Just over 100 kw production on my system yesterday

[Woodsplitter67]

As the tital says. My solar pv system produced just over 100 kw yesterday. I never thought that my productuon would be this high. It was a bright sunny windy day. The rain friday night must have washed all the pollin off the panels. So far this month my daily production average is somewhere around 70kw per day for the month. It was like 74 per day but we've had rain and cloudy days so its dipped some the past week. At this piont I have produced 500kw more than i have used and by September i should have built up enough credit to cover the years electric over the winter months. Even if im short 1kw or so, that will be close enough to make me happy. Last months electric bill was a whopping 4.60 and it was because of the stupid usage fees thay charge.. but what ever
Bottom line is that anyone on the fence regarding solar.. its worth it. I did the math.. my pay off is 5 years and its working out like it should

 

[wilsoncm1]

How large of an array do you have?

 

[Woodsplitter67]

How large of an array do you have?

Its large. That being said, my syster may not be good for you. You'll need to size it based on eather your usage or budget

 

[maple1]

Its large. That being said, my syster may not be good for you. You'll need to size it based on eather your usage or budget

How many watts though? Ballpark.

And do you have a ballpark $/watt of net installed cost, all-in?

 

[Woodsplitter67]

Yes i have a cost per watt installed.. its between 2 and 2.25 roughly.. hope that helps..that cost is with the insensitive offered by the gov. But not everyones going to get that

 

[Dobish]

i just put 21 panels on the roof of the new garage. It would be functioning, but it is currently raining. i can't wait to see what my bill is!

 

[Woodsplitter67]

i just put 21 panels on the roof of the new garage. It would be functioning, but it is currently raining. i can't wait to see what my bill is!

Right now im loving that im utility free.. to have no electric bill and no bill to heat my home but yet its more comfortable is just mind blowing

 

[Dobish]

1.83kWh yesterday on the new panels for 2 hours


1.8kWh yesterday on the old system too (for the whole day)

 

[Brian26]

Right now im loving that im utility free.. to have no electric bill and no bill to heat my home but yet its more comfortable is just mind blowing

Enjoy it while you can. You do know net metering can end pretty quickly when some lobbyist and politicans get involved. Its ending here in CT the end of the year. We once had one of the top solar policies a few years ago. Its going to be a sell all use all meaning you can't self consume your own solar. It's going to pretty much kill solar here. Similar things are going on in other states like Maine.

The main argument is your pretty much paying zero in maintenance costs/transmission. You are still importing a ton of power at night and on cloudy days. Your 4.60 a month you said your paying is probably just a billing/connection charge.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

Enjoy it while you can. You do know net metering can end pretty quickly when some lobbyist and politicans get involved. Its ending here in CT the end of the year. We once had one of the top solar policies a few years ago. Its going to be a sell all use all meaning you can't self consume your own solar. It's going to pretty much kill solar here. Similar things are going on in other states like Maine.

The main argument is your pretty much paying zero in maintenance costs/transmission. You are still importing a ton of power at night and on cloudy days. Your 4.60 a month you said your paying is probably just a billing/connection charge.

Thanks for the heads up of what happened in your area... but... im not really worried about it...

 

[peakbagger]

I think the saying "nothing is safe while the legislature is in session" applies but I expect CT is getting rid of net metering for new customers, generally but not all the time utilities grandfather the current systems. I don't play in that market but a few years ago CT was bidding large blocks of renewable power into a high rate. If someone got into the block they were locked into a long term high SREC payment in the $300 plus range. The new metering was minor compared to the SREC payments. In all of these programs the devil is in the details and "other devils" will figure a way around it.

 

[maple1]

This net metering stuff is all very interesting.

We here had nothing much in the way of that when I was doing my heating system over in 2012. But there has been what sounds like some very attractive things done since - recent install incentives, and being able to sell excess to the company. Really has me thinking hard on it. I think the main thing driving that and that would prevent them from walking it back here is legislation brought in years before that - 'Environmental Goals & Sustainable Prosperity Act'. I really don't think they really knew then what all that would impact in the future, but it legislated a certain amount of our annual power production needs to be from sustainable/renewable sources. Which seems to be where we are now.

I really should get off my butt about it & take a plunge...

 

[Woodsplitter67]

I think the saying "nothing is safe while the legislature is in session" applies but I expect CT is getting rid of net metering for new customers, generally but not all the time utilities grandfather the current systems. I don't play in that market but a few years ago CT was bidding large blocks of renewable power into a high rate. If someone got into the block they were locked into a long term high SREC payment in the $300 plus range. The new metering was minor compared to the SREC payments. In all of these programs the devil is in the details and "other devils" will figure a way around it.

I understand what hes saying.. and alot could happen with solar and how things change.. i never get wrapped up in what could happen.. my wife could cheat on me, there could be a school shooting, i could get hit by a car. If i let everything that could happen into my life i would, i wouldn't be able to function
Jersey is already starting to change.. the tax credit is going down, after 2020 no more srec for new applicants.. were close to our 5%goal for renewable.. if things change for me than no biggie.. the system will be paid off in 2023 after that.. im still ahead.. half an electric bill is better than paying the full bill..right now im riding the wave.. and i like it
.

 

[CaptSpiff]

.....Jersey is already starting to change.. the tax credit is going down, after 2020 no more srec for new applicants.. were close to our 5%goal for renewable.. if things change for me than no biggie.. the system will be paid off in 2023 after that.. im still ahead.. half an electric bill is better than paying the full bill..right now im riding the wave.. and i like it
.

