6.38 kW array we generated 925.57 kWh in September 2017
We consumed 1,183.58 kWh
253 kWh of that was AC/HVAC blower motor
267 kWh of that was Freeze Dryer
405.57 kWh remaining household electricity consumption
We had to purchase 258 kWh from the grid. The weather has cooled so AC isn't being used anymore. Going forward our solar should just barely keep up with electricity needs on sunny days.

My 4.4kW system:
September 2017: 360kWh
September 2016: 433kWh
September 2015: 422kWh
September 2014: 446kWh
September 2013: 452kWh

September 2017, Hurricane Irma came through, and the PV system was disengaged from the grid for 6 days, to give the grid time to re-stabilize. (we were only without grid power for ~60 hours, but fluctuations in the grid continued for days as more customers were re-energized). Even after the storm, it was a rather rainy month.

12.5 kW array we generated 1,821 kWh Oct 2017
We made 296 more kWh than we used.

Oct 2017= 1,821 kWh
Oct 2016= 1,732 kWh
Oct 2015= 1,347 kWh
Oct 2014= 1,668 kWh

Nov 2017= 1,196 kWh
Nov 2016= 1,333 kWh
Nov 2015= 955 kWh
Nov 2014= 1,348 kWh
We still have 1,203 Kw banked for the winter.

I have one micro inverter that is working but it is 20% below what it should be making.
I got a RMA number today and Enphase is sending out a new one to me. I have a spare I will install and use the one they send me as the spare. This is my first issue with the array since the install. Without per panel monitoring this would not be detectable.

Other solar producers show us your numbers when you have them.

I have struggled with Enphase to no avail for months. I can't get past their telephone roadblock, because I don't have an Installer ID. I self-installed and I don't remember ever having an ID. I sent a registered letter that they haven't acknowledged, either. I feel like this is their way of disallowing warranty repairs.

I've contacted Blake @ Mr Solar to try and find a replacement inverter. Enphase changed the connector used to daisy chain their inverters together, so it's more difficult than I thought it would be to find a replacement. I really wish I hadn't bought anything from Enphase, it's too frustrating. :mad: Blake is searching through old inventory, and I'm hoping he finds an inverter that fits the string connectors like my 2007 & 2009 inverters have.

I didn't use Enphase for the big array. We installed a Sunny Boy 5000 and I really like it. I've had to replace 1 fuse after a lightning ground strike {right in front of the array racking}, and 1 time after a bad storm we only needed to reset a breaker the Solar Array Circuit Breaker panel. Much easier for someone not so tech savvy such as myself.

I filled out a support case online 11/27 I had not heard back so this morning I called in to support.
I fell into the installers trap so I called the main number back selected sales then the operator.

I told them I was the owner and the installer that their system would not let me get to support. I told them I had a case number.

She said she would just transfer me straight to support.
I waited maybe 15 min. the support guy was great he looked at the inverted that was underperforming by around 20% saw my install did not have shading that would cause this.
He said he would issue a RMA they even just mailed me a prepaid label to send the bad one back. I have a spare micro inverter on hand so now I will install it and keep the replacement for a spare.

I made him aware of their system would not let me get to them directly.
It would not let me get a RMA through their service web site.
https://service.enphaseenergy.com/
He said he would talk to the developer about these issues but who knows:rolleyes:

My email from Enphase
"Enphase Warranty Claim - Approval to return"
I received this email a couple hours after the support call.

Did you call 877-797-4743 to get help? If not, I'd love to know the number you called.

Yes that is the number. Then I listed the exact steps above.
Operator transferred me right to support queue.

If you pick support when you call this number you cant get through to support.
Not as a owner/self installer.

I've printed your first reply so I can follow the directions to the letter.

VERY much appreciated

6.38 kW array we generated 1,010 kWh in October 2017
We consumed 683 kWh
40 kWh of that was AC/HVAC blower motor

For November we generated 626.51 kWh
We consumed 676 kWh
49 kWh of that was AC/HVAC blower motor
We didn't have to buy from the grid because of our banked hours from October

Nice numbers:thumbup:

My 4.4kW system November data:
2017: 448 kWh
2016: 423 kWh
2015: 415 kWh
2014: 415 kWh
2013: 368 kWh

Nice that was your best November yet.

We are getting closer to 5 years solar data.
This graph has production broken out by season. I found it interesting

http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1514324330

Today I installed my replacement Enphase M215. My array is back to producing at full capacity again.
I just need to put my prepaid label on the box and send back the bad microinverter. It was still working but it was about 20% off all the others.

