But, when I look at my consumption jump about 6.5KW when the A/C has been on, I'm thankful that I can run it a lot more than I have in prior years and have a much happier wife -- which is a very high ROI on the solar investment in and of itself.
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I'll have to go back and play with the tariff settings. My own spreadsheet using the data from the SDGE "My Energy Use" charts computed the exact $ amount of the monthly credit -- which it should!
But, when I look at my consumption jump about 6.5KW when the A/C has been on, I'm thankful that I can run it a lot more than I have in prior years and have a much happier wife -- which is a very high ROI on the solar investment in and of itself. -
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No, I'm on NEM 2.0
In terms of my imported energy, I was using the SDGE "My Energy" data, and then summing everyday with Peak, Semi-Peak, and Off-Peak positive values -- i.e. this would be net energy for the day from the grid -- which I believe even when it's cost is offset by credits I have, I thought these positive (from the grid) values would incur non bypassable charges.
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Here's my chart from yesterday: https://pvoutput.org/intraday.jsp?id...34&dt=20170620
Note, temperature data is blank.
On a second note, TOU is proving to be quite useful to me. Until this week, I've been running a pretty good credit every day as peak has been negative usage and semi peak either negative or slightly positive and off peak positive during weekdays and negative weekends. Yesterday was the first day I actually drew upon my credit balance (though I still had a small negative peak usage, but not enough to overcome the positive off peak and semi peak costs). I'm pretty sure that I have enough production to cover having my thermostat set to 78 degrees during these hot periods (in the past we would only set AC to 81 on the hottest days with the house sometimes getting to 83 / 84 degrees before turning on the A/C). Note that except after several high 90+ days in a row, I get enough cooling in the house overnight by opening all windows and skylight once temp drops outside such that the house can be anywhere from 62 degrees to 70 degrees by 6 am. Then we close up the windows, and the house temp will then slowly rise through the day (significant shade on the roof from trees, hence ground mount).
Right now two months after PTO I have a $350 credit to use up in the hot months (June to Oct); and when it's not a hot spell it looks like I'm in an add to the credit, vs using credit did not happen until yesterday (i.e. after a number of warm days where the house did not cool off as much overnight). Overall, I think I might have overestimated what I needed to produce for full "more A/C use" -- but primarily because I don't think I fully understood the benefit of an 11 am to 6 pm peak time credit (i.e. why I switched to TOU so I can keep this favorable time period for five years).Leave a comment:
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QUOTE=cebury;n352978]My inverter is reporting 151 right now. https://pvoutput.org/intraday.jsp?id...08&dt=20170620[/QUOTE]
I'm not saying this is an acceptable range, but it was 111 outside at the time. Garage placement like yours, we'll ventilated but certainly hot.
Charlie are you on an older grandfathered plan? What imported power is required for non-bypassable may be different? I'm sure JPM might have caught it by now.Leave a comment:
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Interesting on the charges, I'll definitely be looking closely at my NEM-ST bill to adjust my spreadsheets that track these tariffs.
Inverter temp is accessible through PVOutput if you've set up the auto-loader for Solaredge. If not, or if you want to see data from a day that wasn't tracked in PVOutput, you can get at it directly with a call to the technical data API.
https://monitoringapi.solaredge.com/equipment/<site ID>/<inverter serial>/data?api_key=<API key>&startTime=2017-06-20 12:00:00&endTime=2017-06-20 13:00:00Leave a comment:
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Ok, exactly where are you guys finding the inverter temp reported out?
As to non bypassable charges, you may be pleasantly surprised by how SDG&E is calculating that. My first full bill last month showed 6 KWh subject to non bypassable charges ($0.10) yet my consumption meter showed much more imported power for the month (was a net generator overall for the month).Leave a comment:
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FWIW, my inverter temp. peaked today at 122.6 F. @ 1315 P.D.T., w/in ~ 5-10 min. of max. system output. Air inlet to the inverter HX section at that time was 91.4 F. --->>> delta T ~ 31.2 F. or so, air inlet to inverter temp. diff. BTW, a good, and necessary piece of info. for any cooling schemes is the air temp. around the inverter.
