Our solar production

[hill]

FINALLY topped 40kWh today.....the first time since the install. It's actually sitting at 40.74kWh right now, and still limping along a little bit. :mrgreen:

1st week of May we ALMOST eeked out 50 AC kWh's ... due to the longer days, clear skys, and cool days . . . we hit 49.97kWh's which was our best in the almost 2 1/2 years generating.

 

[lonndoggie]

FINALLY topped 40kWh today.....the first time since the install. It's actually sitting at 40.74kWh right now, and still limping along a little bit. :mrgreen:

1st week of May we ALMOST eeked out 50 AC kWh's ... due to the longer days, clear skys, and cool days . . . we hit 49.97kWh's which was our best in the almost 2 1/2 years gwnerating.

I've had 4 days this month over 49kWhs, just can't quite get to 50. I'm amazed it's been that good, given how the mornings have been classic "May Gray" down here along the coast.

 

[cinmar]

Month of April: 844.34 kWh produced, best day in April: 35.76 kWh on 4/29

Best day in May so far: 35.29 kWh on 5/10

 

[TonyWilliams]

Just ordered 35 SunPower SER-228-P panels, and 35 Enphase M190 inverters.

Should be 8kw DC / 6.5-ish AC.

My roof is 140 degrees, so about 40 degrees east of ideal south. No shading, and lots of sunny days in San Diego (at least inland, where I'm at).

Tony

 

[nader]

Just ordered 35 SunPower SER-228-P panels, and 35 Enphase M190 inverters.

Should be 8kw DC / 6.5-ish AC.

My roof is 140 degrees, so about 40 degrees east of ideal south. No shading, and lots of sunny days in San Diego (at least inland, where I'm at).

Tony

Why the extra expense of the microinverters if no shading?

 

[Jimmydreams]

Just ordered 35 SunPower SER-228-P panels, and 35 Enphase M190 inverters.

Should be 8kw DC / 6.5-ish AC.

My roof is 140 degrees, so about 40 degrees east of ideal south. No shading, and lots of sunny days in San Diego (at least inland, where I'm at).

Tony

Why the extra expense of the microinverters if no shading?

Probably for the redundancy. 1 main inverter going *POOF* = no generation until the inverter is fixed. 1 micro going *POOF* means 1/35th less generation until it's fixed.

I'd have to see how much extra the cost is to decide if it was worth it.

 

[TonyWilliams]

Well, I'm frequently away from home for sometimes weeks to months at a time, so I have a lot more I internet control with micro-inverters. They have a 15 year warranty, no 300 volt DC going through the house to the inverter, a failure is cheap (and I don't get a $600 electric bill waiting for the replacement).

The overall cost was significant. About half again (extra) of the price of a traditional big inverter, which was expected to last 10-15 gears.

Hopefully, long term, the cost will be a wash, and I'll have greater productivity over a single box.

Just ordered 35 SunPower SER-228-P panels, and 35 Enphase M190 inverters.

Should be 8kw DC / 6.5-ish AC.

My roof is 140 degrees, so about 40 degrees east of ideal south. No shading, and lots of sunny days in San Diego (at least inland, where I'm at).

Tony

Why the extra expense of the microinverters if no shading?

Probably for the redundancy. 1 main inverter going *POOF* = no generation until the inverter is fixed. 1 micro going *POOF* means 1/35th less generation until it's fixed.

I'd have to see how much extra the cost is to decide if it was worth it.

 

[hill]

Just ordered 35 SunPower SER-228-P panels, and 35 Enphase M190 inverters.

Should be 8kw DC / 6.5-ish AC.

My roof is 140 degrees, so about 40 degrees east of ideal south. No shading, and lots of sunny days in San Diego (at least inland, where I'm at).

Tony

shweeet! be sure and post when it's up and running

 

[essaunders]

is Enphase's Enlighten web interface worth the $2/module/year price? I suspect most installs have some time (5 years, maybe) built into the price - kinda like Carwings.
Just curious - a small subscription fee is OK if it is really useful.

 

[lonndoggie]

is Enphase's Enlighten web interface worth the $2/module/year price?

