Bad days for Solar Production.

[Nobodybusiness]

Did alright today after the fog burned off.

Got 68kw but running deficit from other 3 days.
Hopefully tomorrow is like today.

 

[LydMekk]

11.6kwh in - 74.3kwh out.
Turned the grid back on and are filling up my batteries to 100% as we speak.
Will turn the grid off again after and see how it goes.

 

[Nobodybusiness]

11.6kwh in - 74.3kwh out.
Turned the grid back on and are filling up my batteries to 100% as we speak.
Will turn the grid off again after and see how it goes.

You use about as much as I do per day..

 

[ksmithaz1]

I'm very pleased here, better than I expected. I'm getting better than half what I would in the summer and my panel angles are sub-optimal on the primary strings. 15.4K+ of new roof panels and 3.5k of old ones. Non-EV draw is pretty low. I'm managing to charge my batteries well over 80% by 1600 and bleed off a few kwh to the cars in the morning if I'm over 40%. Should be better tomorrow, and maybe even better Wednesday. Solar is such a no-brainer here. I think 20KW of panels and 90KWH of batteries kind of locks in around these parts for me.

 

[Eber]

Had to put the 2 ton heat pump (ground loop) on the grid at the end of november.
I dont think I have had one decent sunny day since.

18k watts of panels are just not enough to make power on dreary days to support the heat pump
more than 2 days with my battery bank. I would rather keep the batteries around 80%+ in case the
grid fails. It surprised the heck out of me this year that I had to put the heat pump on the grid so much or so early as compared to last year.

Based on last winters experience, the rest of the house will be fine for December and January.
We use coal as a backup in case my grid backup fails.

I guess I cannot complain because it should only be about $100 a month to heat the home for 2 months.
I was burning wood, but my left hand does not like the shock of the splitting axe anymore.
I liked wood, I have my own here. For 2 gal of chainsaw gas , bar oil, and 10 bucks of diesel for the tractor, I heated my home for the year for many years.

I am not sure though. That heat pump is slick, works good and is cheap to use so far.
Maybe I should have been using it all along instead of so much time to get, cut, and stack that wood
when one day of overtime would have paid the heat bill for the month.

 

[RV10flyer]

If anyone is thinking of getting a resistive hot water buffer tank, can I recommend the Rheem Marathon? It's got about 3" of insulation around it, so it doesn't lose heat to the environment nearly as quickly as a "standard" tank. We have one here on a timer that only heats overnight when power is super cheap (2.4¢/kWh), and can be turned on when overproducing solar... though that's not happening this month.

I wrapped a standard 80 gallon water heater with two more inches of insulation. I have it turned on from 3-8 PM, off the rest of the time. Works pretty well on our off grid solar system. I would like to get around to building my heat pump water heater but haven’t had time.

 

[RV10flyer]

Had to put the 2 ton heat pump (ground loop) on the grid at the end of november.
I dont think I have had one decent sunny day since.

18k watts of panels are just not enough to make power on dreary days to support the heat pump
more than 2 days with my battery bank. I would rather keep the batteries around 80%+ in case the
grid fails. It surprised the heck out of me this year that I had to put the heat pump on the grid so much or so early as compared to last year.

Based on last winters experience, the rest of the house will be fine for December and January.
We use coal as a backup in case my grid backup fails.

I guess I cannot complain because it should only be about $100 a month to heat the home for 2 months.
I was burning wood, but my left hand does not like the shock of the splitting axe anymore.
I liked wood, I have my own here. For 2 gal of chainsaw gas , bar oil, and 10 bucks of diesel for the tractor, I heated my home for the year for many years.

I am not sure though. That heat pump is slick, works good and is cheap to use so far.
Maybe I should have been using it all along instead of so much time to get, cut, and stack that wood
when one day of overtime would have paid the heat bill for the month.

It’s good exercise and helps get the fallen trees cleaned up. I went from 20.6 last year, to 32kWpv this year. I can recharge in less than two hours of full sun usually. Until now, it takes all day and sometimes three days to get back to 100%. Atmospheric moisture and bomb/dust particle?

 

[Zwy]

I agree and there are even some situations where straight resistance will make sense. EG: I'm nearly done adding a 11kW straight resistance my 1200g storage tank. I've modified a 50g water heater so it can run both 5,500 watt elements at the same time. I've nicknamed it the "kWh eater".

So if you have a place to a put a lot of BTU's (kWh's for our metric friends) and can chose what time of day or even better what day of the week you do it you've bought yourself a ton of flexibility.

The formula for BTU's and water is not that hard to get. 1 BTU will change the temp of 1lb of water 1 degree F. 1 gallon of water weighs ~8.3lbs at room temp but loses weight as it gets warmer but for now we're going to ignore the finer points of water changing density with temperature.

You can store 8.3 BTU's in each gallon of water that you raise or lower by 1 degree F.

100 gallons of water raised 50f would look like this.
8.3 x 100 gallons x 50 = 41,500 BTU's

Here's an idea for a buffer tank. Even has a built in heat exchanger.

Richmond 120 gal. Tall 6-Year Solar Electric Water Heater with Universal Connect S120U-1 - The Home Depot

The Richmond 120 Gal. universal connect solar storage tank with multi-port connections are available as electric backup water heaters and as storage tanks for solar water heating systems. The connection

www.homedepot.com

Heat exchanger model is $1866.

