MattMan119
Solar Geek
*smirk* you ever notice your charts are upside down? *grin*
Winter dip has passed
- Thread starter Will Prowse
- Start date
pone
New Member
You have 10 kW of panels and in Summer those are only producing just under 50 kW per day? Do you have a lot of shading?
Fisherguy66
I never thought I'd curse at clouds so much!
I just tilted my panels up about 15-20deg and in bright sun now my 8 - 500w bifacials are pumping 4800-5000w in -20c temps. I just installed the system last fall so I'm curious what they get in 25-30c this summer.
CMDRZOD
New Member
*Cries in Northern Albertan* 
Koyaanisqatsi
Electron addict
Dang, that was below the .... eq... <cough> ... belt.
wattmatters
Solar Wizard
Summer = storm season.
wattmatters
Solar Wizard
No, because I sit on my head.
wattmatters
Solar Wizard
To wit - this is January's daily output (today - 31st has a few hours to go but won't add much more as we are having yet another afternoon rain storm). Note how variable it is.
Fisherguy66
I never thought I'd curse at clouds so much!
This is Jan. at 46.49N on only a 4kW/14.3kW storage system. The Great Lakes play havoc with the sun here from Dec. to Feb.
Well in my country the sunlight time is shortening drastically and now I have stupid hard shade from a highrise for an hour or so.
Killing my production all round.
Good news I took a tree down and can now put two more panels up to mitigate this, even though they'll be in 100% shade for part of the day, the higher generation should outweigh the losses.
Killing my production all round.
Good news I took a tree down and can now put two more panels up to mitigate this, even though they'll be in 100% shade for part of the day, the higher generation should outweigh the losses.
GXMnow
Solar Wizard
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2020
- Messages
- 3,345
While the longer summer daytime will produce more total energy, the peak power will likely be less when the panels get hot. My best production in So Cal happens in April and May when it is sunny and the days are longer, but it is not crazy hot yet.
Fisherguy66
I never thought I'd curse at clouds so much!
Yea I know the heat will reduce production, I'll just be glad the days are longer. I only have 14.3kw so i will be wasting alot of production in summer for sure. No where to put it. The EG4 powerwall here costs $5500cdn with tax so i'm not getting a 2nd one anytime soon
Brucey
Velcro Man
registered-bum
Solar Enthusiast
Nov and Dec were hit or miss, and while we expected shorter days and a few 3-4 day storms, we actually had one spell of 11 days w basically 90-100% cloud cover. Genny time!
Jan has been clear and dry .. allowing SOC to get back to 90%+ by 1pm regardless of overnight demands. Monthly capture is at 275kw, mostly cause that's all we used/needed.
Til now, raining all day, and forecast is looking at another 6-7 day stint of rain, snow and 100% cloud cover.
Fingers crossed that it remains a wet year and NorCal don't burn like LA just did.
Jan has been clear and dry .. allowing SOC to get back to 90%+ by 1pm regardless of overnight demands. Monthly capture is at 275kw, mostly cause that's all we used/needed.
Til now, raining all day, and forecast is looking at another 6-7 day stint of rain, snow and 100% cloud cover.
Fingers crossed that it remains a wet year and NorCal don't burn like LA just did.
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This is a great time to track my solar production daily. Every evening I come home from work, poke a button on my inverter and see how much it produced today. Many days, it's a little higher (although today, the 31st, was an exception, blah). Here's my January.
MattMan119
Solar Geek
Everyday is better and better … sad going to loose the yellow in next two days … but keep growing
GXMnow
Solar Wizard
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2020
- Messages
- 3,345
Here is the production data for this January from just my 4,800 watt Enphase system.
I would say just 2 days I could call bad, the rest was very good indeed. Total production of 462.8 KWHs is the best January I have had since 2022 when it did 479.1 KWHs.
The average ended up at 14.93 KWHs per day. Several days went over 17 KWHs. And this is the AC out of the inverters, and heavy shade on half the array for 1/3 of the day.
Here is the charts of the DC array production.
The garage roof 2,000 watt array did a lot of "floating" so total production could have been a lot more.
I'm too tired to go through and add up all the bars, but it looks like the average production was over 4 KWHs a day, the peak went over 6 KWHs a day. Not too bad for just 2,000 watts of panel off Amazon.
The 4,000 watt Pergola didn't go online until Jan. 12th, but I did have a few panels going through the new Victron 250/70 for a few days before that. You can see the first few days of a little production from only 3 panels against the wall.
Total for the month is only 260 KWHs, but this array was only up for 19 days and it did a huge amount of "floating" while the battery kept getting topped out very early. After the battery ran down in the rain storm, it managed 16.95 KWH even with floating for a couple hours. Once I actually start using all the energy, it is going to really be cranking out the power.
This is kind of funny. I took a screen shot of the Schneider XW-Pro "Energy" page.
Grid Energy used Current Month, the bottom right box, 25.5 KWHs. This is all the energy that had to come in from the grid to power loads in my backup panel that the batteries didn't cover as well as all the grid charging I did on the rainy days. There is also some added in here from when the XW was doing the crazy oscillations. That total for the whole month is less that my house normally uses in a single day.
Battery Energy (Charge) Current Month, Black box middle right, 86.7 KWHs. This was from the grid energy, AND the extra coming in from the Enphase system at the output of the XW-Pro. It is the total energy the XW-Pro put out as DC current to the batteries. It will actually be even lower now as most of the time, I am turning charge off in the XW and just letting the DC systems do it.
Grid Energy (Sell) Current Month, bottom left blue box, 349.4 KWHs.
