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General Engineering
What can we learn from a friend's solar home data in Vermont?
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[QUOTE="phyzguy, post: 6224582, member: 237160"] I have a much more modest solar array. I live in Northern California, and have a rooftop array with 16 300W panels, so the whole array is about 25 m^2. I have a nearly flat roof, so the panels lie flat on the two sides of the roof, which face East and West. A couple of the panels get shaded in the late afternoon, so I have micro-inverters, meaning that each panel has its own inverter. Averaged over the year, the array generates more power than I use, although I generate way more than I use in the summer, and less than I use in the winter. The local utility (PG&E) has net metering, so I basically pay nothing for electricity, although I do pay a small fee (about $10/month) to pay for the hookup to the grid and the fact that the utility guarantees me power no matter whether my array is generating or not. Below are some photos. First is a picture of the array, then the peak production in June, then the production so far this year. The next graphs are the net production (daily production minus use). In June I generate more than I use, in March I about break even, and in January I use more than I generate. The last graph is the annual net use. All in all, I'm very happy with the system. [ATTACH type="full"]248636[/ATTACH][ATTACH type="full"]248637[/ATTACH][ATTACH type="full"]248638[/ATTACH][ATTACH type="full"]248639[/ATTACH][ATTACH type="full"]248640[/ATTACH][ATTACH type="full"]248641[/ATTACH][ATTACH type="full"]248642[/ATTACH] [/QUOTE]
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What can we learn from a friend's solar home data in Vermont?
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