Does your total production = total rated panel watts or actual?

[azscooby]

When people say they’ve got 3.2kw of solar energy production available to them do they mean I have 3.2kW of ACTUAL production? Or do they have 3.2kW of what the panels are rated for? And is that actual production at max? On average? How do you get this #?

I’m understanding now how different those numbers are going to be

So when people ask me how many kW hours do I produce, and let’s say I have 10 400 watt panels, is that 4.0kW? Or would it be the actual production I’m reading on my app for my EW 5k inverter?

Does that make sense?

 

[HighDesertOffgrid]

Most state the sum of the panel ratings. The reality is usually 70-80% of those ratings.
Actual Production is strongly related to grid tie vs offgrid.
I suppose it depends on who is doing the asking and why. Are you reporting to an authority, bragging about your solar power, or relating the realities to your bestie.

 

[Nobodybusiness]

When people say they’ve got 3.2kw of solar energy production available to them do they mean I have 3.2kW of ACTUAL production? Or do they have 3.2kW of what the panels are rated for? And is that actual production at max? On average? How do you get this #?

I’m understanding now how different those numbers are going to be

So when people ask me how many kW hours do I produce, and let’s say I have 10 400 watt panels, is that 4.0kW? Or would it be the actual production I’m reading on my app for my EW 5k inverter?

Does that make sense?

A 4kW nameplate array (10 x 400w panels) with 5 hours of direct sun should get between 16-18kWh of power.

You will probably never get 100% of name plate wattage out of your panels.

Production is all based upon how much direct sun, the correct angle and insolation of your area.

Is this what you are asking?

 

[timselectric]

When people say they’ve got 3.2kw of solar energy production available to them do they mean I have 3.2kW of ACTUAL production? Or do they have 3.2kW of what the panels are rated for? And is that actual production at max? On average? How do you get this #?

I’m understanding now how different those numbers are going to be

So when people ask me how many kW hours do I produce, and let’s say I have 10 400 watt panels, is that 4.0kW? Or would it be the actual production I’m reading on my app for my EW 5k inverter?

Does that make sense?

It depends on the question.
How much your system produces, is reality.
How much PV you have installed, is nameplate rating.

 

[TomC4306]

Two different units of measure.
kW = nameplate
kWh is how much that nameplate can make in a certain period of time.
The first is a measure of potential the second, a measure of work.

 

[DougfromdaUP]

On cold clear winter days with bright sunlight reflecting off the three feet of snow here in the frozen $.!+hole of Michigan’s upper peninsula my production, that is the actual watts generated, will exceed the nameplate ratings of my arrays.
It gets close on cool clear summer days when the panels are at the right angle.
The other 99% of the time it’s not even close.

 

[Tulex]

The key word is "Available". Available is what you have in panels.
Same as how many can you produce.

"Do you produce". that's reality.

 

[455dan]

Yes, No, Maybe.

Cloudy, hazy, Clear as a bell , Cold, standard or bi facial panels? adjustable tilt and or tracking, long run or short to MPPT, undersized or oversized wire, quality MPPT? time of year yada, yada. Talk about variables. People qualify the statements usually and solar can be like working in a mine... some days produce lumps of coal, rarer are the shining like a diamond days.

Some sunny days my system makes rated or above.
The 100 KWH day has to be coming!

Today at times the rated 14.4 KW was making 16.4 KW .

 

[azscooby]

Most state the sum of the panel ratings. The reality is usually 70-80% of those ratings.
Actual Production is strongly related to grid tie vs offgrid.
I suppose it depends on who is doing the asking and why. Are you reporting to an authority, bragging about your solar power, or relating the realities to your bestie.

Just genuinely curious as I research. So context matters, got it.

Yeah, I npdidnt realize nameplate output was so different compared to actual real world.
Thanks

 

[azscooby]

A 4kW nameplate array (10 x 400w panels) with 5 hours of direct sun should get between 16-18kWh of power.

You will probably never get 100% of name plate wattage out of your panels.

Production is all based upon how much direct sun, the correct angle and insolation of your area.

Is this what you are asking?

Thanks! Yep, I understand the variables. But this gives me an idea of what people mean when they say “16kWh of power”.

That’s daily right? It takes surprisingly fewer panels than I thought.

 

[azscooby]

Two different units of measure.
kW = nameplate
kWh is how much that nameplate can make in a certain period of time.
The first is a measure of potential the second, a measure of work.

That makes sense.

 

[Mattb4]

If someone says their solar array is a1200W this is typically assumed to be the panels STC rating. STC or standard test condition is based on 1000W per sq meter of direct sunlight (insolation). The panels efficiency gives its wattage output. Ex. You have a panel with the area of 1sqm and a efficiency of 20%. That means it would be rated as a 200W panel.

