6Kw going in soon in Aliso Viejo

[Alisobob]

Yesterday was a milestone day...

I had both good solar output.... 41 KwH's...

solar117.JPG


AND...

Record SCE Consumption.... 30 WhH's....

solar116.JPG

I guess keeping the house at 72 degrees, around the clock.. does come at a price.

I got solar to save money, The wife likes the green aspect of it.... but we both like being comfortable, whenever we like, without breaking the bank like we used to.

Looks like I've started to use up my stored SCE credits, its anybodys guess on how many (if any) will remain by the end of summer...

i_love_solar_power_heart_custom_personalized_sticker-r00c3c178ad7344fca8015c4e64ef80fd_v9wth_8by.jpg

[rwb1921]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]7038[/ATTACH]

This is my layout.... 24 panels, all south facing.

In a earlier post I said east facing panels would be a disaster where I live, not that I have them.

Thanks Bob, must have missed the update from your earlier post.

[Alisobob]

24.JPG

This is my layout.... 24 panels, all south facing.

In a earlier post I said east facing panels would be a disaster where I live, not that I have them.

[rwb1921]

Mine are all south facing as well..

Bob, so you did not go with this in your earlier post?

They are coming out to do the roof azimuth testing next week. I went with the micro invertors due to 2 different roof lines. I have 18 panels facing south and 6 panels facing west.

[bcroe]

Solar can be so weird....

Rained in the morning, cloudy all day, sun broke through around 2pm... kinda' scattered clouds the rest of the day....
pretty much a throw-a-way day... Right? Wrong... it was a 30 KwH day. Go figure...

It was even worse here; heavy overcast with off and on rain all day; the sun never came out. With extra panels
managed to run at 35%, 53 KWH covered all use and banked some for winter. There are too many cloudy & rainy
days here to just write them off. Bruce Roe

[Alisobob]

Mine are all south facing as well..

[rwb1921]

[ATTACH]7036[/ATTACH]

Solar can be so weird....

Rained in the morning, cloudy all day, sun broke through around 2pm... kinda' scattered clouds the rest of the day.... pretty much a throw-a-way day... Right?

Wrong... it was a 30 KwH day.

Go figure...

Looks like having panels on two sides really works good. I had total of 23.8 today, with a peak of 5.17. But my panels are all facing south. 6480 vs 5985 (mine) system. Still not a bad day. Covers my use and more without A/C running. Thanks for posting your results today Bob.

[Alisobob]

solar114.JPG

Solar can be so weird....

Rained in the morning, cloudy all day, sun broke through around 2pm... kinda' scattered clouds the rest of the day.... pretty much a throw-a-way day... Right?

Wrong... it was a 30 KwH day.

Go figure...

[bcroe]

More complexity == more hassle. KISS.

A friend said, "The more stuff you have, the harder it is to keep it all working!". I have
spent a lifetime gathering stuff, and he is right. Everything is serviced with an eye to
minimizing future repairs. Stainless steel exhaust systems, etc; no trackers.

If you have consistent good sun, the tracker has more justification. Clouds, etc, not as
much. Instead try adding a few (trouble free) panels.

East facing panels will give an early boost any time its clear. South facing panels may
also come on, but at considerably reduced efficiency because of the extreme incidence
angle. The proportion of power generated gradually shifts from the E to the S during
the day. And same in reverse for a West facing array. A tracker can do all that, you
say. Yes, HOWEVER....

When clouds, etc interfere, output drops, but it is NOT NOTHING. It is still SOMETHING,
and if you have enough E & W panels, it could be up to 2 X SOMETHING, because the
dispersed light works on any orientation. A tracker can do NOTHING in this situation.

All this becomes a lot more economical with string inverter systems, because the same
equipment is shared by differently oriented arrays over the day. With panels at 0.$75
a watt and installed systems around $3.50 a watt, just increasing panels is actually
relatively inexpensive, even if their performance isn't optimum. Of course, your results
will vary.

A single axis tracker might have more justification than a 2 axis. Bruce Roe

[Alisobob]

More complexity == more hassle. KISS.

[SunEagle]

More complexity == more hassle. KISS.

Amen to that policy.

Although I have been watching a tracking system made in MA that is pretty simple to run and maintain but is really only good for flat surfaces like a roof.

There is also another one being used by Utility MW systems that include a solar panel to power the tracking system which is not much more than a single motor that slowly rotates a shaft connected to long ground based array and adjusts to seasonal (Winter / Summer) changes of the sun's path.

[J.P.M.]

And no one likes to fart with the machinery...

More complexity == more hassle. KISS.

[josefontao]

And no one likes to fart with the machinery...

[J.P.M.]

Based on how the weather changes in SD maybe some type of E - W tracking system would be beneficial for ground mounted systems.

Actually, IMO, the weather is only slightly less predictable around here than Phoenix for the most part. The weatherman was anecdotally pretty much spot on in his comment, especially near the coast. Cloudy till 8 at my house about 20 miles inland.

Pretty much anything's possible in design. For the added complexity of tracking --->>> lower reliability, higher maint./cost in tracking, I'd just optimize the tilt/azimuth of fixed arrays if/as much as possible, and size the array for the most cost effectiveness. I'd balance any loss in revenue as the cost of the increased probability of fewer hassles and less time spent farting around w/the machinery.

[SunEagle]

I heard a meteorologist say that probably the toughest thing about being a TV weatherman in San Diego was trying to figure out how to say "cloudy til 10 then sun" and keep it interesting. Pretty benign and predictable most of the time, Near the coast, SWAG/1st cut approx. for initial design: Face an array at ~ 210 deg. & iterate.

Based on how the weather changes in SD maybe some type of E - W tracking system would be beneficial for ground mounted systems.