THE SOLAR PROJECT - JUNE - THE FIRST MONTH.

This year (2010) we decided the time had come to add photo voltaic (solar) panels to our house. The installer of choice was Real Solar Goods of Temecula and due to the good programs at Sun Run they were easily affordable. The installation was due to commence June 16th, but due to changes in their schedules they were able to fit us in during May. The process was finally completed in June due to waits for the neccessary inspections by the various authorities. I can tell you it is a blast to see the electricity meter running backwards and the reading showing that you actually contributed clean energy to the grid!

See my post on Sweet Solar Home (SunRun site)!
Lots of good information here too:
http://www.sunrunhome.com/blog/2010/07/ted-guest-post/


My YouTube link:
 http://www.youtube.com/user/abbeykid#p/u/0/sEJsg8KJO5E
My Facebook Link:
 http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/profile.php?id=100000865727262

Other solar panel blogs:
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bgoodsel/solar/blog.htm

          Here are some daily figures - the first few is me messing around with the system as I was not supposed to turn it on, but I could not resist turning the switch and seeing what happens! The readings are all taken early a.m.

06/03/2010 Meter reading - 34973
06/04/2010 Meter reading  34977
06/05/2010 Meter reading  34998. +21 units. Operated 4 hrs.
06/06/2010 Meter reading  35003. +5 units Operated 2 hrs.
06/07/2010 Meter reading  35018. +15 units Officially turned on at 11:30 a.m. Weather clear and sunny
06/08/2010 Meter reading  35002. -16 units. You can see here we have generated excess power back to the grid. This was because of plenty of sun and low power use. This day started off with heavy overcast and light drizzle. The system was starting up and producing by 7:00 a.m.
06/09/10 Meter reading  35001. -1 units. Weather same as yesterday in the morning but plenty of bright sun in the afternoon.
06/10/10. Meter reading  34990. -11 units. June gloom early but sun breaking through mid-morning. We had to turn system off at about 11:00 a.m pending final inspection from Huntington Beach city. System back on at 3:00 p.m. Passed final inspection - at last!
06/11/10 Meter reading  34992. -2 units due to system being off 4 hrs. at most productive time of the day. Partly cloudy all day. Total Kwh.=96.0 at a.m. reading. Total Kwh.=119.3 at 6:30 p.m. Today's Kwh. 23.8. produced
06/12/10. Meter reading  34981. -11 units. June gloom, clearing p.m. At 7:00 p.m. - Meter reading 34963 -18 units. Total KwHrs=145.4.  Today's KwHrs=25.89. Av. daily Kwhrs/day=24.845
6/13/10. Meter reading  34949. -14 units. June gloom, clearing p.m. E-total=173.3 KwHrs..             E-today=27.81 Kwhrs. Av. daily. KwHrs=26.347.
6/14/10. Meter Reading  34934. -15 units. June gloom, clearing early. E-total=202.6 KwHrs.         E-today=29.3 KwHrs. Best days production so far! Av. daily. KwHrs=27.823.
6/15/10. Meter Reading  34915. -19 units. June gloom clearing early. E-total=233 Kwhrs.              E-today=30.42. Best production to date! Av. daily KwHrs=29.125.
Worthy of note today, 6/16/10. Installed an attic extraction fan to help cool the house. It was set at 85 deg. F., when you stand outside you can feel the hot air blowing down on you! After all, why not? It's all free electricity with the solar panels producing energy far in excess of our needs at the moment!
6/16/10. Meter Reading  34911. -4 units. June gloom clearing late. E-total=257.5 Kwhrs. E-today=24.5 KwHrs. Lowest production so far. Av. daily KwHrs=26.81.
6/17/10. Meter reading  34886. -25 units! June gloom clearing early. E-total=289.2 KwHrs. E-today=32.49. Best production so far - keeps going up! Av. daily KwHrs=29.65.
6/18/10. Meter Reading  34888. +2 units. June gloom clearing at noon. E-Total=314.1 KwHrs. E-today=23.86 KwHrs. Low production due to late clouds. Av.daily KwHrs=26.75.
6/19/10. Meter Reading 34879. -9 units. June gloom clearing late morning. E-total=344 KwHrs. E-today=29.97 KwHrs. Av. daily KwHrs=28.36.
Worthy of note today, 6/19/10. Removed gas clothes dryer and installed all-electric clothes dryer. We did not intend to do this yet, but when we went to Home Depot for an electric hot water heater (we intend to use this new source of energy to its utmost!) out of curiosity we looked at the electric clothes dryers. Lo and behold, there was a "top of the line" demonstration model for sale, with the discounts etc, it was about $300 under retail. I hesitated for a while, not really wanting to buy a hot water heater and dryer all at once as the total layout was a bit intimidating. I reasoned that we were going to do it anyway, why not now? After all the money is the same - now or later! How will this affect the meter readings, the credited power? Stay tuned! Also put an extra pump with UV unit in pond for better water circulation and to keep the damned algae down. Electric water heater going in next week. Will our system be able to handle this extra demand? We are now, I think, approaching the time of best power production, long days and long hours of sunshine.
