My solar production I have some questions

[begreen]

You guys need to get your panels on PVOutput. I have a consumption meter hooked up to mine so I can see track usage and production very accurately. I also have my inverters internal temperature displayed and my Wunderground weather station data added as well. Its also a great tool to track nearby arrays and compare production.

Another big plus is PVoutput reports data much more accurately in minute intervals. The graphs and data you can look at when hooked up with a consumption meter is nuts. They have daily, monthly and yearly charts and graphs. You can also add your electricity cost and it will roughly calculate your savings.

Here is my site.

https://www.pvoutput.org/intraday.jsp?id=60553&sid=53905

View attachment 231232

Cool. Looks worth checking on. I wonder if I can import data from our monitoring from eGauge?

 

[peakbagger]

If someone likes gadgetry and its free go for it. I am not a fan of sharing data to the public unless someone is writing a check to me and suspect that if the ap is free someone is getting the info. As I have stated before, to the vast majority of folks PV becomes an appliance. It just runs. The only checks I do is my monthly power bill to make sure I generated power and when I walk by the inverters in my basement I looks to see if the LEDs are flit up. The only other PV duties are move my adjustable arrays 4 times a year.

If I had optimizers or especially microinverters I might have an incentive to do a bit more monitoring as individual panels can fail degrading the system performance. With a string inverter its pretty rare for the string to fail and when it does the voltage drops enough that the string drops out entirely.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

If someone likes gadgetry and its free go for it. I am not a fan of sharing data to the public unless someone is writing a check to me and suspect that if the ap is free someone is getting the info. As I have stated before, to the vast majority of folks PV becomes an appliance. It just runs. The only checks I do is my monthly power bill to make sure I generated power and when I walk by the inverters in my basement I looks to see if the LEDs are flit up. The only other PV duties are move my adjustable arrays 4 times a year.

If I had optimizers or especially microinverters I might have an incentive to do a bit more monitoring as individual panels can fail degrading the system performance. With a string inverter its pretty rare for the string to fail and when it does the voltage drops enough that the string drops out entirely.

So I have optimizers and micro inverters on my system so what would be the advantages to those

 

[peakbagger]

Optimizers and microinverters are attached to individual panels. They both tend to have higher failure rates than string inverters so there is a higher likelihood that or more panels can be out of production yet the array is still putting out power albeit at lower rate. Its pretty obvious when a string it out.

 

[begreen]

Yes, I chose not to use the microinverters, though they might improve my production in shoulder season when shading is more of an issue. It seems to me that anytime cheap capacitors are placed in a location of heat they are going to have a short lifetime.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

I have 10 yrs on the micro.. should i be worried

 

[peakbagger]

I have 10 yrs on the micro.. should i be worried

It depends on the manufacturer. Enphase apparently has some earlier models that were failure prone.

 

[begreen]

Enphase was what I was thinking of. They were all that was available at the time our system went in.

 

[peakbagger]

Enphase was what I was thinking of. They were all that was available at the time our system went in.

I think the Enphase 190 (?) had a very high failure rate. Here is link to thread to professional solar installers forum from several years ago on this issue https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg15093.html

Reportedly the factory and installers started to be far less generous on warranty replacements as the failure rate went up. For awhile I think they would authorize replacing all the 190s on the array.

The 215s also had some failures but the percentages were far lower. I haven't seen a lot on the 250s. Many pros switched to Solar Edge optimizers as it gets some of the complexity off the roof and to where it is better environment.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

I think the Enphase 190 (?) had a very high failure rate. Here is link to thread to professional solar installers forum from several years ago on this issue https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg15093.html

Reportedly the factory and installers started to be far less generous on warranty replacements as the failure rate went up. For awhile I think they would authorize replacing all the 190s on the array.

The 215s also had some failures but the percentages were far lower. I haven't seen a lot on the 250s. Many pros switched to Solar Edge optimizers as it gets some of the complexity off the roof and to where it is better environment.

Thats what i have solar edge optimizers... im hoping they do well for me
Right now my production sucks. With that noreaster that we just had my production was 15kwh yesterday. Im looking forward the the leaves dropping from the trees so i get less shading.

 

[peakbagger]

One of my arrays was covered with frozen snow for a day and a half. Talk about zero output . It warmed up and let loose yesterday.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

I feel like i need to read more on my sloar system and get a better understanding of it and how it operates
Snow already??? Has it been that cold there

 

[peakbagger]

Yes we did get some early snow earlier in the week and some yesterday. All the big ski resorts are opening up as the temps are cold enough to run the snow guns. Its bragging rights, they don't have much terrain open but it gets folks thinking about skiing in the winter and buying seasons passes. If we don't have snow until later in the season folks tend not to buy passes and new gear. Long range winter forecast for my area and much of the northeast is warmer than normal but also wetter which means Northeasters and big weather swings.

If you search around on the web there is highly recommended book for folks considering solar

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0470596783/?tag=hearthamazon-20

I have heard that an older edition my be available somewhere on the web as download but haven't looked.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

Yes we did get some early snow earlier in the week and some yesterday. All the big ski resorts are opening up as the temps are cold enough to run the snow guns. Its bragging rights, they don't have much terrain open but it gets folks thinking about skiing in the winter and buying seasons passes. If we don't have snow until later in the season folks tend not to buy passes and new gear. Long range winter forecast for my area and much of the northeast is warmer than normal but also wetter which means Northeasters and big weather swings.

If you search around on the web there is highly recommended book for folks considering solar

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0470596783/?tag=hearthamazon-20

I have heard that an older edition my be available somewhere on the web as download but haven't looked.

Thanks for the info. I woll look it up