Ontario's Power Authority's microfit program - Acting in bad faith against the environment and the economy?

Ontario's Power Authority microfit Program

We started up a microfit program late in 2013.  As a home owner, we were limited to 10 kW on the DC side.  As an engineer, who worked in the old Ontario Hydro system, that makes absolutely NO sense to me to limit the DC side of a Photo Voltaic System with a 10 kW AC restriction in place already.  With 3% inverter loses, 2% line loses, 3% panel burn in during the first week and an overall 20% reduction in 20 years; you will start with a 9.2 kW microfit and end up with a 7.5 kW microfit in 20 years.  In addition, the panels themselves are over rated based on ideal dream conditions that seldom if ever occur.  With two 5 kW AC to DC inverters in place, you simply can't produce more than 10 kW AC period.  It didn't start out that way.  Some one changed it.  Who is acting (again) in bad faith?

IMPORTANT UPDATE: SEE JUNE 2015 POST ON KILLING OUR OCEANS NOW

Let me explain.

Green Energy Program:

This world is in Big sh## with the C02 levels currently around the 400 ppm mark.  For a healthier planet, a level of 350 ppm is the target.  Almost all home operated microfit, roof mounted systems use solar panels based on silicon wafer technology.  We must try to control CO2 emissions for the sake of the future populations and generate as much electricity possible from non-carbon based systems.  It has been my observations, that few people are interested in doing this.

As we must or want to have electricity to use, I am against closing our already built coal fired stations.  There is a large C02 foot print to build these systems and they should be used until it is no longer economical to do so.  China is building a large coal fired electrical system, so what is the point.  Perhaps, don't build any more but it makes good sense to use what we already have invested in to its maximum.  The exhaust gases could be cleaned up as is economically practical.  They don't have that many years left to run anyway.  You might then want to put in natural gas, wind and solar on these sites.

Benefits of Solar Panel Systems:

Of the green energy programs, solar energy is one, if not the best renewable energy sources available.

1.0  Solar energy from the the sun is free (input only).

2.0  Solar energy produces no harmful C02 gas emissions or waste products like nuclear energy.

3.0  Roof mounted solar panels do not take up any valuable agricultural land like wind and big power stations.

4.0  All most all home owners could install some solar panels

5.0  No birds have ever died from flying into solar panels, unlike large wind turbines

6.0  Solar panels blend into the natural roof of a house and extend the roof's life by keeping it cooler and shading it from UV radiation.  Thus they also help to keep your attic cooler and lowering your Air Conditioning requirements.

7.0  Solar panels produce energy during the peak energy periods of the day, thus helping the power company to meet the demand at the most expensive period to do so.

8.0  Solar panels systems have a long life span, of 25 to 50 years.

9.0  Existing power plants are reaching their life expectancy of the plants.  Building in capacity now makes good sense.
10.0  The economy:  If we have not DC limit, only the AC limit, the Ontario Manufacturers can make more panels and means more jobs in the industry period.

11.0  Generating  sites are among the power users.  No environmental approvals required.  Best location possible for generating sites.

Production Problems with Solar Panels:

When trying to harvest solar energy from the sun, there are many factors that work against you.  Here are some of them.

1.0  Sun light for only 30-40 % of the day.

2.0  Storing energy for use during non-solar periods. Very costly.

3.0  Any fouling of the panels from: bird droppings, over head tree shading, structure shading from other buildings, snow; ice fouling.

4.0  Reduced output during higher temperature days

5.0  Weather related, clouds passing by, over cast days, rain days, weather in general.

6.0  Pitch of your roof is not normally designed for maximum solar collection.

7.0  Very low solar harvesting for 6 months of the year as the days grow short and the sun dips low on the horizon. 

8.0  Interference from high clouds and dust, S04 particles from volcanoes - Reduces light concentration.

9.0  Smog

10.0 Morning frost in winter fouls panels during startup

11.0  Seasonal attitude and angle of light hitting the panels.  There is a large variance over the year.

12.0 House roof alignment not south facing

13.0 Neighbors trees shading roof.

14.0 Poor system design using straight string inverters

15.0 Poor panel design not producing power from good cells when others are fouled

16.0 Perfectly clear skies, cool temperatures where used to set the STC for the panel's rating.  These are seldom ever seen in the field and never after 1 month of operation due to panel burn in losses.
17.0  Wind speed above 20 mph cause tracking systems to shut down or lay flat.
18.0  Poor access in winter for any maintenance if required.
19.0  Replacement maintenance of DC/AC inverters after 12 years of use.

All of the above factors make it difficult to harvest solar energy.  Why has some one limited the home owners ability to produce the maximum energy that they could with the 10 kW AC programs.  We few must harvest as much as possible for those many who don't give a damn about the global warming problem.

