My first full month of Solar energy production was this weekend. I was excited to see how it performed. As just a quick reminder, we installed a 32 panel system rated at 13kWh, and 4 Enphase Battery Backups.
Pretty much as expected, maybe not quite as good as hoped. This first month however will be one of the worst months for us in terms of usage and production. It's the hottest month of the year for us, with AC running nearly all the time. It also happens to be the storm and hurricane season here which means lots of thunderstorms and clouds in the afternoons killing my prime production hours. I definitely underestimated the impact of the storm season, clouds, and the vehicle charging with the extra driving I've been doing.
Here's the breakdown by week. Pretty consistent, I'm hoping to see much better numbers continuing to increase over the next 3 months as the hot weather and storm season ends. The AC units (we have 2 to cool the house) are definitely the largest drain by far exceeding all other use combined.
Overall Energy Independence 36%. Again not bad for what will likely be the worst month of the year. Will be interesting to watch this grow. One of the sunny days was over 51%.
This chart shows daily produced and consumed for each day of the month. You can see there were clearly some really poor production days with cloud cover. We still exported 453 kWh back to the grid during times of over-production.
This one shows an average days usage and production curve. The drastic orange clump at the right is where I plugged in the car after a long day of driving. You can see that doubles the consumption for several hours. The weekly 3 hour round trip drives to the hospital treatments will also end after next month which will greatly improve the stats. That one day of driving is more than I normally do in a month!
Here is a more normal day input and output without the car charging. Still lost a bit to clouds.
This shows the cost savings estimate (based on usage fee estimates) to have saved over $209 off our electric bill this month. We will still get a bill, but it's projected to be about $195 instead of over $400.
According to my vehicle charger, $42.15 of that cost or about 324.224 kWh of that usage is from vehicle charging.
For more details on the system, the install and licensing, see my previous post here:
https://ecency.com/hive-168869/@ksteem/weekend-solar-install-with-battery
I hope you enjoyed the update. I'll provide another at the 6 month mark in January that should show more improvements.
Dang, as much as I would love to have some solar panels, I am starting to not feel so bad about our electric and gas bill. I think our bill for both combined usually comes to between $150 and $200 per month. We probably have a bit smaller house, but it probably has to do with the cost of living here too. We have a lot of cloudy days, so I think it would be a battle of averages here. I like all the data you can get from these units. I'd probably spend way too much time digging into all of that!
Yes, The summer time bills a bit of a jump here for us as well. We've made some adjustments like cutting back on temperatures (no smart thermostats yet, just my smart fingers), reducing time on the pool filter, etc. but it's still high here in the summer time. That's one of the reasons we decided to pull the trigger. Plus we all know the electric prices will just keep going up, where now my Solar cost is static, will just result in more savings the more electric costs go up. The data is certainly facinating... I spend way too much time reviewing the real-time stats the daily and hourly stats, etc. lol.. It's very detailed, I may even do more of my own since it also provides excel spreadsheets of the raw data measured every 15 minutes for those that want to play with it more.
I never recommend "smart" thermostats.. see what happened to your former neighbors!
https://www.theverge.com/2022/9/5/23337864/xcel-locked-out-customers-smart-thermostats-colorado-heatwave
Wow, yes I would never go with that type of "smart" ness. I do like one that let's me (easily) schedule the day vs. night temperatures though. That's all the smartness I need. I don't need it to "learn" it for me or definitely not give others control over it. That's one of the reasons we installed the Solar and battery backups is to avoid being without power during any brownouts or rolling blackouts like they've done in some cities.
Yeah that’s good to hear I’m glad! We have one of those thermostats where we can set 4 ranges in the day. Morning, afternoon, dinner and sleep. There’s also vacation mode which is nice. It’s a basic product but I really like it and want to get one for when we move that’s for sure.
That's really cool. I haven't gotten a smart thermostat yet either. I don't think this house is wired for it and I am not sure it would make too much difference given it is bilevel. You would almost need two sensors. If we eventually move to a ranch style home, I will definitely install one.
I've done them in a few older homes. some of them do need an extra "power" wire run, to power/charge them when the furnace fan is off, but 95% will work as is. They are generally pretty simple to connect. Some of the newer ones like the new google Nest actually come with a remote sensor and that capability. We may do that eventually here, we added vents into the garage which is now our workshop and quilting/embroidery area, no sensor out there. Would be nice to have one there eventually.
Yeah, I don't have the yellow power wire or whatever it is. I could get one of the ones that uses batteries, but I don't feel like having to replace them all the time. It's always freezing in our downstairs, especially when the A/C is on. We also get a lot of direct sun in the evening on one side of the house, so it heats everything up.
This is really interesting. Don't you think it is worth noting that it is over a tonne of CO2 saved? Well, supposedly. Maybe (if that is actually important), that is what we should be focusing on rather than money saved or whatever. Of course, the "right thing" should also offer the best incentive in my opinion. Unfortunately across most areas of life, this is not the case.
My friend got panels put on last week here in Finland. Looking forward to seeing what kind of numbers he gets.
