LG 305s with SolarEdge Inverter - Los Angeles

[outie]

Hi SunStalker, could you PM me please too? The original and the installer you went with. Thanks!

[SunStalker]

Hey SunStalker.

We are in North Los Angeles county. We have several quotes, but none of them are close to what you got. Would you be able to PM me your contacts (since I amd a newbie amd can't PM anyone yet). Would love to get a great price like yours. Thanks

Solardesire

I will pm you shortly.

[solardesire]

Hey SunStalker.

We are in North Los Angeles county. We have several quotes, but none of them are close to what you got. Would you be able to PM me your contacts (since I amd a newbie amd can't PM anyone yet). Would love to get a great price like yours. Thanks

Solardesire

[SunStalker]

Additional equipment is required to monitor consumption. You can measure it yourself (using TED5000, EKM, Wattnode, or others), costing a few hundred $, or can read SCE's meter for yourself, using an Eagle from Rainforest Automation ($100). PVOutput can do the math for you to combine the Enphase readings with the Eagle readings to calculate actual consumption.

My plan is to do the Eagle and pipe it to PVOutput. I was told SCE's up coming Green Button Connect might be able to dump the data to PVOutput. But I am losing home, it was supposed to be available in June, but it still says "Check back in June."

Once I get both sets of data to PVOutput, is there a way on an iPhone to see both Production and Usage together. The App I use only seems to show them separately.

[sensij]

Additional equipment is required to monitor consumption. You can measure it yourself (using TED5000, EKM, Wattnode, or others), costing a few hundred $, or can read SCE's meter for yourself, using an Eagle from Rainforest Automation ($100). PVOutput can do the math for you to combine the Enphase readings with the Eagle readings to calculate actual consumption.

[SunStalker]

Which system did you choose?
I'm looking at a system similar to yours!

I ended up getting 26 Solarworld 285W Panels with Enphase 250 microinverters. I went with a different installer because I felt better about them and their long terms support of the system. I paid about the same per watt as I was quoted for the LGs. The installer did a great job and the install is very clean.

The only thing I am unhappy with is that you can't monitor your usage vs production together. The Enphase monitoring is only for production. So I have to pull that up and then pull up SCE's site, which only shows net usage/production, and calculate the actual usage/production. My friends that have solar (Sunpower) can pull up a chart showing usage and production together.

[SolarTuna958]

What did you pick?

They upped the panels in the quote when I asked about the SolarEdge inverter. They originally did quotes with 20 and 27 panels. I think 27 may be a bit too many to fit on the roof anyways. Thanks for the info on the micro-inverters vs optimizers.

Which system did you choose?
I'm looking at a system similar to yours!

[J.P.M.]

SunStalker:

To your question(s) about more ways to save: Find/download this from the net: "Solar Power Your Home For Dummies". A bit dated but generally a good read. Conservation in chap. 2 & 3 may be useful to you.

[SanDiego_installer]

In Southern California you won't experience significant clipping, if any, on a 7.3 kW system using a 6 kW inverter. The power ratio is 122%. From experience, significant clipping occurs above 125%. And minor clipping in year 1 will disappear a few years down the road. Your contractor's cost difference on a SolarEdge 6kW inverter vs. a 7.6 kW is $478 + tax. Personally if a customer requests an inverter upgrade, after we have already agreed on the system size, scope of work and contract amount, I wouldn't mark up this minor change at all, and especially not by 35%. I guarantee you that at $3.30/Watt he's not making 35% on the overall contract, nor should he.

Keep in mind the SolarEdge 7.6 kW inverter has two internal fans that will cycle on/off, whereas the 6 kW runs silent. If this will be mounted on a wall adjacent to a living space, not a garage, you will hear it.

If you want the most reliable system, and have no shading, go with SMA. They have a 30 year track record. SolarEdge and Enphase have 7 & 8 year track records. By adding more components (optimizers or micro's) to the system, you will have failures during it's life. That's inevitable. If you have no shading, there is nothing to be gained from the additional cost and complexity.

[Carl_NH]

I do not have any shading assuming they can fit the panels on the two parts of the roof they say they can. If they have to use another part of the roof there would be some shading in the late afternoon from a tree and chimney.

I just got an updated quote from the first installer for 24 LG-305s using a SolarEdge 6kW inverter with Power Optimizers. The price is $24,156 which comes out to about $3.30/W.