The obvious design solution is to install more panels on the DC side to offset these conditions which the DC limitations prevent you from doing. 

The original contracts DID NOT have this stupid restriction and paid 85.5 cents per kW hour.  Jumping to the next level under the Fit program, it has a 500,000 kW restriction, so very few people would be limited on their DC side.  These are big businesses and institutions.

The home owner loses again. 

 Home owners are prevented from utilizing a standard in electrical generation called efficiency of scale or size.  Here you might say, size does matter.  There is also no rate adjustment over the 20 years.  The contract and restrictions is 100% one sided.

Compared with conventional electrical generating systems, solar panel systems have a horrible capacity factor rating well below 10%.  Normally you want your power plant to have a capacity factor above 80% and as high as you can get it.  Capacity factor is output over output 24x7x365

Now having lowed the tariff rate to 39.6 cents per kW hour, my bank reports no new applications to be used for microfit.  

Discussion:

The first question is why the 10 kW limit?  We should be able to feed back into the grid from a 200 Amp service over 30 kW of energy.  But let us leave that for now and stay with the 10 kW limit.

Solar energy production starts at first light and increase to a maximum output for the day in an inverse bell curve.  You may peak about 9 kW for less than 1 hour per day for most of the year.  It is impossible to reach and maintain 10 kW AC under these conditions, never mind maintaining it for several hours.  Your inverters will Always prevent you from exceeding 10 kW.  So why is the home owner being deliberately discriminated against?

Some one decided to not only limit this to 10 kW but to add an additional restriction of 10 kW on the DC side.  As a design engineer, if you asked me to design a system to produce 10 kW AC, I would install panels on the south, east and west facing sides of a house.  I would want the system to produce 80% of maximum after 2hrs..  In order to do so, I would most likely have to have 15 to 20 kW of panels on the DC side, if not more installed in the system.  I would also add future panels to adjust for the natural decay in output from these panels.  Of course, most people do not have large enough roofs for a perfect system and few have the proper roof orientation of a South facing roof.

My house feeds 4 other neighbors who are NOT harvesting solar energy (shame on them).  I believe that less than 1% of house holds in Ontario do this.  Therefore, those who do should be able to help to fill in the gap.  The few must help the many to reduce C02 levels.

It is not logical or beneficial to the planet to limit your production to 10 kW on the DC side.  On the AC side my two 5 kW inverters automatically limit my ability to produce at any anyone time no more than 10 kW AC so why impose this hardship.  We have already had to adsorb the very low tariff rate of 39.6 cents per kW hr.  The first people got 85 cents with no DC limit but had higher panel costs.

People have jumped on the solar panel band wagon and for the most part, tried to squeeze as much money from the home owner as possible.  Cost of building permits based on the number of panels (?),  engineering assessment for a relatively new building using trusses is not warranted.  A hugely ridiculous $1500 + HST connection fee from Hydro-One. Hydo-One's connection cost is the same that I paid for 1875 W of solar panels.  That is almost 20% of the cost of my solar panels!  Other utilities are charging around $200 mark.  The price of panels has fallen but the installation and fixed costs remain about the same. 

If you would like to try to change things, then write your concerns to the Ontario Energy Board.  The more suppliers and customers give their feedback, the better are the chances to change things.  By limiting the 10 kW microfit to 10 kW DC, the Ontario industry is hurt badly by decreased production of 20-50%.

Ask:  Why is the Ontario Power Authority microfit home owner being discriminated against by these policies and the larger Fit customers are not?  Our kW's directly feed other customers without any appreciable line loses.

28 January Production Report

28 January 2014

Production Review

It has been a weird winter of 2013-2014.  Some people claim that it is the coldest since 1942.  Normally cold means clear but not so this month.

I knew that the 27th was going to be a good day when I saw Venus shining extremely brightly in the SE before sunrise.

We produced 54.54 kW or around $21.59 for the day. Here is the production curve.

This is almost a perfect bell curve or histogram. With a system maximum output of 8.3 kW (max possible 10 kW with microfit).  The day was sunny, with clear blue skies and -23 C.  Solar noon is at 12:30 here.

We had had a peak earlier in the month that was around 9.2 kW.  That was closer to perihelia of 3 January when the earth's orbit is closest to the sun and we get 7% more solar energy.  In December we were peaking at 7 kW so we are slowly improving as we once again move towards summer solstice.   Remember, our roof is a 5/12 pitch or 22.6 degree and the optimum solar angle is much closer to 60 degrees at this time of year.  That is a 18.6% improvement in just over one month.  The amount of sunlight per day has also gotten longer from about 8 hours to about 8 hours 50 minutes.  