6/20/10. Meter Reading 34853. -26 units. Best credit day yet, due to June gloom clearing by mid-morning and that we were out all afternoon so there was low power usage. E-total=373.1 KwHrs. E-today=29.01 KwHrs. Av. daily KwHrs=28.68. I was a little surprised that the E-today was not higher due to the gloom clearing fairly early. I wonder how often I should wash the panels? They look dirty already. 
6/21/10. Meter Reading=34843. -10 units. E-total=400.3 KwHrs. E-today=27.06 KwHrs. Av. daily Kwhrs=27.07. Heavy overcast, clearing late to broken clouds, not 100% clear until mid-afternoon. Today was the longest day, but output was lower due to cloud cover.
6/22/10. Meter Reading=34827. -16 units. E-total=430.9 Kwhrs. E-today=30.58 KwHrs. Av. daily KwHrs=28.82. June gloom cleared completely by mid-morning.
6/23/10. Meter Reading=34814. -13units. E-total=458.9 KwHrs. E-today=27.93 KwHrs. Av. daily KwHrs=28.37. June gloom, clearing late.
6/24/10. Meter Reading 34807. -7 units. Ran electric dryer, less units credited. E-total=488.8 KwHrs. E-today=29.85. Av.daily KwHrs=29.11. June gloom, breaking by 9:00 a.m., cleared by mid-day.
6/25/10. Meter Reading=34083. -4 units. Low credit due to running clothes dryer & washer several times and late clearing of overcast. E-total=513.4 Kwhrs. E-today=24.6 KwHrs. Av. daily Kwhrs=26.85. One of the lowest productions due to overcast not clearing until after noon.
6/26/10. Meter Reading=34795. -8 units. E-total=537.9 KwHrs. E-today=24.58 KwHrs. Av. daily KwHrs=25.71. Heavy overcast (light drizzle early a.m.) starting to clear at 11:00 a.m. - this produced a low output.
6/27/10. Meter Reading=34794. -1 unit. E-total=562.8 KwHrs. E-today=24.84 Kwhrs. Av. daily KwHrs=25.27. Heavy overcast, never cleared completely all day.
Worthy of note: Installed electric water heater. The clothes washer & dryer were plus start up of water heater consumed more energy with overcast resulted in low units (1) credited.
6/28/10. Meter Reading=34796. +2 units. E-total=574.3 KwHrs. E-today=11.40 KwHrs. Av. daily KwHrs=18.33. 
Worthy of note: Heavy overcast & drizzle a.m. Never cleared all day - weak sunshin through clouds late p.m. This resulted in us using 2 units from the grid. Poorest day's production so far! Some summer! Even the attic fan did not come on!
6/29/10. Meter Reading=34795. -1 unit. E-total=593 KwHrs. E-today=18.66 KwHrs. Av. daily KwHrs=18.50. Heavy overcast again, clearing early p.m. As you can see our daily average has dropped a lot.
6/30/10. Meter Reading=34785. -10 units. E-total-626.6 KwHrs. E-today=27.18 KwHrs. Av.daily KwHrs=22.84. Overcast clearing mid-morning. Kwhrs. excess production for month = 188!
SUMMARY FOR MONTH
Energy produced = 626.6 KwHrs. Energy consumed = 438.6 KwHrs. Energy credited = 188 KwHrs. AVERAGE DAILY KWHRS. FOR MONTH = 22.84. Keeping records like this has made me really aware of how much energy we are using - I will try to conserve more and find out ways to cut our consumption.
Just looked at our bill from S.C.E. for the month of June. Another one of their "estimated read" faux pas! Can you believe they were going to bill us for 740 Kwhrs used? According to them for June our average daily use was 24.67 Kwhrs! I let them know they were severely deficient in math! $152 - My a**!
           On another note, we are satisfied with the performance of our solar panels, we finished up with a credit of 188 Kwhrs - Woohoo! The 'June Gloom' returned with a vengeance for the last part of the month resulting in figures of about 40% of normal production. The addition of extra electrical appliances - pool pumps, water heater, clothes dryer and attic fan seems to have had a noticeable effect on our credited units, it will be interesting to see how all this works out in the fall/winter/spring months especially as I will be thinking of removing our gas cooktop and replacing it with an electric one. Also in the cards (maybe) are electric baseboard heaters, but I might just use free standing electric heaters. For the month of July I will be starting a new blog page, but watch this one as I have yet to recieve the corrected bill from S.C.E. (Southern California Edison).