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  1. nwdiver

    Lowering amperage a good thing?

    That's the #1, 2 and 3 reasons IMHO. Everything can be installed 110% correctly but everytime you charge at 48A the connections get very warm/hot. Metal expands when it heats up. The amount of heat is the charge rate squared. So 24A reduces the heat by 75% vs 48A. Less heat, less thermal...
  2. nwdiver

    Prediction: Coal has fallen. Nuclear is next then Oil.

    I installed a 'power pipe' in my house. It works great. Would be really hard for potable water to become contaminated since it's at pressure. The biggest catch is that it needs to be installed as a drain and it needs to be vertical. So the showers need to be on an upper floor. Drain heat...
  3. nwdiver

    Russia/Ukraine conflict

  4. nwdiver

    Russia/Ukraine conflict

    ... if learning from history was easy it wouldn't keep repeating itself... :( Peace for our time
  5. nwdiver

    Russia/Ukraine conflict

    I believe on 'Ukraine the latest' one of the hosts half joked that Ukraine should annex itself to Poland for ~5 years. Sort of like how Hong Kong had a 99 year lease to the UK.
  6. nwdiver

    Russia/Ukraine conflict

    If Russia attacks French forces in Ukraine would this trigger article 5?
  7. nwdiver

    Electrify Everything

    More senseless carnage because stupid is still normal. :(
  8. nwdiver

    Russia/Ukraine conflict

    Never a good sign when reality becomes satire. :(
  9. nwdiver

    Russia/Ukraine conflict

    Best use of community notes ever?
  10. nwdiver

    California Utilities Plan All Out War On Solar, Please Read And Help

    .... so you CAN have your grid service disconnected but you need to watch out for bears?
  11. nwdiver

    California Utilities Plan All Out War On Solar, Please Read And Help

    .... so if you ask to have your electric service disconnected they simply say 'no'?
  12. nwdiver

    California Utilities Plan All Out War On Solar, Please Read And Help

    Sure seems like there would be a 4th Amendment issue there. Is the utility going to narc you out to the AHJ that you went off-grid? How would the county know you're 'off-grid'? How and where would there be any consequences to getting your electric service disconnected?
  13. nwdiver

    Climate Change Denial

    Imagine if most homes had just ~2 hours of battery storage. This would be 100% a non-issue. Even if just 20% of homes had ~2 hours of battery storage.
  14. nwdiver

    CO2/warming correlation - how to respond?

    Don't over complicate it. CO2 reduces outgoing energy more than it reduces incoming energy because it interacts with photons in the visible spectrum more than it interacts with photons in the IR spectrum. Since Earth receives most of its energy from the sun in the visible spectrum and radiates...
  15. nwdiver

    CO2/warming correlation - how to respond?

    No it barely acts on incoming. Incoming light is in the visible spectrum. Outgoing is in the IR spectrum. CO2 is transparent to visible but opaque to IR. ~ALL the energy is 'reflected' out. If Earth receives ~340w/m^2 from the sun it needs to radiate ~340w/m^2 to neither cool or warm. Some...
  16. nwdiver

    CO2/warming correlation - how to respond?

    I offered my link. Where's yours? No one says 'it should be warming up high first'. Radiative forcing is acting on outgoing energy. Outgoing energy is coming from the ground. The ground is going to warm first. The upper atmosphere is going to cool because it's getting less energy from the...
  17. nwdiver

    CO2/warming correlation - how to respond?

    Where is it predicted that the upper atmosphere would warm? Energy transfer is from the ground up. The upper atmosphere should and IS cooling because less energy is reaching it from the Earths surface due to more CO2. Kinda proves it's not the sun. More energy from the sun wouldn't cool the...
  18. nwdiver

    CO2/warming correlation - how to respond?

    The average temperature of the atmosphere is always higher than the average temperature of the oceans. How has the atmosphere 'not gone up first'? We didn't have accurate ocean temperature measurements until long after AGW kicked off. How would you know air temp hasn't gone up first...
  19. nwdiver

    CO2/warming correlation - how to respond?

