New APS rate plans are good for solar!

[monogram]

Thanks Steve.

While waiting for admin to approve, can anyone please help me on this:

I have a question regarding my new setup: I'm planing to add an additional Panel into my design but my concerned was the voltage different between the 2 panel: the spec for one panel was 30.7V max @ 8.1A while the other panel was 38V max @ 9.8A. Can I connect those 2 together in parallel to get 19A for my 24V battery bank? See attached file for my system schematic.
http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php...34125330264196

[sdold]

Maybe a new user can't see attachments until he's been "approved" by the admins. In the meantime we (moderators) will do the best we can to approve your posts.

[monogram]

Thank you Steve.
For some reason, I can't open any of the JPG that posted along the topics, does anyone know why?

(I can't open the schematic.jpg from post #22 either)

[sdold]

You'll be approved as soon as we finish your background check. There is a parking ticket from a few years ago that concerns us.
Just kidding, of course The admins are pretty busy but they'll get to it shortly, thanks for hanging in there. Here's your schematic for those who aren't comfortable clicking on outside links:

schematic.jpg

[monogram]

Hi Mike, I have been waiting for the Admin to approve but still no response yet

In the mean time, I have a question regarding my new setup: I'm planing to add an additional Panel into my design but my concerned was the voltage different between the 2 panel: the spec for one panel was 30.7V max @ 8.1A while the other panel was 38V max @ 9.8A. Can I connect those 2 together in parallel to get 19A for my 24V battery bank? See attached file for my system schematic.

http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id=08721934125330264196

[Mike90250]

Sorry to ask the question here: I can' post new top in the forum as there is no option to post for my new account . I can only post a reply, NOT new topic. Please help me.

have to wait for admin to approve ya, you ARE on the radar

[monogram]

Help, I'm a new user and I can't post new topic, please help.

[monogram]

Sorry to ask the question here: I can' post new top in the forum as there is no option to post for my new account . I can only post a reply, NOT new topic. Please help me.

[nguyenhung]

thansk you for share!

[ImInPhxAZ]

Curious if anyone has gotten on one of these new APS plans yet?

[BackwoodsEE]

To be even talking about 0-600kwh or 600-1000kwh makes me envious of your northern location. Phoenix consumption I get below 1000 in winter and see 3000+ in summer.

To temper your jealousy a bit, you might want to know that my array of 24 panels (REC 290TP) is producing a grand total of about 50 W right now, near high noon, in Eastern WA. The lights are all on inside the house, and outside it looks something like a scene from The Road by Cormac McCarthy.

[ImInPhxAZ]

To be even talking about 0-600kwh or 600-1000kwh makes me envious of your northern location. Phoenix consumption I get below 1000 in winter and see 3000+ in summer.

I'm opting for the saver plus plan with the cheapest off-peak, as we use tons of ac overnight and with west facing solar, I have no problem turning up the thermostat just for the last two hours of the day.

Demand charge will probably still be 3 or 4 kwh but the saving on off-peak consumption more than offsets that. APS probably won't approve my interconnect until January or February so I'll update then with results of the new plan and west solar.

[J.P.M.]

I know a guy who runs his AC at night and cools the house way down before the heat of the day begins because the power is cheaper then. I wonder if something similar might eventually be encouraged by APS and SRP for rooftop PV customers: Run your AC from your own PV generated power (with sunshine but early in the day before the grid really gets loaded) and get a premium discount for freeing up generating capacity.

It's a technique that's been around as long and in as many places old and new as thermal mass. Funny how things keep getting (re)discovered. A very simple and elegant concept.

Works best/most efficiently when a high thermal mas is combined with a low building heat loss coeff. (Effective building thermal mass per deg. of temp.)/(building hourly heat loss coeff.) = the building time constant in hours, with the goal of no more building internal temp. change than desired for the time period under consideration (off peak to on peak, or over a peak period for example), with consideration for the design temp. diff. inside to outside.

The concept works the same as or very similar to capacitor charging/discharging in a D.C. circuit with inside to outside temp. diff. analogous to Voltage on either side of the capacitor.

Stretching the building time constant to its limit, it's theoretically possible to have a large (long) enough time constant to store excess heat in the building mass or thermal storage device in summer and use it all winter. That's mostly impractical, but some yahoos who don't read/learn from what others have found out the hard way persist on dreaming and building thousand ton concrete houses and covering it with straw bales, etc.

FWIW, they're usually some of the same folks who confuse thermal mass with thermal insulation. Thick concrete walls by themselves are lousy insulators.

The practical limit for thermal time constants and thermal mass seems to be ~ 10 days to 2 weeks or so depending.

For time shifting as a scheme for gaming a T.O.U. tariff, and mostly because most residences are thermal sieves, it's probably a lot more cost effective and practical to reduce the building heat loss coeff. by tightening up the building envelope as a first step rather than add thermal mass. BTW, forget new windows as a cost effective measure. They simply aren't because they cost too much. Instead, buy a case of caulk for starters and use it from the inside out.

Simply subcooling a building to, say, 65 F. and letting it heat up through any peak pricing period can cause problems beyond simple comfort considerations that won't be immediately apparent and probably won't save as much $$ and certainly not as much electricity as might be thought. Reduce the heat loss and stretch the building time constant that way. You'll save twice.

[Kingram]

It is called Super Cooling we do that here in Arizona when off peak is 6 cents a KW but in May the rates go up and it will be almost 11 cents off peak so it won't be as feasible.

[BackwoodsEE]

PV might be viewed by the POCO as having some marginal and perhaps additional benefit, but only in combination with some on site or local storage of the PV generated power to bridge the gap between max. PV generation times of mid day and max. grid demand times of late afternoon/early evening.

I don't see much on the demand side that would change the POCO's view of the current situation, or their opinion with respect to distributed, or for that matter central PV unless storage could help flatten the demand curve, and that could be done without PV.

I know a guy who runs his AC at night and cools the house way down before the heat of the day begins because the power is cheaper then. I wonder if something similar might eventually be encouraged by APS and SRP for rooftop PV customers: Run your AC from your own PV generated power (with sunshine but early in the day before the grid really gets loaded) and get a premium discount for freeing up generating capacity.