What a week!

Hi Guys,

What a week we had for solar production this week!

Take a look at my Solarguard report for the last week:

Almost 164kWh for 7 days, that's my best so far.

Looking forward to longer sunnier days coming up.

I'll keep in touch!

-paul

Another record!

It's hard to believe that just over a month has gone by and the SolarCity system set a new record for me. Yesterday it produced 25.78kWh! I am so excited about what's coming in the future. Also, I received my SCE bill for last month, down to $34, what a great relief. All of my power was Tier 1 usage as well.

I really need to bite the bullet and switch to TOU metering, but I was hoping to have a better idea of what time I used the most power.

Off to ponder more.. Looking forward to more record days!

Record Day!

Yesterday our system set a new record. We produced 21.01kWh of power. What a great day. It's the first time we've surpassed 20kWh as well. Looking forward to a lot more of these types of days especially as the days get longer.

Google.org (the philanthropic arm of Google) has released some interesting news. They're trying to organize the data from smart meters into something which can be easily read and understood by consumers hoping to lead to a more information-driven usage of power.

Check out the Google.org site here about PowerMeter. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Latest Update

Hi Folks,

Here's my latest update. In December my SolarCity system generated 373.60kWh. SCE finally got around to converting me to Net-Metering, so I'm good to go there. Still trying to decide which TOU I want to go with. January numbers are in too, I generated 447.63kWh, can't wait to see what my summer production will be.  I've noticed that as time moves on our production is going up, I've set some daily records (over 19kWh/day) over the past few days, so exciting!

I found that SolarCity has a new SolarGuard 2.0 System which shows both production and consumption over a specific time period.  This would be so helpful to try to understand my production/use prior to making that decision.  Read the press release here.

I've reached out to the SolarCity folks to see how/when that system might be available for existing customers.

All for now!

TOU-D-1 vs. TOU-D-2 -- Looking for clarity..

Hi Folks-- This time, I'm writing in the hopes that someone in the community would be able to shine some light on an area where I'm a bit confused.

I'm working towards getting onto the net-metering arrangement, and while I'm going down that road, I figure that to get the biggest bang for my buck, I should be switching to a TOU (time of use) plan too. I've received the information from SCE, and they've got two different TOU schedules (1 and 2).

It seems that the differences are the rates for kWh's and the meter charges. The actual costs for the kWh are lower for D-2, but the meter charges are a bit more.

From my non-methodical observation unless we're really running a ton of stuff, during the sunlight hours, my meter is running backwards, that tells me that I'm creating a surplus of energy which could be better utilized if I went TOU.

The issue I'm having now is which TOU plan do I want to go with? I'm leaning towards the D-2 since it's less expensive kWh wise. I guess it's a risk/reward game. I see that once I change to TOU I can opt out, but then I need to wait 12 months before making another choice.

Any ideas or suggestions?

Thanks!

Glad to be back!

Sorry folks that's I've been so quiet for so long. Things got crazy around the holidays and I didn't have much time to update my blog.

I've got a few interesting things to share with you.

I've received my first SCE bill. It was about $100 less than the previous month. I'm going to show some interesting pictures which tell the story pretty well. First picture here is the generation from my system over the course of the month that my Edison billing period (11/12-12/12). During this time, I generated 385.75kWh for the period, see below:

Here's a clip from my bill which shows historical utilization, it's the lowest it's been in the past two years:

I still utilized 446kWh which put me a little of the way into Tier 3, see below:

It'll be interesting to see how next month goes, I promise I'll have it updated a lot quicker than I did for this month. :) We had lots of clouds over the holidays and had some low production, but it's been cool too so I haven't have to run the AC or the whole house fans. The last piece of the puzzle I'm still waiting for is SCE to change the meter to get me to a net-metering plan. Not sure how much longer that's going to take.

I'll keep you posted!

I have to say that i'm impressed with the system so far, it hasn't gotten old for me to go and watch the meter spin backwards. It's really enjoyable, and it makes me feel like I'm doing the right thing, not just for my wallet but also for the environment.

That said, I heard from my sales person that they're doing the $0/down $0/installation lease again (that's the deal I signed up for last summer). I've already covered my investment with the savings of my bills. If you're interested in getting more information, I'd suggest giving my sales person a call:

Mike Schmel - 714-331-6873 or mschmel@solarcity.com

Let him know that Paul over at socal-solar.blogspot.com sent you. :)

Until next time,
-paul

It's ALIVE!!!!

Well, I know it's been a long time and coming, but things have been crazy busy for me at the office so I haven't had much free-time to update all of you on my progress.

They turned the system on a little over a week ago, and things are running pretty well so far.  Having a issue with their SolarGuard monitoring system communicating (wirelessly) with the inverter, but the system itself is running great. I suspect it may be due to the excess of electrical and wireless devices I have around the house causing interference.

From last Sunday to this afternoon I've generated just under 100kWh of electricity. Basically durning the day while the sun is shining, my meter is running backwards, what a great thing.  So far, the highest production I've witnessed is around 2600W's, from the system size and the 70% rules from DC to AC I suspect that it could get up to about 2800 but I haven't seen it yet.

Once the SolarGuard is functioning properly I'll try to put some graphs up to show the production levels, so far so good!  I'll update again soon!

Miscommunication Oops!

