Raleigh Residential Solar Photovoltaic (PV) decision, details, numbers, and pictures (2014, homes)
Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, CaryThe Triangle Area
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Just an update - my system is consistently putting out 31-35 kWh of power per day lately with all the sun and decent temps. Amazing! I bet it will surpass 40 or even 45 kWh in summer when the days are longer, but maybe the temps are too high and I'll lose some to heat.
They're coming Monday to install my monitoring hardware and software so I'll be able to more closely see my usage and production and further modify my usage for best results. The meter reader came yesterday and while she couldn't tell me anything, I suspect I'll have a very low power bill once it shows up, and I think right now the meter runs backwards most of the day.
That is a huge amount of power. It will be interesting to see if the heat does reduce the output and how much. Maybe there is some tipping point where it pays to run fans blowing across the panels to keep them closer to ambient temp.
The meter reader came yesterday and while she couldn't tell me anything, I suspect I'll have a very low power bill once it shows up, and I think right now the meter runs backwards most of the day.
Did the meter reader write down the numbers on the displays, or use an optical probe to capture the information? If she wrote down the numbers, the displays will rotate through and display information for energy delivered, energy received, etc. In the picture you posted earlier, the display said 48 00000. The 48 is just a number indicating what the meter is displaying (eg, energy delivered) with the 00000 being the reading for that register. I assume if you ask, P-E will tell what each display item is.
That is a huge amount of power. It will be interesting to see if the heat does reduce the output and how much. Maybe there is some tipping point where it pays to run fans blowing across the panels to keep them closer to ambient temp.
My friend and I were discussing hooking up a small water sprayer to spray water on them to cool them evaporatively in summer....
Quote:
Originally Posted by don6170
Did the meter reader write down the numbers on the displays, or use an optical probe to capture the information? If she wrote down the numbers, the displays will rotate through and display information for energy delivered, energy received, etc. In the picture you posted earlier, the display said 48 00000. The 48 is just a number indicating what the meter is displaying (eg, energy delivered) with the 00000 being the reading for that register. I assume if you ask, P-E will tell what each display item is.
Right, I know about the screens but the PEC employee who installed the new meter only knew what 3 of the numbers were. The rest he could not tell me. Other people have told me they are pretty secretive about it, although I'm sure some Googling would turn up the answers.
My eGauge was finally installed today - here's a snapshot from just now. You'll note solar production is totally crappy - it's currently 100% overcast outside and raining, so that's why.
I'm not certain why we're using so much power - 1300W is a lot for 2 computers, 4 screens, a few networking gizmos, a couple DVRs, 2 fridges, and not much else on that I can think of. Part of that could be one of the fans - we do have the heat on today as it's been chilly. I think each blower fan uses about 500-600W of power.
This will be my last post in this thread unless someone asks for more information because I think we've pretty much covered it all but here is a more accurate graph showing what the eGauge looks like with some decent sun during the day:
I think we all need to know just what it is you're doing at midnight to use so much power.
I wish I had an interesting answer for that, but the largest spike is when both my pool pump and the robotic cleaner are on. The cleaner stays on for about 90min (I may reduce that after leaf drop season is over) and the pump for 5 hours at low speed. It appears that the cleaner pump uses about 1500W and the low speed setting I have the main filter pump on uses about 500-600W. It's much more when I run it during the summer.
During the non swimming months I run these at night to both coincide with freezing periods (it's set to automatically turn on during freezing weather to avoid damage to equipment) and also to avoid peak demand charges and thirdly to run it when it only costs me 5 cents per kWh.
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