Tesla Motors Club
Sigh, I am back, again with what I think is an issue with my panels that Tesla Energy is not acknowledging. (My previous experience is here: How to tell if my Tesla Energy solar system isn’t producing up to spec?)
So, I want to poll the community here to see if there are any suggestions for how to tell what might be going wrong with my panels. So I can maybe convince the Level 1 support guy to elevate me to Level 2.
Background on system: I have 2 arrays, with 2 Delta string inverters. Larger east array is on the 6.6 inverter and smaller South array is on the 3.8 inverter. Last year we had problems with the East array and Tesla fixed the wiring in August 2018.
Tesla is arguing that when they fixed our system in August 2018, we had too many strings hooked up to the small (south) inverter. They changed the wiring so that 3 strings are on the large (east) inverter and 1 string is on the south inverter. They claim that is why our south array is not performing as well this year vs last. However, based on the performance against PV Watts estimates, I think the South array is actually under-performing altogether starting in July 2019.
Since I am still 1% above the total performance estimates with Tesla, they say the system is "good, greens across the board". Last time I had to wait until the performance dropped about 20% over the total before they would do anything, and I am afraid I will have to play that waiting game this time. Unless someone has any suggestions for troubleshooting the system myself.
Here are the % against PV watts estimates for my two arrays. You can see the large divergence that happens starting July 2019. East array is over performing vs PV Watts by 14% and South array is under-performing vs PV Watts by 15%.
Here are the actual monthly totals by inverter:
I did take some FLIR images of the South array - the lower panels do look hot, but I can't say for sure that isn't just a weird FLIR reflection. It does look like I have some small hot spots on the upper two panels - not sure if those could reduce output significantly or not. Maybe I should strap the camera to my drone or something, LOL. I don't like getting up on my roof since it is tile.
Wish I had the solar edge inverter. Might be easier to see what the heck is going on.
Maybe I shouldn't care so much because my system in general meets all our energy needs, but I can't help it when I see trends in the data like that.
So, I want to poll the community here to see if there are any suggestions for how to tell what might be going wrong with my panels. So I can maybe convince the Level 1 support guy to elevate me to Level 2.
Background on system: I have 2 arrays, with 2 Delta string inverters. Larger east array is on the 6.6 inverter and smaller South array is on the 3.8 inverter. Last year we had problems with the East array and Tesla fixed the wiring in August 2018.
Tesla is arguing that when they fixed our system in August 2018, we had too many strings hooked up to the small (south) inverter. They changed the wiring so that 3 strings are on the large (east) inverter and 1 string is on the south inverter. They claim that is why our south array is not performing as well this year vs last. However, based on the performance against PV Watts estimates, I think the South array is actually under-performing altogether starting in July 2019.
Since I am still 1% above the total performance estimates with Tesla, they say the system is "good, greens across the board". Last time I had to wait until the performance dropped about 20% over the total before they would do anything, and I am afraid I will have to play that waiting game this time. Unless someone has any suggestions for troubleshooting the system myself.
Here are the % against PV watts estimates for my two arrays. You can see the large divergence that happens starting July 2019. East array is over performing vs PV Watts by 14% and South array is under-performing vs PV Watts by 15%.
Here are the actual monthly totals by inverter:
I did take some FLIR images of the South array - the lower panels do look hot, but I can't say for sure that isn't just a weird FLIR reflection. It does look like I have some small hot spots on the upper two panels - not sure if those could reduce output significantly or not. Maybe I should strap the camera to my drone or something, LOL. I don't like getting up on my roof since it is tile.
Wish I had the solar edge inverter. Might be easier to see what the heck is going on.
Maybe I shouldn't care so much because my system in general meets all our energy needs, but I can't help it when I see trends in the data like that.