What are you generating?

Re: What are you generating?

AntronX wrote: »

Nice chart except that with bar graph, it's hard to visualize the relationship between the data. I think line graph would be much more pleasing to the eye (or brain?).

I made the change you asked for, but keep in mind that those are =sample= files -- you'd be free to change them however you want.

The best view, in my opinion, is going to http://data.digitalgnomon.com/users/tallgirl/gmMonitor.html then clicking on "History". The relationship between temperature, production and consumption becomes very obvious. The other strong relationship is relative humidity, but I don't have any tools for visualizing that over the web.

And for those of y'all with a TED 5000, the "Meter" button integrates the TED 5000 output with the rest of the system.

(Also, for those of y'all who are having input voltage issues that is affecting your selling, if you click on an inverter button, then click on the "Battery" legend box to get rid of the battery voltage, you can watch a very nice plot of input voltage, and see how it changes as the inverters sell more or less -- very handy diagnostic.)

Re: What are you generating?

a0128958 wrote: »

I sure like how you can do histograms and display them with your instrumentation system. With my system these are tedious to produce.

Best regards,

Bill

Well, the software =is= for sale, you know It's also designed so it can be the foundation for products others can produce. The "gmChart.php" file selects one of three other PHP files -- "gmHourly.php", "gmDaily.php" and "gmMonthly.php". They all get their data from "gmState.php".

If there is a way to get the historical data from your system, you could use those same scripts. But that's always the problem -- most software vendors do their damnedest to keep you from building on top of their product since any "improvement" means their product is "less than" the new and improved. My approach is completely different -- being extensible means people can extend and share the improvements, while I "own" the enablement.

Re: What are you generating?

Bill,

What data formats does your monitoring system provide? And what all data is available?

Re: What are you generating?

Interesting, I drew nothing off my on-peak kWh bank held at the utility, in fact I increased my TOU on-peak bank by 59kWh. The AC units here have been running at a fairly high duty cycle with the 110+F temps and still we held on peak at bay, with a $3 increase in off peak consumption over last month.

Time Advantage 9 p.m. - 9 a.m. (FROZEN)
Winter (November - April billing cycles) Cents per kWh
On-peak kWh used (Mon. - Fri., 9 a.m. - 9 p.m.) $0.14515
Off-peak kWh used (Mon. - Fri. 9 p.m. - 9 a.m., and all day Sat. & Sun.) $0.05565

Summer ( May - October billing cycles) Cents per kWh
On-peak kWh used (Mon. - Fri., 9 a.m. - 9 p.m.) $0.17866
Off-peak kWh used (Mon. - Fri. 9 p.m. - 9 a.m., and all day Sat. & Sun.) $0.05774

Non-Firm Generation
Annual Purchase Rates ($/kWh) On-peak=$0.0659 Off-peak=$0.05963

So the caveat here is that the on-peak excess generation will payback $0.0659 per kWh on Dec 31 and the off peak costs me $0.0575. It looks like the right way to look at this is to just load shift as much as I can to off peak, let the on-peak credits roll up and let them pay off the deficit in off-peak usage. 8)

So my back of envelope calculation show that we should have a excess of about 6000 kWh at year end on the on-peak bank. This would be a check cut to me of ~$400. Now if I have average costs of about $25-35 (June was $27.53) a month in utility billing for metering, meter reading and off-peak usage that will be totally offset by the year end payment. Net Net, no electric bill at all. 8)8)8) I will be sticking with my 9AM to 9PM TOU plan for sure as long as the utility commission will allow. In any case I think if the Utility forces me off onto the noon to 7PM TOU plan I can still make that work.

This boy is a happy camper, more conservation to come to offset the upcoming increase in Square Footage and the new AC unit to support that. I certainly would like a higher rate of return on the on-peak driven to the grid, considering the utility is selling it to my neighbor in the summer months @ $0.17866 making a ~$0.11 kWh profit for nothing. Perhaps a letter to the utility commission is in order? :-)

Re: What are you generating?

BB. wrote: »

Agg... Please keep your head down and don't draw attention to your setup.

The utility will look at your setup and lobby for high connection fees ($25+ per month instead of the $5 per month I currently pay) and could ask for Reservation Charges (perhaps ~50% +/- of your pre-solar energy bill).

Let them make some money on their local distribution network.

By the way, for those in Northern California with PG&E--It looks like we may get $0.08 per kWH for any credits in our Net Metered accounts (before, any credits were just zeroed at the end of the year). Which will be interesting how they do the math since our accounts are in $$$, not kWHours (and most have Time of Use rates--so they would have to figure out the $$$ vs kWH stuff over the 12 month cycle).

-Bill

Hehe advise well taken! I certainly don't want to generate any higher fees.

Actually I think I circumvented the utility rebates already anyway as I think the size limit was 10Kw system rated at the panel max.

Did this by placing 2 reservations with them, the original 10Kw system and the 2kW panel add.

Re: What are you generating?

Jburgess wrote: »

You guys make me jealous with your buyback rates:D

I have "the other utility" where solar_dave lives and mine is figured as the average annual market price of on peak Palo Verde. It was $0.0378 less $0.00017 for scheduling system control and dispatch last year.

