Bad days for Solar Production.

[42OhmsPA]

@42OhmsPA, Is that 8.89 cents per kwh delivered, or just the supply cost? As I recall, utilities in PA "split" the bill into two, separate charges - for supply (producing the power) and then a separate charge for delivering it. They do that here in Maine and each charge ends up being about half what you actually pay, per kwh delivered. I once lived in PA, and seem to recall they did that, as well.

We're currently at just under 29 cents per kwh delivered in Maine, but it drops to about 25 cents Jan 1 2024. That's still high, though, so I really want the sun to come back!

Yes, PPL splits supply and generation. They also don't give you the $400 rebate for minisplits if you don't use them for supply and generation but don't share that anywhere until you submit the rebate...

I want the sun too.

 

[OPTIMALSOLAR]

694kw month to date. 5.9kw max inversion. 800 in sights. Texas baby.

 

[Mattb4]

One good aspect to the recent bad weather is it does provide an good opportunity to make changes to the system.

 

[GXMnow]

694kw month to date. 5.9kw max inversion. 800 in sights. Texas baby.

So far this December, my 4,800 watts of panels on the Enphase system have only produced 333 KWHs. Last year, 2022, it made on 343 total, so I might actually beat that. In 2021 it was 361 KWHs, and 202 was 456. Some of the yearly drop is the trees getting taller and causing more evening shadow earlier each day in Winter. Once we get to March, the trees are no longer an issue.

My DC system has only been running for a year, and it started the year at 1,000 watts, then I doubled it to 2,000 watts in March. Too bad it has minimal data logging. It does show the total production since the charge controller was reset a bit over a year ago. That is at 2,137 KWHs. Yes, over 2.1 Mega watt hours. I am thinking of resetting it on Jan. 1 so it counts up the energy for the next year. But I may be changing out the charge controller for a Victron. They are on sale and dropped even more. The 150 volt 35 amp with bluetooth is now just $186 USD on Amazon. Should I step up to the 45 amp? I never saw over 30 amps on my cheap charge controller.

 

[B-Mod]

A couple days ago I got all my inverters running with the solar so there was no more doubled up solar and clipping on sunny days. Today was going to be a sunny day so I was ready to make some serious power.

Battery was at 65%, before the sun came up I had started some loads. I fired up the bitcoin miners first as they make $ and heat my shop. As soon as the solar was ramped up for the day I added more loads till I got around 20 to 25kw of load on the system, and batteries were charging also. But to my surprise by 11am the batteries were about filled.

I scrambled to add some load to the new 4 inverters as I don't have any output wiring on them, only batteries hooked up. So I temp wired my Tesla charger to the 4 inverters as the Tesla can charge at up to 18kw, so it would load the 4 inverters nicely. Got it hooked up, but no go. Tesla charger said there was a ground issue. I scrambled to get it to work trying different things, but nothing would satisfy the Tesla charger and I was wasting serious power......

I tested the output of the Growatts, 240v. Then I tested them to ground and found an issue. One leg to ground was 110v, and the other leg to ground was 130v. I was pretty sure I was on to something, but what? I tried looking at Growatt settings, could not find anything set wrong.

Then it dawned on me, I would if the Tesla charger is picky and I need to hook an auto transformer to balance the output. So I dug one out and hooked it into my temporary mess, and guess what? It worked!

But I lost a ton of kwh of potential solar, and even with those 4 inverters running at close to 90% of max kw I was still wasting solar potential power.

I did end up making 245kwh for the day, but I sure would have liked to see what I could have made.....

 

[Nobodybusiness]

I did end up making 245kwh for the day, but I sure would have liked to see what I could have made.....

That’s insane for December..

 

[OffGridForGood]

That’s insane for December..

...In Wisconsin !!

 

[timselectric]

Then it dawned on me, I would if the Tesla charger is picky and I need to hook an auto transformer to balance the output. So I dug one out and hooked it into my temporary mess, and guess what? It worked!

Did you bond the neutral from the autotransformer?
That's the only thing that I can imagine would have satisfied the Tesla charger. (I assume it's 240v) because it was looking for a ground.

