Recent content by GregBallantyne

I'd suggest saving your energy for things that might be helpful, like checking your system. If something looks a bit odd with mine, I'll know in a half an hour at most. I'm retired, so I don't have the time demands of working, but I can't imagine not knowing before half a day went by under any...

Pretty much sums up my view of the subject, and the motivations of my wife and I. Losing grid power here is fairly routine, happens a little more often than twice a month - 24 times in 10 months of operation. Except I've already retired, and our future plans don't involve moving.

Mine is inside, PWs in the basement and directly below the Gateway outside about 45 ft away. The Gateway hooked right up at commissioning, and thru 4-5 interior walls and Hardie Board siding (which decreased my interior cellular signal significantly after installation).... router is slightly...

My neighbor just had a solar panel array installed, but decided not to get batteries. He got quotes for batteries, and his installer (Solar Energy World) quoted several, one of which was PW3. I don't know details at all.....

Today will be the 28th consecutive day for me. But my delusion regarding the possibility of continuing that stretch until September may be in jeopardy already. I may end up drawing some grid power in a day more two, if the forecast is true. After 3 in the afternoon today, only generated 5.7 kwh...

Lots of reasons to get more than one PW..... if you just get one, best to get a PW3. Then you can configure it for whole house backup, and run things with higher start loads (like a heat pump) while running on battery. Whole house backup if you've got one load center that is. You can add more...

I'm not a PW3 owner, but.... I am thinking that the PW3 is a significant improvement over PW2 in a couple of ways.... 1st, increased output capability allows whole house backup with a few batteries, a single PW 3 can open that possibility for most residences. 2nd, the availability of DC coupled...

Yes. There can never be too much solar, there can only be not enough storage.

My top goal for going solar is energy security. Not drawing grid power demonstrates achievement of that goal. Of course, I don't mind seeing circumstances in which I know I could have self powered instead of drawing grid, but for a decision, but another goal is to operate in a manner that is...

I'm looking at the date I stopped drawing grid power, with a perhaps aspirational expectation that I won't draw any for a self powering season that lasts until early October. In other words, no grid power thru the meter until October. I got on the good side of net draw for the month of March...

I agree. I would really like to operate my system in a way that not only satisfies my own goals, but also helps the grid operator, other power customers, and accelerates the growth of renewable power generation. The past 3 weeks, I've moved solidly into the self powering season, sending nearly...

In my (continuing) 20 day stretch, there were two low generation days the PWs did not fill - 20.9 and 14.9 kwh days. I didn't charge the car those days, since I've been charging on excess solar only. Didn't have charge on excess solar capability until late last summer, so this year will be...

My solar system started operation on June 10 last year, so this is my first April with solar. March was great - I made as much as I used, but still drew grid power some days and sent power to the grid some days. April has been really good. On April 6, I drew 15.1 kwh from the grid. Since that...

Grid scale storage capacity needs to grow quickly. It actually is, but the required pace is slow compared to the pace that we need. Residential batteries can contribute to an over strategy ROI, as I've calculated. They never likely achieve it when considered as a separate expenditure and return...

What about your performance experience? Are you satisfied with it? Meeting your goals and/or expectations? Are you identifying a performance issue that you believe should be made right? Solar Roof is different from panels, and my understanding is that it is less impacted by shading. I was told...