What is the expected January Solar Harvesting Amount?

Records are scarce.  One location reported 0.775 MW for 2013 but they have a 40 degree roof.  I expect that we will harvest around 0.6 MW having missed about 0.1 MW when our panels were under snow and the sun was shinning brightly.

 Since that time I have learnt that if you want production, then you must remove the snow that does not blow off from the panels.

I also have optimized this procedure making for safe, easy access to the panels.  Some people just can't do this.  I blogged earlier about our 18 ft extension pole with a broom head for doing this and ladder safety.  It has not been normal for us to do this here in Lakeshore, Ontario, so some people haven't been doing snow removal.  As a result, we have 50-100% more production then they did.  Once removed, you normally don't have to do any more removal until the next storm.

When it is this cold (-15C), I have learnt that the snow/ice normally does not melt much.

Snow removal does not take a lot of time.  Most days, you might just find that the wind has done most of the work for you.  You must try to completely clear the panel.  As soon as you have removed some snow from a panel it will immediately reward you by producing energy.  You can write off the ladder's cost as a production expense.  Always buy a class 1A ladder with a wide base.  See my earlier post.

I have had one panel with about 10% fouling and the snow is still there after two bright solar days. This small amount of fouling REDUCED the output by up to 80% of its rating.    Here is the output at 12:00 noon. Click the image to make enlarge.

NORTH is at the Top and South at the bottom  Panel 1.0.12 is fouled with snow.  Panel 1.0.19 has a problem and will be replaced in March when I can get on the roof to replace it.  It will reduce the total annual income by $50 per year but not too much money at this time of year.

Why you must avoid systems with Straight String Inverters

Anyone promoting string inverters alone should be ashamed of them selves. 

Our system employs SolarEdge Inverters with Optimizers installed by Flexible Solar southern Ontario's best solar panel installers.

Look at the wild range of power being collected from each panel. Now pick the LOWEST one on each string and that is what each panel would produce. UGG.  Who would sell someone a system like that?

This is why optimizers are the best and IMHO the ONLY system to employ.

The panel monitoring system with SolarEdge also showed me that panel 1.0.19 should be replaced (I bought two spares).  Panel 2.010 also produces typically 10% less but due to its location and difficulty to replace, will remain there.

Without optimizers, I would have LOST 30% or $1800 per year or $36000 over the life of the contract.  But wait a moment.  That is what we paid for everything.

People who sell straight string inverter systems simply don't have any respect for the customer.

Which panel orientation is Best?

We can see that by noon time, West Facing panels looking east via our dynamic positioning system have harvested the same amount of energy as South Facing Panels.  At this time of year, West and East do not produce well around noon and South Facing Panels peak at this time.  South Facing Panels are still out producing the array but the difference has been cut in half.

The array is harvesting 75% more energy than statically positioned East or West panels.

South Facing Panels are the best orientation for solar panels.

The system is not optimized for winter.  It is optimized for the period between March to September when the days are longest and you produce 70% of your total yearly harvesting.  It is fun for me to watch the dynamic array slowly catch up in production to South Facing Panels.  I can track the panels output in Watts on 15 minutes intervals throughout the day.

Stop Paying for your Electrical Energy Bill:

We expect to earn $6500-7500 per year depending on the weather for 20 years.  That should work out to us having an extra $100,000.00 income for our retirement over and above your system costs.  At that point we grid tie and earn the going rate of power which just might be very close to what we are currently being paid.

We expect to earn around an extra $500 per month on average for one year or $100,000.00 for the 20 year contract (over and above system costs).  If that interest you, then call Steve and tell him that Kirk sent you.

 Steve at Flexible Solar Serving Southern Ontario 519-962-9218

Which Type of Solar Panel is best: Mono-crystalline or Poly-crystalline?

Which type of Solar Panels to use- Mono or Poly-crystalline?

This is always an interesting choice that people have to make.  I will discuss the pro's and con's of each type of solar panel for a location in Southern Ontario. I compare my installation - Poly-crystalline Panels with some one 265 W Silfab MONO panel.  I updated this review in May 2014 after installing the test Silfab panel.

Introduction:

I have spoken about getting the highest ROI on your investment before in my opening blog (see Dec 2013). If you have a very limited roof area, then you may get a higher ROI and income by using higher capacity panels which are the mono type.  With no roof area limitation, then poly might be your best choice. Presently, poly-crystalline panels appear to be the best choice for me.  You will pay a high penalty for little benefit to get 10-20 Watt more per panel.  I believe that in the past, there was a bigger difference between the two.