This includes energy from the Enphase system that went through the XW-Pro back to my main panel as well as any energy inverted from the batteries that went back out the AC1 input. I don't get credit for all of it, because this did not subtract my loads in the main panel. So where did all this energy come from?
Battery Energy (Discharge) Current Month, Upper left grey box, 507.4 KWHs. This is the source of the energy that the XW inverted to AC for both the load output panel and pushed to the grid in the evening. This is 421.7 KWHs more than it charged into the batteries. That energy all came in from the two Victron charge controllers. 260 KWHs from the Pergola system, So that leaves about 160 KWHs that had to come from the garage roof system.
I would say just 2 days I could call bad, the rest was very good indeed. Total production of 462.8 KWHs is the best January I have had since 2022 when it did 479.1 KWHs.
The average ended up at 14.93 KWHs per day. Several days went over 17 KWHs. And this is the AC out of the inverters, and heavy shade on half the array for 1/3 of the day.
Here is the charts of the DC array production.
The garage roof 2,000 watt array did a lot of "floating" so total production could have been a lot more.
I'm too tired to go through and add up all the bars, but it looks like the average production was over 4 KWHs a day, the peak went over 6 KWHs a day. Not too bad for just 2,000 watts of panel off Amazon.
The 4,000 watt Pergola didn't go online until Jan. 12th, but I did have a few panels going through the new Victron 250/70 for a few days before that. You can see the first few days of a little production from only 3 panels against the wall.
Total for the month is only 260 KWHs, but this array was only up for 19 days and it did a huge amount of "floating" while the battery kept getting topped out very early. After the battery ran down in the rain storm, it managed 16.95 KWH even with floating for a couple hours. Once I actually start using all the energy, it is going to really be cranking out the power.
This is kind of funny. I took a screen shot of the Schneider XW-Pro "Energy" page.
Grid Energy used Current Month, the bottom right box, 25.5 KWHs. This is all the energy that had to come in from the grid to power loads in my backup panel that the batteries didn't cover as well as all the grid charging I did on the rainy days. There is also some added in here from when the XW was doing the crazy oscillations. That total for the whole month is less that my house normally uses in a single day.
Battery Energy (Charge) Current Month, Black box middle right, 86.7 KWHs. This was from the grid energy, AND the extra coming in from the Enphase system at the output of the XW-Pro. It is the total energy the XW-Pro put out as DC current to the batteries. It will actually be even lower now as most of the time, I am turning charge off in the XW and just letting the DC systems do it.
Grid Energy (Sell) Current Month, bottom left blue box, 349.4 KWHs.
This includes energy from the Enphase system that went through the XW-Pro back to my main panel as well as any energy inverted from the batteries that went back out the AC1 input. I don't get credit for all of it, because this did not subtract my loads in the main panel. So where did all this energy come from?
Battery Energy (Discharge) Current Month, Upper left grey box, 507.4 KWHs. This is the source of the energy that the XW inverted to AC for both the load output panel and pushed to the grid in the evening. This is 421.7 KWHs more than it charged into the batteries. That energy all came in from the two Victron charge controllers. 260 KWHs from the Pergola system, So that leaves about 160 KWHs that had to come from the garage roof system.
CMDRZOD
New Member
*Continues crying in Northern Albertan
This winter has been absolutely terrible here. We must be below average for sunny days this winter.
I will be setting up a ground mount system with 8kw of panels to augment my roof mount system. This ground mount will be adjustable so I can get my 53.3 degree ideal angle for the low sun during the winter here.
Will be doing DC coupling. I don't feel like dealing with AC coupling issues on my XW Pros.
This winter has been absolutely terrible here. We must be below average for sunny days this winter.
I will be setting up a ground mount system with 8kw of panels to augment my roof mount system. This ground mount will be adjustable so I can get my 53.3 degree ideal angle for the low sun during the winter here.
Will be doing DC coupling. I don't feel like dealing with AC coupling issues on my XW Pros.
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GXMnow
Solar Wizard
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2020
- Messages
- 3,345
I am very happy with how my system is working using the Victron charge controllers to charge the battery bank. My XW-Pro is now just being used as an inverter. Well, I let it charge a few days when we had the rain and clouds, but it was not really needed.
How often have your panels been covered in snow?
We had only 3 snowfalls in January that required sweeping.
BarracudaBob
Harvesting free photons from clean fusion
Last two days with cool air and intense sun my panels broke all time record. I need some fancy relay magic to switch on loads like water heaters and pool pumps when I hit 100% at noon. Don't need air-condition so besides for lights and cooking my Backup with Benefits is slammed at 100%.
I put the mini-split in dry mode and turned on all the ceiling fans and didn't make a dent in it.
I went from a back up system to over 75% all loads covered.
I put the mini-split in dry mode and turned on all the ceiling fans and didn't make a dent in it.
I went from a back up system to over 75% all loads covered.
ksmithaz1
Solar / EV Junkie
Actually the most I've been able to use in a day since early jan is 85. Batteries were charged by 1400. By the 15th of Jan a fully sunny day, I could hit close to 100. I need a dump load like a bitcoin miner.
What are those loose PV cables? I thought that was a no no.
42OhmsPA
Who likes Electrical Gremlins?
I'm guessing it's a temporary test setup.
Don't we all have a temporary setup somewhere...?
OffGridForGood
Catch, make or grow everything you can.
I tilt all four of my PV arrays for winter/summer. 72 degrees for winter (late October until April) and 35 degrees for Summer.
53.3 degrees may be the average annual angle for your area - depending on location.
This calculator is handy - PV Watts
For an area like Edmonton I would plan on tilting up to 75-80 degrees for winter - will help shed snow too. And down for summer about 30-35 degree angle (from horizontal).
