Comments on: Solar!

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 16:47:27 +0000

Hi, I got my system legalized and turned on about 2 weeks ago. It was a tough road to convince the city of San Jose that my Solyndra panels were ok for my residential roof. But it is on now. Yesterday, 4/25/2011 I made 14.5 kWH for the day. I’d like to see your daily kWH numbers as our systems are the same size. I have one Sunny Boy Inverter, I wonder about my losses related to it vs the microinverters.

kWH
4/14/2011 13.6
15-Apr 16.1
16-Apr 12.1
17-Apr 17.9
18-Apr 6.6
19-Apr 13.6
20-Apr 14.2
21-Apr 15.9
22-Apr 9.3
23-Apr 12.5
24-Apr 13
25-Apr 14.5

Mike

By: Paul

Paul — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 18:46:54 +0000

We’re getting a similar PV system installed right now. I wrote to Enphase about their flash-tastic website and it turns out they are testing an iPhone-friendly version: https://m.enphaseenergy.com/
From their customer service: “Feel free to play around with it and send us feedback.”

By: Luc J

Luc J — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 17:34:05 +0000

Congrats with your system. We installed ours a year ago and it has been producing more that expected, making up for the theoretical degradation of 10-20% over 20 years.
Even better, we got a loan to buy the system, this way we got more revenues from it that we have to pay back, already the first month.

By: bbum's weblog-o-mat » Blog Archive » Enphase Energy’s Envoy

bbum's weblog-o-mat » Blog Archive » Enphase Energy’s Envoy — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 16:41:47 +0000

[...] This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License. Amazon.com Widgets « Solar! [...]

By: Mike

Mike — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 12:33:35 +0000

I’m not familiar with the California laws/requirements one has to meet, or the process one must go through, in order to add solar panels to their house. Do you have to get the OK from local government first, or can anyone who’s a single-family homeowner add solar panels, as long as it’s up to code?

I’m asking because I hope to move to California soon. I won’t be able to afford a mortgage for a while, but when I do, I’d like to make sure that, wherever I move, I can add a solar panel setup. Are some towns/cities more conservative about what you can add to the exterior than others?

By: Todd Thomas

Todd Thomas — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 19:17:18 +0000

So if you are generating energy that goes back to the grid you don’t get paid for it? That kind of sucks.

By: Dan Sully

Dan Sully — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 16:06:26 +0000

Bill – is yours a grid-tied system, or do you have batteries for storing generated energy in times of power outages?

By: annbb

annbb — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 13:08:03 +0000

Congrats on reducing your carbon footprint!

By: Peter Bierman

Peter Bierman — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 07:35:36 +0000

Wow, the animation of power per panel over the course of a day is a great visualization! It’s cool to see shadows move across the panels. (BTW- your link to your data requires a login.)

Do you still have an old style analog power meter? If it spins backwards during daylight, I presume PG&E is only stiffing you if your monthly net usage is negative? Any gotchyas expected once you get “upgraded” to a smart meter?

By: Steve Dekorte

Steve Dekorte — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:54:41 +0000

Congrats! Very cool.