Kicked Some Solar Butt Today....

[NY_Rob]

Love these longer days with clear skies.....

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[zefram47]

My 5.5 kW array produced 941 kWh so far this month with 1 day to go. Might actually be a new record, sadly, since it really hasn't rained or snowed this month.

 

[Joints4Sale]

I hit 120kWh yesterday. Love sunny days.

 

[SANZC02]

A couple of you have huge systems.

I have a 6.3 kWh system, 17 - 375 watt panels. I was able to generate 1 MWh For March and April. Just put the system in last September so have not seen any July or August numbers yet. On average I use 15 kWh a day so will have a decent amount left for the Rivian.

 

[Tim-in-CA]

Produced 1323 kWH, exported 553 kWH this month. Just an 8.4kW system with 2x Powerwalls. Will need all the generation I can get to feed my electron hungry Rivian once it arrives!

 

[epnfrn]

We had good day recently on our 19.4kW System
Usually make surplus April, May, June. Our future R1S will take that away quickly.

 

[NY_Rob]

^ Great system... but how did you consume 90kWh in one day?

 

[epnfrn]

Freak April cold day. Our worst was 166 consumed on a frigid KC MO February day. And that’s with 2 geothermal heat pumps which are generally considered high efficiency (like 28 SEER) and a modern efficiency build. 4 little kids and a wife who doesn’t like it cold in the house on a lake that sometime freezes.

Our energy company won’t let you put more than 80% of your yearly average usage up if you want net metering. For us that’s 59 LG panels at 335. Once we add the rivian and our usage goes up, I think I can justify more panels

Ps. If solar is an option for you, go for it. I love it. Check out google project sunroof site if interested to see your potential production.

 

[Iatros786]

Hey guys.. We are embarking on building our home from a blank slate...

Wanted to know how you would recommend to incorporate solar into the build? Any good resources you would recommend?


What do you wish your home had to make solar easier if you had built from scratch?

 

[SANZC02]

If you haven’t started yet, make sure to let the architect know you want solar so they can design it for optimal pitch and direction for the roof. That will be the biggest saver for you. The rest is all pretty easy.

 

[MoreTrout]

Hey guys.. We are embarking on building our home from a blank slate...

Wanted to know how you would recommend to incorporate solar into the build? Any good resources you would recommend?


What do you wish your home had to make solar easier if you had built from scratch?

NREL has a pretty good site where you can input your location and some basic information about a planned system and it will give you an estimated output so you can ballpark about how much you need to install. Here is the link. https://pvwatts.nrel.gov/pvwatts.php
I'm getting an 8 kW system installed sometime in the next few weeks. It probably won't produce what I will use annually, and definitely not once I get my truck, but I'll probably add on to it eventually. This is my annual estimate of what an 8 kW (20 400W panels) are going to produce:

 

[ajdelange]

^ Great system... but how did you consume 90kWh in one day?

Thats certainly easy enough to do. In the previous 24 hrs I consumed 81 kWh.(northern VA, temperatures around 40 last night, geo heat pump). I have pulled as much as 190 kWh in a single day but that's on a super cold January day, But sun-wise it was great here yesterday too, Collected 151 kWh.

 

[RivianDeac]

went parabolic yesterday!

 

[Olsonsolar]

4.3 KW system here. Have been online with solar for almost 14 years.
We redid our system last year. The new system was almost 1/3 the price of our original. Plus we got 26% federal tax credit. Had a new roof put on at the same time and got 26% federal tax credit on the part of the roof that has new solar on.
Used some of my old panels and put in a stand alone (not grid tied) 1,100 watt system to charge a Titan battery pack in case of power outage. Also got 26% federal tax credit on the battery pack and cost of building the stand alone system (minus the panels because I already had them).
Solar is very affordable right now especially on new construction.
I would have much preferred a ground mount system but not a good place to put it.
Most months our power bill is only the $10. basic fee, some months up to $10-20 above basic fee. that will go up once we get our truck. Plus we charge our Chevy Volt.
We also live in NW Illinois. Go solar.

 

[ajdelange]

Wanted to know how you would recommend to incorporate solar into the build?

That's a really loaded question especially from Florida at this point in time. A solar system consists of the PV cells (panels), an inverter or inverters, a control system and a battery. The cells create DC current, the inverters change that to AC at the house voltage (240), the controller manages things and the battery stores the power the PV produces in excess of what the house needs during the day (e.g. yesterday between noon and 2 PM my average production 20.5 kW but my usage only 2.4 kW) and, conversely, supplies what the house needs when the sun isn't shining. In the great majority of cases the battery is a "virtual" one and is the utility. They don't actually store the excess (it is sold immediately to your neighbors) but rather give you a credit for it. Your electric meter runs backwards when you are producing more than you use. This is called "net metering" and is a wonderful system because it spares you, the homeowner, the considerable, and I do mean considerable, expense of a real physical battery but, of course, real physical batteries are a possibility too and lend the advantages of backup when the utility is down and allow the PV to keep producing when the utility is down.

Of course the utility companies hate net metering because they are forced to buy power from the homeowner at retail prices. Florida is in the midst of a big turmoil over this as the legislature has passed a law which would outlaw net metering but the governor has vetoed it. If the bill passes and net metering goes away so too does the financial incentive to install solar to the extent that it is feared that the industry would leave Florida. So for a Florida resident it would seem prudent to see how this comes out.

On the technical side things are even more complex. One needs to decide how much of his annual consumption he wishes to cover with solar. With net metering this is pretty easy to do as the virtual battery is infinitely large (but the utilities which do allow net metering often have tricks in place to limit it). The real drivers, other than that, are the hours of equivalent full sunshine at your location (obtain from NREL), shading by trees (don't plant any near the southern parts of the house), the orientation of the roof facets on which you intend to install panels and their area. The problem is complicated enough that you will either need to hire a solar systems engineer or rely on the myriad companies out there that will put together a system for you based on (usually) a satellite photo of the house but in your case the architects drawings. The architect needs to orient a large roof facet TRUE south and tilt it to about your latitude with the actual tilet dependent on whether you want to optimize yearly production or winter production. Since heating wouldn't be so much of a consideration I would think year round collection.

Most people get a quickie design from one of the solar companies and wind up with a system that produces 2/3 or so of their annual consumption. If you want to do more than this then you will probably need to hire an engineer who knows the foibles of the local power company(s).

Off grid systems are possible but even a modest sized establishment's real battery cost is going to be prohibitive to most.

Finally, the dead camel in the middle of the tent is the supply chain system. Games are being played with tariffs on the panels themselves which are made over seas and things like Powerwall can take over a year to obtain.

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