My system is about to exit its 5th year. April 2020's high day is above April 2019's, but below April 2018 and April 2017. March 2020's high beat the March highs from prior years. It's tough to rely on averages around here given that Colorado still receives some snow in March and April. So I don't have clear evidence that the air quality has led to records, but it does seem like my typical sunny day production is certainly doing well relative to prior years, given that I should theoretically be seeing a slight decline year-over-year as the system ages.
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Driving on Sunshine
- Thread starter dhrivnak
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We hit a record 139 kWh yesterday but it's hard to say if the quarantine/shut-down made any difference, especially since it's so windy at our place and we live west of the Denver metro area (so typically no pollution compared to Denver). Also, we put in an additional 4 kW last December so it's not an apples to apples comparison. If I scale up from our production last year, we got 111 kWh vs. 139 kWh yesterday, so the ~24% increase in the size of our system could account for the entire increase in production.
dgpcolorado
high altitude member
I've had some good days but no records. I think the good production is due to a fairly dry winter and dry spring here (fewer clouds). I'd rather have some more rain or snow! Air pollution is minimal where I live in the mountains, so not a factor in solar production. My records go back eleven and a half years.
Code:
Old panels (700 W) Old + New panels (2170 W)
2008 232 kWh (partial year)
2009 1165
2010 1132
2011 1203
2012 1227 1409 kWh (partial year)
2013 1179 2148
2014 1145 2072
2015 1125 2034
2016 1150 2077
2017 1109 2168
2018 1163 2143
2019 1133 2091
2020 248 (partial year) 701 (partial year)
brucet999
Active Member
Nope. First 4 months almost exactly the same 2.61MWh last year vs. 2.55MWh this year.
Owner
Active Member
I'm running about the same net energy use vs. production. I thought very little driving would be more outflow to the grid, but I guess using more energy at home than I thought.
dgpcolorado
high altitude member
Turns out that April set a record for production for the month on my system, aided by the unusually sunny dry weather. I'd rather have had rain or snow. My old array (700 W) generated 108 kWh for the month; the previous high was 107 kWh in April 2012. My April 2020 total for my two arrays (2170 W) was 306 kWh.
Add in very little driving for the month and I am building up my credit balance with my electricity co-op. We are allowed to accumulate as much as 10,000 kWh in excess production before being forced to cash out any additional production at the wholesale rate — it is a very generous program for net metering customers.
Add in very little driving for the month and I am building up my credit balance with my electricity co-op. We are allowed to accumulate as much as 10,000 kWh in excess production before being forced to cash out any additional production at the wholesale rate — it is a very generous program for net metering customers.
SageBrush
REJECT Fascism
Sounds good, but I"m surprised it is not more. That works out to ~ 5 hours of STC a day.
dgpcolorado
high altitude member
April is a relatively cloudy month, on average, here in the mountains, even in this dry year. Unlike desert locations, clouds are common in the mountains.
My new array doesn't produce as well as the old array because the Solectria 1800 inverter is less efficient than the Sunny Boy 700, which is well-matched with the old array. In retrospect it would have been better to add two more Sunny Boy 700s, but I suppose the extra cost wouldn't have been covered by the additional electricity production. (My arrays were installed when prices were much higher than today and neither array was remotely cost-effective.) The old array also has more white space and stays cooler than the new array.
My monthly average production for my old 700 watt array over the last eleven and a half years:
Code:
kWh average for the month
January 82
February 82
March 103
April 101
May 110
June 115
July 105
August 99
September 100
October 99
November 88
December 73Interestingly, May is proving to be a much more persuasive indicator of a potential assist from clearer skies, at my home at least. My older system is nearing the end of its 6th year. My top 12 highest-production months in its history are all Junes, Julys, and Augusts. This May is on pace to be my best month ever, surpassing the highest prior May by 23% and my best month ever by 3.2%. Toss in the fact that at 6 years of age my system should be suffering from a few percent of degradation and these numbers are pretty crazy to me. Now, granted that the month's not over yet and things could change. But we're still in the portion of the year where production is expected to rise slightly each day on average, so it's not out of the question that these numbers come to fruition at the end of the month.
On a side note, this is the first month since we moved to being a 2-BEV family that our electricity bill was solidly negative. Sure is nice to get that kind of bill.
We live in a net metering- lose all your credits on May 31 - area. No wholesale reimbursement just a big fat zero.
So you don't overbuild your system. Well....we didn't based on driving. But with Covid, not much driving.
March 7-April 7 - net bill 3 kwh. Lowest by far (although only a year old). We heat with heat pump.
April 7-May 7 - Credit of 350 kwh.
So we will probably have $50-$80 lost because of the rules and not driving. Was thinking of inviting neighbors over to charge....
So you don't overbuild your system. Well....we didn't based on driving. But with Covid, not much driving.
