suniva OPT260-60-4-1b0 vs Solarworld sw-02-5071US. Please help

[MGE]

You have to be careful about putting your system online before the final approval of the Utility. From what I understand the power you generate before is counted as power USED and you get charged for it on your bill. You can turn the system on before to troubleshoot or to verify correct operation but you need to turn it off until Final. I thought the Utility (SDG&E) was going to come out to my residence to inspect but they just went by the city inspectors approval and actually sent me an e-mail for the final OK. We already have a Smartmeter installed so they were able to reconfigure the software of the meter on-line. Our total usage last year was about 16k kwhrs and I hope to generate around 12k. I think the max per day I have seen is about 56 kwhrs. The last 2 months our electric bill was about $6.00 and probably for another couple of months or so then will pay more as the sunlight declines. We have about 380kw hrs credit on the meter as we speak so those will help out too. Lovin it.

[jigs]

You have to be careful about putting your system online before the final approval of the Utility. From what I understand the power you generate before is counted as power USED and you get charged for it on your bill...

A quick Update: It took Edison over 2 months to approve and the PTO came in the mail as well. We did leave the system connected to the Grid while waiting for PTO and were soaking up all the energy generated during the day running our Pool and AC. Of course we did not get credited for the unused portion which made into the Grid but our bill came in at $50-$60 compared to $250 or so. So we got lucky or that is how it is suppose to be.

System output last month was about 900kw+, down from 1050kw the prior month. I guess my 4 north facing panels are generating a lot less.

I have a friend who is signing up for a similar system as mine with the same installer and asked me if my Panels were A grade !! It seems the installer is not ready to put it in the contract that he will using Suniva 260 mono Grade A panels. I did not know about the Grades A B or C when I bought my system.

Q- Is there a way, I can tell from the Serial # of my panels or something which will tell me my the grade of cells used in my Panels. As i understand, A grade panels are made of only A grade cells.

[Naptown]

No there is not
Suniva makes a great panel I would not be worried at all
Reason he won't put it in is there is no grade associated with those panels that I know of

The retailer in Florida who buys defective and incomplete ones is the only one who sells by grade
Grade A meaning a normal new panel and b could be scratched etc

[jigs]

No there is not
Suniva makes a great panel I would not be worried at all
Reason he won't put it in is there is no grade associated with those panels that I know of

The retailer in Florida who buys defective and incomplete ones is the only one who sells by grade
Grade A meaning a normal new panel and b could be scratched etc

Thank you Nap. That assures me quite a bit.

[jschner]

So how has the system been working out?

I have had 22 of the Suniva OPT260-60-4-1B0 260W panels for nearly a year and they have worked out very well. They seem very efficient.

I'm using them in a dual MPPT 11 panel strings with an Aurora 5K inverter 5720KW http://pvoutput.org/aggregate.jsp?id...=13640&v=0&t=m

This setup clipped my inverter at 5050 Watts about 20 clear days out of the year. Best day was 40KW and I'm hoping to reach 10MW for the year in a few days.

Only negative is I have noticed a few snail type trails on a couple panels. But I have not noticed any loss of power.

Looking at getting 2 more panels for 12 panels per MPPT. I figure I'll clip 120 days but still worth it. I should have gotten the 6K inverter.