I've seen copper lined, stainless steel, plastic and some even use 500 gallon propane tanks with spray foam for insulation. Converting a water heater is ok for smaller buffer tanks but once you get up to some larger capacity, the buffer tanks made for that purpose might be a better option. If the move is to air to water heat pumps down the road (most likely) then installing a copper or stainless lined tank with the needed heat exchanger might be the best option. Buy it once and it is heat pump ready.

I have to wonder about the 6 year tanks. While a closed loop pressurized system doesn't have the constant influx of oxygen passing thru, it still might not last long.

 

[42OhmsPA]

So glad I charged full from the grid and let them float overnight... Sigh

 

[SparkyJJO]

I had some nice sun this morning. Now it has gotten cloudy again. Meh.

 

[Nobodybusiness]

So glad I charged full from the grid and let them float overnight... Sigh
View attachment 181402

Lol that’s how it always works!!

 

[andrew-d]

Found the problem!

Ottawa records longest consecutive snowfall on record

It hasn't stopped snowing in Ottawa for over two days, setting a new record

ottawa.ctvnews.ca

??

 

[shadowmaker]

Found the problem!
View attachment 181447

Ottawa records longest consecutive snowfall on record

It hasn't stopped snowing in Ottawa for over two days, setting a new record

ottawa.ctvnews.ca

??

For my vertical setup fresh snow only enhances production. Today it slowly snowed the whole day with 7kWh yield. Seeing actual sun would help a lot.

 

[andrew-d]

For my vertical setup fresh snow only enhances production. Today it slowly snowed the whole day with 7kWh yield. Seeing actual sun would help a lot.

Yeah, seeing your vertical results has definitely convinced me to try it when I add more panels. It has to stop snowing for the sun to come out first though…

 

[shadowmaker]

Yeah, seeing your vertical results has definitely convinced me to try it when I add more panels. It has to stop snowing for the sun to come out first though…

Yep, one would think I'm all smile up here, but when I compare 7kWh to my all time best 334kWh, I can assure I'm not smiling...

 

[timselectric]

I made over 20kwh today. Whoo hoo.
Nothing gained. But also Nothing lost.

 

[Nobodybusiness]

I made over 20kwh today. Whoo hoo.
Nothing gained. But also Nothing lost.

I hate to brag because karma will screw me for the rest of the month but it was cold and sunny today so got 81.7 Kw..

 

[ksmithaz1]

Ive been steady in the low 60's. Bee jealous! That being said, I'm hoping the 20-22nd are sunny days for a best case on the shortest days. It should ramp up pretty quickly. The next 4 weeks should be interesting.

 

[Nobodybusiness]

Ive been steady in the low 60's. Bee jealous! That being said, I'm hoping the 20-22nd are sunny days for a best case on the shortest days. It should ramp up pretty quickly. The next 4 weeks should be interesting.

Yea i am Hoping by February just to turn off the grid input until November.

 

[LydMekk]

Usually in March for my sake. Then the fuse gets turned OFF for 6 months.

Oh wait, got the 2 Chargeverters...well, I am going to turn those off LOL.

 

[GXMnow]

We had sun today in So Cal, but with the low sun angle, and the growing trees, I still fell short by about 3 KWHs and had to use some grid power. Also, the panels are really dirty. Probably gain 6-10% with a rinse off. Our last 2 rain "events" were only enough to make the dust into mud, it didn't rinse off anything. So my Enphase setup made 14.6 KWHs from just 4.8 KW of panels, and the DC system made 4.7 KWHs from just 2 KW of panels. So 19.3 KWHs of solar today. The house needed almost 23 KWHs.

The same day last year, the Enphase system only made 9.5 KWHs, and the DC system only had 1,000 watts of panels and barely made 1.4 KWHs, so I am doing way better. Looking at the trusty iPhone weather app, I have 2 more decent sunny days, then 3 days of clouds again. But it looks like I will fall short, even on the fully sunny days with how low the sun is right now.

 

[LydMekk]

Kind of upsetting...look at the combined use on the bottom...literally WTH?

 

[GXMnow]

The weather here has been odd. Here is a comparison of my usage from last year to this year.
Here is the 2022 billing period as seen by So Cal Edison.

As the days got shorter and the sun angle got down into some shadows, you can see how my export decreased at the end of November. But then in December, w got clouds and rain and the production went to crap. I was buying over 8 KWHs on many days. Here is this year.

I tried to line up the bars of the same dates. The end of November was much worse than last year. Even though I added 2,000 watts of panels, I had to use more grid power, especially on Nov. 15/16

But into Dec. I am doing a bit better. I think most of it is the extra DC panels. But the weather may be a lit lighter as well. This billing period ends in a week and a half. My worst case grid consumption is down a bit from last year so far. Peaking to just one day topping 10 KWHs, where last year I had 3 topping 12 KWHs. But with the bad weather in Nov. I have exported a lot less back to the grid. My peak export only hit 2.5 KWHs where I was as high as 7 KWHs last year.

 

[Balrog006]

Better today, afternoon was clear. 24kw production, charged up the batteries and has been running loads most of the day. Hopefully tomorrow is good too.

 

[Nobodybusiness]

I just know I’m screwing myself by posting this but got 84kw today..
Hopefully trend continues.