Our solar production

[TonyWilliams]

Cooler panels produce more? Serpentine tubing glued to the back of panels could cool a pool or preheat tap water. Dump the heat into the air with a radiator. The panels should last longer, right?

That's pretty much all this kit does:

Kit that mounts on the back side of your panels for solar panel cooling/hot water production

The problem is cost.

 

[SilverLeaf]

Just computed my July production. A very impressive 1.05 MWh. Just over 5 MWh in 5 months.

To view my production: http://members.cox.net/silverleaf_pv/Solar.htm

Here in Arizona, Solar is definitely the way to power my LEAF, my HOME and my LIFE.

 

[LEAFfan]

Cooler panels produce more? Serpentine tubing glued to the back of panels could cool a pool or preheat tap water. Dump the heat into the air with a radiator. The panels should last longer, right?

Absolutely, cooler panels produce more. Do you know of an inexpensive DIY way to attach the tubing? I would just dump the heat into the air.

 

[Yanquetino]

My solar array barely won the tug-of-war with my utility in July, thanks to the combination of the hottest summer month, heavy air conditioning load on the system, baking hot solar panels, and the days now growing shorter. Sure glad I "deposited" plenty of kWh in the "bank" during the previous months!

Utility Meter vs. Solar Meter

Total kWh per Month:

Daily Average kWh per Month

Distribution Summary to Date

 

[Yodrak]

Dump heat to the air? Hot panels lose their heat to the air all by themselves. They just can't lose heat as fast as they gain it when air temperature is high, and even worse when the air is still.

The same thing is going to be true of any radiator is installed to run the water from the tubing through. A fan will be needed to go along with that radiator to be effective, same as ICE cars and and home airconditioner compressors have fans to move air through the radiator.

Far better to use the heat to warm something that's cooler than the air and is in need of being heated.

Absolutely, cooler panels produce more. Do you know of an inexpensive DIY way to attach the tubing? I would just dump the heat into the air.

Cooler panels produce more? Serpentine tubing glued to the back of panels could cool a pool or preheat tap water. Dump the heat into the air with a radiator. The panels should last longer, right?

 

[mwalsh]

Best day thus far today - 41.04kWh! Cloud free and a nice cooling breeze for pretty much the whole day!

Edit: Limped on to finish up at 41.06kWh. Wasn't quite done when I first posted, but I didn't think it was capable of adding another 2/10ths to the pot.

 

[klapauzius]

wow...Well, I had 22 kWh today, which is not bad for Seattle (and a 4 kW system). Your monthly production almost exceeds my annual...

Still, you cant beat southern latitudes...I wonder when this will be exploited on
a very large scale....Wasn't there a study published a few years ago, that the whole US could be powered by solar for as little as the cost of 1-2 years of the Iraq war (500 billions or so)?

Of course one has to set priorities...

 

[DaveEV]

Good day for me at 21.4 kWh but not a record - a couple kWh short of the best day I've had, 23.4 kWh back in late May this year.

More importantly is that July 2011 produced 600 kWh compared to last year's 466 kWh when we had an abnormal amount of clouds. Best full month was May 2010 with 605 kWh.

 

[TonyWilliams]

This week has been my best so far:

Mon 52.0
Tue 51.0
Wed 52.7
Thu 54.0 !!!


Here's some thoughts on my system. It is estimated to make 11 MWh per year for my 35 panels, which is about what we historically use.

"The Car" seems to be right at 6 MWh per year (1650 miles/month at 3.3 miles/kWh wall to wheels, 500 kWh per month).

That's about 17 more panels.... what to do.

 

[DaveEV]

Mon 52.0
Tue 51.0
Wed 52.7
Thu 54.0 !!!

Impressive - but that's what 8 kW of PV will do for you.

Here's some thoughts on my system. It is estimated to make 11 MWh per year for my 35 panels, which is about what we historically use.

"The Car" seems to be right at 6 MWh per year (1650 miles/month at 3.3 miles/kWh wall to wheels, 500 kWh per month).

That's about 17 more panels.... what to do.

Depends - is your car on a separate meter? Are you on the regular DR rate schedule or are you on the NEM TOU?

If you have a separate meter and get the EV TOU rates - I would suggest doing nothing.

If not - I might suggest looking at the NEM TOU rate - I would expect that with your large system you could easily generate enough credits in the summer to cover all your usage, especially if you can shift more loads outside of 11am-6pm during the "summer" months of May-Oct.

I am strongly considering doing the same, but the lack of accurate TOU data has kept me from doing so so far. (We might want to move this discussion to the SDG&E thread).

 

[TonyWilliams]

If you have a separate meter and get the EV TOU rates - I would suggest doing nothing.

Yes, I do. Not planning on any moves until I have one year under my belt to reconsider.

Now, back to solar production.

 

[ERG4ALL]

That's about 17 more panels.... what to do.