So since they can do the SolarEdge inverter, I guess the million dollar question is the SolarEdge Inverter or the Enphase micro-inverters.

Also is a 6kW Inverter large enough for a 7.3 kW system?

I would like to also reduce my energy consumption, but I have not gone down that path yet. This size system would be covering 70-80% of my energy.

No, you should get the SE7.6 KW inverter be clipping for 4-5 hours of the day, and if you have no shading issues, go with a straight string inverter like SMA and keep it simple.

I put in 24 LG300 with SE6KW inverter, and optimizers as I have shading, and we are clipping for 3 hours a day, and had I known the 6KW inverter only outputs a max of 6000W AC I would have upgraded to the 7.6KW inverter ($700 more).

One other member calculated we will loose less than 200KW a year from clipping so the ROI for $700 isn't great.

[timmybgood07]

Hey SunStalker. Would you be able to PM me your contact. Would love to get a great price like yours. Thanks

[DanKegel]

Might be good to start by doing daily meter readings and tracking them in a spreadsheet.
(If you have an old fashioned dial meter, don't worry, it's easy after you get used to it.)
After a little while, you'll start to notice patterns (like "running the dryer uses 2kwh"
or "that weekend we left the computers on used an extra 3 kwh").

Have you set your computers to sleep on idle?

http://homeguides.sfgate.com/save-hot-tub-electric-bill-39448.html

has a checklist for your hot tub that might be useful.

The hot tub probably uses 10kwh/day, and I have trouble getting
my house below 15 kwh/day, so you might only have an extra 5kw/day
to find and remedy.

[gvl]

Thanks for the info. What are some of the more cost effective ways before looking into windows. My Spa is a hog when it comes to energy consumption. My house seems to use about .5kW without anything on (Air, Heat, Spa, Oven, etc). It never really goes below that. I have considered the Kiil-o-watt to see what is really using power. I will start that tomorrow.

I guess would like input on what you guys think would be good first steps to reduce power. I am only offsetting my electric usage by 70%-80% with the solar systems that can fit on my roof.

Is there a filter that you run for you spa every day? For pools a variable speed pump is said to be much more economical than a fixed-speed one. Energy efficient lights in high usage areas. Better attic insulation.

[SunStalker]

Why did you change from 20 to 24 panels? Otherwise the 6K inverter would match very well. Your south facing roof is ideal for energy production, so the 7.3 KW system with 6KW inverter will clip quite often.

I'm not too familiar with SMA's monitoring capability, but SolarEdge comes with life time per-panel monitoring for free. Enphase charges $250 I think. The latter two also allow you to integrate with pvoutput.org if you're into that.

Besides shading, some panels can also be partially obstructed occasionally by bird droppings, leafs or dirt. The high temperature at where the micro-inverters operate can be a reliability and maintenance concern. The optimizer uses ceramic caps and is significantly simpler, hence in theory more reliable under high temperature.

They upped the panels in the quote when I asked about the SolarEdge inverter. They originally did quotes with 20 and 27 panels. I think 27 may be a bit too many to fit on the roof anyways. Thanks for the info on the micro-inverters vs optimizers.

[SunStalker]

There are probably some more cost effective changes than new windows, but yeah, new windows can help.

There are most definitely companies that will do overall energy audits & offer improvements.
There are even subsidies for making those improvements. See http://www.energyupgradeca.org/
But don't pay too much for an audit... comparison shop first.

And you can do a lot yourself. For instance, you can get a kill-a-watt meter for about $30
that will tell you what any one plug is using. I found out my fridge was drawing way too much power that way.



So about 33 kwh/day on average? Yeah, you can probably do better.

No matter what your goal with going solar is, you can get partway there a lot cheaper by figuring out where your power is going, and fixing that first.

And then go solar for enough of the rest to get you well down into Tier 1.

Thanks for the info. What are some of the more cost effective ways before looking into windows. My Spa is a hog when it comes to energy consumption. My house seems to use about .5kW without anything on (Air, Heat, Spa, Oven, etc). It never really goes below that. I have considered the Kiil-o-watt to see what is really using power. I will start that tomorrow.

I guess would like input on what you guys think would be good first steps to reduce power. I am only offsetting my electric usage by 70%-80% with the solar systems that can fit on my roof.