SolarFlares
Solar Enthusiast
I bought 56 just in case there were any issues but all 54 are installed on the roof. I've hit higher production than I thought I would with 8 total panels facing E / W. (4 each) My main roof section has 36 panels, then 9 on each side. 5 S facing and 4 E/W depending on the side.
I'm not sure... My AC is a 30+ yr old Geothermal system with an extra pump. Since I'm grid tied and the 15k has a 200a pass-through, I don't think it'll be a problem, I'll just have a grid spike every now and then. Most of this I just "shot from the hip" with basic numbers and will go from there.
That being said, I'm very very happy with the way things have been performing so far. I keep making little tweaks here and there. For instance, in my basement we had 3 - 4 bulb florescent lights that I noticed were using about 3.4a while running. I bought some LED replacements and when I was replacing them, one of them the ballast was almost too hot to touch. While the lights are on, we now use about 0.8a. My kids tend to be in the basement a lot, so that's going to help. We had the same thing in a room further in the back.
My big energy draw that I need to work on is my hot water. It's running very frequently, almost too often. I'm digging into that more now.
You can sell those ballasts on ebay to help recoup your light costs if you still have them. I sold each for ~$45 and completely paid for all the LED lights I bought.
Your base usage of over 2kw seems awfully high. Do pool pumps really need to run all night? (I know nothing about pools). Once you get your sell back approved you will definitely want to try and lower your usage where you can. This will help fill your batteries faster and then sell back to the grid once your batteries are full.