12.5 kW array we generated 997 kWh Dec 2017
We used a lot of power this month.
Dec 2017= 997 kWh
Dec 2016= 924 kWh
Dec 2015= 911 kWh
Dec 2014= 996 kWh
From my calcs we have used up our banked power.
we have 126 Kw banked left

We have used up our banked power for the year. Our solar year resets March 1.
The first time and like 3 years I fired up my NG heat. It is really cold here last night it was 6 degrees F for SC that is cold. We will be switching for NG heat to Mini split heat depending on outside temp until our solar year resets.

Why we ran out of banked solar power this year.
We made 851 Kwh less this year.
We drove our car much more over the summer. My son got his learner permit and drove our car more over the summer to learn to drive.
I had a microinverter making 20% less power I have replaced it.
We just were not a careful with usage. When you surplus each year you don’t watch your usage very closely


Here is a yearly chart.
http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1514915590

Other solar producers show us your numbers when you have them.

For December 2017 my array produced 638 kWh. My household consumed 676 kWh, so we're close to breaking even. Considering it's a low producing month due to winter conditions I'm totally ok with that!

My 4.4kW system December data:
2017: 442 kWh
2016: 377 kWh
2015: 322 kWh
2014: 422 kWh
2013: 359 kWh

2017 Annual output= 5,960kWh
2016 Annual output= 5,801kWh
2015 Annual output= 5,856kWh
2014 Annual output= 6,388kWh
2013 Partial Year (Aug 1 to Dec 31) output= 2,334kWh

You had a good year even with hurricane Irma shutting you down for a couple days.

In the grand scheme of life, it wasn't the solar production I missed so much as it was the A/C I missed those days the grid was down... :rolleyes:

As I look at current prices on equipment, I keep thinking I should install a ground mount grid-tie array. I just saw where my power company is going to build two more PV farms.

This is our power bill for the last two years.
Keep in mind we also use this power to drive our car 20K EV miles a year.

http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1515642542

It is just the meter fee unless - then it is them paying me:)
Total is $91.34 for two years. We drove our car 40K EV miles in this time.
All AC and heat was electric during this time frame.

That's very impressive!
We drove the last 7k miles on our new Bolt (May 2017) for free. Once you see the powerful combination of PV and EV it's hard not to think about building up to it like we did.

For those of you who think this is a great way to go I want to say you can do it incrementally. I started with the PV end but there's no reason you can't get a PHEV (plugin electric vehicle) or EV and work toward a PV system.
Even, after more than a decade, I'm looking to increase and diversify my systems.
Once you drive an electric you instantly realize how much better EVs are. There's tremendous convenience of plugging in at home and having a 'full tank' the next morning. Driving is better too, having instant torque, no warm before driving in the winter and no oil changes, spark plugs, tranny shifting, catalytic converter, etc.
Last year Americans wasted 3.9 billion gallons of gas in traffic jams. There's no waste with an EV. Think about all that pollution too.

I was excited to see you put 7K miles on your Bolt very cool. Even with low gas prices the gasoline savings outpace the power bill savings very quickly.

Way to go man. Solar is a no-brainer! If everything will go as planned, this year I will get my own system and rely less on the grid. I just have to make that initial investment.

We just had our yearly or every two-year snow. Solar is not doing very well today.

http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1516209995

Great thread...not going to lie, didn't read it all but I will. This is exactly the size of system I think I need, but roof mounted. Of course, I just started researching and need to learn a bunch more as well.

Thanks for the effort of posting your accomplishments!!

Don

Our system is paid off 4 ½ years. If you only take into account just power savings no others savings.:D

http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1518630838

We made 90 MWh that is $10,175.22 (our power is about .113 cents)
This is ahead of my time estimate when I was designing the system.

Each microinenver made about $192.

It is very exciting system payoff was end October 2017.

We have many more savings. Add in natural gas savings scene we heat with mini splits.
20 K EV miles a year on our Chevy Volt Solar powered. Gasoline savings...

http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1518629340

We could not be happier with this system. I am very glad to see others getting great results also. When I was on some other forums they told me I could not do a DIY install for system size that I installed. They were wrong and very short order I increased my system size from 9.2 KW to 12.5 KW.

This forum is so much better where we encourage other DIY projects. There are many good projects on here that have enough info to decide if you want to try it yourself.