Simply put, both work.  Mono crystalline cells use more expensive refined silica.  Polycrystalline panels use a lower cost silica and look a bit different than mono.

You can check on line what is a mono and what is a poly-crystalline solar panel and what is the physical differences.  It is believed that Poly-crystalline panels work better in low light situations, off axis production and in hotter climates.  Though-out the winter months you will experience at least 30-40% over cast days with some intermittent sun light.  Panel orientation is not relevant when the day is over cast.  The clouds act as a big soft-box and spread the light every where evenly.

I am gathering data on how and when the east and south facing panels turn on in the am as the sun slowly moves to an easterly rising location from its 21 December position. This helps to show how a south facing panel with the sun coming from the SSE to East reacts to the early morning sun compared to an east facing panel.  I can see a small but important improvement in the east's panel output over that of the south facing panels.  As of 21 January, south still out performs east by about 40%.  I move the east panels to track to the west and it is about 18% less than south at this time of year.  This changes to neutral and then to + 20% as we enter March.  Unless you move your panels, south is almost always the best orientation to use.

Discussion:

Poly-crystalline panels are increasing in output as the years progress.  You can get 260 W poly's verse 280 W mono's.  Because Mono panels can cost 20-25% more than Poly, Poly will win on the best ROI.  That makes the cost of that small incremental difference of 10 or so watts very high. Panel orientation, south or the angle of the sun of your roof is of much more importance.  Unfortunately we can not change the angle of our roofs. There is another consideration for mono.  You just might like the look of mono panels better.  You might also like the look of black panels better.  Black panel backing is a great thing to have in winter but gets hotter in summer.  Over all I stuck with the blue panels but it is a personal thing.  My wife likes the blue. Getting a quality installation is extremely important as it will add  significant value to your property at re-sale due to the income generating ability of the panels.  The Flexible Solar people did a great looking job for us. They don't cut corners and use or offer the best materials for long life project.

Comparison:

Update: Mayv2014 preliminary

We remove one of our poly panels and installed a 265 W mono from Silfab.  So far I have learnt this:

1. Low light and early morning light:  Winner goes to poly panels.  I have 250 W making more than the mono who should be making the most as it is rated 6% higher

2.0 Overcast and over head:  Goes to polycrystalline.

3.0  Bright sun both do well.  Mono does perform well under bright sunlight.  Problem is that this May we have had very few days with full sunlight.  On the 19 May 2014 we had a very good solar day.  No visible clouds at solar noon. Temperature around 20 C with a small wind. reported 13 kph.  System would not peak showing that we have high level light scattering occurring.  The angle of the sun hitting the panel nearly a perfect 90 degress.  Solar harvesting in AM 46 kW hr and 88 kW hr total for the day.  That is best for May to date.  Based on these very sunny conditions, all of my Poly-crystalline panels worked better than the mono when adjusted to equal rating.  We are comparing 250 W poly, 300 W poly and 265 W mono.

Several of my poly panels harvested the same as the 265 W mono with no adjustment based on there STC ratings.  All panels were performing closer to their PTC rating and not their STC rating.  Winner goes to polycrystalline hands down.   All of Heline's 72 cell polycrystalline 300 W panels exceeded the 265 W Mono. Several of our 250 W CG poly panels equalled the Mono panel.  In addition, the mono panel had not yet had time to burn in.

4.0 Comparison between Silfab's mono and our 60 cell CG panels and our 72 cell Heliene panels.  Panel monitoring is a bit addictive.  You must resist using the instantaneous number and wait for the Solar Edge monitoring system to fully report at the end of the day.  The 265 W mono Silfab would be a  good 250- 255 W panel.  It is a very poor 265 W panel.  That is because some manufactures and Silfab is not the only one over rate the performance of their panels.  I have had days where our 250 W CG poly panels produce more than the mono or very close to the mono.  We hope to try the Heliene's mono panels rated at 17.5% efficiency.  My heart skips a beat when you see the power rating of their 72 cell poly panel.  It is a bit unfair as it does have 20% more cells but the numbers do speak for themselves.  The performed on a watt by watt comparison a bit better than the 265 W mono.

5.0  Mono offers higher outputs and better efficiency and the chance to have the backing in Black.  As temperature does effect performance significantly, we keep to the white backing.  You many choose mono over poly if you have a limited roof area as you can get more watts per square foot or you just like the look of mono over poly.  All in all, poly panels are the better choice in a warmer environment for max ROI.  I am not including the SunPower panels in this discussion as it is something you have to pay too much for and most of us can not even get them.

