diy solar

diy solar

An Enphase Ensemble Installation

AntronX said:
Oh you're not on FPL. I forgot keys have their own power company.
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We get most of our power from FPL, probably the nuclear facility at Turkey Creek, FKEC resells it to us and maintains the lines (although there's a lot of cooperative sharing among communities here during big storm events). But FKEC does have a couple of small solar installations too. Land is expensive here, just because there is so little of it. We have some areas that would be great for floating arrays (e.g. old coral quarries that are now salty lakes). Florida Bay is actually very gentle and might be another good spot for floating bigger arrays, but no one would probably want to take the risk of messing up the ecology/tourism.

Keys Energy Services serves the lower keys, I believe they have both solar and wind turbines.
 
svetz said:
We have some areas that would be great for floating arrays (e.g. old coral quarries that are now salty lakes).
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That proximity to salt water splash would not be gentle on those floating arrays. Best way would be to cover every roof with solar. Offgrid capability is also a must.
 
AntronX said:
That proximity to salt water splash would not be gentle on those floating arrays. Best way would be to cover every roof with solar. Offgrid capability is also a must.
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definitely agree, salt is hard on electronics, it's in the air so no splashing required. Even electronics indoors gets affected here (high humidity) There have been a few studies of floating solar arrays, mostly fresh water, but there are salt water studies too.
 
svetz said:
Working on the rates for 2023 in the OP and ran into something I don't understand. I'll have to call up the power company to see what they say, but it looks like my equity charges are double a non-solar home per kWh.
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As you all should know by now, I can't be trusted with a spreadsheet. :cry:
I got some time today and reran the calculations with a hand calculator and for December it was 1.65¢ per kWh, which is exactly the same as a non-solar home. Now I need to go back and try to find out where I messed up and see how it impacted my yearly savings. The good news is it means I must have saved even more money than reported! ;)
 
svetz said:
The good news is it means I must have saved even more money than reported! ;)
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I know how that goes. Each time they raise the rates here, it is such a mixed feeling. It's like, "REALLY, another hike?". But then I do the math, and my pay off is shorter as I am "saving" even more.
 
Updated the numbers in the OP for January. We've had an unusually wet/cloudy January so down almost 150 kWh :cry:, I blame El Niño.
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Solar produced from Enlighten for January:
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No cold days here in paradise (so far) so you'd think we'd be exporting power like crazy, but not so much. We have gotten a smidge under 60°F a couple of times, but after living in CO for decades I don't think of that as cold, but my neighbors would argue). Despite it not being cold, it's not only been wet, but so humid the air is actually hard to breathe (could just be I'm getting old) and I've been running the dehumidfier upstairs which I don't normally do. It's not super efficient, so we're not actually banking power as much as we usually would for January.
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Happened to notice the wind patterns were interesting. Basically, it went 360° throughout the course of the day for the first couple of weeks:
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Saw some changes (or just stuff I hadn't noticed before) in the 23.9.0 Enlighten app:
  • Mainly it adds the EV charging stuff.
  • Warranty expiration dates are now displayed on the Devices page.
  • But, it also has a Monetary Impact which doesn't seem to add a lot of value until you switch to the month or year view. Then it's kind of interesting!
  • Under "settings" there's a new Clear Local Cache, but I'm not sure what it does and couldn't find any information. Anyone know?
  • Maybe it was always there, I noticed the "App Information" section has release note information!
From release 23.7.0 I saw Storm Guard is supposed to have three system profiles, but I only see one profile. So possibly it's only for newer battery systems. Saw the 5P WiFi notes about improvements and extended range (yes, I'm green with envy... can't be algae, the dehumidifier is on! ; -)

Software Updates!​

Haven't checked in a while, looks like the microinverters are not auto-updating, same rev as last July.

IQ Gateway (Envoy): D7.3.517 → D7.3.621
IQ System Controller (Enpower): 1.5.5229_rel/22.13 → 1.5.5592_rel/22.14
IQ Battery (Encharge): 2.0.5663_rel/22.13 → 2.0.6532_rel/22.14
Microinverters:
  • 540-00142-r01-v04.40.04 → no change
  • 520-00082-r01-v04.40.40.01 → no change
    Profile Set (IEEE 1547:2015-WHB)
 
Updated the OP with February's numbers. Despite being a leap year with an extra day, lowest February yet. Cloudy month? Seems like it:
It's Florida's Cloudiest Winter, Due To El Niño.

I didn't get any alerts, my system is setup to alert me if the power from the panels is off from the solar meter. But possibly it's not working? Probably all is fine... but an expedition to the roof to see if they're pollen-coated or not shouldn't hurt (much).

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Preliminary forecasts say that El Nino will rapidly switch to El Nina in the middle of hurricane season. The water temperature in Hurricane Formation Alley is already a degree warmer, so could make for an exciting fall (if not sooner).

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Talked to an installer the other day to see if I could find out anything on the bi-directional charger... but they hadn't heard anything. So, still no practical solution to power the house from the EV battery. Pity, would really like more emergency backup power for hurricanes, my 13 kWh is pretty good, but with the Car I could run the Air-Conditioner. ; -) Enphase's bi-directional charger is still showing "early 2024", but right now I doubt I'll have it for hurricane season.
 
Lowest March ever... software was updated... 3 power cutover events from storms.
1712236713373.pngIQ Gateway (Envoy): D7.3.621 → D8.2.127
IQ System Controller (Enpower): 1.5.5592_rel/22.14 →1.5.5729/22.15
IQ Battery (Encharge): 2.0.6532_rel/22.14 → 2.0.6727/22.15
Microinverters:
  • 540-00142-r01-v04.40.04 → no change
  • 520-00082-r01-v04.40.40.01 → no change
    Profile Set (IEEE 1547:2015-WHB)

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Windy month, starting to wonder if a 50' tower with turbine might be better than more panels? Here's 2023 at roof level:
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From https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/monitoring/wind/maps/202305, it looks like at 10m I could generate power from a wind turbine at 10m during the winter months. Unfortunately, unlike my northern friends, I consume most of my power in summer. From the maps that doesn't look viable. Seems like it's on the edge in other years, might work year-round at 20 or 30m but that's pretty high.
 
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