My 4.4kW system January data:
2018: 393 kWh
2017: 438 kWh
2016: 343 kWh
2015: 426 kWh
2014: 384 kWh

My 4.4kW system February data:
2018: 480 kWh
2017: 475 kWh
2016: 439 kWh
2015: 440 kWh
2014: 482 kWh

12.5 kW array we generated 957 kWh Feb 2017
We used a lot of power this month.
Feb 2017= 1,429 kWh
Feb 2016= 1,304 kWh
Feb 2015= 1,321 kWh
Feb 2014= 1,328 kWh
We have had a lot of rain our Feb was way off this year.

Other solar producers show use your numbers.

12.5 kW array we generated 1,618 kWh March 2017
We used a lot of power this month.
March 2017= 1,788 kWh
March 2016= 1,777 kWh
March 2015= 1,438 kWh
March 2014= 1,660 kWh

Other solar producers show use your numbers.

I am looking forward to having a thread like this, before long.

My 4.4kW array
March 2018 = 606kWh (a very dry month, and my yard shows it)
March 2017 = 549kWh
March 2016 = 495kWh
March 2015 = 562kWh
March 2014 = 554kWh

Highest daily for March 2018 = 23.5kWhs (same as my best March day last year)

Yesterday I had one microinverter go to 0 power output a couple times that day. Today it is producing 0 power out.
I went into admin on the Envoy and tried to reboot it and clear-gfi.
That did not help.
I went to enphase website
https://service.enphaseenergy.com/users/sign_in
I filled a support ticket. A couple hours later I got an email from support they are sending me a new microinverter. It will ship out this Friday 13. Wow that was great service.
The old one I can just dispose of or send it prepaid back to them my choice.

I have a spare microinverter here I will just put that one in and keep the one they send me as the spare.

4/12 the spare is installed and tomorrow it should start making power.
This is one of our best solar months so I want the array ruining on all microinverters.
Happy to say my Array is back up running 100% new spare microinverter is producing power.

Enphase has shipped out the replacement microinverter as they stated they would.
I am very pleased with the quick simple warrenty experience.

It sure is nice to see spring we made 84.5 kWh yesterday. We have made over a 1 MWh power so far this month.:)

12.5 kW array we generated 1,788 kWh April 2018

We used a lot of power this month.
April 2017= 1,628 kWh
April 2016= 2,021 kWh
April 2015= 1,585 kWh
April 2014= 1,827 kWh

We made all the power we used and banked 133 KWh

Other solar producers show use your numbers.

For our 16.695 kW array, we generated 2.54MWh for April.
We had a blizzard that reduced output for about 4 days, so production only slightly outpaced March's output (2.47 MWh).

We had an excess 637 kWh over what we consumed, which resulted in a $25.14 credit which helped reduce our natural gas bill which is provided by the same company on a bundled billing.

So far my production is slightly better than I had estimated with PV Watts.

My 6.38 kW system generated 1.01 MWh in April 2018. My house consumed 782.2 kWh in April. My utility resets my net metering account every March bill (about March 27th), so now as of April 30th I have 349 kWh banked in my net metering account.

For March my system generated 941 kWh and we consumed 853 kWh. We were able to get our net metering account down to about 100 kWh before the account was reset (they don't pay anything for excess power, they just keep it.)

4.4kW array:
April 2018 = 587.67 kWh
April 2017 = 590.72 kWh
April 2016 = 619.33 kWh
April 2015 = 560.48 kWh
April 2014 = 674.43 kWh

Highest daily for April 2017 = 23.9kWhs
Highest daily for April 2018 = 24.4kWhs

I have a solar android app that tells me how much solar I have made for the day the max peek for that day.
It gives lost of good stuff like This Month’s energy Adv Day…
The most rewarding feature it shows how much money we have made once the array was paid off.
We are up to $927 and every day it inches higher. Very rewarding seeing it go up.

http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1526320469

5/27/2018 We have now saved $1,000 over our paid off investment.

12.5 kW array we generated 1,808 kWh May 2018
We used a lot of power this month.
May 2017= 1,820 kWh
May 2016= 1,922 kWh
May 2015= 2,144 kWh
May 2014= 2,076 kWh
We have 926 KWH banked for the winter.

http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1528120668

Other solar producers show use your numbers.

My 4.4kW array
May 2018 = 455kWh (a very wet month, and my production shows it)
May 2017 = 649kWh
May 2016 = 588kWh
May 2015 = 632kWh
May 2014 = 632kWh

My production for May 2018 may have been low, but I've got a fix for that in the works. ABF freight delivered another 5.6kW (Canadian Solar) and Enphase microinverters the other day. Now I need to update my 3-line diagrams, design a ground mount system, and jump through the permitting hurdles to collect more sunshine.