Solar PV Production Results (new system)

[JayClark]

Was curious about what people are seeing for solar production given my system has only recently been commissioned (and after a 3 week outage posted about elsewhere), and whether the production numbers match others generally speaking... or are low/high? I know there are a multitude of variables, but since I was curious for examples I figured I'd throw out a couple examples from my system for October. We live in the Phoenix Arizona area, far south east suburbs.

My PV system is fairly small, but new as of this month (Tesla called it a 4.095 kW system). The system faces mostly south, maybe offset 15-20 degrees to the east. 13 Panasonic panels installed by Tesla facing the same direction. Solar edge inverter.

On October 1st during the first week of operation on the first "clear" day, I saw...

• Peak of 3.6. kW on the Tesla App trend chart which I assume are 5 minute averages or something
• High instantaneous values of 3.9 on several occasions just from watching it during the peak period of the day.
• Full Day production of 25.8 kWh. The day before and after produced slightly less, but were hotter by 5-8 degrees, and maybe slightly more hazy or something.
• 90 degree high temp.

Now, about 3 weeks later, On October 24th,

• Peak of 3.5 on the Tesla App trend chart
• High instantaneous values of 3.6 momentarily observed but I forgot to watch more closely at peak.
• Full Day Production of 23.6 kWh.
• 85 degree high temp.

About 8.5% reduction with the shorter days over the last three weeks, so extrapolating out to maybe under 16kWh by winter solstice.

Based on anecdotal feedback from others with 4 kw system I was expecting lower full day production values from this system headed into the fall, so I'm fairly satisfied with production at this point... at least until somebody tells me this is low.

 

[JFChenger]

Take a look at my system, it's similarly sized at 3.96 (don't mind the 4.29 number on my page as my original design called for 13 panels while we could only do 12 at the end), I have Panasonic 330kw panels, FWIW. I'm in Chicago, so my production is nothing compared to your AZ locale, but gives you an idea. I don't know if you can use the SolarEdge mobile app (rather than Tesla's), but it's pretty useful as you obsesse over your production while on the go.

Public dashboard: SolarEdge

You can find many other public accessible dashboard via SolarEdge's public site (search via City/State/ZIP code of your choice): SolarEdge

 

[DrSmile]

Seems really good to me but I'm in NJ. My peak daily production has decreased over 10% since the beginning of the month, could be me being further North or maybe I'm getting more shading from the neighbor's trees...

 

[Az_Rael]

Was curious about what people are seeing for solar production given my system has only recently been commissioned (and after a 3 week outage posted about elsewhere), and whether the production numbers match others generally speaking... or are low/high? I know there are a multitude of variables, but since I was curious for examples I figured I'd throw out a couple examples from my system for October. We live in the Phoenix Arizona area, far south east suburbs.

My PV system is fairly small, but new as of this month (Tesla called it a 4.095 kW system). The system faces mostly south, maybe offset 15-20 degrees to the east. 13 Panasonic panels installed by Tesla facing the same direction. Solar edge inverter.

On October 1st during the first week of operation on the first "clear" day, I saw...

• Peak of 3.6. kW on the Tesla App trend chart which I assume are 5 minute averages or something
• High instantaneous values of 3.9 on several occasions just from watching it during the peak period of the day.
• Full Day production of 25.8 kWh. The day before and after produced slightly less, but were hotter by 5-8 degrees, and maybe slightly more hazy or something.
• 90 degree high temp.

Now, about 3 weeks later, On October 24th,

• Peak of 3.5 on the Tesla App trend chart
• High instantaneous values of 3.6 momentarily observed but I forgot to watch more closely at peak.
• Full Day Production of 23.6 kWh.
• 85 degree high temp.

About 8.5% reduction with the shorter days over the last three weeks, so extrapolating out to maybe under 16kWh by winter solstice.

Based on anecdotal feedback from others with 4 kw system I was expecting lower full day production values from this system headed into the fall, so I'm fairly satisfied with production at this point... at least until somebody tells me this is low.