I'd suggest looking at other conserving areas. For example we installed some state-of-the-art Fujitsu heat pumps. To give an idea of their efficiency, in the A/C mode the 12,000 BTU unit has a SEER of 25, the 9,000 BTU unit has a SEER of 26. This may not work in your case. They are not cheap ($6,000 installed for the two of them). It works for us because we use them year round for cooling and heating and we were able to stop using propane at nearly $3.00 per gallon. Another point that makes them work for us is that we have a well insulated house and it has a "great room" concept so one unit effectively handles the kitchen, dining room and living room.

Another area is when replacing appliances look not only for the energy star logo (which is often misused) but the actual annual kWh rating. We purchased a Maytag refrigerator that has a sign in it that says it uses less electricity than a 60W bulb. Of course they mean a 60W bulb running 24/7 for about 43 kWh/month.

Another appliance that we chose is a Samsung clothes washer. Instead of belts and pulleys driving the spin cycle, it has a special self balancing feature that allows the electric motor to be hooked directly to the drum. This is more efficient and allows a higher rpm spin, which in turn means the clothes spend less time in the dryer (or in our case on the clothes line).

Anyway just a couple thoughts that might help to lessen your electric load as appliances wear out.

 

[drmanny3]

While I have posted in the SCE section, I thought it was worth mentioned here as we also have a Solar Panel system. So some background. We went with Solarcity about a year ago. We have 68 panels using thin film technology rather than thick film. I like the panels as they are solid in color and appear black. No borders makes them look like one big sheet. Never the less they produce less power than a thick film variety. We elected to go with a lease agreement where Solarcity takes care of maintaining the performance of the system for 15 years. We paid a one time fee of $10,414 and consequently make no monthly payments. I estimated that our system would produce approximately 9000 kwh in a year. In our first year it has done that. It is guaranteed to produce no less than 7000 kwh eventually dropping to 6000 by the 15th year. So for the last year we ended up paying about $325 for all our electricity. Prior years we paid about $2400 for electricity. So that is where I came up with the 4 year payback. Now add the Leaf. I had our 110 power device modifed to handle 240 volts at 16 amps. So for the month of June we ended up paying about $8.00 for electricity. Normally we would have had an excess of production over consumption. We also take advantage of the AC off during peak usage. A credit of up to $60 is given depending on your consumption of electricity. But the Leaf ate into that excess production. Half way throught the month of June we had a digital meter put on our system. SCE changed us to a TOU for the month of July. We finally got the bill. While the numbers seem off the overall usage seems correct. We consumed an extra 182 kwh over and above what we proeduced. For the month of June we consumed about 288 kwh over and above what we produced. But when you add in the credit for the AC and the tier on usage our bill was oly about $8.00. For July I was worried what would happen. As it turns out we generated electricity during the on peak period and got a credit of about $60. Overall our bill ended up being a credit of $49. So with the TOU rate we basically charged our Leaf for free!!!! Where we used to spend about $160 for gas in the Prius. We now gas up once per month. That is a net savngs of about $120. Our Country needs to get behind this. Green saves money.
Manny

 

[turbo2ltr]

Well I can finally post in this thread..

24 Yingli 230W panels (5.5 kW DC)
5kw Fronius inverter
Solar City one payment lease

The peak of my roof runs almost north-south. So there are 12 panels on the east side and 12 on the west.

http://solarguard.solarcity.com/kiosk/solarguard.aspx?share=1&ID=E9D64A94-BA71-41F7-84C0-5B646EF92CAF" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[Yanquetino]

My solar array's kWhs keep falling as the earth tilts a bit more toward winter solstice every day. In September they cranked out a total of 1,212.15 kWh (40.41 daily average), but I at least (barely) won the tug-of-war with my utility --unlike in August.

 

[drmanny3]

The next thing you might want to consider is going to a TOU with your Utility if they offer it. Since we switched we have generated power during the day and our credit is much larger. Thus far we have charged the car at night for free over the last three months. This last month Sept was not a great month for solar. In the end our electric bill for the month was $15.00. That included charging the car every night from about 1/2 to 3/4 of the total. Not too bad.
Manny

 

[turbo2ltr]

I'm currently on a 9-9 TOU plan which is no longer available, but I'm grandfathered in. They only have a noon to 7 plan now.

 

[LEAFfan]

Well I can finally post in this thread..
24 Yingli 230W panels (5.5 kW DC)
5kw Fronius inverter
Solar City one payment lease
The peak of my roof runs almost north-south. So there are 12 panels on the east side and 12 on the west.
http://solarguard.solarcity.com/kiosk/solarguard.aspx?share=1&ID=E9D64A94-BA71-41F7-84C0-5B646EF92CAF" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I'm curious how you made over 20kW hs on Oct. 1st. Here, it was heavily clouded over almost all day.

 

[TonyWilliams]

In September they cranked out a total of 1,212.15 kWh (40.41 daily average)

My system is a similar size, at 7.980 DC KW:

September 2011's Total: 1.19 MWh
August 2011 Total: 1.48 MWh
Year to Date (install July6): 3.76 MWh

 

[drmanny3]

That is a very large residential system. Was your regular use of electricity that high per month? Otherwise why so large. How many panels?
Thanks,