    Because the oceans are receiving energy from the sun and losing it to the air. The primary heat source isn't the atmosphere, it's the sun. The change in the atmosphere is just reducing the rate of heat loss. You've got this flipped. It's not the air heating the oceans. It's more the oceans...
  20. nwdiver

    CO2/warming correlation - how to respond?

    You're still confusing energy in with energy out. (1) ok.... how does the ocean lose the heat it just received from the sun? (2) ok.... how is that energy 'lost'? (3) ok.... so warmer air means the oceans lose less heat? The oceans aren't being warmed by the air. They're getting energy from...
  21. nwdiver

    CO2/warming correlation - how to respond?

    ... how does the ocean lose the heat it just received from the sun to maintain the same temperature? If Energy in doesn't equal energy out the oceans warm. 1 m^2 of ocean will get a few kWh/day of thermal energy from the sun. It also must lose the same amount or the temperature rises. How is...
  22. nwdiver

    CO2/warming correlation - how to respond?

    Doesn't the ocean generally already absorb more energy than the air during the day because 'the sun'? And CO2 would just make the air warmer so something that already doesn't 'work well' (water - air heat transfer) would now 'work even less well'? So CO2 is going to reduce the rate at which...
  23. nwdiver

    CO2/warming correlation - how to respond?

    So why are coastal cities more temperate than non-coastal cities? Large bodies of water DON'T work well as a temperature buffer? It's just a coincidence that they're near the ocean?
  24. nwdiver

    CO2/warming correlation - how to respond?

    Our pathetic addiction to fools fuel has altered the radiative balance of the atmosphere. That energy has to go somewhere. Measuring Earths energy imbalance.
  25. nwdiver

    Electrify Everything

    It will depend on what the cafeteria was serving or what they packed for lunch. :)
  26. nwdiver

    Optimizers... what are they good for?

    Mostly new features. Most newer panels output a bit over 10A and SMA inverters clip at 10A. Growatt can take ~13A per channel and it's a hybrid. They also don't have anything larger than 7.6 in their residential line while GroWatt has a 11.4kW. SMA has a new generation nearly identical to...
  27. nwdiver

    Optimizers... what are they good for?

    It's not like micro-inverters are a panacea for that. One of the systems I repaired was micro-inverters. It was down for over a year. That's why it's so important to use a local installer. The hail damaged system we repaired had two non-functioning M215s. Since it wasn't our system it...
  28. nwdiver

    Optimizers... what are they good for?

    In real world conditions if 1 or 2 of 3 cell groups are in hard shade those diodes are tripped and you lose the cell groups regardless of optimization. Only in full shade are you going to see a difference and full shade is generally closer to a ~95% reduction in irradiance levels. Optimizers...
  29. nwdiver

    Optimizers... what are they good for?

    Depends on the shade. If only one or two cell groups are in shade the results are the same with a string, micro or optimizers. It's only full or partial shade across all 3 cell groups that there's really a difference and then you're only capturing maybe ~20w.
  30. nwdiver

    Optimizers... what are they good for?

    My old SMA inverter failed at 9 years 6 months. I got super lucky in that it failed with 6 months left on the warranty and even luckier that they were out of refurbished units so they sent me a brand new 3rd generation model with 3 MPPT channels instead of 1. So now each of my 3 strings gets...
  31. nwdiver

    Optimizers... what are they good for?

    How much is that really worth? I don't think I have a single customer that routinely checks their systems anymore. It's fun for the first month, then they almost never look again. I actually get texts occasionally from customers for me to check their system because it's been too long since...
  32. nwdiver

    Optimizers... what are they good for?

    'Tier 1' is defined by Bloomberg. It's based on financial stability of the company not the quality of the product. That's just the definition. SunPower produced the best panels. Had very poor financials. Does that mean you should avoid the best panels? You don't think $4k saved is...
  33. nwdiver

    Optimizers... what are they good for?

