I think we're going solar

When we lived in Ohio, we heated with natural gas. But most came from the wood burning stove which I fueled mostly with cut up oak pallets from work that would have gone to the landfill otherwise.

Here in FL, natural gas is prohibitively expensive. We're all electric.

BTW, I turned on the system before the sun came up this morning to observe the night to day transition. It takes about 300 watts to run itself. So, having it on at night is actually costing money. I wonder if I can someday put in a light detector and relay. Right now the sun is just above the horizon and not yet hitting the panels. But still, all 20 are producing just a little bit. That should change radically once the sun gets a little higher. Unfortunately, we have to leave at 9:00 (about 11-1/2 hours from now) and won't get back till about 1:00. Also, it not predicted to be nearly as sunny today. Yesterday there was never a hint of a cloud.

I'll try to update as the day progresses.

 

You are right, R-P that my interpretation was wrong. The consumption (307W) that was showing in the web interface was what the whole house was consuming at that time. There are current transformers on the wires from the electric meter to the main breaker. That's what that number is.

I just got back home and turned the system back on. Then I plugged in my Prime on L2 to get ready for another errand. The meter on my L2 outlet reads about 3.6 kW while the car is charging. Here's what the web interface says now:


Almost our entire load is the car's charger and the PV system is producing it. If I unplug the car, the PV production drops. So I think that, until they get the meter replaced to enable net metering, the panels will put out however many watts the house pulls. I'm going to crank down the air conditioner to make more load and see what happens.

BTW, I just got a text that the inspection is scheduled for Monday. Hopefully the electric company will be that quick with the meter once the inspector approves.

 

And here it is with the house air conditioner and L2 charging at the same time. Sky is mostly clear with high altitude haze and scattered light clouds. Sun is almost directly overhead. The PV panels are not producing all I'm using, but conditions aren't ideal, but it more than keeps up with just the L2 charging. I turned off the air conditioner and left the car plugged in and production and consumption both dropped to 3.85 kW. So, if I had the net metering enabled, I'd be banking electricity even while charging the are as long as the A/C, water heater, or oven aren't running.

 

Thanks, @John321. I'm charging again now for the 2nd time today AND the water heater is running. Skies are overcast, so the PVs aren't keeping up. But they are helping. Right now, it's putting out 2.37kW still under gray skies. Not fair that we never saw a cloud all day yesterday. LOL!

Edit to add: now it's putting out 4 kW and the water heater is done so no more power coming from the grid now. This is fun to observe, but I'll be glad when it gets unleashed to put power into the grid for use at night.

 

Good thinking. But since I was mistaken when I thought I saw a need to take it off line at night, there's no real reason now to automate something like that.I just took a peek at our power use and at that moment it showed 616 watts. That's my wife running her sewing machine and a fan, me on the laptop with an external monitor, a couple LED ceiling lights and various parasites like the TV, clocks, etc.

Also, big news. I got word this afternoon that the inspector is supposed to come sometime on Monday. I sure hope he likes it. In the meantime, I let it produce in the daytime even if I can't push any power back into my electrical grid piggy bank. I'm still reducing the electric bill quite a bit since we don't use a whole lot of juice at night anyway.

 

So far, it's running great. It keeps up with running the stove, microwave, air conditioner, etc as long as it's reasonably sunny. If I set the car to charge at 8A max, it easily puts out that much. It won't keep up with 16A and the rest of the house, though unless conditions are perfect.

It's surprisingly productive when the sky is cloudy. Yesterday was cloudy all morning and then mostly sunny. I only had to buy 8.73 kWh. My daily average this month prior to the solar panels was 15.57 kWh. If I had the net metering meter in place, I would have produced way more than I needed. Even when the panels are easily keeping up there is still always a few watts coming in from the grid. Here's a shot just now, almost 3PM with the house air conditioner running. So even in that condition, it should make more and bank it in the grid.


The inspection is tomorrow. I took a close look today and saw some cables on the shingles under some panels, so I know that part is going to fail. I fixed a couple myself and then decided I should be patient. If the inspector sees it and makes them come fix it, the company will know their installers need to do a better job.

Electrically, it looks perfect.

One thing has me concerned. Maybe someone who already has panels can speak to this. According to the plans, which I hadn't had available till Thursday night and didn't have time to review until today, there should be 3' clearance between the array and the ridge as well as the eves. This array only has about 9" to the ridge. However, everything I can find online says that the 3' to the ridge can span the ridge and overlap onto the roof plane on the other side of the ridge. That makes sense to me because it still gives the firemen room to ventilate the ridge if the need arrises. So I'm hoping the inspector goes by that rather than the drawing or there will have to be a total reinstall of the panels with relocated rails and supports and abandoned holes in my roof. I won't like that much.

Sometime tomorrow I should learn my fate.

 

Thanks, @fuzzy1. I was talking this afternoon with a friend who remodels kitchens. He said that those inspectors will sometimes point out something to fix but sign the permit anyway after telling you to make sure to fix it. I have no idea if this inspector is like that or if it's a really strict one, but I should know before supper time tomorrow. LOL!

 

The building inspector stood me up. They said he/she would be here between 7AM & 3PM. I stayed home from work for nuthin'.

 

Yup. That's the most annoying part.

I just got a call from the installers. They didn't know (how they didn't know, I don't know) that one of their people was supposed to meet the inspector here. But that doesn't explain the inspector not showing up. So anyway, the secretary is trying to schedule one of their techs and the inspector to be here at the same time. She's shooting for this afternoon, but I'm not holding my breath.

Meanwhile, we just ran hot water which turned on the water heater and the solar panels are powering the water heater rather than us having to buy electricity. So it's not all bad. We continue to dribble in 5-60 watts from the electric company while producing almost all we need during the daytime. Since putting them online Friday, with a few episodes of off time, they have produced 43.1 kWh of the total 76.5 kWh we've used in that time.

 

Well, good news/bad news. The tech showed up. He took care of the loose cables. He checked the torque on the vampire taps and looked at everything else. He waited for the inspector. (The following times are estimates.)

He waited some more for the inspector.
He called the inspector.
The inspector said he was in a meeting. (Why the heck he was in a meeting rather than at the work site he said he'd be at, I don't know.) But he would call in about 10 minutes.
25 minutes later, the tech texted him.
Crickets.
Half an hour later, the inspector said they could do a video inspection when he found a place to pull over.
Another half hour later after hearing nothing from the alleged inspector the tech took a bunch more pictures, buttoned up everything and said he had enough that they could do what he called an "offline" inspection and that I was finally free to move about the city and not have to wait for the inspector. He said a day or two to get it finalized.

My tax dollars at work making excuses. Why are they called inspectors if they don't inspect anything?

But at least it was a half-step in the right direction. I'm out of jail.

 

Sorry. I missed this earlier. We do the same ... after it has passed the inspection and the electric company has installed the meter that allows it. This lazy inspector is taking money right out of my pocket every day because everything is waiting on him to run out of excuses why he can't keep his appointments.

edit to add. Oops! I just saw that that was a new post. I'd better get back there & read it. LOL!