6.0  Silfab also use the lower cost PET backing material verse the better backing material used by Heliene and CG.  You can see my posts on suitable panel backing materials.  Personally I would stay away from PET and request Tedlar or Kynar backing be used.  I got the Silfab to replace a panel that was producing 30% lower than expected.  Heliene suggested (it is a CG panel) that perhaps one of the diodes was not working.  I tried to check the diode and found what appears to be a loose connection.  I need to replace the battery in my Multi Meter to check the diode.  The connection may have been all that was wrong.  I will re-install the panel to check it out in the near future. I took the panel outside in the sun and it read 37 V DC showing that all cells are now working.

FYI the backing of the panel is critical to ensure long life of the panel and to seal it from moisture and oxygen attack.  There is a link on one of my posts showing cracking problems with someone's (?) PET backing panels.  People understandably are using lower cost materials to help them save money.  This is important: Solar Harvesting is a long term investment and you must use the best materials available so that you don't have to replace your panels early.

This chart show the daily output of 3 different solar panels. 300 W  Poly- from Heliene, 265 W Mono from Silfab, and 250 W CG Poly panels.  Can you find the 265 W Mono Panel?  A 265 W panel should produce 6% more than the 250 W Poly panels.  Likewise, the 300 W Poly panel should produce 13 % more than the Mono Panel.

What you see then, all the 250 W poly panels should have produced 1.69 kW hrs.  All except 2.20.11 which has a known problem are exceeding that value.  Accordingly, based on the 265 W Mono, all of the 300 W Heliene Poly panels should be less than  2.03 kW hrs.The fact is they are producing 2.125 kW hrs, much more than an equivalent Silfab 72 cell Mono based on this testing.  Also the Mono panel is not yet burnt in, so we are seeing the good side of this panel.  The Silfab panel is 2;20;19  These results were taken on a good sunny day without visible clouds when the sunlight was perpendicular to the panels based on the time of the year.  The Heliene 72 cell panels are 5% over and above this 265 W  Mono panel.  It is all about ROI and Poly is winning here.

For us, Poly-crystalline panels win over mono-crystalline because we have a good roof area and are most interested in ROI.  If we didn't have a 10 kW limitation, then it is quite likely that high output mono would be the way to go.  The best would be SunPower Mono but you can't get them or the price is way too high.  All of these things can change over night.  Many times products are prices not on cost but on how much one can get.  That is why we must always look at ROI.  Pay strict attention to quality build and quality long life components.  Look at the type of backing being used.  Stay away from PET backing and stick with Tedlar and or Kynar.

Based on our one day test, I calculate that we would lose the output of two panels over twenty years using the Silfab panel verse our Polycrystalline panels.  There is no reason to believe that the panel will produce more power and it is likely to produce less power as it burns in.  All of the poly panels have been burnt in for months.  We harvest about $150-160 per panel per year.  Losing two panels because some one wanted to make more money would have cost us over $6000 over 20 years.  IMHO, panel manufacturers need to under rate and not over rate their panels.  They need to make money so charge accordingly.  Panels will lose about 10% over 20 years, so starting at +3-4% is a good way to rate the panel.  You will sell more panels under the 10 kW microfit limitation any way.

Our recommendation:  Heliene 60 or 72 Cell polycrystalline panels.

Kirk is a retired Professional Engineer with experience in the Electrical Utility sector.

More information:

If you are interested in installing a Microfit or Fit solar panel system, I strongly recommend giving Steve a call at Flexible Solar Solutions in Windsor, Ontario serving Southern Ontario.  They are the best and most honest microfit solar panel installers that I have had the pleasure of working with.  They will give you a straight analysis of your roof and what you can expect to earn.  Don't forget to tell them that Kirk sent you.  See my first post for more information on going Solar.

We expect to earn $6500-7500 per year depending on the weather for 20 years.  That should work out to us having an extra $100,000.00 income for our retirement over and above your system costs.  At that point we grid tie and earn the going rate of power which just might be very close to what we are currently being paid.

 Steve at Flexible Solar Serving Southern Ontario 519-962-9218

19 January 2014

Monitoring Your System

Introduction

Once you get a solar panel system installed with a panel level monitoring system, you become more aware of the solar cycle that that interested man kind for the past 20,000 years.  You can visually see the Sun low on the horizon on 21 December and quickly rise up at the end of December and early in January.  This continues of course until 21 June when the cycle starts to go backwards.  I can even see this effect on the instantaneous output of the South and East panels early in the morning.

