New 5.7kw sunnyboy system in San Diego

[nomadh]

Still need to finish paperwork with sdg and e, mount my solar plaque and get final inspection.
Its a sunnyboy tl series with 18 panels of lg315 s for a possible max of 5670 watts all facing south on a std pitch roof no shade all midday.
When we installed it was a very cloudy day and we got a test run later midday of around 3kw on my display. Sounded good for a crappy day but on last Sunday it was a very clear sunny day, no clouds about 73 to 75 deg at noon. I maxed out at 4600 watts. I know I wont get the panel max but with such a simple system I should get pretty close sometime during the year. Am I still too early in the season to worry? Do these numbers seem about right to everybody?
Any guess as to what my max will be? I'm hoping for 5400 to 5500 but a 5% loss would be 5386 watts. Is that more practical number?
Thanks for any advice and experience

[sunnyguy]

You can compare your performance to other systems in your area. http://pvoutput.org/ladder.jsp?tid=859

[J.P.M.]

SWAG on max. out for 5670 W @ ~ 18 deg. (std. pitch ??) south facing is probably about 4,900 - 5,000 Watts on a very clear day at min. incidence angle in/around San Diego this time of year, with this being about the max. output time of year for that orientation.

Last Sun., 05/01, was not a bad day, but not as clear as you might think. So, 4,600 sounds reasonable. Given the operating temp. of arrays under full sun (very approx. 20-25 deg. C. above roof ambient air temp. depending on P.O.A. irradiance and wind vector, by my measurement anyway), it's pretty unlikely you'll see sustained output (that is, under clear skies) of much more than 4,900 Watts or so for your array with most of the year having lower instantaneous daily max. output. It's pretty unlikely you'll see 5,670 Watts output (or perhaps slightly more) for more than a minute +/- a bit, and that will be due to occasional cloud reflections on less than cloudless days.

[nomadh]

You can compare your performance to other systems in your area. http://pvoutput.org/ladder.jsp?tid=859

I went and looked and I see lots if data but when searching I came up with nothing in my zip, city suburb or even San Diego. How do I search for someone in my area to compare to?

[sensij]

Takes a little bit of practice to navigate PVOutput smoothly. If you are in San Diego, "Team San Diego" is a good place to start.

[randomuser]

Here is my output from the last few days. I've got 17x 320W panels. All facing west, 280 degrees. I've been peaking about 4.6-4.7kW. Crazy that on Saturday, the day it rained in the morning and had clouds throughout the afternoon, there were times I was over 5kW. The peak shows 5.847kW. Wow!


Screen Shot 2016-05-03 at 2.07.14 PM.png

[DanKegel]

Look for the map link, and zoom out, maybe.

Or try the search "100km NNNNN" where NNNNN is your zipcode.

[nomadh]

SWAG on max. out for 5670 W @ ~ 18 deg. (std. pitch ??) south facing is probably about 4,900 - 5,000 Watts on a very clear day at min. incidence angle in/around San Diego this time of year, with this being about the max. output time of year for that orientation.

Last Sun., 05/01, was not a bad day, but not as clear as you might think. So, 4,600 sounds reasonable. Given the operating temp. of arrays under full sun (very approx. 20-25 deg. C. above roof ambient air temp. depending on P.O.A. irradiance and wind vector, by my measurement anyway), it's pretty unlikely you'll see sustained output (that is, under clear skies) of much more than 4,900 Watts or so for your array with most of the year having lower instantaneous daily max. output. It's pretty unlikely you'll see 5,670 Watts output (or perhaps slightly more) for more than a minute +/- a bit, and that will be due to occasional cloud reflections on less than cloudless days.

So 18% off theoretical max is considered pretty good this time of year and during the summer I'll still mostly run about 12 % less than 5670?
I'm sorry about the bush league questions and I did do some fair amount of research over a few years actually. A lot of this research and % of max was very early on so I don't really recall. Plus so many things changed in my plans. Then my usage went into yoyo mode to where there was no reasonable future use estimation and then in the end when we found what we could fit on my south facing roof I called it good enough and shot for getting net metering 1.0.
Its a bummer I'm a little disappointed. Its really a good looking system and I think they did a good job. 3 guys hammered it out in about 8 hours.
I thin I need to work on resetting my expectations then
It was just a bitchin feeling to watch the little arrow on the meter go the other way and see the neg number show up.
Is it true that during testing I'm not getting any lowering of my bill when it runs even though the meter shows a neg number?
How does that work?