It is definitely cool. Check out member drees (who includes the link in his signature):

http://enlighten.enphaseenergy.com/public/systems/xM8R3368

 

[SilverLeaf]

Definitely an unusual day here in Scottsdale, AZ

Today was cloudy, rainy and windy. A typical low production day. A very UNTYPICAL May day in Scottsdale.

However, during the breaks in the clouds, I recorded several system record output levels.

My typical May production is slightly under 40 kWh per day. Today was 21 kWh.

Today my individual panel peak (230 watt SunPower Panel) was 297 watts.

My Instant system production (5,520 watt) was 7,080.

Like they say in the Novel, 'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times'.

You may track my system performance on my website at http://members.cox.net/silverleaf_pv/Solar.htm

 

[SilverLeaf]

My Solar Production for May 2011 1,181.07 kWh. I'm impressed.

I set new highs this month for
max single day production (41.92 kWh)
max instant panel production (297 watts)
max instant inverter production (7080 watts)

Sitting pretty for the long hot days of summer in Phoenix

 

[Yanquetino]

Our solar production in May was not as great as I had hoped. It was a comparatively cloudy and rainy month. Still, the stats managed to slightly exceed those for April:

Total: 1,514.26 kWh
Avg/Day: 48.85 kWh
Best Day: 59.54 kWh

I've updated the stats on our solar array web page.

 

[Boomer23]

My Solar Production for May 2011 1,181.07 kWh. I'm impressed.

I set new highs this month for
max single day production (41.92 kWh)
max instant panel production (297 watts)
max instant inverter production (7080 watts)

Sitting pretty for the long hot days of summer in Phoenix

I'm impressed, too. And jealous. My system isn't much smaller than yours, but my maximum output for my best month, which was last May, was 905 kWh. What makes Arizona so much better for solar than California, if both months are completely sunny?

 

[hill]

We finally hit a new all time - one day high last Monday (Memorial day). 50.00kWh ... down to the tenth. It was kind of cool ... since admittadly I'm so easily entertained. Since then, it's been back to the usual output for this time of the year with 48's.

 

[lonndoggie]

One of the many things I have to thank MNL for is lighting (or fanning) a fire under me to get monitoring going on our PV system. Which we've done, and has been an interesting saga as we unwittingly ended up beta testing a new monitoring device (sold to us a little before it officially hit the US market), but which is working well now, even as we continue to resolve some additional issues.

And, I'm pretty jazzed. Here in cloudy, coastal Encinitas, with a less-than-perfectly aligned system (24 panels face ESE, while a string of 8 are on the opposite side, WNW), in May we produced 1257.21kWh, and had a peak day of 52.37kWh on 5/30. That was the only 50kWh+ day, but we had nine other days of over 48kWh.

And now for the depressing ride through June Gloom...

 

[DaveEV]

I also had a record on Memorial day - 23.4 kWh. Previous best was 22.8 kWh about a year ago.

I cleaned the panels about a week earlier - I use a "California duster" - the thing typically used to clean cars - which does a very good job without using any water which is tough to do with the panels up on a 2nd story.

lonndoggie - what kind of monitoring system are you using?

 

[SilverLeaf]

My Solar Production for May 2011 1,181.07 kWh.

I'm impressed, too. And jealous. My system isn't much smaller than yours, but my maximum output for my best month, which was last May, was 905 kWh. What makes Arizona so much better for solar than California, if both months are completely sunny?

Must be the wacko, blowhard politicians running around in Phoenix. Must have the same effect as the wind.

 

[cinmar]

May here: 917.83 kWh, with several rainy days. Still, a monthly high since installation last October.

 

[hill]

I'm impressed, too. And jealous. My system isn't much smaller than yours, but my maximum output for my best month, which was last May, was 905 kWh. What makes Arizona so much better for solar than California, if both months are completely sunny?

Just look at a map of the U.S. and it'll help you understand. Most of California is farther north than AZ ... and AZ also extends farther south than any part of CA. Farther south means higher sun azmuths for the lion's share of the state ... besides having less rain fall / clouds.