Discussion: 

What I would like to see in a monitoring system is instantaneous, peak production, daily production, hourly, daily, weekly and monthly output per individual panels.  One of the first limitations that you see with all panel monitoring systems is that they are internet based.  That is so that they can sell you the monitoring system at some time.  Ours is included with the system for 20 years.  What I want to see overall is if any panels are not working up to stuff or are there shading issues that I am not aware of.  Being Internet based, the panel information is only captured and shown every 15 min.  Therefore it is an approximation of what is happening. With clouds moving in and out across the Sun, you can miss the any peak values that may occur in the system.  For example, our peak values showed up a few days ago as around 6.6 kW but I was able to observe a peak value of around 8.4 kW via the DC/AC  Inverter panel display.

I am speaking about an overall system monitoring program.  You revenue meter insures that all power produced is shown and paid for regardless of what you may monitor.

SolarEdge does a good job in showing the output of every panel and highlighting low production panels for easy identification.  It also helps me to see that the way the snow is left on the panel can have a major impact on the panels output.  If 3-4 inches wide of snow is left longitudinally on the panel and 90% or so of the panel is left clear, the snow will reduce the panel's output by about 80%.  That helps to highlight how important it is to clear all the snow off of the panel.  The same effect occurs with early morning Sun and any shading caused by buildings and roofs, structures or trees. 

SolarEdge just recently (this week) changed the way that we can see the data that is collected.  By using the playback feature of the system, you can see the approximate output of each panel in Watt per sec.  That is what we would sometimes like to know.  We have 225 W panels and we can see the values rise from 10 to 180 W/s.  That is nice to know.  Being able to raise and lower my East and West panels, selecting the optimum angle is a bit tricky.  Now I am able to see just when the East panel outputs equal the South panels output or when the East and West panels should be raised or lowered to better optimize the system.  I have a 3 position switch for the panels, so there is not much room to optimize the daily output but it does help a lot because these panels can benefit form morning and afternoon Sun light equally.

Another great feature of this monitoring system is the histogram plotting of the system output.  I can see that if the weather is co-operating, I can get a very rapid rise in system output as the Sun rises early in the morning. This is showing how the South panels react to the sunlight early in the morning as it rises from the south-east. A slower response would mean that you would benefit from more East facing panels,  South panels do an amazing job here.  Currently in mid January, they equal the output of the East facing panels at around 10 AM.  East facing panels tend to peak at around 10:30 due to the fixed angle of the roof being as high an angle that I can go.  The West panels can exceed the angle of the East panels as they can be raised a bit higher in the morning to face the Sun.  That means that they will also stop peaking earlier and would benefit by a small change in the angle facing the Sun.

In the past, system owners would have to record the hourly output from each panel in order to determine the panels output power.  The recent inclusion of the play back recording now makes this a thing of the past.

Summary:

Over all I am very pleased with our panel monitoring system.  The biggest complaint is that it is internet based and not locally supported on my computer as it should be.  We can see and identify any panels not producing properly and see any unforeseen shading issues.  You can see the system charts and outputs by going to the SolarEdge website and  following the link located at the top of the page that says "Monitoring Portal Login".  Then go the the public sites and type in Lakeshore.  Select Lakeshore3 to see our results.

As a closing note, you will see the system panel layout, production summaries and all of the bells and whistles.  You will also see that almost every panel will have a slightly different output.  Remember, that without having panel optimizers, you would lose the power generated from each panel that is about the lowest value.  In my case that is very high as one panel is typically producing 10% lower and another panel which will be replaced, is producing about 30% lower than it should be.  That would rob us of over $40,000 if this situation was left un-noticed in a straight string inverter system as so many people tried to sell us.

Solar Production Update:

At or before the 15 January, overcast days are now producing 10 kW or more with next  to no observable sunshine.  It is not too dark but the sun normally isn't seen on these days.  This represents the break even day or point.  It is the minimum that you normally will earn even when the weather is "bad" or poor.  It covers you  monthly interest payment on your long term investment.  For example, today by 9:30 AM we were producing 2.25 kW and at 12:15 PM 8.0 kW (we can't exceed 10 kW).  This shows that you normally will produce 20-50% of your maximum output even with no sunshine.  The Sun did indeed just come out and we peaked at 9 kW (or $3.6 per hour)  On partially sunny days we are starting to produce about 30 kW or about $12 per day (or expressed $390 per month if every day were like this which it never normally is).  We have not yet seen a clear blue sky day in January, so that out put can only be estimate for this time of year to be around 50 kW ($20 per day or monthly rate of $620).  Unfortunately we never see that great of a solar day for many days in January, but we never expected to.  This varies from year to year.  The bottom line is that the system is starting to produce power at a return greater than the monthly interest charge.  This will only improve as the Sun moves or tracks higher in the sky.  We are doing very well as we have cleared the snow from the panels as I explained in an early post.  Having done so a few days ago, we only had a light dusting on most panels this AM.  I also removed snow this AM from two panels that I should have cleaned yesterday but forgot that I had installed a ladder support needed to safely do so.  I found the support this AM when clearing the snow. The wind is howling at around 30 mph or so gusts.  The light snow normally will just blow off the panels under these conditions.  The high wind will also really cool the panel improving its efficiency.  Solar panels produce heat and you can use the will chill temperature chart on them.  NOTE: Solar trackers lay flat when the wind exceeds 20 mph and the production goes down).   Extreme cold prevents snow from melting off the panels (-12 to -20 C).  One high producing panel remains with some fouling from snow that I couldn't reach.  Perhaps the high wind will help to remove the snow.

