8400w Grid Tie System - Kit or piece it together?

[Mr4btTahoe]

Everything went smoothly. Got everything setup last night around 6pm. Came online producing ~700w well after the sun was passed and the array was in full shade.

This morning.. ~8:20am and seeing 1800w and climbing quickly. I could watch this thing all day.. lol
running smooth by acidburn02zts, on Flickr

[TAZ427]

Awesome!

BTW, you're address is showing... Not sure if you want to hide that

[Mr4btTahoe]

Awesome!

BTW, you're address is showing... Not sure if you want to hide that

Fixed. Lol

[Mr4btTahoe]

Finished pics....

-Array-
DSC_0454 by acidburn02zts, on Flickr

-Conduit Runs-
DSC_0456 by acidburn02zts, on Flickr

DSC_0457 by acidburn02zts, on Flickr

-Inverter & AC Disconnect -
DSC_0458 by acidburn02zts, on Flickr

-Meter base & Main panel-
DSC_0461 by acidburn02zts, on Flickr

DSC_0459 by acidburn02zts, on Flickr

DSC_0460 by acidburn02zts, on Flickr

The system is performing really well so far. Tree service is coming out tomorrow to top out a few trees to the west of the array to allow for a bit more coverage for late in the day.. and taking down a few trees to the east so the system can start producing a little earlier in the morning.

We are seeing peak output between 12-2pm. Due to some shading (which will be resolved tomorrow), it doesn't start producing until around 8am... and is pretty well fizzled out by 4pm.

We also still have 3 panels (over 1kw) to get mounted and tied in which will help a good bit with "off-peak" production. Hope to do that within the next month or so. Have to build the lean-to they will be mounted on first.

Anyways... thanks again for all the help. Hopefully this thread can help others DIY their own systems.

-Chris

[Mr4btTahoe]

Got some trees out of the way... a few more to go to help early morning production (waiting on the PoCo as they are too close to transmission lines) but here are some production numbers for a sunny day.

production 2 by acidburn02zts, on Flickr

production 1 by acidburn02zts, on Flickr

I'm seeing over 6kw by 930 am (which I think I can improve that by an hour or so once the other trees are out of the way). Either way, production seems to be good considering I'm still 1kw short on the array. I'm averaging ~35Kwh per day when it's nice out. Clouds and rain cut that in half if not worse.

Either way, we are very pleased with the output of the system.

[Mr4btTahoe]

Update:

Nearly 2 months in and everything is working great. Poco sent out their tree service yesterday and dropped 6 trees out by the road (too close to high voltage lines) which worked out great. Now we are seeing power by 6am... full power 2 hours earlier... and picked up 5-10kwh production.

Now to get my last 3 panels installed... need to get off my butt and get the lean-to built onto the shop. We are also going to be upgrading our HVAC system as with this heat wave, we still had a pretty decent bill this month (2 central ac units running). We are going to upgrade the main unit and step to a 3 unit mini split for the addition. The mini split unit only draws 11amps vs 80 and does heating and cooling.

Anyways.. just wanted to thank you guys again for all the help! It's been a lot of fun.