System design with Solar

[jgt1942]

Teken - Question 4/4 What does the Sunny Box indicate (average) per day you're generating?
I have two Sunny Boy boxes one of which was replaced about a year ago and I failed to reinstall the transmitter thus on the remote display I don't have images for it. Following are images from the actual box. I've merged several different displays into one image and have one image for each box.

Sunny Boy Upper Unit 2015 0608

Sunny Boy Upper Unit 2015 0608.png (1.32 MiB) Viewed 2699 times

Sunny Boy Lower Unit 2015 0608

Sunny Boy Lower Unit 2015 0608.png (1.3 MiB) Viewed 2699 times

[jgt1942]

Teken - Question 4/4 - more info, the following images are from the remote display. I don't think they show anything different than the images in the previous post but I only have images for one unit due to not installing the transmitter when I replaced the Sunny Boy inverter.

Teken - Question 4/4

Sunny Beam Solar Power Generated 2015 0608.png (484.11 KiB) Viewed 2698 times

Sunny Beam Solar Power Generated 2015 0688 past 30 days

Sunny Beam Solar Power Generated 2015 0688 past 30 days.png (587.43 KiB) Viewed 2698 times

[jgt1942]

You'll need 1 CT for every leg of a breaker (single-phase: 1 CT, double-breaker: 2 CTs). The only exception here is if you can determine whether or not the double-breaker has a neutral or not. If there's no neutral, the breaker is balanced; therefore, can be doubled within firmware.

We also have Micro-50s, they can be used on any breaker below 50 amps. They're 1% accuracy like the Micro-100s.

I would start off by documenting each breaker, the amperage, and whether or not it's a double. From there you can determine your CT needs by matching them to appropriate CTs. Then determine your channel needs by determining how many breakers you need to monitor and whether or not you want to combine a few on different channels (at a glance, it looks like to monitor every individually, you'd need 2 GreenEye Monitors).

1) You'll need 1 CT for every leg of a breaker (single-phase: 1 CT, double-breaker: 2 CTs). The only exception here is if you can determine whether or not the double-breaker has a neutral or not. If there's no neutral, the breaker is balanced; therefore, can be doubled within firmware.

To my knowledge the double-breaker does not have a neutral. By neutral I'm assuming you mean the ground. All ground wires are attached to the panel ground bar. In the image for the house main panel you can see the ground bar and all of the attached wires. In the garage sub-panel I did not include the ground bar in the image but there is a ground bar.

2) We also have Micro-50s, they can be used on any breaker below 50 amps. They're 1% accuracy like the Micro-100s.

Most of my breakers are below 50 amps. Just to ensure I'm on the same page if the breaker is 50 amps or higher then I need to use the Micro-100.

Question - What is the price of the Micro units? I could not find this information on your site.

3) I would start off by documenting each breaker, the amperage, and whether or not it's a double. From there you can determine your CT needs by matching them to appropriate CTs.

OK this will take me an hour or so. I'll try to work on it tonight but for the next two days my schedule is very tight thus I may not get it completed until mid-week and can upload for your verification.

4) Then determine your channel needs by determining how many breakers you need to monitor and whether or not you want to combine a few on different channels (at a glance, it looks like to monitor every individually, you'd need 2 GreenEye Monitors).

I see where we are going here but what is a GreenEye Monitor? I used the search function for your site but did not find anything.

My initial thinking is to monitor all circuits. Question If I counted correctly I have 44 circuits in the House main panel and garage sub-panel. With your system will I be able to monitor all circuits? Do I need to put anything in the Outside Electrical Panel that services the house. How are the Solar panels monitored?

[bgrubb1]

jgt1942
I apparently live nearby in Chandler, but have SRP
I looked at your attachments and one thing stood out to me - The number of on peak KW hours.
I have a 4KW system (although 1KW is temp mounted on the ground and in the shade.
I tend to net out to zero On peak KW's
Does APS have a better Time Of Use Rate ? SRP has a EZ-3 rate that limits on peak to 3-6PM weekdays.
I use a lot of automation to shed loads during on peak, but some of them are simple. You might put a timer on the water heater, and do a search on rosieonthehouseDOTcom for "precooling"
I have my thermostats (all 3 of my 13 tons of AC) set to turn the house cold for an hour or 2 before peak and essentially turn off during peak hours. House never gets above 81 degrees
The GEM / DB combo allowed me to pull out lots of KW's with stupid things you wont figure out without the information it provides. things like using LED lights, turning off subwoofers, what DVR's pull etc.
My bills run in the $70's in the winter and they are projecting $140 for this month.
One other note, half of my panels face west and tend to produce more power than my south facing panels.
PM me if you would like to chat
...Barry

[bgrubb1]

Also, 220V loads only take ONE channel of the 32 available on the GEM. Sometimes more than 2. I have the 2 CT's of each AC unit on 220V and the 110 Air handler for each on one channel - so 3 breakers on 1 channel. PM me and I will give you a link to look at my DB / GEM so you can see
...Barry

[jgt1942]

Taken - I wasn't able to open the PDF but looked up the solar panels on line. It states these panels can produce in ideal circumstances 225 watts, correct?