Run a PVWatts estimate for your roof and system. If you get all the variables correct (roof pitche, etc) it will estimate what your system should put out based on your latitude, weather, etc. Then you can use that estimate as a baseline to track your system performance against.

 

[JayClark]

Take a look at my system, it's similarly sized at 3.96 (don't mind the 4.29 number on my page as my original design called for 13 panels while we could only do 12 at the end), I have Panasonic 330kw panels, FWIW. I'm in Chicago, so my production is nothing compared to your AZ locale, but gives you an idea. I don't know if you can use the SolarEdge mobile app (rather than Tesla's), but it's pretty useful as you obsesse over your production while on the go.

Public dashboard: SolarEdge

You can find many other public accessible dashboard via SolarEdge's public site (search via City/State/ZIP code of your choice): SolarEdge

Thanks I'll take a look. I need to get that setup. They gave me the little box... and then I was traveling, and then the system went down for 3 weeks but I do need to get my account/login setup with Solaredge.

 

[Cirrus MS100D]

This is very helpful- I also have a 4.”1” kW system like you, but using the Hanweh (or whatever they’re called) panels in a far from ideal configuration (odd roof pitches) and lots of shade in eastern PA. Our system got PTO on 10/14 so I don’t have a lot of data to go off of yet. Specifically, I hadn’t realized how a couple of trees were virtually going to block 4 of the panels, so the tree folks came out yesterday to rectify. Until that point I hadn’t even seen more than 2kW production during peak sunlight on a clear day. Today, it was very cloudy and saw a brief spike to 2.4kW, but still a very long way from 4. Certainly never seen 3.

I also have a follow-on question: Were my installers supposed to leave me a Zigbee bridge? Tesla called to say they weren’t seeing data and asked me about the box plugged into our network and I said “Uhhh... whut?” And now I’m guessing they were supposed to give us a bridge for the SolarEdge? (They are mailing me one.)

So, yeah, from somebody in PA, your numbers look astounding. Our best day so far was 8.7kWH TOTAL. Hoping for a bit more now that the trees aren’t blocking 30% of our panels, but we also have rain in the forecast the next few days in addition to much shorter days. Winter solstice can’t come soon enough!

 

[Chancellor32]

Was curious about what people are seeing for solar production given my system has only recently been commissioned (and after a 3 week outage posted about elsewhere), and whether the production numbers match others generally speaking... or are low/high? I know there are a multitude of variables, but since I was curious for examples I figured I'd throw out a couple examples from my system for October. We live in the Phoenix Arizona area, far south east suburbs.

My PV system is fairly small, but new as of this month (Tesla called it a 4.095 kW system). The system faces mostly south, maybe offset 15-20 degrees to the east. 13 Panasonic panels installed by Tesla facing the same direction. Solar edge inverter.

On October 1st during the first week of operation on the first "clear" day, I saw...

• Peak of 3.6. kW on the Tesla App trend chart which I assume are 5 minute averages or something
• High instantaneous values of 3.9 on several occasions just from watching it during the peak period of the day.
• Full Day production of 25.8 kWh. The day before and after produced slightly less, but were hotter by 5-8 degrees, and maybe slightly more hazy or something.
• 90 degree high temp.

Now, about 3 weeks later, On October 24th,

• Peak of 3.5 on the Tesla App trend chart
• High instantaneous values of 3.6 momentarily observed but I forgot to watch more closely at peak.
• Full Day Production of 23.6 kWh.
• 85 degree high temp.

About 8.5% reduction with the shorter days over the last three weeks, so extrapolating out to maybe under 16kWh by winter solstice.

Based on anecdotal feedback from others with 4 kw system I was expecting lower full day production values from this system headed into the fall, so I'm fairly satisfied with production at this point... at least until somebody tells me this is low.

That’s super good! My 4.1kw system is only putting out about 14-17kw now. My system is all west facing tho. Also my highest peak during summer was 3.2kw so you seem to have great production based on the same system I do!

 

[VT_EE]

My system is a 9.5kW array. This July I achieved 1.4MWh for the month. Last January it was 507kWh. Posted to give you guys a relative reference between summer and winter.