Man that seems hardly fair, "the other utility" has other generating costs elsewhere.

Re: What are you generating?

BB. wrote: »

The plan here is to move all the households to a "smart billing plan with smart meter"... Basically, ~20 days a year and from 2pm-7pm (hottest weekdays of the year)--To charge $0.60 per kWH (business rates would be $0.75 per kWH). I don't know the current state of the plan now that the smart meter mess has surfaced.

Jobs are leaving the state of California in droves, the state (and many cities) are pretty much bankrupt now, and--So far--There does not appear to be a large political changes ahead (former Governor Jerry Brown from 1974 is leading or even in the polls right now to be governor again--Not that the "other candidate" may be much better--just not worse--hurray! ).

Still jealous?

-Bill

$0.60 per kWH (business rates would be $0.75 per kWH) OMG, that would drive me to put a timer on a big transfer switch and fire up a generator. (or better yet back feed my upcoming Volt back into the system)

Re: What are you generating?

Jburgess wrote: »

..... The higher rates would shorten my payback period on my solar.

HA ! That's good. bring on the high rates, I'll make money.

Re: What are you generating?

solar_dave wrote: »

If they make business shut down for lack of supply and are charging 0.75, the windfall profits should go back to allow business to mount solar.

You just stepped on one of my sore toes.

Windfall profits should either be left with the company that made the profits, or returned to the consumer who was overcharged.

Under NO circumstances should windfall profit taxes be allowed. The company takes the money from the consumer in the form of overcharge, then the government takes it from the company in the form of windfall profits tax.

That is taxation by proxy and should be a hanging offense.

Re: What are you generating?

solar_dave wrote: »

I propose the utility return it in the form of rebates for solar installs, they kill 2 birds with one stone, funding for more renewables and increase peak generation capacity which is the problem in the first place. My utility charges every customer a fee and they route the funds into grid tie residential and commercial systems in the form of rebates.

Please don't give it to the government in any case or it will just end up in some lobbyist/officals pocket.

Same difference. The utility isn't going to give it back as rebates unless the politicians get involved. Even so, it's still taking money out of the consumer's pocket and then deciding where to best spend it - that's a tax.

Re: What are you generating?

solar_dave wrote: »

It certainly is better than letting Obama or the state at it. Yes it is a tax with a purpose and an excellent effect. There are so few "taxes" in our lives that really do any direct good, I would consider this a good effect. I pay high property taxes to support a school system while I have no kids, I pay high sales taxes to fund local gov and never see much benefit. I pay high Income tax to fund a couple of wars that make little sense.

Okay, so you vote for it and I'll vote against and I'll be in Scotland afore ye.

Oh wait...we don't get a vote. Well, there's the downside.

And I'm sorry, but the whole, "we already pay a thousand different taxes so what's one more?" argument doesn't wash with me.

A consumer can decide to avail themselves of the rebates,

Not quite true. Some can. Renters can't, yet a whole LOT of that "windfall" came out of their pockets.

Even the use of the term "windfall" is calculated spin doctoring to create an impression of "Yea! Screw them overcharging evil corporations!" - designed to make the gov look like the good guys - for stealing what was stolen from us and then not giving it back.

If the cops arbitrarily kept all the recovered stolen property instead of returning it, and then sold it to pay for new playgrounds people would scream bloody murder.

But The Fed does it and people just let it slide.

the utility gets the peak load effect that they require, and CO2 is reduced. It also puts some Americans to work. I certainly don't see the down side.

Oh, well I guess it's okay as long as someone has decided it's "for my own good".

One effect of adding solar:
Environmental benefits surcharge $0.00
Federal environmental improvement surcharge $0.00

Both taxes hidden in my utility bill

I'm not arguing against adding solar. I'm arguing about allowing the government to stand by while companies steal from the consumer, and then step in after the fact to relieve the company of all that "extra" money.

AND, since those surcharges are *already* in the utility bill, then the tax by proxy becomes even more abhorrent.


Mark my words...if this management style keeps going the country will be heavily in debt and the economy will end up completely scre... uh... never mind.

I can see neil and B.B. waiting to slap my wrist for instigating a flame war, so I better shut up now.

Re: What are you generating?

On my recently connected microFIT 10kw system (June 29), the harvest so far today is 51kwh as measured by the Enphase Envoy. It's not on the public website yet, no high speed internet hookup.

That's not bad, but could be better. If the utility line voltage exceeds 252vac the voltage at the array exceeds 260vac and triggers inverter resets (voltage out of range). There are 52 inverters so not all go off line, but enough to limit production to 75 to 90% of what is possible. Yesterday the line voltage was 255vac and our peak production with inverters off line was 7.5kw average.

From meter to array is 188feet, and the cable is #6. It appears that the voltage loss on the line is causing a high voltage condition at the combiner/array end. The plan is to try a #1 cable in position, see how operations improve, then pull it through the big O pipe to replace the #6. The EE explained-ed it all to me using big EE words and I concurred. It's like a funnel in the end of a hose, and you try to pour water in the funnel faster than the hose can take it away...fault condition. Simple enough?

Hope this coming week sees the changes done and the production numbers increase.

Ralph