New 48 panel/3 Powerwall 2's Install in South Texas.

[201reyes]

I signed my contract back in late June 2020, through South Texas Solar Systems. Engels Solar Electric did the actual physical installation of the 48 panel array and inverters (mid December), the 3 Powerwalls (mid January) and the Gateway 2 (March 5). Hoping for a PTO no later than the 15th....

 

[jboy210]

We have a 44 350W panel (15.4KW) / 4 PowerWall system in Houston.

The OP has a 48 400W panel (19.2KW) / 3 PowerWall system in south Texas, which should perform better than our system in Houston.

When we installed our system, Tesla was recommending a PowerWall per 4KW of solar panels, and based on the performance of our system, that ratio seems reasonable - providing us enough backup power to run the house (essential devices) for an extended time without grid power, and enough storage to power the house overnight and reduce grid power usage when the sun isn't out.

Depending upon how much power the OP's house uses each day (especially during "night" hours), the OP may want to consider adding another PowerWall or two.

I see you are in Houston. Are you anywhere near Tesla new MegaPack farm?

 

[CrazyRabbit]

i signed 7/18/2020, still waiting...

 

[Laketime]

i signed 7/18/2020, still waiting...

Through Tesla? I signed in August and had my PTO on 12/16. Why such a delay?

 

[CrazyRabbit]

Third party

 

[Laketime]

Third party

Ouch. Sorry to hear. Just curious- did you quote from Tesla/ what made you go with someone else?

 

[bob_p]

I see you are in Houston. Are you anywhere near Tesla new MegaPack farm?

We're in southwest Houston.

If the Mega Pack is being installed in Angleton, that's south of Houston - about 35 miles from us.

 

[201reyes]

i signed 7/18/2020, still waiting...

Sorry to hear that, has anything been installed? I know my installers told me when they installed my gateway (3/5) that the Batteries were on major backorder, that they had gotten a shipment of like 50 gateways or so, but were waiting on batteries. I count my blessings every day! Hope your system is installed soon.

 

[CrazyRabbit]

solar is installed...
tesla was a pain in the a$$ on panel layout. i extended my roof over my new deck and it was hard to get them to install 20 panels there.
another company offered to match tesla but with enphase iq7+ inverters.
when it was time for city inspection the inspector did not even look at the roof ! ! !

 

[201reyes]

FINALLY!!!! AEP Texas came by and did their "inspection" and swapped meters, commissioned, PTO granted. I am finally running off solar. pics to follow later. Solar company sending tech out later to set up the Sunny Boy inverters so I can monitor their output better. Tesla app working.

 

[201reyes]

Here's a few screenshots of the initial outputs from the Tesla app after the commissioning.

 

[201reyes]

 

[SMAlset]

Nice numbers compared to our 8.16 kW system (3 PWs here too)! Hey, watch out. Checking your app's Solar screens can be very addictive LOL.

We find the app helpful to judge what amperage to set for charging our cars from home using just the sun being generated. Right now we're still in rainy/cloudy season so solar input can vary. I think 7.9 kW was our highest so far this past week. We also noticed a brief flicker in our lights the other night and sure enough there was a minor power outage that got picked up in the app's Backup History. Only 21 seconds but PWs did their thing. Love this technology and that we are generating electricty from the sun.

Congrats on PTO!

 

[201reyes]

Nice numbers compared to our 8.16 kW system (3 PWs here too)! Hey, watch out. Checking your app's Solar screens can be very addictive LOL.

We find the app helpful to judge what amperage to set for charging our cars from home using just the sun being generated. Right now we're still in rainy/cloudy season so solar input can vary. I think 7.9 kW was our highest so far this past week. We also noticed a brief flicker in our lights the other night and sure enough there was a minor power outage that got picked up in the app's Backup History. Only 21 seconds but PWs did their thing. Love this technology and that we are generating electricty from the sun.

Congrats on PTO!

Thank you, today has been a cloudy, rainy day, so grid's been doing most of the work, hardly enough sun to handle the whole load. still experimenting with the setting in the app, learning as much as possible. It is very addictive to say the least...

 

[Cigar Man]

We went 3.5 days without power/water. It sucked! I only wish I had pulled the trigger on solar sooner....lol.

I also live in deep South Texas - and those three days have made me think more about solar. I already own a Tesla.

 

[SMAlset]

I also live in deep South Texas - and those three days have made me think more about solar. I already own a Tesla.

Our first PG&E extended power safety shutdown was the trigger for me (10/2019). So I understand. Think you probably have a lot of company considering the same thing. We knew PWs were already popular and there could be a wait for inventory and install so made the decision to order first few days of 01/2020.

A main panel upgrade (bus rating), covid shutdown of work, PW inventory issues, and not enough install teams for large number of orders in this region, our install here in busy SFBay area didn’t happen until end of August 2020 (PTO 10/2020, so missed summer generation). On top of that we were in the middle of the huge August lightning caused wildfires (on ranges on each side of us) and install work did get postponed because of air quality during it. Closest fire was 13 miles to the east of us, horrible unhealthy air, homes in town along the base were evacuated, and at that point just praying it stopped advancing east (wind changed so big relief). Also hoped we wouldn’t be spending all this money to then have neighborhood burned down. Feel for you Texans that lost power and had broken water pipes on top of no heat. Hopefully your area won’t be affected by tornadoes or other bad weather. We do feel better knowing we have backup power now.

If you are serious about moving forward start the order now because hard to say how PW inventory and install team availability will be the later into the year it gets.

It’s nice being able to charge your car on sunshine.

 

[201reyes]

The highest output at any point so far, can't wait for summer...

 

[201reyes]

Highest production so far, 4/8/21. Sunny Boy app states 107.56 kWh, negligible difference.

 

[CrazyRabbit]

107.3 on march 29, second day of full production. very similar numbers 56x 340w panels.
i need a good rain to wash off panels.

Anderson

enlighten.enphaseenergy.com

 

[CrazyRabbit]

@201reyes
why the discrepancy between tesla app and sunnyboy. tesla says 19kw peek, and sunnyboy say ~15kw?

can you do a shade demo? on just one inverter, block 1/3 of a panel on one string and report power out of the inverter in comparison to the neighbor inverter and then shade 1/3 off two panels on the same string.