It Snowed Last Night

Should Your Remove the Snow from your Panels

One of the first things that people who have the microfit solar panels installed want to do is to remove the snow from their panels.  I have setup some rules to follow that just might help you.

1.  No one is allowed on our roof if it has any snow or ice - period.

2.  Only place ladders on dry, ice or snow free surfaces.

3.  Have a ground person to help

4.  Never reach for anything while working on a ladder.

5.  Secure the base of the ladder with a safety board  or rope tie system.  One could install an eyelet into the side of the house and use it in the winter to secure your ladder.

6.  Only use the best class 1A ladders that you can buy.  You can write it off as an expense for your income from your microfit program.  The Home Depot have an excellent 22 ft folding ladder.  I got our 17 ft similar ladder from Canadian Tire on sale for $100. priced over $200?.  Both are excellent ladders and almost identical in construction.  I love how the base has been designed to help prevent tipping.  I feel safe on this ladder when it is secured.
7. Purchased an extension pole from Home Hardware.  It is 6-18 ft.  Fitted the end with a wide broom head and I can reach almost all of my panels.

Remember, it is NOT the fall that hurts, only the sudden stop on the way down!

Safety First, Last and Always

We all hate to see panels that are covered in snow.  Fortunately there are 3 locations where the snow like to accumulate on our roof.  One of these areas is in the front of the house in the valley between the garage and house.  The other is similar location in the back of the house.  I found a great tool for helping to remove that light powdery snow.  

I use my Leaf Blower.

In fact the Leaf Blower works so well I have been using it to remove 80% of our snow removal on our driveway and off of our car.  It also works well on the 6 most trouble some panels that we can easily get at.  By using the Leaf Blower I can get down to the dry concrete in front of my house.  In the back, I first clean our wooden deck with the Leaf Blower and I have screwed a safety board  to the deck so that the ladder can't move.  Then I can only reach the 3 corner panels.  Fortunately, most of the panels at the back of our house are normally cleared by the wind.  The panels on the array do get snow on them.  Sometimes raising and lowering them helps the snow to fall off.  Otherwise, I just let the sun do its job.

Today, I had to leave 4 panels completely covered in snow on the east array.  The west was relatively clear and producing good result in the AM when it was raised. Raising the west panels also helped to warm the panel so that any snow could melt off. They will clear on a nice sunny day.  Even with 1 kW of panels covered, at 11:30 AM we were producing 7.2 kW peak when the sun did come out.  Not bad for 31 December.

If we don't remove the snow, then it will remain on the panels for a long time.  If the weather turns a bit mild, then snow comes off easier and you will start generating power again.  I like to have my panels clean before a snow storm.  If you get a layer of ice under the snow, then the wind just might help to blow it off.  Ice normally will clear it self.  In the end, we all are just people standing by until the weather gets better.

Removing "those" Trees:

Eliminating Shading on your Roof.

One of the first things that you learn is how terrible shading can effect the output from your panels.  We have 5 trees to deal with.  Three beautiful green Cedar trees which we cut the tops off just below the roof line with little problem.  All of our power lines are under ground and we have 60 ft wide lots so the neighbors trees and houses do not have much of an impact 1 hour after sunrise.  They DO have an impact during that period but they refuse to have their upper floors removed so that we could make 40 cents per day more. (humor).

The two 40 ft 18" diameter Pine trees are another issue.  They should have NEVER been planted that close to the house and then forgotten.  These trees can grow to 100 ft. Even before going Solar, I wanted to remove these trees (I love trees and gardens) because of a future problem with my neighbor's roof and under ground roots.  The trees were planted on the property line on our side of the fence.

An electrician told me simply to clear a path between the trees and cut off the branches to make a natural ladder so that I could climb to the top of the trees.  That was a great idea.  I have heard that some people charge anywhere from $3,000 to $20,000 to cut down trees.

Here are some Suggestions: 

Never do something that you know that you can't do like this.  

Hire a handyman or someone to do this for you.

