THE SOLAR PROJECT - JULY - THE SECOND 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

Neat things!
NOAA's solar calculator - a real handy little gadget this. Plug in your city or lat./long., date and time of day and up pops some useful figures: http://www.srrb.noaa.gov/highlights/sunrise/azel.html

Here's something that's not related to this subject at all, but a worthy cause - Animal Acres. Link: http://www.animalacres.org/rescues/urgent_100730.html


Well, here we go on the second month, I'm looking for the June gloom to leave us, but as I write this, it is about 10:00 a.m. and we are still socked in! The panels are producing of course but at about 25% capacity, but historically this month has an average 1.4 hours more of sunshine than June, even though the average daylight hours are 0.3 less. Should be interesting! 
Here are some daily figures:
07/01/10. Meter Reading=34783. -2 KwHrs. E-total=641.5. E-today=20.84. Av. daily KwHrs for month=20.84. Overcast clearing mid-afternoon. Ran clothes washer. Low sunshine hours resulted in low KwHrs credited.
07/02/10. Meter Reading=34776. -7 KwHrs. E-total=673.2 KwHrs. E-today=31.66! Av.daily KwHrs for month=26.25. Overcast cleared mid-morning, good sunshine from then until dark! Ran clothes washer (1) & dryer (2). Rinsed panels, but they need soaping and rubbing with soft brush for a good clean job.
07/03/10. Meter Reading=34768. -8KwHrs. E-total=697.0 KwHrs. E-today=23.74 KwHrs. Av. daily KwHrs for month=24.99. Overcast, started to clear late morning, returning late evening.
07/04/10 Meter Reading=34767. -1 KwHrs. E-total=717.4 KwHrs. E-today=20.34 KwHrs. Av.daily KwHrs=22.66. Overcast, not clearing until early p.m.
07/05/10 Meter Reading=34773. +6 Kwhrs. E-total=730.9 KwHrs. E-today=13.43 KwHrs. Av. daily KwHrs=18.01. Heavy overcast not starting to clear until 3:00 p.m. Ran dishwasher, clothes washing m/c and drier.
07/06/10 Meter Reading=34773. 0 KwHrs - Output balanced input! E-total=746.3. E-today=15.09 KwHrs. Av. daily KwHrs=16.55 KwHrs. Early a.m. drizzle, overcast clearing mid-afternoon.
07/07/10 Meter Reading=34769. -4 Kwhrs. E-total=764.3 KwHrs. E-today= 17.97 Kwhrs. Av. daily Kwhrs=17.26. Overcast, but not so dense, clearing early p.m. Maybe we are leaving our extended period of "June Gloom?"
07/08/10 Meter Reading=34769. 0 KwHrs. E-total=781.7 KwHrs. E-today=17.36 KwHrs. Av. daily KwHrs=17.31. Drizzle early a.m. Overcast clearing mid-afternoon, still waiting for that glorious July sunshine! What used the extra 2 KwHrs?
07/09/10 Meter Reading=34764. -5 KwHrs. E-total=803.4 KwHrs. E-today=21.67 Kwhrs. Av. daily KwHrs=19.49. Overcast, clearing around noon.
07/10/10 Meter Reading=34761. -3 KwHrs. E-total=822.1 E-today=18.41 KwHrs. Av. daily KwHrs=18.95. Drizzle early a.m., only partial clearing. Monsoonal moisture bringing clouds p.m.
07/11/10 Meter Reading=34762. +1 KwHr. E-total=843.1 KwHrs. E-today=20.94 KwHrs. Av. daily KwHrs=19.94. Overcast until noon, cleared mid-afternoon, some monsoonal clouds - mostly sunny. Ran washer, drier and dish washer. Big TV ran a long time.
07/12/10 Meter Reading=34749. -13 KwHrs. E-total=873.3 KwHrs. E-today=30.12 KwHrs. Av. daily Kwhrs=25.53. Overcast cleared by early morning, clear the rest of the day.Great production - this is what I was looking for in July! Day is 25 minutes shorter than 6/17/10 record production on that date of 31.42 KwHrs - did that make the difference in power production of 1.3 Kwhrs?
07/13/10 Meter Reading=34737. -12 KwHrs. E-total=903.8 Kwhrs. E-today=30.45 Kwhrs. Av. daily KwHrs= 27.99. Day dawned bright and clear - clear all day. Expected more total output - it was less than June's best total output under similar conditions! Peak readings were definitely lower than June's peak readings. Reasons? Possible answers - dusty panels? (clean them), shorter day (25  mins. less), sun lower in the sky (have to look up sun's angles) making a difference already.
FLASH!! I'VE FOUND THE SOLUTION TO THE "SUN'S ANGLE" - NOAA'S SOLAR CALCULATOR - I'VE INSERTED THE LINK NEAR THE TOP OF THE PAGE UNDER 'NEAT THINGS.' FOR EXAMPLE, THERE IS A 3 DEGREE DIFFERENCE OF SUN'S ELEVATION ABOVE HORIZON FROM JUNE 21st TO JULY 21st. NOW I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW THE DIFFERENCE IN RADIATION REACHING MY SOLAR PANELS.
07/14/10 Meter Reading=34727. -10 KwHrs. E-total=934.2 KwHrs. E-today=30.38 KwHrs. Av. daily KwHrs=29.35. Day dawned bright and clear - clear all day. Rinsed down panels early a.m. - no increase in ouput. Ran A/C.
