slice of pizza that peak daily power will be in May and not June/July...

May is the peak month here for ours. :mrgreen:

 

[Boomer23]

I'd bet a slice of pizza that peak daily power will be in May and not June/July...

It certainly was last year, drees. Last May was my peak month ever in almost 4 years of generation.

2010 was our first full year of solar (installed Dec '09). April and May were our most productive months--but, here in coastal San Diego, we had one of the least sunny summers EVAR. A colleague told me a week ago or so that we'd already had more sunny days in January than we did in July (fewer daylight hours, of course, but still).

Hoping for better this year.

Your colleague may be right about the number of sunny days, but here in Irvine, close to Rt 405 but still coastal, solar generation wasn't bad. Though last July was the cloudiest July we could ever remember, we still generated over 90% of our best July production in the previous 3 years, and August was our best August of the four years for which we have records.

The January just ended had lots of sunny days and we had our second best January on record, but June, July and August last year each beat January by a wide margin.

That said, I second your wish for a better solar year.

 

[DaveEV]

2010 was our first full year of solar (installed Dec '09). April and May were our most productive months--but, here in coastal San Diego, we had one of the least sunny summers EVAR. A colleague told me a week ago or so that we'd already had more sunny days in January than we did in July (fewer daylight hours, of course, but still).

Your colleague may be right about the number of sunny days, but here in Irvine, close to Rt 405 but still coastal, solar generation wasn't bad. Though last July was the cloudiest July we could ever remember, we still generated over 90% of our best July production in the previous 3 years, and August was our best August of the four years for which we have records.

The January just ended had lots of sunny days and we had our second best January on record, but June, July and August last year each beat January by a wide margin.

Same here. Here is my system's monthly generation in comparison to the estimated output using PVwatts.

In the past 10 months I've only had 2 months below the expected average output - last July and October both of which were about 10% below expected. Those 10 months have generated about 8.5% more electricity than the PVwatts estimate.

Percentage wise, January 2011 exceeded PVwatts' estimate by the largest amount I've seen so far by 27%.

 

[LEAFfan]

Same here. Here is my system's monthly generation in comparison to the estimated output using PVwatts.

In the past 10 months I've only had 2 months below the expected average output - last July and October both of which were about 10% below expected. Those 10 months have generated about 8.5% more electricity than the PVwatts estimate.
Percentage wise, January 2011 exceeded PVwatts' estimate by the largest amount I've seen so far by 27%.

What derate factor are you using? That makes all the difference in PV Watts as far as the accuracy is concerned...also the tilt and position.

 

[DaveEV]

What derate factor are you using? That makes all the difference in PV Watts as far as the accuracy is concerned...also the tilt and position.

0.819 as this was the number suggested by Enphase. Looking closer I might be able to bump up the derate factor higher as my modules are rated -1 to +3% while the default is 0.95 (-5%). If I bump that up to 1.0 (for a derate factor of 0.862) then my annual numbers start to look a lot closer but still slightly under for the past 10 months... But hey - I sure prefer to think my system is system is performing well above expectations!

 

[hill]

May is the peak month here for ours. :mrgreen:

May and June are the same for our pad in south O.C. - in fact, for the past 2 weeks (except for a couple cloudy/rainy days) we're back up over 25kwh per day ... which is just enough power to rebuild our $450 surplus money (was over $500) that SCE is going to have to pay us for our growing surpluss. We've been trying to change over to TOU, too (whole house) for the longest time, but Edison just keeps dogging us. We're emailing higher and higher employees up their chain to try and get someone off their dead arse.
sheesh

 

[Deleted member 770]

Slightly OT: What do you guys use to clean your PV panels? I just got off of the roof with a rag and a bucket of water. It worked well, but I can't get to some parts of the panels without some kind of pole. I've seen some shots of Bill Nye cleaning his panels with a long extension pole with some type of duster on it (from the ground).

Anybody have any tips 'n' tricks they'd like to share?

 

[mwalsh]

Ooh, since this popped to the top....best day of production yet - 30.98kWh! Yes, we broke through 30kWh!

Spreadsheet here:

https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AnSYHt_rpvYydHhpdHdwTEtLX0taeDZyXzdFY0QxWGc&hl=en&authkey=CPOvlYAD

 

[DaveEV]

Ooh, since this popped to the top....best day of production yet - 30.98kWh! Yes, we broke through 30kWh!

Any idea what the mounting angle of your panels is and what direction they are facing?

 

[Gonewild]

I got a few 30+ kwh last week when it was clear skys and cold. Today I got 29.3kwh.

My panels are at 20deg and face just off true south.

 

[Azrich]

I got a few 30+ kwh last week when it was clear skys and cold. Today I got 29.3kwh.
.

We're surprised what a difference cooler weather has on our production. We've had five days over 34 kWh this month and even one day of 36.6 kWh! (Temperature was only 39 degrees that day.) Of course, our gas was off for 3 days and we had to borrow a couple electric heaters, so that used up any extra kWh's we had made.

 

[Boomer23]

Ooh, since this popped to the top....best day of production yet - 30.98kWh! Yes, we broke through 30kWh!

Spreadsheet here:

https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AnSYHt_rpvYydHhpdHdwTEtLX0taeDZyXzdFY0QxWGc&hl=en&authkey=CPOvlYAD

Mike, you're tracking 120% of my generation, which makes good sense, since your solar array is 120% the size of mine. Mine made 26 kWh today with full sun and some wind, which are the best days. I'd say that you're headed for around 40 kWh for your peak days in summer.

Edit; drees, mine are at 20 degrees angle facing slightly west of south here in Irvine.

 

[Boomer23]

which is just enough power to rebuild our $450 surplus money (was over $500) that SCE is going to have to pay us for our growing surpluss.

hill, how do you figure that SCE will pay you at that rate? I have a $230 surplus going into month 12 of my net metering calendar, with about 1700 kWh surplus, but from what I've been reading, SCE may pay at some wholesale rate like 5 cents per kWh, not the amount that shows as a surplus on your bill. (My current year is a mix of rate schedules D-T and TOU-D-T.) So I'll be happy if I get $100 from SCE.

That's why I'm happy to be getting a LEAF. The replacement of gasoline cost will pay off way more than SCE will ever pay us in generation charges. This next net metering year I may end up with a 2,000 kWh surplus for my household use, and with the LEAF, I'll use up all of that and more, but I expect to pay SCE close to zero for more than 2,000 kWh of EV charging. I haven't done all of the math yet, but I'm hoping to come out close to 3,000 kWh of EV charging with zero cost from SCE.

 

[DaveEV]

Edit; drees, mine are at 20 degrees angle facing slightly west of south here in Irvine.

You are going to like the peak system outputs you'll see in late April / early May when the sun is directly perpendicular to the panels at solar noon.

 

[Jimmydreams]

Ooh, since this popped to the top....best day of production yet - 30.98kWh! Yes, we broke through 30kWh!

Spreadsheet here:

https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AnSYHt_rpvYydHhpdHdwTEtLX0taeDZyXzdFY0QxWGc&hl=en&authkey=CPOvlYAD

32.82kWh today!! Very late in the day, I went up and hosed/scrubbed the panels to get all the dust off. Tomorrow should be a GREAT day, unless we have weather moving in......???

 

[Boomer23]

Edit; drees, mine are at 20 degrees angle facing slightly west of south here in Irvine.

You are going to like the peak system outputs you'll see in late April / early May when the sun is directly perpendicular to the panels at solar noon.

Yep, I loves me some perpendicular sunshine! Last May was my best month in all 4 years of my records.