Which is 7200 watts of potential power from the 32 panels combined. I saw the 12 months of electrical bills are the (-) mean these are NET credits from the POCO or what you paid in terms of the balance of power you still consumed over and above what you generated?

Per the power company the info submitted to them state that the grid should produce on the average 1000 KW per day. I created images of the two PDF pages and they follow.

Sunpower Solar Panels Specs 1-2

Sunpower Solar Panels Specs 1-2.png (692.64 KiB) Viewed 2690 times

Sunpower Solar Panels Specs 2-2

Sunpower Solar Panels Specs 2-2.png (717.58 KiB) Viewed 2690 times

Ref the (-)
1) the large amount is one for my monthly payment
2) the small 0.48 is a discount for auto payment
If you add the two together it will equal the bill for my electricity.

[jgt1942]

bgrubb1 ref "Does APS have a better Time Of Use Rate ? SRP has a EZ-3 rate that limits on peak to 3-6PM weekdays." When I activated my account in early 2007 APS offered the 9-9 plan which was the best at the time. Somewhere after that APS discontinued the 9-9 plan but I was grandfathered in and stayed with the 9-9 because it was better. I talked to APS today and they are going to check and see if any of the current offerings are better and get back to me Wed.

WOW you have quite a system!!! But it also appears that you use a LOT of electricity.

Currently I have the water circulator on a timer, this action saved me $35 per month. For some dumb reason I never thought of putting the tank on a timer but there a number of times that I take a late shower. I'm a late night person and seldom get to bed before 0100 and sometimes actually see the sun rise before I go to bed. I could learn to live with the heating of the water turned off say from 2000-0700 hours or something like that. My wife has the opposite sleeping schedule where she is normally in bed by 2100 and often wakes up at 0330 or shortly thereafter. How she seldom uses the hot water until at least 0700.

I have not done any "automation to shed loads" but would be interested in exploring such.

My panels are facing almost true South.

[tnakelski]

Is the statement "The grid should produce on the average 1000 KW per day" a typo? The 32 panel array can produce about 6.8 kw per hour, even with 24 hours of sun the max that can be produced is 165 kw per day.

[Teken]

After reviewing some of the information provided its clear you need the GEM to tell you where your power is going and what standby loads are consuming all of this power. Next, it comes down to shifting your consumption to the lower tiers as much as possible.

Otherwise its near impossible to get ahead . . .

Its clear you make plenty of solar power but there are many other elements that must be audited or fleshed out to get a better picture if savings is the ultimate goal. The first thing I would suggest for anyone unless they literally just built the home is to get a door blower test.

This will identify how tight or leaky your home is. Once that is known solutions need to be put into place to seal up the home. From there a thermal imaging review of the homes infrastructure should be done to identify hot / cold spots and the proper insulation to address said areas.

Following the above the next big hitters is identifying the largest energy consumers. It really comes down to either life style or taking a huge step in limiting use or replacing components / appliances that are less efficient.

All I know is you make lots of power but its obvious you use much more than you produce during the entire month. Once you are able to get the GEM up and running lots of these steady loads, vampire draws, and peak usage / none peak loads will be identified and a game plan can be implemented.

Much thanks for supplying all of this information for the forum members to review. Its always great to see how others live and their respective power consumption is reflected. For me it helps confirm ideas, plans, and goals with respect to energy management.

[tnakelski]

Your heavy hitters most probably will be your heating and cooling as you indicated you are using heat pumps for heating, even in Arizona in the colder months, heat pumps struggle when the outside temperature drops below 45 degrees. Are your heat pumps supplemented with electric resistant elements? The next I would guess would be your domestic hot water, domestic hot water can account between 18 to 25 percent of your total energy usage. You might consider a hybrid hot water heater when it's time to replace your current hot heater. Annual saving are quite dramatic.

As Teken stated, the only real way of understanding you energy profile is to monitor it, the more granular the better the understanding. This will point out area's within your home for energy saving potentials that can be identified and changed. Simple things like LED bulbs can have a great impact on reducing energy cost.