The super dooper window fan forced convection system designed by a crack retired HX design slug I know manages to knock about 16 - 20 deg. F. out of the inverter reporting temp. Without the fan, I'd be at ~ 140 F or so for an inverter temp. So, the fan knocks ~~ an additional 1/3 more heat out of the inverter than nat. convection alone. The air going through the HX picks up ~~ 10 F. rise in temp. going through the inverter HX. Temp. performance hasn't changed in 3 1/2 yrs.
More FWIW, est. ave. array temp. at 1310 P.D.T (min. array incidence angle time) was 66.2 C., roof amb. air temp. = 36.7 C, ground level amb. air temp. = 33.1 C. 7 minute ave. wind vel. 2.1 m/sec. WNW. system inst. output 4,176 W.
My inst. max. on the day: 4176/5232 = .798. My best guess is my system output is still ~ +1.4 % over spec. or so.
Your inst. max.: 6,540/8120 = 0.805.
More anecdotal observation that Sunpower performs no better than other quality equipment. Tilt/azimuth/location similar.Last edited by J.P.M.; 06-20-2017, 07:59 PM.Leave a comment:
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Ok, thanks... it is higher than I was used to seeing on my 3kW inverter, but maybe typical for 7.6kW.
On the billing side, I'm very sure that I'm going to be over-producing my consumption and end up with a surplus credit. In that situation, TOU isn't "helpful", in that the multiplier between peak generation and off-peak consumption doesn't accomplish anything. I could switch back onto a tiered plan, but I don't think that gains me anything either. One twist... because non-bypassable charges of $0.02-$0.03 / kWh must be paid on all energy imported from the grid, it is actually to my advantage to charge my EV in the 6pm - sunset time frame, when my array is still producing and I can avoid energy import by self-consuming. Because those "off-peak" prices are only a few cents more than the overnight super off-peak, and the difference in the amount of TOU credit is meaningless between those two periods when I'm going to have a massive banked balance either way, anything that minimizes grid import works in my favor.
I guess that supports why SDG&E wants to extend peak hours to later in the day, but for 5 years, it looks like I'll have a backwards incentive to consume during the time when the grid is already seeing the most demand. The amount of energy available for self-consumption from 6 pm to sunset won't add up to much more than 1 kWh a day for a couple months of the year... but intentionally not charging on a Friday night and waiting until Saturday morning, for example, might make a bigger dent (Edit: even with two EV's, I don't think this adds up to more than $50 / yr)Last edited by sensij; 06-20-2017, 07:26 PM.Leave a comment:
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My inverter is reporting 151 right now. https://pvoutput.org/intraday.jsp?id...08&dt=20170620Leave a comment:
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Got PTO from SDG&E yesterday. The system is live... PVOutput data is here:
https://pvoutput.org/intraday.jsp?id...07&dt=20170620
The inverter temperature peaked at 143.8 deg today, higher than I was hoping to see. Probably time to start looking at how to get a supplemental fan in there.
I'm using a revenue grade meter (from EKM Metering) for the generated power, and consumption comes from calculating the difference between what is generated and the net that goes though the Poco meter, as transmitted by the Rainforest Automation Eagle. That the consumption yields a relatively stable line throughout the day supports that revenue grade accuracy is really being achieved.Last edited by sensij; 06-20-2017, 05:28 PM.Leave a comment:
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Good to hear your system was cleared by the AHJ.
Since the inverter had to be moved, If it was me I would have put it lower on the wall below the door track. But I am sure you had your reason to put it there.Leave a comment:
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I just passed re-inspection, but barely. Pictures are below. The new inverter location is in a warmer part of the garage, but it is still relatively out of the way.
The inspector wanted to tag me for using a wire nut in the junction box on the ground wire going to the roof. I tried to explain that for the SolarEdge system, both the DC GEC and AC GEC can be satisfied with the single GEC from the inverter to the service panel, but he kept insisting that the EGC from the inverter to the roof also had to meet the unbroken (or irreversibly spliced, etc) requirement of the GEC. He eventually agreed to call a senior inspector / supervisor back at the office, who agreed that what I had done was ok. Close call, it could have gone either way. Re-pulling 85 ft of green wire would not have been fun, although I could probably have found another way to make the connection in that box, or one somewhat bigger.
j-box.JPG
garage - new.JPG
inverter.JPGLeave a comment:
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