07/15/10 Meter Reading=34740. +13 KwHrs. E-total=963.2 KwHrs. E-today=29.04 KwHrs. Av. daily KwHrs=29.19. Day dawned bright and clear but partially cloudy be mid-afternoon - monsoonal clouds. Ran A/C, clothes washer and dryer. Total energy consumed for the day = 32 KwHrs. I guess we still have to use the 'grid' for our energy hungry options - I guess I'll go back to using our 'solar clothes dryer', the clothes line! I should be doing that anyway, having solar panels is no excuse for consuming when we can, and should, be conserving!
07/16/10 Meter Reading=34738. -2KwHrs. E-total=993.9 KwHrs. E-today=30.61 KwHrs. Av.daily KwHrs=29.9. Some clouds around due to residual monsoonal activity. Ran A/C and clothes drier. The output of 30.61 KwHrs was a surprise because of the cloudy conditions. There must be other factors at play here - and this is just speculation - the rain that came with the monsoonal conditions in some areas (we did not get any) cleared the air of smog/contaminents allowing more solar radiation through. The Pollution Standard Index (PSI) Forecast for today (per The Orange County Register) was good, 0-50 PSI, other days it has been moderate, 51-100 PSI. This, I think, could give some validation to my theory, although, obviously more readings would be necessary.
07/17/10 Meter Reading=34758. +10 KwHrs. E-total=1024 KwHrs. E-today=30.21 KwHrs. Av. daily KwHrs=30.05. Bright and clear all day. PSI=50-100, moderate. Output a little less than yesterday despite the clear, cloudless sky. Pollution? Ran A/C, clothes washer and dryer, dishwasher.
Due to events I was unable to do my daily observations from 07/18/10 through 07/26/10, but now normal service will be resumed. I am, however, posting a summary based on my SunRun account page of the missing days. From what I see, the weather has not been the best for generation - a return of the DREADED 'JUNE GLOOM!' One mitigating factor has been the relatively low consumption of energy during this period.
7/18/10. E-today=31 KwHrs. Av. dai.ly KwHrs=30.52.
7/19/10. E-today=29 KwHrs. Av. daily KwHrs=29.76.
7/20/10. E-today=16 KwHrs. Av. daily KwHrs=22.88.
7/21/10. E-today=14 KwHrs. Av. daily KwHrs=18.44.
7/22/10. E-today=20 KwHrs. Av. daily KwHrs=19.22.
7/23/10. E-today=26 KwHrs. Av. daily KwHrs=22.61.
7/24/10. E-today=31 KwHrs. Av. daily KwHrs=26.80.
7/25/10. E-today=25 KwHrs. Av. daily KwHrs=25.90.
7/26/10. E-today=21 KwHrs. Av. daily KwHrs=23.45.
7/26/10 Meter Reading=34657. -101 KwHrs.
07/27/10. Meter Reading=34659. +2 KwHrs. E-total=1259 KwHrs. E-today=20.29 Kwhrs. Av. daily KwHrs= 21.87 KwHrs. Overcast, again, until mid-day, clearing with monsoonal clouds around. Ran clothes washer and dryer twice each.
07/28/10. Meter Reading=34642. -17 KwHrs. E-total=1289 KwHrs. E-today=31.56 KwHrs. Av. daily KwHrs=26.71. Day bright and clear from morning to night. I don't think we will get better generation than this from now on due to declining day-light hours!
07/29/10. Meter Reading=34631. -11 Kwhrs. E-total=1320 KwHrs. E-today=31.28 Kwhrs. Av. daily KwHrs=28.99. Day bright and clear, same as yesterday. Generation slightly less - to be expected. Ran clothes washer.
07/30/10. Meter Reading=34620. -11 KwHrs. E-total=1350 KwHrs. E-today=29.95 KwHrs. Av. daily KwHrs=29.47. Partly overcast until mid-morning. Some clouds around the rest of the day. Ran clothes drier.
07/31/10. Meter Reading=34615. -5 KwHrs. E-total=1374 KwHrs. E-today=24.00 KwHrs. Av. daily Kwhrs=26.75. Overcast heavier and more persistent. Some clouds present all day.

SUMMARY FOR MONTH
Energy produced = 732.5 KwHrs. Energy consumed = 564.5 KwHrs. Energy credited = 168 KwHrs. AVERAGE DAILY KWHRS. FOR MONTH = 26.75. Total energy credited so far = 356 KwHrs.
Increase/Decrease in production over last month = +16.9%. Increase/Decrease in consumption = +33.6%.
Increase/Decrease Daily KwHrs = +19%. Cumulative Average KwHrs = 24.79.
Although the average daily KwHrs increased by 19% it could have been better - limited by the 'June Gloom' making a return several times. This month has been unseasonably cool! According to historical records the average daylight hours decreased 0.3 hours from June, whereas the average sunlight hours increased in July over June by 1.4 hrs for the Los Angeles area. This is an increase in sunlight hours of 14.6% - so maybe the production was not so bad after all! The 33.6% increase in consumption is mainly due to installation and use of our new electric water heater and clothes dryer - mainly the clothes dryer, I think. August's energy use could be higher if we get some typical weather - hot and more humid - and we run the air conditioner. I will try to use our 'solar clothes dryer,' the clothes line and see what a difference that makes.