Well folks, we had a minor setback. Yesterday the SolarCity folks were supposed to meet with the Mission Viejo building inspector to get the final city approval. Apparently the two of them had a miscommunication and the SolarCity guy was early, he labeled the system with all the warning labels, and other required stickers. He hung out for a while, and then said he was going to leave. Of course, ten minutes later, the building inspector showed up. He checked what he could on the ground, but since we don't have a ladder which reaches up to the roof, he had to call it a day.

I'm hoping that SolarCity and the Inspector can get a new time worked out so we can get this system online.

Installation Complete!

SolarCity had a team member out today who wrapped up the final details.  He turned the system on to test it and showed my wife the meter running backwards.  Unfortunately that's all that we could do until the inspection comes through. I uploaded a new video and a picture to the site.

I'll keep you posted on the next few steps!

Video here.

Quick Update

So, they wrapped up putting the panels on the house today.  They said that they were going to send one person out tomorrow to paint the flashing to match the roof and replace a fuse which was bad in the inverter.  If this happens, I'll take pictures tomorrow and update the blog again.

It's been a long process, but I believe that we're getting to the end.  The next fun will come once it goes online and I'll be able to see that first SCE bill.

I've got some panels!

Monday Update:

Well, the SolarCity employees were here again today.  They made some real progress.  I've added pictures and a new movie to my gallery. 

Here's one picture just for good measures. :)

They still have 6 panels to install and haven't run the cables from the roof through the conduit to the inverter, but hopefully they'll wrap up tomorrow, and then the next waiting game starts with the city (to approve the work) then SCE to do the inspection and possibly swap meters.

Let's hurry up and wait!

Wednesday Update

Well, more progress today, the got more of the flashing's up and started to get the rails ready.  They also finished the conduit on the side of the house and ran it up through the eves of the house. It looks really clean.

I've added a new movie of how the roof looks, along with more pictures. 

The gave my wife an update that they were going to need to cut the existing tiles and put slide them into place in front of the existing roof standoffs, and that this would need to push the install completion date out to Monday.  I had thought the original plans took this into account the whole time, I'm a little surprised they hadn't planned on this already, especially since looking at things now you can tell it might be a problem if there was wind and rain.

Now I'm hopeful that they're going to get everything sealed up by Friday since our highly accurate (cough, cough) weather people are predicting rain for Saturday.  I don't need a leaky roof.

Check out the latest pictures and movie here: 

http://paulnp.smugmug.com/Solar/618000

All for now.

Tuesday Update

SolarCity did more work on the roof today, converting those simple bolts into the actual mounting brackets with the flashing to protect the roof.  Check out the gallery for photos and a new video.  I'm having to resort to putting my camera on a monopod, then hanging out a window on the second floor to take pictures, it's not simple, but it's getting some good pictures/videos.

I've also added a picture from the sticker on the back of one of the panels with some details about it.  Enjoy!

Here's to hoping that tomorrow I'll be able to take some more pictures of the panels, but they'll actually be *on* the roof instead of in the backyard.

Monday Update

Well, this process is taking longer than I expected, but I guess that's always the way. A few really nice folks came out Friday and did more conduit installation and wired things into the main breaker panel. They also started to do some work on the roof.

We had a freak lightning storm this morning and had a little rain, I was nervous since the inverter is still open on the bottom, and I didn't know what condition the roof was in, but hopefully it wasn't enough to be overly concerned about.

They came again today for about 4 hours, dropped off the 24 panels (WOW, they're a *lot* bigger than I expected - see new photos).

I managed to get some pictures of the roof and how the installation is going.  Have a new gallery being hosted over at the good folks at SmugMug, check out the photos here:

Paul's Solar Pictures

Hopefully tomorrow I'll have more to update and have some pictures of some panels on the roof! 

Install Started!

Well, we had a pretty productive day here in *hot* Mission Viejo (95 as of 5PM tonight).  SolarCity showed up this morning and started the electrical portion of the job running conduit from the breaker box to where the inverter is going to be located and then mounted the inverter. I've taken pictures of the progress and have them in a PhotoBucket album which I've linked to below.

Hopefully tomorrow we'll get more action and maybe even get some roof stuff going.

Enjoy the pictures here.

BREAKING NEWS: Installation Date!

I had a call from the Solar City folks this afternoon and they scheduled my installation to begin on Thursday, September 25!  I'm excited to get an install date and know that I will soon be generating some of my own power.  Too bad it couldn't have happened prior to July and my $400 electric bill. :)

I'll keep you informed as I hear more.

HOA Approval!

Hi Friends -- It's been a long time since my last update, but as of last Friday, I received approval from my home owners association. I sent that along with the neighbor awareness form off to the City of Mission Viejo for building permit approval. Now it's another waiting game. All for now!

My update..

So, I had a nice call from the SolarCity folks last Thursday, they dropped the permit application off at the city of Mission Viejo. They had a form they needed me to complete (neighbor awareness) and I got that signed along with my association neighbor approval form. Dropped the HOA plans off at the HOA office and now it's more waiting. We'll see how things go.

Huge Solar Plants Planned for California - SLO

The NY Times is reporting that two Solar PV plants are planning for San Luis Obispo. The arrays will cover 12.5 square miles, and could generate up to 800 megawatts of power -- the amount of power produced by a large coal-burning power plant!

Cool new site..

I read about this site on Gizmodo and thought that I would share. The site seems to be getting hammered right now, so be patient.

It's called RoofRay and will do a little estimation to see what type of solution would be possible on your roof.

Pretty neat stuff.