December PV starting off crappy again.

OffGridForGood said:

one step at a time. eventually ya get there.
10kWh of battery is a good size for a system collecting 6kWh per day.

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Currently using 7kWh of capacity as I assemble things to their semi final positions but by end of next week should be up to 2kWh in the Delta 2 max and 17.5kWh in random other lfps.

my 5x 310s vertical on my garage wayy with an overhang above them are producing near 90% rated on colder days.
Overcast after 5 inches of snow landed everywhere i was about 20%

Moved my array from west to south, trying to achieve the VRM solar forecast numbers in as much as my limited battery and inverter capacity can. Still in shadow of house currently. Also gave them a wash with dawn power wash yesterday, while they are laying on the ground the neighbor cats love to leave their muddy paw prints over them.

Ok I think I'll be able to beat the VRM forecast today, yesterday was way low with the clouds.

Good production yesterday and that was starting off with 5kWh of battery fully charged, was limited by inverter output.

Today aiming to start the day with empty battery should make things easier.

March was nearly a balance, solar came up 190kWh short of the total loads for the house and my business next door.
April is roaring along nicely and I tilted the arrays down for the summer angle (30-degrees above horizontal) from the winter steep angle of 72-degrees which added a nice boost.
My wife said "now you've done it, for sure a big snow dump is coming with those panels tilted down like last year!" LOL hope not, but will live with it.

First time I've ever exceeded the forecast, helped that I had soc low to start so I could actually make use of it:

December was crappy no doubt about it.
March and April have been Fantastic!
Now I can be happy until November rolls around again...oh well, life in the north woods.

Should be a new record today but I've got the SCC turned off trying to discharge this 5kWh bank first before combining with another 7.5kWh that is already drained and then charge it all up together. Unfortunately limited to around 900W of load with my oil filled heater at setting 2 of 3 and 48/1200. So will be another couple hours...

I'm fully charged before noon. Two heat pumps heating house, one 12k btu and the other 18k btu. Both idle along. Also heating all hot water with heat pump water heater.

Can't use up the excess. Finally purchased a Chargeverter from CC and will run 2 AC circuits from house to shop underground and can shift power from each to the other. Will probably purchase another Chargeverter. I never thought of a use for the Chargeverters for my use until I came up with this latest idea. Might automate it.

Adding 14Kwh battery capacity to house system for when endless cloudy days come. 58Kwh of battery going into the shop plus have another 14Kwh in reserve.

Total will be 148Kwh of battery capacity between shop and house.

Adding 2 mini splits to shop this year to gain efficiency over the current units.

Zwy said:

Total will be 148Kwh of battery capacity between shop and house.

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Zwy said:

Finally purchased a Chargeverter

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Zwy said:

Will probably purchase another Chargeverter.

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You and me both!
I just got my first one installed a couple weeks ago, and it is going to be so great come November, will simplify running loads and charging battery bank at the same time without pass-through. My strategy from late Oct to mid Jan is to add with charging "what-ever-the-solar-missed-today" That is: add with back up charging the difference between the average daily load minus solar that came in for the day.
Average daily is 40kWh, so if a Nov day is poor and I only get 20kWh of solar, then that night off-peak rate charge for 20kWh to make up the short fall. Then see what I get the next day.
I found once the battery bank was large enough, I didn't need to micro-manage it, just ride the averages, and there is darn little chance in November-early January of gettting more than the ESS can store during a single day, so no danger of missing out on solar kWh.
If I see a storm warning in the weather forecast I change tactics and just fully charge the ESS in expectation of the utility being down. Power outages in my area are really a winter thing - ie trees under heavy snow and wind take down a power line.

OffGridForGood said:

You and me both!
I just got my first one installed a couple weeks ago, and it is going to be so great come November, will simplify running loads and charging battery bank at the same time without pass-through. My strategy from late Oct to mid Jan is to add with charging "what-ever-the-solar-missed-today" That is: add with back up charging the difference between the average daily load minus solar that came in for the day.
Average daily is 40kWh, so if a Nov day is poor and I only get 20kWh of solar, then that night off-peak rate charge for 20kWh to make up the short fall. Then see what I get the next day.

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I don't plan on pulling from grid. I will simply pull power from the system that has excess and send it to the other system.

OffGridForGood said:

I found once the battery bank was large enough, I didn't need to micro-manage it, just ride the averages, and there is darn little chance in November-early January of gettting more than the ESS can store during a single day, so no danger of missing out on solar kWh.

Click to expand...

I tried explaining this in a thread when someone asked about why I don't overpanel. Why would I overpanel? I will install enough SCC's and battery to capture what I can when it is needed for loads and filling batteries to 100% SOC.

OffGridForGood said:

If I see a storm warning in the weather forecast I change tactics and just fully charge the ESS in expectation of the utility being down. Power outages in my area are really a winter thing - ie trees under heavy snow and wind take down a power line.

Click to expand...

We look at the forecast and if poor sun days are ahead we do laundry and run dishwasher ahead while there is sun available so we can cut usage to a minimum if needed on cloudy stretches.

The coming winter will be interesting if I get the extra PV installed for the house. The extra 14Kwh battery can be built any time, it isn't needed right now. With the shop system up and running I can shift battery power to where it is needed.

Original plan was to switch PV but that required having extra SCC's on each end that would not be used everyday. I then decided to go with the Chargeverter option. I can't use battery power while using the AIO AC chargers, thus the move to the Chargeverters. I have to measure the run then decide what size wire I'm running or multiple circuits.