Just had 9.8kw Solar+2PW installed, have some noob questions.

[Vines]

Today's peak was 7.57kw.

I have the new 400w Tesla panels.

I was told the 7.6kw inverter can go up to about 10kw. Is that not correct?

If the inverter is connected to a 40A breaker it will never output 10 kW of AC Power.

It may accept 10 kW rating of DC panels or more, but the peak will not exceed the inverter output rating.

 

[HankLloydRight]

I'm pretty sure it's on a 100a breaker.

 

[Vines]

I'm pretty sure it's on a 100a breaker.

That would be crazy large breaker, and most likely that breaker feeds a subpanel in the house somewhere. That other subpanel, probably near the inverter will have the inverter output breaker in it.

 

[HankLloydRight]

There are two breakers in the gateway. 30amps for the powerwalls, and 100a for the solar inverter -- which does feed my essential loads panel.
There are no other breakers as part of the solar/inverter/gateway.

 

[Vines]

There are two breakers in the gateway. 30amps for the powerwalls, and 100a for the solar inverter -- which does feed my essential loads panel.
There are no other breakers as part of the solar/inverter/gateway.

Post a picture of your plans. A 100A breaker would be sized for a 20 kW inverter or so.

If the breaker feeds the essential loads panel, then its not an inverter breaker.

It may be labeled that way so the firefighters can turn it off without guessing.

 

[HankLloydRight]

It’s a 50amp breaker

 

[Vines]

The Powerwall + can output 9.6 kW (40 A Continuous) when in off-grid mode.

It is not clear to me whether it can do this purely on PV power but it might be interesting to know.

 

[HankLloydRight]

First full month is in.
Last year our June/July bill was $567.
This year, this month's bill is $183.
I know every month won't be this good.

 

[HankLloydRight]

Just got the actual PDF bill, and the previous month's bill does NOT include any kWh pushed back to the grid.

This makes a little sense because due to Tesla Energy dropping the ball on my inspection, I still don't have PTO or PTE. That should be coming in the next few weeks, now that I have an actual utility inspection date set for two weeks from now.

But the great news is that with the Powerwalls, now 100% of our grid consumption is off-peak.

 

[jboy210]

Just got the actual PDF bill, and the previous month's bill does NOT include any kWh pushed back to the grid.

This makes a little sense because due to Tesla Energy dropping the ball on my inspection, I still don't have PTO or PTE. That should be coming in the next few weeks, now that I have an actual utility inspection date set for two weeks from now.

But the great news is that with the Powerwalls, now 100% of our grid consumption is off-peak.

How does the credit for kWh work in your area? Do they just bank them and apply them as needed to cover usage with a yearly True-up, or is there some other scheme.

 

[HankLloydRight]

How does the credit for kWh work in your area? Do they just bank them and apply them as needed to cover usage with a yearly True-up, or is there some other scheme.

I'm not 100% sure other than "net metering", but I do see this at the bottom of my latest bill:

NE Rider Banked kWhrs
Bank (beginning) kWh on pk 0
Bank (beginning) kWh off pk 0
Bank (ending) kWh on pk 0
Bank (ending) kWh off pk 0

edit: Details: https://www.uinet.com/wps/wcm/conne...-54defd0e-7cbb-47fe-999e-3ef90264fd34-miVomoN

 

[jboy210]

I'm not 100% sure other than "net metering", but I do see this at the bottom of my latest bill:

NE Rider Banked kWhrs
Bank (beginning) kWh on pk 0
Bank (beginning) kWh off pk 0
Bank (ending) kWh on pk 0
Bank (ending) kWh off pk 0

edit: Details: https://www.uinet.com/wps/wcm/connect/54defd0e-7cbb-47fe-999e-3ef90264fd34/Billing+For+Net+Metering+Brochure_2018.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CACHEID=ROOTWORKSPACE-54defd0e-7cbb-47fe-999e-3ef90264fd34-miVomoN

I wonder why they are not tracking the kWh you sent them. Do you have PTO?

Edit:

I see you do not have PTO. That is likely why they are not yet crediting you.

 

[HankLloydRight]

Upon looking further, we did get credit for exported energy!

Our billed kWh usage for the month was 948kWh.

But here's a breakdown on the bottom of the bill:
0114xxxxx 30 days 000173 - 000000 X 1 = 173 kWh
Off Peak 30 days 001224 - 000000 X 1 = 1224 kWh
V114xxxxx 30 days 000268 - 000000 X 1 = 268 kWh
Off Peak 30 days 000181 - 000000 X 1 = 181 kWh

If you add up the "IN" (first two) minus the "OUT" second two, that's 948kWh.

My on peak consumption 173kWh was less than the on-peak generation to the grid 268kWh... a difference of 95kWh.
Off peak consumption was 1224kWh and 181kWh pushed back to the grid.

I'm sure things will settle out once I get PTO/PTE and another month goes by.

 

[GWord]

Quick noob question. I have 23 400w panels for a 9.2kW system on all four sides of our roof.
There are no trees or any other blockages.

View attachment 818574

The bottom face with the most panels (10) is facing south-south-west.
During the peak summer days, what do you think the max kWs I'd be able to get from this system? Is it really 9.2kW?

So far, the max output I've seen is 7.28kW -- which just so happens was today.

Being June 21st the longest day of the year just a couple of days away, is this nearly the peak possible output due to the slant of the other roof faces? Or should I see maybe a little more as we get into the hotter summer months? Below is the graph of the four strings and voltage output (The ABCD strings are labeled in the above diagram).

thanks.

View attachment 818569

Unrelated question: are you using a home grown solution to pull and graph data from the API/GW2 or is this an app of some sort?

 

[HankLloydRight]

When I got my Powerwalls and solar, I was ready to dive head first into the API to pull some basic data and generate some crude graphs.

I spent 10 minutes and ended up finding this: Powerwall-Dashboard

Which does exactly what I wanted and 1000 things more! It’s an amazing suite of free software.