You have the right attitude. At this time the govt needs you and your PV system to meet their "green goals". They'll cater to you until their goals change. I always thought the loss of tax revenue from the "reduced electric bills" would flip the pols and strand those PV assets. Now I suspect the rapid roll out of the Smart Meters will be their scalpel. The intro of "time of use" rates will likely affect future power buy-back agreements, but perhaps "Peak" is right and early adopters will be grandfathered. But I don't care either way, I think PV is a great way to reduce your local energy footprint, and even a small 3-4 KW panel set would go a long way to offset your own usage.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

You have the right attitude. At this time the govt needs you and your PV system to meet their "green goals". They'll cater to you until their goals change. I always thought the loss of tax revenue from the "reduced electric bills" would flip the pols and strand those PV assets. Now I suspect the rapid roll out of the Smart Meters will be their scalpel. The intro of "time of use" rates will likely affect future power buy-back agreements, but perhaps "Peak" is right and early adopters will be grandfathered. But I don't care either way, I think PV is a great way to reduce your local energy footprint, and even a small 3-4 KW panel set would go a long way to offset your own usage.

Thanks.. i try to be positive .. I'm self employed .. so if you cant look on the bright side.. you wouldn't last long.. I doubt that anything will change prior to me paying off the system... once payed off what ever happens im still ahead. Im sure in the future there will be some fees, there will have to be.. they need to keep up the infrastructure that I am grid-tied to.
That being said.. im still ahead just not as much as originally thought but i dont care.. as long as im ahead by a little or a lot.. its still better than paying the full ammount for the power we use.. if at the end of the system if i were to be ahead 135k and they tac on a bunch of fees and at the end im only ahead 100k.. im still happy with that..

 

[Brian26]

Yesterday was definitely a top ten day here in New England. I had one of my best production days since my panels went in years ago. I made 40kw yesterday with my 5.4 kwh array.

Today's production looks similiar. These clear days and cool temps have been great.

 

[Where2]

...Now I suspect the rapid roll out of the Smart Meters will be their scalpel. The intro of "time of use" rates will likely affect future power buy-back agreements, but perhaps "Peak" is right and early adopters will be grandfathered. But I don't care either way, I think PV is a great way to reduce your local energy footprint, and even a small 3-4 KW panel set would go a long way to offset your own usage.

We got smart meters ~10 years ago. In August 2013, I got a Smart NET Meter. I could stall the original smart meter while testing the PV array, but it was programmed to ADD to the odometer whether it was delivering or receiving power. The power company swapped it for a different brand that accumulates delivered and received as separate tallies. We still don't have Time Of Use metering, after 10 years of smart meters, but the local (monopoly) power company has been rolling out 500+ acre solar farms as fast as they can buy the land, get them get them assembled and wired. The power company obviously recognizes that a practically zero maintenance generation facility powered by a free energy source is a cash cow to them!! These guys have a new fleet of modern natural gas generation facilities, and a few old nuke plants, yet they're fast and furious on PV...

Our 4.4kW array makes it essentially "free" to run the A/C down here in South Florida. When my wife forwarded the electric bill to me yesterday, I noticed a really odd trend in the power consumption graphic. We flat line consumption during the summer at about 700kWh for several months. That's actually handy because it keeps us in the lowest pricing tier... Long live the personal PV array...

 

[Brian26]

Been an awesome month for solar production. My panels have been pretty much running at peak efficiency jusr about every day.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

Thanks for posting that @Brian26. I was going to post on this thread today anyway. The weather at my house hasn't been great. Alot of rain and clouds along with it. Plus the temps have been high. Dont get me wrong, im still covering my electric bill. It feels good not to be paying the electric company, but so far for the month i thought it would have been better so far. At this point im still building a credit for the winter months.

 

[Dobish]

Thanks for posting that @Brian26. I was going to post on this thread today anyway. The weather at my house hasn't been great. Alot of rain and clouds along with it. Plus the temps have been high. Dont get me wrong, im still covering my electric bill. It feels good not to be paying the electric company, but so far for the month i thought it would have been better so far. At this point im still building a credit for the winter months.
View attachment 245706

I got my first bill after running our solar for an entire billing cycle. I like the fact that I got a $79 credit....

 

[peakbagger]

I got my first bill after running our solar for an entire billing cycle. I like the fact that I got a $79 credit....

That first credit is always the best. My original 660 watt array, long before the 30% tax credit, actually covered my use for a few months one summer. At the time the utilities billing software would not acknowledge my production so I would get typed letter from a billing clerk every month and one month I was net negative.

Just remember shorter days really eat into production but a nice feeling anyhow

 

[Dobish]

it looks like if we continue at this rate through august, we will offset the darkest months. I am not planning on having $0 electric bill, but it should be mostly offset for the year. The system we put on about 4 years ago offsets roughly 10% of our usage.

 

[peakbagger]

I cheat a lot, I run a big surplus over my electric usage and then burn up most of it with my minisplit for shoulder season heating.

 

[lml999]

Anyone else here amused to see that you can generate ~50 to 100 watts at night, on a full moon?

Enough to power a couple of laptops or a small flat screen television!

 

[CaptSpiff]

Moon light is reflected sunlight.