diy solar

diy solar

Adding Schneider XW Pro

Finally made some progress towards adding the remaining 16 - LG LG425QAK-A6 (425W) to the shed roof.
Started in Sept, but hurricanes Ian and Nicole diverted my time and energy to cleanup and repairs. (Irritated chainsaw noises...)

The Schneider MPPT 100/600 CC for the LG panels is all wired up, waiting in "standby" mode.
Finished installation of the rails for the 8 LG panels on the West facing roof.
Daughter says she will help me lift the 45lb, 75" things up there, on her day off from work.
I was a little concerned about adding 1200 lbs to the shed roof, but as it is distributed over all the trusses, should be OK.
(400lbs for the existing REC365AA & mounts, 400 more for the LG, x2)

8 more LG panels are going on the East roof, so as to pick up more sunrise energy.
One tree is blocking East insolation until about 10AM.
The tree is being terminated w/ extreme prejudice. (Happy chainsaw noises...)

No hurry, as I am trying my best be safe.
It is still hot weather here.
Taking breaks and staying hydrated.

The added 6800 watts are not going to be needed until May-2023, as the pool pumps are off for the season, so the Schneider equipment is only running the heat pump, well pump & misc small loads.
View attachment 123114
View attachment 123115

Curious about the "Tree of Doom" :ROFLMAO:
 
After 3 weeks of emails and minor tweaks to the paperwork, my permission permission to operate from PGE came back today!

So, it's now officially ok to run the system connected to PGE. And it's all done in time to stay under NEM 2.
 
Daughter had the day off from work, came over and helped put 8 of the LG 425watt
panels up on the West-facing shed roof! It was HOT today on the roof.
I connected the PV cabling today after sunset, in a cloud of mosquitoes....

Tomorrow I am hoping for good output when the Sun is past noon.
The next 8 panels are going on the East-facing roof, going to be a month or two to get that done.
LG_panel_pusher.png
LGpanelsinstalled.png
 
I installed my existing 6kw Solar Edge System, got permission to operate from PGE 12/2018
Now, I am adding battery storage.

I started this process nearly a year ago, I submitted the first permit draft in May 2020.
Now, in February 2021 I picked up the Conext XW pro and mini PDP.

Got it hung on the wall just a couple days later.
Wow, is that a huge coil of copper. The entire back 2/3 of the unit is just a giant copper coil.

View attachment 39063

I've got conduit to run and a battery to pick up, lots of work ahead of me.

Does anyone know what these are for? They are not mentioned in the manual or parts listing for the XW pro.
They also are not mentioned in the mini power distribution panel, but they were in the XW box.
View attachment 39065
I Believe these are only needed if you are going to convert your Split Phase 120/240 Unit to a Single Phase 120 V unit. They are Jumpers for doing the conversion.
 
Have been experimenting with adding more load.
Installed a transfer switch for the antique 80 gallon water heater.
Timer enables the heater once, from noon to 2PM.
Water heater uses 6kw, cycle usually completes in 45 minutes.

Adding up the loads on the XW Pros, in anticipation of Summer, looks like the
limit of the inverter 60A output could be reached.

calculated_loads.png
I do have the external contactor and Solid State relay ready to go, so that loads over 60A could be supported, but installing that hideous kludge will be a last resort.

In a few months, when the Summer systems are activated, I will be monitoring the output to see if the calculated loads agree with the measured loads.
Then I will know if the 60A inverter relay is in jeopardy.
squared_pool_waterheater_transferswitches_2023.png
 
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If your water heater only runs for 45 minutes, what if you installed a relay to lock out the pool pump for those 45 minutes while the heater was running? That would lower your total load by 3,000 watts.
 
I don't know how involved your pool pump controller is, I was thinking of a relay (to power the pool pump) that opened when voltage is applied to the heater elements.
That maximizes the time the pool pump can run and eliminates overlaps between the two.

Adjusting the timers would be soo much simpler!
 
Daughter and I finished installing the remaining 3400 watts of PV on the shed roof!
East facing LG panels now contributing to production.
eastroofpvcomplete.png
No more PV going on the shed roof, we will expand the ground mount, if more panels are required in the future.
groundmount.png
Summer 2023 performance will determine if we need more PV.

Graph spikes are the water heater being powered by the PV.

waterheaterpv.png
Looking forward to the improved insolation, as the June solstice approaches.
 
Is the water heater PV direct with DC, or AC?
If AC, I suggest feeding 120V into the 240V element. 1/4 the power, will run 4x as long. Leaves more inverter power for other loads and doesn't cycle the battery as hard.
Timer or light sensor so it only runs when sun is shining. Or based on an SoC indicator.
 
Water heater is a 2006 AO Smith, 80 gallon, 240vac.
I would like to replace it with a Rheem heat pump type, except that
the ancient zombie AO Smith just will not die.

Intermatic timer runs it 12:00-14:00, so the DC coupled PV is supplying the energy.
(FLA batteries stay in standby mode, most of the time)
 
Depending on season, PV output is probably just about water heater consumption?
But off season, I would imagine that is drawing down the battery.
Think it would be better to connect the heating elements in series to 240V, for 1/2 the current draw?
That should be around 2500W, less than PV for all seasons. (but not all weather conditions, could add switching features.)

My Kenmore water heater, came used with the house 22 years ago, died 21 years later.
Due to braid water hose leaking on the outside, causing rusting. I'm back to using flexible solid lines.

If you can get enough hot water resistance heating with surplus PV, HPWH would be a losing bet.
 
In 2021, my area switched to East Bay Community Energy. I specifically filled out the paperwork to opt out. In part because the messed with net metering and they don't appear to be doing it correctly/the same as PGE.
But, mostly because they don't participate with Ohm Connect.

