Hey boys,
Maybe off-topic, but I think this group is gear-headed enough to be
interested. On March 9th we installed a 6,000 watt photovoltaic system on our
house in Southern California. Today, we have just generated over three million
watt/hours of electricity since installation. Our system consists of:
30 - Kyocera KC200GT (200 watt) panels
1 - SMA Sunny boy 6000U inverter
It is a roof mount with a south-east exposure and in suburban Los Angeles, CA.
So far it is exceeding my
expectations.
We are producing about 11kWh/day more than we are consuming (averaging about
34kWh/day production, and have seen 40kWh production on clear days). We have
not needed to use the AC and I also will need to increase the pool pump run
times as it gets warmer, so the surplus may shrink.
I'm attaching the links for some photos I just took as well:
Picture of the panels from the driveway (I probably should have closed the
garage doors and moved the dumpsters):
http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~shook/images/Picture%20002.jpg
Close-up of the panels:
http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~shook/images/Picture%20003.jpg
http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~shook/images/Picture%20008.jpg
Inverter, meter and switches (I clearly should have washed the walls down):
http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~shook/images/Picture%20009.jpg
Close-up of inverter (putting out 5,200 watts at 2 p.m.on an partly overcast
day -- because of the SE azimuth, my best hours are 10 a.m. - 1 p.m.):
http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~shook/images/Picture%20010.jpg
Meter spinning backwards (it shows 99,546KW then, and was set at 100,00 KW
upon installation, a spin down of almost .5mWh since it was installed on
April 9th -- today it shows 99,445 over a half million watt hours of surplus).
Edison did not change out our old analogue meter when the system
was installed, and then realized that they could not read it, so we lost a
month of measurement).
http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~shook/images/Picture%20011.jpg
It looks like we should run a surplus at year-end as over 16 mos. of
billing, our previous average daily usage was 29.4kWh, with a max of
46.7kWh/day average last July (we used 1.4mWh last July). We'll see how much
we need the AC this summer and how many Christmas lights we put out in
December.
For the May 2006 bill we used 800kWh. For May 2007, we surplused 311 kWh -- a
nice turnaround. I am very glad we did the installation. I now have a $189
credit with SoCal Edison.
For the gear heads, I find myself standing outside with my cup of coffee
before I go to work watching the inverter, looking at how many VDC it is
generating, watching the wattage, looking for a cloud to come by to see what
impact it has on production, I have learned about cloud edge effects, noticed
that clear cool days produce more power than hot days (the panel's efficiency
drops once ambient temperature exceed 68 degrees, etc).There have been hours
of unexpected entertainment value thrown in to boot. This really is the
ultimate tool. :)
best,
doug
'72 BSA B50SS
'74 Triumph TR6
'01 Harley XLH883
'03 GMC Cargo Van
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