Another question is I see net metering 2.0 is going to require time of use connection. How does that play out when you have a solar install that can offset say 40% , 70% or 100% of your bill. I'm not sure TOU would be such a bad thing for solar users, right?

[nomadh]

Here is my output from the last few days. I've got 17x 320W panels. All facing west, 280 degrees. I've been peaking about 4.6-4.7kW. Crazy that on Saturday, the day it rained in the morning and had clouds throughout the afternoon, there were times I was over 5kW. The peak shows 5.847kW. Wow!


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Sound like your slightly smaller west facing beat mine by just a bit. I kind of like the concept of west facing. Its the sweet spot when you get home hit the ac and cool the house before bed.
And it doesnt look nearly as non optimum as they say
I also suspect the haze got clearer as the day went on . As mine faded your started cranking.
Thanks for the info.

[sunnyguy]

Takes a little bit of practice to navigate PVOutput smoothly. If you are in San Diego, "Team San Diego" is a good place to start.

That is what I linked to, the list of all the systems in team San Diego.

[J.P.M.]

Sound like your slightly smaller west facing beat mine by just a bit. I kind of like the concept of west facing. Its the sweet spot when you get home hit the ac and cool the house before bed.
And it doesnt look nearly as non optimum as they say
I also suspect the haze got clearer as the day went on . As mine faded your started cranking.
Thanks for the info.

I'd not pay a lot of attention to short term comparisons. For max. annual kWh output around here, about 5-10 deg. west of south is the sweet spot. For T.O.U, the max. bill offset is closer to 20-30 deg. west of south, depending on daily use patterns. Most of the time, all west, or 270 deg. azimuth is not the best overall choice for either tiered rates or T.O.U. If given a choice between south (180 deg. az.) or west (270 deg.) take south.

[nomadh]

Well I got the placard engraved. Had my installer stop by to rivet it on and THATS when he says "where are the other 3?" Talking to 3 or 4 people over multiple conversations and not once did someone correct my use of the singular or mention mutiples. I need the ac and dc volts and amps and labeling the ac and dc disconnects the solar breaker warning and ac disconnect warning..
I called the permits dept and they said stickers were ok then ran down to the supply house and put them on last night. Inspection is set for today. so we will see.

[nomadh]

I wanted to do a quick review of the sma standby power supply. I was testing at the end of the day and saw the panels were generating about 100 watts at 7 or 730pm so I took it ofline and plugged in a 60 watt lamp to the sps. It ran a long time even at 90 watts output. I got busy and didnt see how low it went before the light went out but even getting 60 watts out of end of day < 90 watt panels I find pretty impressive.

[nomadh]

Just approved by sdge. Crap day for solar but for at least a bit we were running the meter backwards.
Just made it under net 1.0 metering for San Diego.

For the record Its the 7k sunnyboy with sps
18 315 lg panels I ran the job with the installer. I had to pay $400 for plans and permits
Paid the installer as a weekend job $4k and the HW I got at wholesale or so for about $11500 through the installer.
so about $2.80/watt.installed before incentives
Saved money doing it this way but not as much as I was expecting actually but in the end its a good system at a good price. Not a lot of warranty or hand holding but at least its finally affordable.

[randomuser]

Congrats on coming online!

[ncs55]

Just approved by sdge. Crap day for solar but for at least a bit we were running the meter backwards.
Just made it under net 1.0 metering for San Diego.

For the record Its the 7k sunnyboy with sps
18 315 lg panels I ran the job with the installer. I had to pay $400 for plans and permits
Paid the installer as a weekend job $4k and the HW I got at wholesale or so for about $11500 through the installer.
so about $2.80/watt.installed before incentives
Saved money doing it this way but not as much as I was expecting actually but in the end its a good system at a good price. Not a lot of warranty or hand holding but at least its finally affordable.

That system is over inverted according to the Sunny Design and not really optimal. For 18 LG 315's an SB 5000TL US-22 would have been a better choice IMO.