Production is typically watts during a time period such as a day. Average daily insolation values for a location and Season gives an hour number such as 5h for Summer and 2h for Winter. Thus a days production from a 200W panel will be 1kWh in the Summer and 400Wh in Winter.

 

[Nobodybusiness]

Thanks! Yep, I understand the variables. But this gives me an idea of what people mean when they say “16kWh of power”.

That’s daily right? It takes surprisingly fewer panels than I thought.

You’re Welcome.

Yes, Daily..

 

[MTM98290]

Our array is rated at 1960w. 4x 490W. In April it made 2167w at the peak before the batteries were fully charged and charging dropped off. The lowest peak that I see from April/May is 627w. Average is about 1400w or so.

 

[teal95]

My almost vertical 2.2 kW of panels has made over 2600 W in the winter, and for over an hour. OTOH the 20 kW of panels on the barn roof (4/12 pitch facing east and west) has never topped 18 kW.

 

[yabert]

an idea of what people mean when they say “16kWh of power”.

Those people don't use proper unit/term.
16 kW of power or 16 kWh of energy, but not kWh of power.

 

[Flunkyboi]

Our array is rated at 1960w. 4x 490W. In April it made 2167w at the peak before the batteries were fully charged and charging dropped off. The lowest peak that I see from April/May is 627w. Average is about 1400w or so.

When people say they’ve got 3.2kw of solar energy production available to them do they mean I have 3.2kW of ACTUAL production? Or do they have 3.2kW of what the panels are rated for? And is that actual production at max? On average? How do you get this #?

I’m understanding now how different those numbers are going to be

So when people ask me how many kW hours do I produce, and let’s say I have 10 400 watt panels, is that 4.0kW? Or would it be the actual production I’m reading on my app for my EW 5k inverter?

Does that make sense?

Before I got my new array and system running in a few months ago, I'd read a lot on this forum to not bet on seeing listed data plate results, but I did once. My array is six 405w in series. 405 X 6 = 2430w.

I've been logging daily data in a little diary at noon most days. At the time I'd partially drained the battery bank at night, then stepped out to log output when turning the PV back on at noon. The sky was dry and clear as gin. Soon as my little EG4 3000 AIO started charging, it hit 1.9-2k immediately. Then I saw 2.44k and took a pic. That was just slightly above panel data specs.

That kind of freaked me out. Especially considering that previous testing/logging had never done that well during cooler weather. It was about 75°f that day.

You never know.

 

[crossy]

We have 29kWp (nameplate) scattered across 10 arrays of various size, orientation, shading and pedigree.

Best power we've seen was about 21kW and 97.7kWh (on a different day). I'm not complaining as temperatures rarely go below 25C.

Thin, high cloud seems to slug output significantly.

 

[Nobodybusiness]

Today had a weird cloud edge effect and got almost 100% nameplate PV.

 

[azscooby]

What apps are you guys using?

I am likely going to have an EW 48V 5k unit with 2 of their server rack batts. Looking at 10x400w Alexus panels from Santan. Going to be running 2-3 110v minisplits.

How are you guys monitoring your gear and producing these cool graphs?

The EW unit has an app with it from what I can tell.

 

[Nobodybusiness]

What apps are you guys using?

I am likely going to have an EW 48V 5k unit with 2 of their server rack batts. Looking at 10x400w Alexus panels from Santan. Going to be running 2-3 110v minisplits.

How are you guys monitoring your gear and producing these cool graphs?

The EW unit has an app with it from what I can tell.

The one I just Posted was from solar assistant.

Runs on a Raspberry PI, USB to Can, 485 or serial on the inverter.

 

[azscooby]

The one I just Posted was from solar assistant.

Runs on a Raspberry PI, USB to Can, 485 or serial on the inverter.

Well…..I’m a diy guy who can’t afford more rabbit holes….lol….ive got a couple Pi’s laying around, now I’ll be researching to see how to set this up with the EW..
Thanks

 

[Tulex]

Well…..I’m a diy guy who can’t afford more rabbit holes….lol….ive got a couple Pi’s laying around, now I’ll be researching to see how to set this up with the EW..
Thanks

SA has pretty good info on their site.

 

[Nobodybusiness]

Well…..I’m a diy guy who can’t afford more rabbit holes….lol….ive got a couple Pi’s laying around, now I’ll be researching to see how to set this up with the EW..
Thanks

It $50 for the software and it helps you avoid the Cloud based manufacturers Apps.

Not sure if they support EW inverter. I’ve never heard of it but they do have a good technical page.

 

[455dan]

yesterday:
14.4 KW rated
peaked @ 16730 watts, 116% of rating

"peaked" being a key word.
Much of the day was 1/2 or Less of rated.