I was interesting in the CO2 numbers as well. I haven't done the research to understand how they calculate that or if it's really accurate, so didn't want to highlight it and get ripped on just yet, lol. The benefits to the environment are certainly important to me. Although not likely to see any difference in my lifetime, it's nice to do something that way for the kids and grandkids.
I'd love to see how others compare, certainly a lot of technology advancements in this area and in the battery area overall. It's helped me realize just how many things we rely on electricity for power, either plugging in or charging up internal or external batteries for.
A lot of free energy has been collected by installing many panels, which has reduced the electricity bill a lot. It is good for both the country and you
I'm certainly even more a fan than I was before them.
Wait. Hospital trips? Hope you are doing OK.
Thanks for the solar update. Wishing you sunny days.
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Thanks for that. Yes, I'm fine. I don't want to get into too much detail here, but we had a bit of scare for the wife. Getting within reach of Mayo Clinic for the weekly treatment for her was the big reason for our move cross country. What a difference in the quality of healthcare and changing the scary mis-diagnosis and death sentence into a properly diagnosed and treatable scenario. What a great team here. Back to at least a decade or two plan instead of a year or two. 8 more weeks of treatments, but blood stats already back to normal limits. Woohoo!
Mayo is amazing. I'm so glad she is receiving proper care. I have visited a friend who was receiving a liver transplant in the Rochester facility and was impressed and relieved to know it was 3 hours away. Having access to top notch health care is important.
Yes, we went through 5 different doctors, all with a different story, none of which felt or sounded right before we got there. Amazing what more thorough testing and analysis can provide when you get away from the one size fits all mentality.
I gave up on doctors years ago. They are necessary for trauma, but not helpful with MS.
Yes, before this last focused treatment, she had better results from the many alternatives researched, including some diet things, light wave therapy, and I think most useful was Rife sound machine. Royal Rife invented this targeted sound wave device back in the 1920's, of course quashed by the pharmaco mafia industry.. but now having more recent research and applications discovered. Quite fascinating.
Hello, first of all I wish you good health. I am always struck by the subject of solar panels. I have read that, in addition to satisfying individual needs, they also contribute surplus load to the general grid, which seems to me to be a very good thing. I have no experience in this, I have only read Galenkp and got acquainted with these issues. However, as I was reading him I thought I would ask if there is a way to protect them when a storm is coming. Will they have some kind of screen to protect them from flying things and so on? I'm sorry if my question seems silly, it's just that it really catches my attention.
Greetings!
No screen, but they really are built quite sturdy, similar to bulletproof glass, and storm rated, and I think 20 year warranty. They actually protect the roof itself from being damaged. While I'm sure strong Hurricane force could still drive something through like it could the side of the house, the angle of them also helps glance it away.
I always learn something new. I thought they were so fragile. 😅
Best regards! Thank you for your time.
Patrick and I are looking to get into solar sales here in Colorado.. it will be interesting to see if you're satisfied come Jan or so
I'm already satisfied, I think will just get even better from here. Next on the list will be upgrading my L2 Vehicle charger to bi-directional model so that the Chevy Blazer EV can be used to provide and extend the house batteries in the event of long-term outage. Enphase is soon coming out with one that looks will be as excellent as their other products. Stay tuned for that when it's available.
Did you buy the system outright or making payments the same as electric bill was? Or leasing?
I bought it outright, but financed it. So will be making payments about equal to the savings from electric bill for the next 3-5 years unless pay it off earlier (no pre-payment penalty). Nothing is free, should get over 8-25 years of "free" power after it's paid off though. Becomes even more valuable year over year as electric costs will continue to rise while my payment is locked.
That sounds like what I've been told..
This is pretty awesome man, what was the investment cost into the solar compared to the monthly return? Was it subsidized? If it was, do you know what the full cost of the system would be if it wasn't subsidized?
Solar panels are awesome for places that get so much sun!
Cost is more financed than if we had been able to pay cash. But the federal and local tax rebates are still very nice. 30% of the cost will come off our taxes. I'll likely do some upgrades next year in either panels, vehicle charger, and/or batteries while the tax incentives are still available.
This awesome to see! :D
If you were to rely on your 4 Batteries, how long could you survive on those alone? :D
We have run about 6-8 hours on "normal" full house load with both AC running in worst heat time of summer. If we turned off AC and used only critical items could likely get 24-48 hours, or even longer if sunny days for recharge and not constant cloud cover.
I did mean without AC, I just had it in my head and not written down xD
But 24-48 hours is pretty neat! :D
That's really cool to see! I want solar on my place so bad but it's expensive to install here and I don't have 10k just lying around to do it 😂
Yes, was expensive here too... we ended up financing and are already saving almost enough to make the payment each month, within about $50. Hopefully will be able to pay it off early, save interest and really rake in the savings in a couple years.
It's good to see everything up and running. The savings is significant and it sounds like things will only get better as the summer winds down.
I would think that you also saved some cash by not having to purchase gas.
Definitely got savings on the vehicle vs gas... I'm hoping for better next month thru end of year.
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