1.0 Safety first, last and always.

2.0 Always have a ground person

3.0  Always buy top quality ladders with a 1A -300 lb rating (don't use if you are heavier that 280 lbs).

4.0 Go slowly, you can cut a tree down in one day or 30 days.

5.0 Always make sure that the foot of the ladder is on firm foundation - have your ground person stand on it.

6.0 Tie the top of the ladder to the tree with a 1/2 in jute rope.

7.0 Make a safety belt out of piece of rope or belt  like those used by professional loggers.

8.0 You can use a small bow saw to cut most branches off.

9.0 NEVER reach for a cut.  Move the ladder.  

It's not the fall that hurts, but the sudden stop on the way down.

10. When cutting down the trunk, make your first cut on the back side where you want the piece to fall.

11. Always tie the truck with some rope and secure it to the back of the tree so  you can lower it down once cut.

12. Some people screw in eyelets for the rope to the section and main truck so that it can be lowered slowly.

13. Trucks of trees are very, very heavy.  Cut into very small sections. 1 - 3 feet.

14. After cutting on your side, the section will fall to the other side and most likely hit the truck where is is tied off.  That protects you from it when it falls.

15. Don't over do it.  I cut one to two pieces per day and called it quits for another days work.

16. Plan your work before you make any cuts.

17. In addition to tying off the ladder, I like to secure it around those 18 in branches so it can't possibly move.

18. Use eye protection.

As for equipment, I purchased a 21 in Bow saw from Princess auto for $5 on sale.  I then went for a 16 inch electric chain saw.  Make sure that you use a good 14 gauge cord with with.  The back support rope was a bit scary to use at first.  I always triple checked the knots and kept them in sight as I leaned back on the rope so that I could operate the saw.  I like the electric saw as I can wait until I am almost ready to cut before plugging the saw in while I am up the tree.

Results:

We have thus far eliminated shadows from all but one panel when the sun hits it at the crack of dawn.  Once the sun comes up higher,  the main shadow no longer hits any of the panels.  Once the trunks are cut back another 3 feet, this too will disappear.  Here are the results after we eliminated the major shading issues.

I thought that this was going to be a beautiful sunny day to test out our system.  Due to high level clouds, the solar emissions were reduced by about 9% in the morning.  Things got a bit better after noon time.  You can see that a little bit more harvesting has occurred in the afternoon when a lot of the high level  clouds had gone.  The great bell curve is because most of the panels are south facing and with the sun tracing from South of East to South of West the panels receive light at 7:45 am until around 16:30 PM.  Total days harvesting around 38 kW.  Noon peak was lower due to light high level clouds seen around the sun.  I was on the roof at around 15:30 PM time and slightly raised the East Panels facing West.  You can see a slight improvement in harvesting as I was tweaking the system.

We will never totally eliminate all of our shading issues.  Some panels are shaded from roof peaks at different times of the day and year.  I have noticed that the best panel location is along the ridge line of our south facing roof.  That is where we should relocate any panels to in order to maximize exposure to the sun.

Results of our 24 December 2013 Production:

The 24 th of December was a great day.  We are still trying to get some of the bugs out of our installation. One of these bugs is two tree trucks located some 35 feet from the house.  Most branches have be removed and I didn't think the tree trucks would cause any issues.  They DO!!  It was apparent from viewing the panel output because of shading, ever so faint on the panels.  It helps to stress why having SolarEdge Optimizers are SO important.  We also have 3 panels located on the south facing roof that get some shading issues as this time of year.  It goes away after noon.  The main problem is caused by a ridiculously low sun angle in the sky.

Note:  One reader gave feedback on the optimum roof angle.  I have added his feedback to the main column.  He also stated that you would only get two hours of sun in the Winter and that the south would not work because the sun is from the east. Go outside and look.  The sun is from the South of East and appears to be about 45 Degrees lower than I would like it to be.  That makes it great for the South Facing Panels and not so great for the East and West facing panels. The above graph show that you can produce power  for about 7 hours at the worst time of the year provided you have a bright sunny day.  This day was not perfect with some clouds reducing output.  We produced just under 40 kW or $15.76.  It should have been 10% higher but shading issues reduced the harvesting.  You want your histogram to be a high and wide as possible.  I believe that the East and West array did help here.  I had to drop the West panels down earlier than desired due to wind.  The East array was not effected by the wind.  I noticed just after noon that a local solar tracker was turned off because of the wind.  Thus we did better because our roof protected the East array (just a lucky day wind was from the NW).  The peak was NOT effected by any shading, only because one panel is not working very well and will be replaced in the near future.

Sunrise is reported to be around 8 am and sets around 5 pm.  Add one hour to these numbers due to obstructions from local houses and you get 9 am to 4 pm.  The shortest day of the year was on 21 December, just 3 days before.