 

[B-Mod]

Did you bond the neutral from the autotransformer?
That's the only thing that I can imagine would have satisfied the Tesla charger. (I assume it's 240v) because it was looking for a ground.

I had no auto transformer at first as I was just trying to power the Tesla charger (240v) from the group of inverters, 240v, no neutral, just 2 hots and a ground.

 

[timselectric]

I had no auto transformer at first as I was just trying to power the Tesla charger (240v) from the group of inverters, 240v, no neutral, just 2 hots and a ground.

There is no ground. If there is no neutral.
The N/G bond creates the ground.

 

[Zwy]

That’s insane for December..

It was foggy here until after 10 am but it still produced 49.03Kwh after the fog lifted between 10 am and sunset. That is from 8.4Kw of array tilted to 65 degrees.

It's feast or famine here in Iowa this December. 6 to 8 days of no sun and now 2 days of sun, then snow tomorrow. And probably be cloudy or fog the day after.

 

[koppted]

I did end up making 245kwh for the day, but I sure would have liked to see what I could have made.....

How many solar panels do you have an what is their combined output power rating?

 

[Zwy]

How many solar panels do you have an what is their combined output power rating?

He may have more but he posted this some time ago. https://diysolarforum.com/threads/is-the-power-company-just-biding-time.74938/post-951609

 

[OffGridForGood]

It was foggy here until after 10 am but it still produced 49.03Kwh after the fog lifted between 10 am and sunset. That is from 8.4Kw of array tilted to 65 degrees.

It's feast or famine here in Iowa this December. 6 to 8 days of no sun and now 2 days of sun, then snow tomorrow. And probably be cloudy or fog the day after.

I tilt up my arrays for the winter too, helps both with solar and with snow removal.
I looked up Des moines, sun-down yesterday was 4:52Pm - your 8.4kW array from 10:00 to 4:52 had just shy of 7 hours to collect those 49.03kWh, meaning they operated on average, 7kW per hour x 7 hours or 83% of max. I wish I was getting that performance!
Still no snow on the ground up here, seems to really cut my solar compared with last winter.
{did I just admit I want it to snow? LOL}

 

[B-Mod]

How many solar panels do you have an what is their combined output power rating?

57kw, 142 400w panels bifacials, south facing, tilted to 62 degrees, no snow. 6 inverters that will take up to 6kw, each have 7p2s (14 total), that is one power plant. Then I have another 4 inverters with the same solar inputs.

 

[B-Mod]

There is no ground. If there is no neutral.
The N/G bond creates the ground.

Right, it is too smart for it's own good. A resistive 5kw heater ran just fine.

 

[timselectric]

Right, it is too smart for it's own good. A resistive 5kw heater ran just fine.

Yup
It doesn't care if it is grounded or not, to work.
But more and more equipment is getting safety minded. And looking for a ground, before it will work.

 

[Subdood]

I just have a 3.6KW array and one Lifepower4 5KWh batt, and for most of December was getting about 2.5KWh a day, some days we would do some laundry and that would up our production to 5kwh. But this week has been brutal, this steel wool cloudiness/fog has really put the kibosh on production.

One 5KWh battery this time of the year doesn't last from dusk to dawn. But now that the sun's going down a minute later, we eventually will make it thru the night without having to charge off the grid some. This just runs our 120V stuff not the high power items like heat, dryer, stove, etc.

Just need mo' batts..

 

[upnorthandpersonal]

Just need mo' batts.

Where have I heard that one before

 

[timselectric]

It's our montra.
More batteries.
More solar.
More power.

 

[Q-Dog]

26 days after back surgery and my wife and I managed to put up 2 more solar panels yesterday. It's like an addiction.

 

[OPTIMALSOLAR]

Wow. That is a lot of solar.

 

[Q-Dog]

Wow. That is a lot of solar.

These are just the first 2 panels of a whole pallet. I'll get them all up, eventually. Just have to take it easy on my repaired back.

 

[kromc5]

December has just been terrible nothing but clouds we are right on the edge of having to switch over to grid. Past 30 minutes it has gone back to full cloud cover. Weather says it could to partly cloudy by 3 but that does not leave much time for charging.

 

[upnorthandpersonal]

I made 384 Wh today from a 10kW array, so yeah...