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Solar Addict
New one day best total. 343.6kwh. 55 degrees day in February, no snow on the ground.
Bad days for Solar Production.
- Thread starter Nobodybusiness
- Start date
Brett V
Mad Scientist
Punxsutawney Phil didn’t see his shadow…Two days in a row of clear blue skies. I’ll take it!
ksmithaz1
Solar / EV Junkie
Afternoons are really starting to get longer, and production has soared... When it's sunny... Cali is sending 4+ days of gloom my way, but I got the cars charged up. We'll see if we can get into the high 80's before month end.
Subdood
Photon Wrangler
Yep supposedly he didn't see his shadow, but we have seen ours since the 1st. So who is right?? I'll take the sun, thank you, all that grayness is depressing in more ways than one. We got about 26kwh for 4 days, that's some kind of record for us.
Subdood
Photon Wrangler
Yep every day the sun goes down a minute later, and comes up a minute earlier. I have to be at work at 7am, so I'm starting to see the dawn glow when we drive in.
My system hits operational voltage (350V) around 9am and stays there until about 5pm. In our hilly terrain though, the sun disappears behind the trees about then. We can't get full power from 4pm onwards.
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Brett V
Mad Scientist
GXMnow
Solar Wizard
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2020
- Messages
- 2,802
February is not looking too good at this point
The "Atmospheric River" is ponding southern California with rain and heavy clouds. Last year at this time, my 4,800 watt Enphase system was producing over 18 KWHs every day. I was at just 14.1 KWHs on Feb. 3rd. Then dropped to just 3.3 KWHs on Feb. 4th. And today, Feb. 5th, it is 1 pm, and my system has so far only produce 0.6 KWHs.
The "Atmospheric River" is ponding southern California with rain and heavy clouds. Last year at this time, my 4,800 watt Enphase system was producing over 18 KWHs every day. I was at just 14.1 KWHs on Feb. 3rd. Then dropped to just 3.3 KWHs on Feb. 4th. And today, Feb. 5th, it is 1 pm, and my system has so far only produce 0.6 KWHs.
Nobodybusiness
Solar Sponge.
42OhmsPA
What's in a title?
So far in Feb I've harvested over 1/3 of Jan. I don't want to talk about December. 
The angled ground mount had a huge impact in November and so far this month it's produced nicely compared to the flatter roofs.
The angled ground mount had a huge impact in November and so far this month it's produced nicely compared to the flatter roofs. timselectric
If I can do it, you can do it.
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2022
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- 19,950
February is starting off better. I've been gaining a little capacity each day.
Tomorrow, my system should reach 100% SOC. This will be the first time it has accomplished this without assistance, since November.
I'm not counting on it, but February is going better than expected.
So far......
Tomorrow, my system should reach 100% SOC. This will be the first time it has accomplished this without assistance, since November.
I'm not counting on it, but February is going better than expected.
So far......
ksmithaz1
Solar / EV Junkie
All this crap in California is headed your way . . . On a better note, we might get some more water in Lake Mead and Lake Powell. System is so big, I doubt it will break up as it travels across the US. Sunshine will follow.
mmmmmdonuts
New Member
5 days in February and already out produced January. 
timselectric
If I can do it, you can do it.
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Yup
The next round is coming. I can handle a few days of rain. As long as the sunny days are sunny enough.
GXMnow
Solar Wizard
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2020
- Messages
- 2,802
I'm not sure if this is good or bad news at this point, but the forecast has changed quite a bit. They are now saying the rain here in So Cal should stop by Wednesday morning. iPhone weather is now saying just "partly cloudy" Wed. Thurs. Fri. And then "SUNNY!" Sat. and Sun.
My final energy production totals for today are horrible. Just 930 watt hours (0.93 KWHs) from my 4,800 watt Enphase system, and just 590 watt hours (0.59 KWHs) from my 2,000 watt Victron DC system.
That is a dismal 0.194 sun hours hitting the Enphase panels, and 0.295 sun hours on the Victron DC panels.
This totally nails one thing for sure. The worse the solar power, the better the Victron MPPT kicks ass over the Enphase iQ7 inverters. Even looking at the absolute best production from the SilFab panels on the Enphase system, two of the 300 watt panels managed 64 watt hours, the rest were all less than that, with the lowest at just 42 watt hours. 64 / 300 = 0.213 sun hours on the best panel and 42 / 300 = 0.14 sun hours on the worst one.
