feb 18... perfect day for solar up here in new England

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georgepds

Minister of Fire
Nov 25, 2012
878
Monday was an almost perfect day for solar in New England. I've got ten 250 watt panels on my roof, each connected to an enphase M215 grid tied inverter. Because the inverter clips at ~213 watts, the peak output is 2130 watts, which I saw at around 11 am . Energy was 13.6 kwh for the day( from a 2.5 kw system) or 5.45 equivalent full sun hours. Five and a half hours of full sun in February from a roof pitched at 20 degrees to the horizontal is pretty good.

I attach some of the pics from the the Enphase online tool to track production (total and of individual panels). power.jpgpeak power.jpg .
 
Good stuff. I also use the enphase microinverters, however mine seem to clip at 225W, with a single instant of one hitting 226W. I have 25 suniva 255W panels. The system has been running since late Oct and my best day so far was Feb 16th.

I live in a pop ~30k town near the MA/NH boarder. According to their website map, in October, three homes had enphase systems. Today I saw nine listed. Solar growth really seems to have dramatically increased around here. These cold morning temps dramatically boost efficiency.
 
Thats odd, I got next to nothing on the 16 and 17 due to snow and ice.. here are my results for the days around the 15. You must clean your roof fairly well
date Kwh
13-Feb 10.3
14-Feb 12.0
15-Feb 11.7
16-Feb 3.6
17-Feb 2.3
18-Feb 13.6

I've had a 1.2 kW system for about 13 years, Last fall I added another 2.5 kw iwth the enphase inverter
 
Snow on mine. Doesn't melt that much when it's cold. I clean it with a roof rake, but it doesn't get it all.


M215s clip at 225w
 
I made an error. Most productive day was Feb 18th (26.5 kWh) not 16th (6.6kWh).

I don't clean the roof at all. Panels on two different pitches (28 & 56 degrees). Snow melts real well off both, but better off of 56 pitch.
 
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