Well, on Tuesday I got a "Thanks for joining East Bay Community Energy" email.

I called both PGE and EBCE, each points the finger at the other and admits they see my opt out form. Insert random excuses like "well you added more solar, so it's now a new energy agreement with PGE, so you were automatically opted in"
I've made 5 phone calls so far and it seems like they just don't care. Best they can do is a 2-3 month long "retroactive opt out"
God, I don't expect this to go well. ? Hoping it's not too bad and that I don't somehow end up on NEM3
 
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No news on the PGE/EBCE nonsense...

Shortly after my previous post, I temporarily mounted up the two spare 480 watt panels I purchased. I still plan to put them up and mounted for real, but for now, at least they are producing.

I have been waiting for a good clear full day of production to see how they perform, but that hasn't happened, so I'm finally posting now after a crazy spike today.

I've got 4 panels, 2 in series in two different parallel arrays:
-The first two facing east (20° tilt)
-The temporary install has the panels facing straight south (45ish° tilt)

Today, the sun came out from behind a cloud for a few minutes and blew the panel ratings out of the water. Just a guess, I don't remember what the weather was at 11:13 today...

4* 480 watt panels = 1920 watts
Peak output was 2310 watts to the battery, so after the charge controller inefficiency.
At least 120% of rated output!

Screenshot_20230225-184610.png
 
This weather has been crazy. I saw something like that as well. The peak on my 2,000 watts of DC panels did only hit 1,749 watts, but that was after the wind blew them off the stands and 2 panels were partially covered. If they were all still at the correct angles, I bet it would have topped 2,000 watts. At the same time, my Enphase panels clipped the inverters at the full 3,900 watts. That was between 10:45 and 11 am here today. The panels were nicely cleaned by all the rain, very cold, and I think the clouds were also reflecting extra light down onto the panels while the sun also had a direct clear path to the panels. Looking at the Schneider battery summary graph, my PLC commanded it to charge at 59 amps which was still leaving power to run the house and even export 60 watts to the grid. The battery voltage was at 53.82 so that works out to 3,176 watts going into the batteries. And don't forget the DC panels were also pushing over 30 amps at the same time. That means the total charge current hit over 80 amps. Too bad my cheap DC charge controller does not graph the day. I have the Enphase plot, but since it is 15 minute average slices, it only shows it averaged 3,700 watts for that 15 minutes, the peak from the panels was clearly over 3,900 watts as the iQ7 inverters were all solid into clip.

But of course, the whole day total was lousy. I got 6.3 KWHs from the Enphase system with 4,800 watts of panels, and the DC system produced 2,243 watt hours, even with the panels out of place for most of the day.
 
Well, today was a surprise. The XW stopped charging at about 10:30, meaning the pack was something like 90% charged.
The DC solar kept going for a little longer, it charged until basically noon.

You can see the spotty clouds that blew through this morning, but after about 9:30 it cleared up.

So, half a day of possible production from the DC panels is gone.
The AC coupled PV spent 2/3rds of the day pumping juice onto the grid.

Spring is good times for solar.

Screenshot_20230303-195717.png
 
So, half a day of possible production from the DC panels is gone.
The AC coupled PV spent 2/3rds of the day pumping juice onto the grid.

Can you tell the XW to take its DC and shove it ... into the grid?

With Sunny Island and DC coupling, that can be done if SCC independently drives a voltage higher than SI's target. SI exports to grid to draw voltage down.
With data link between them, SI tells SCC what voltage, so no excess.

I guess if I set SCC high and had a relay to interrupt RJ45 cable, I could put it in export mode when I want to. Like when it is on grid.
 
Can you tell the XW to take its DC and shove it
I don't think this is that kind of place.
... into the grid?
Oh?
With Sunny Island and DC coupling, that can be done if SCC independently drives a voltage higher than SI's target. SI exports to grid to draw voltage down.
With data link between them, SI tells SCC what voltage, so no excess.

I guess if I set SCC high and had a relay to interrupt RJ45 cable, I could put it in export mode when I want to. Like when it is on grid.
It could be done, but currently I have grid sell blocked until 4 PM (PGE peak rate is 4-9)
At 4 it starts exporting to the grid at a 1 amp (@240vac) threshold to ensure I avoid peak rates in the summer.

The way the XW logic works is that it dumps to the grid until you hit the set voltage. That voltage set point is also the shared set point with it supporting my loads.

If I had purchased the Schneider charge controller I'd have more options. But I have a Midnite Classic. I purchased the Classic for integrated arc fault. Had I known about the additional functionality gained by using a Schneider charge controller it might have changed my purchase decision. But going with the Schneider charge controller requires a separate Arc Fault detector, which they will happily sell me... For something like $700
I don't think it would have changed my mind, the extra energy and functionality I'd gain would take a long time to offset $700

So, at this point I could spend more time with my Raspberry Pi power monitor and Node-Red to set up the ability to change those thresholds and operation of the XW.
I'm just not sure it's worth the time and effort. Once I get into spring and summer, I may change my mind on that. But for now, I've only lost a few kWh of energy.
 
These last two sunny cool days did the same thing here. I had my battery topped out on the XW by 11 am today, and even with half my DC panels upside down after 2 pm, the DC still stuffed over 6 KWHs into the battery, hitting absorb at 2:30 pm. The voltage didn't fall to the XW full 56.7 volts until after 7:30 pm today. With the extra AC solar and the DC solar combined, the battery is getting charged up in just 2.5 hours. I am going to drop the point at which the XW stops charging to even a little lower on the voltage. That way the Enphase will export more to the grid and the DC will finish charging the battery. It's just a shame that all that export is happening at the "Super Off Peak" rate. The 2 KW of DC panels is doing great.
 
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