The Victron charge controller is doing an amazing job. That is a goofy array with 10 x Newpowa 100 watt panels wired 5S2P running in parallel with 5 more BougeRV 200 watt panels running just 5S. They do seem to work very well together, and I suspect that both cheap panels are using cells from the same source. The difference is the cells in the 100 watt panels are "half cut" versions. Looking at the 200 watt panels, you can even see the marks on the cells where they would be cut to make the half size cells. They are otherwise identical. All panels have the same 32 cells in series so the VMP is the same on all panels. But I still expected the variations across 15 panels to make it hard for the system to pull as much energy as a separate MPPT per panel. And when we have a lot of sun, the Enphase setup does end up winning.
In the race today, the winner was still going really slow.
My final energy production totals for today are horrible. Just 930 watt hours (0.93 KWHs) from my 4,800 watt Enphase system, and just 590 watt hours (0.59 KWHs) from my 2,000 watt Victron DC system.
That is a dismal 0.194 sun hours hitting the Enphase panels, and 0.295 sun hours on the Victron DC panels.
This totally nails one thing for sure. The worse the solar power, the better the Victron MPPT kicks ass over the Enphase iQ7 inverters. Even looking at the absolute best production from the SilFab panels on the Enphase system, two of the 300 watt panels managed 64 watt hours, the rest were all less than that, with the lowest at just 42 watt hours. 64 / 300 = 0.213 sun hours on the best panel and 42 / 300 = 0.14 sun hours on the worst one.
The Victron charge controller is doing an amazing job. That is a goofy array with 10 x Newpowa 100 watt panels wired 5S2P running in parallel with 5 more BougeRV 200 watt panels running just 5S. They do seem to work very well together, and I suspect that both cheap panels are using cells from the same source. The difference is the cells in the 100 watt panels are "half cut" versions. Looking at the 200 watt panels, you can even see the marks on the cells where they would be cut to make the half size cells. They are otherwise identical. All panels have the same 32 cells in series so the VMP is the same on all panels. But I still expected the variations across 15 panels to make it hard for the system to pull as much energy as a separate MPPT per panel. And when we have a lot of sun, the Enphase setup does end up winning.
In the race today, the winner was still going really slow.
jarred125
New Member
- Joined
- Jul 16, 2021
- Messages
- 125
Man this thread speaks my language after installing my first array last year. December and January were awful. This month has been amazing, but the weekend starts a downturn.
I have another 8.5kW of panels arriving this week, I am really looking at what I can do to pick up more morning sun right now.However, I am sure that any east facing panels are not as useful as my standard south facing overall.
I have another 8.5kW of panels arriving this week, I am really looking at what I can do to pick up more morning sun right now.However, I am sure that any east facing panels are not as useful as my standard south facing overall.
timselectric
If I can do it, you can do it.
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2022
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- 19,950
And of course, mother nature brings clouds today. lol
Subdood
Photon Wrangler
We got 64KWh last month, that's 31 days worth. So far this month, we're at about half that already. Me likey.
Zwy
Emperor Of Solar
Panel azimuth depends on a few factors. If you have a large array and maxing out the at noon, changing azimuth on other arrays may help with maxing out the SCC's for longer periods.
If you are like me and have more SCC capacity then panels, I would suggest due south azimuth for peak production. Arrays off due south will not put out full capacity, however changing array tilt may help.
If shading is an issue during certain times of the day, it might be beneficial to change azimuth to minimize shading losses.
Tulex
Solar Wizard
Doing about the same. 227kWh for Jan on 12740 watts of panels
Already 99 in Feb.
Zwy
Emperor Of Solar
February has been pretty good so far. 99.4Kwh of loads powered and battery charged 63.6Kwh- total 163Kwh. From 8.4Kw of panels.
trdstarlet
New Member
January production was 303Kwh for the month and currently 56Kwh for the month... rain rain go away lol!
Brucey
Solar Wizard
Best day ever for me, filled my Delta 2 max from empty to full with three Hyundai 300W panels. Need to get more cables to add a fourth and that should get me pretty close to the 500W per input max. Next step, six of the 300Ws into a mobile 36V 100Ah bank.
James Getman
New Member
February has been good in eastern iowa, 3 powerpros full before 1 pm. See how long I can stay off grid using 60% of my batteries. Want to add some solar fence to boost cloudy days. Anyone using vertical bifacials?
42OhmsPA
What's in a title?
@shadowmaker has vertical covered.
Thread 'My 44kW vertical and bifacial set in Finland.' https://diysolarforum.com/threads/my-44kw-vertical-and-bifacial-set-in-finland.51584/
Edit to add some recent good discussion on vertical starts here.
Post in thread 'My 44kW vertical and bifacial set in Finland.' https://diysolarforum.com/threads/my-44kw-vertical-and-bifacial-set-in-finland.51584/post-997436
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