March 7-April 7 - net bill 3 kwh. Lowest by far (although only a year old). We heat with heat pump.
April 7-May 7 - Credit of 350 kwh.
So we will probably have $50-$80 lost because of the rules and not driving. Was thinking of inviting neighbors over to charge....
Interestingly, May is proving to be a much more persuasive indicator of a potential assist from clearer skies, at my home at least. My older system is nearing the end of its 6th year. My top 12 highest-production months in its history are all Junes, Julys, and Augusts. This May is on pace to be my best month ever, surpassing the highest prior May by 23% and my best month ever by 3.2%. Toss in the fact that at 6 years of age my system should be suffering from a few percent of degradation and these numbers are pretty crazy to me. Now, granted that the month's not over yet and things could change. But we're still in the portion of the year where production is expected to rise slightly each day on average, so it's not out of the question that these numbers come to fruition at the end of the month.
On a side note, this is the first month since we moved to being a 2-BEV family that our electricity bill was solidly negative. Sure is nice to get that kind of bill.
To follow up on this: I did jinx it a bit by calling it early, but May did indeed set my all-time monthly record by 1.1%, beating the best-ever prior May by 14%.
dgpcolorado
high altitude member
In my twelve year solar history, my May 2020 production tied May 2012 for the best May solar production. The sun and drought continues here...
swaltner
Active Member
Not a home setup, but PlugShare - Find Electric Vehicle Charging Locations Near You is a nearby 52.5 kW solar system mounted on a carport with a pair of publicly available 48 Amp OpenEVSE charging stations on it.
For my home system, in late 2018, I did an expansion from 5 kW to to just over 9 kW of solar panels. Since then, I've produced more electricity than I've consumed and have just been paying the base $14.50/month grid-connect service fee. For example, in April, I overproduced by 381 kWh, and in May, it was 404 kWh. I switched the HVAC in the house from Heat to Cool yesterday, so usage in the house will go up a little. With working from home for the foreseeable future, my electricity use may be a little higher this year than last year. Time will tell if the expansion was enough to go 2 whole years producing more than I consumed.
For my home system, in late 2018, I did an expansion from 5 kW to to just over 9 kW of solar panels. Since then, I've produced more electricity than I've consumed and have just been paying the base $14.50/month grid-connect service fee. For example, in April, I overproduced by 381 kWh, and in May, it was 404 kWh. I switched the HVAC in the house from Heat to Cool yesterday, so usage in the house will go up a little. With working from home for the foreseeable future, my electricity use may be a little higher this year than last year. Time will tell if the expansion was enough to go 2 whole years producing more than I consumed.
israndy
Supercharger Hunter
Looks like we were not the only ones that noticed May's expanded solar generation:
EGEB: The UK has its very first coal-free month ever in May
EGEB: The UK has its very first coal-free month ever in May
BruceInFlorida
Member
I would like to get some commentary on the accuracy etc of the attached image I created to convince my ICE relatives that you can indeed run EVs on sunshine.
I read somewhere that that the M3 can travel 4.1 EPA rated miles on 1 kWh so 15,000 miles over a year will use 15,000/4.1 or 3,658 kWh.
My 225 sqft Enphase solar array output for a year of 6,793 kWh was given to me by the installer. I haven't had it a year yet so can't totally verify that number but it looks about right based on a month of data plus taking down some branches which currently partially shade the panels.
Thanks
I read somewhere that that the M3 can travel 4.1 EPA rated miles on 1 kWh so 15,000 miles over a year will use 15,000/4.1 or 3,658 kWh.
My 225 sqft Enphase solar array output for a year of 6,793 kWh was given to me by the installer. I haven't had it a year yet so can't totally verify that number but it looks about right based on a month of data plus taking down some branches which currently partially shade the panels.
Thanks
Your photo seems to be broken, but it's very easy to offset w/ solar as long as it's sized right. I have a ~9kwh system and produced 10.4 Mega Watts in 2019. My entire house (including my M3 + my wife's Prius Prime) consumed 10.6 Mega Watts. I look to be on track to exceed last years production, but we're only 1/2 way there!
All that said, in my case nearly all of my charging happens at night, so technically it's NOT charged by the sun, only offset.
All that said, in my case nearly all of my charging happens at night, so technically it's NOT charged by the sun, only offset.
Yes easy to do as I run both Tesla’s and my home from rooftop solar.
I have Solar and a M3 and I charged the M3 everyday and drove to work and back (~50 miles total) plus a bunch of other driving as well (around 15000 miles/year) and I still received a check from Southern California Edison at the end of my "Net Metering Year". My system produces around 16 kWh - 17 kWh per year. Crazy huh! Driving the car for free, keep the house at 72-75 degrees even when it is well over 100 degrees outside and I still get a check from SCE!
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