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Solar Output Tracking & Comparison Excel Chart

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  • Solar Output Tracking & Comparison Excel Chart

    I installed solar at the end of last year and created what a think is a pretty cool Excel file to keep track of my total investment. It tracks:

    + Monthly outputs compared to PV Watts
    + Compares if solar is actually saving me money (So far its not, lol.)
    + Net true-up costs
    + A couple of other little things

    I'm sure others have done similar, but if anyone is interested in checking this file out PM me and I'll email you the file. (I can't upload Excel to the forum) It just takes inputting some simple data, and the instructions are in the table. There are no macros or other security risks, just one worksheet.

    Here is the Dropbox link if anyone wants to check it out: https://www.dropbox.com/s/t243kvlnfm...Calc.xlsx?dl=0


    Steve
    Last edited by steveholtam; 05-01-2017, 12:57 PM.

  • #2
    No PM's in this forum. If you put it in dropbox and edit your post with a link, I'd check it out. PVWatts is built around "typical" weather, and variances of >10% in annual production, >30% in monthly production (unless you adjust for the underlying irradiance, temperature, and wind speed data) should not be surprising.

    (If you make a new post with a link, it will get hung up until a moderator can approve it. Edits bypass this process)
    CS6P-260P/SE3000 - http://tiny.cc/ed5ozx

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    • #3
      Added the Dropbox link. Waiting for April POCO bill to complete the month.

      Also, the POCO bill is not exactly the first day of the month to the last day of the month. So the POCO's revenue grade meter Total PV Generated (1,925 kWh) and the SolarEdge PV Production output (1,815 kWh) will be a few days off until the end of the year. There are a few instructions on the worksheet, but let me know if you have any questions.

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      • #4
        Originally posted by steveholtam View Post
        Added the Dropbox link. Waiting for April POCO bill to complete the month.

        Also, FWIW, the POCO bill is not exactly the first day of the month to the last day of the month. So the POCO's revenue grade meter Total PV Generated (1,925 kWh) and the SolarEdge PV Production output (1,815 kWh) will be a few days off until the end of the year. There are a few instructions on the worksheet, but let me know if you have any questions.
        Have you adjusted the NEM credits to reflect the portion of the hourly POCO rates not allowed as eligible for NEM credit ? It's not 1:1 anymore for MEM 2.0.

        Have you allowed for the CA climate Credit ?

        Also, Most CA, and probably other POCOs have billing dates all over the board. For my POCO, there are 21 separate billing schedules. Each residential customer is assigned one billing cycle., probably the same as their neighbors'. Reason for that is historical - when meter readers went door to door. Each schedule has 12 billing periods. Each period is between 27 and 33 days. There is no easily decipherable logic to how many days per billing period, and each billing schedule changes 1X/yr. in ways I haven't bothered to figure out (yet). Statistically, summer billing periods for all billing cycles tend to have a slightly greater probability of having fewer billing days, which tends to make higher tiered usage a bit greater due to tier one allowances being smaller and the remainder falling into upper tiers. All this was before the days of T.O.U. and thus, back in the day, and still to a large but shrinking degree, maybe a sneaky way to increase revenue slightly. It's just business.

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        • #5
          I've not had to compute my NEM credits yet as I'm still 928 kWh in the hole. lol... But I plan on tweaking the chart for NEM and T.O.U. (or the new Time of Day rate) to determine which is the best plan. Took me thee months to get the basic inputs/outputs and cost data aligned the way I liked. Now I can begin tweaking.

          Sounds like we have similar billing periods, 27-33 days. I could correct the data to pure month to month using my POCO's decent online smart meter data as it shows actual daily usage as shown. For me the end game is the annual results, and what I'm most concerned about. Did my solar investment save me money?


          ScreenHunter_511 May. 02 09.37.jpg

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          • #6
            Originally posted by steveholtam View Post
            I could correct the data to pure month to month using my POCO's decent online smart meter data as it shows actual daily usage as shown.
            Keep in mind that is only showing grid usage not actual consumption. They have no way of knowing how much you self consumed so you will have to calculate that.
            OutBack FP1 w/ CS6P-250P http://bit.ly/1Sg5VNH

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