    What would I have gained spending >$6k more for micros? Finishing a 12kW project this weekend. Micros would have added >$4k to that project. What would ~$4k have bought me? Another 15 years of warranty coverage? Is that worth $4k? Slightly increased redundancy to maybe avoid losing ~a...
  34. nwdiver

    Optimizers... what are they good for?

    'Tier 1' applies to solar panels not inverters and it's more an indication of the financial ability of the manufacturer to honor a future warranty claim than the quality of the panel. I don't think there's anyone that would dispute SunPower made some of the best panels but they were not 'tier...
  35. nwdiver

    Optimizers... what are they good for?

    The cost difference is ~$0.30 - $0.40/w. For example the 16.5kW ground mount we did was (36) 460w panels tied to a $1500 11.4kW inverter. $1500. Let's add up all the stuff we would need for micro inverters. (36)IQ8M @ $180ea = $6480; (36) connection cables @ $20ea = $720. Combiner Box...
  36. nwdiver

    Optimizers... what are they good for?

    That was probably true ~5 years ago. But today the vast majority of string inverters have 3 or 4 trackers. So you can have 3 strings facing different directions with different shading at different times and your annual production will be about the ~same. I am a huge proponent of each string...
  37. nwdiver

    Go Fund Me for EV Charging in SE NM

    The the NPS ~5 or 6 times a day. It's embarrassing that they don't already have L2 at every national park. Completely inexcusable.
  38. nwdiver

    Go Fund Me for EV Charging in SE NM

    McDonalds won't allow revenue collection from the chargers. Not sure why.
  39. nwdiver

    Optimizers... what are they good for?

    The combiner box is an extra item that isn't typically required with a string inverter and it doesn't include the gateway. The gateway is another ~$2k. Pretty sure the IQ series doesn't come with cables. I know the M215s didn't. That's extra. The PW 2 was AC coupled but it looks like the...
  40. nwdiver

    Optimizers... what are they good for?

    You also need an an enphase combiner which adds ~$500. The cables to interconnect micros are ~$20 each. If you want to have backup you need a smart controller which adds ~$2k. Then the batteries are ~2x the price since every battery is AC coupled so it includes it's own inverter(s). Solar...
  41. nwdiver

    Optimizers... what are they good for?

    The problem arises when people pursue micros based on the narrative that they're better for shading or reliability or troubleshooting which is generally not true. It get even worse because they're essentially used as a crutch so XYZ solar company can hire solar installers that don't know...
  42. nwdiver

    Optimizers... what are they good for?

    Apparently not for most people. One system was down for over a year and the other for over a month. If you have the skills why not save yourself ~$4k and just go with a string inverter? Is the tiny bit of redundancy worth ~$4k?
  43. nwdiver

    Optimizers... what are they good for?

    Lots of other single points of failure. The system I posted about that had been down for over a year was micros; The line side tap got fried. I had a similar breaker issue take down a system for a month. Breakers don’t care if they’re connected to a string or micros. The cost difference...
  44. nwdiver

    Optimizers... what are they good for?

    We had our first panel failure. I was able to ID the failure due to each string being on an independent MPP channel and was able to easily spot the bad panel using an IR camera. So the whole argument that you need panel level monitoring to find a failure is also 100% untrue. These strings...
  45. nwdiver

    PG&E EV2A rate went up by 20% March 1

    Get an EcoFlow. Their app is pretty good. Program it to not take energy from the grid during peak hours. Plug and play.
  46. nwdiver

    To go ELECTRIC or not? That is the question...

    How much was the conversion? Do you cover it when not needed? Do you have to empty it or does it just empty onto the road? I have so many questions. :)
  47. nwdiver

    Prediction: Coal has fallen. Nuclear is next then Oil.

    I'm impressed with EcoFlow. The app is great and they really stand behind their products. I killed my EcoFlow River Flow by pushing it a bit too hard. I was able to get it replaced in less than a week. They have a 240v option coming out early next year.