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Ryland · 05-15-12, 08:44 AM

Sun Isolation Hours in Canadian Cities - Solar Store

That site seems to say that you have 4.9 sun hours per day, with that figure and because you said you don't have any shading at all, I would give an educated guess at 2,100 watts of panels to give you 10kwh per day.

Yes, with Micro Inverters that have MPPT (maximum power point tracking) you don't have to derate them because the MPPT squeezes a little extra power out of each panel, making it operate at it's peek and that makes up for the losses in the inverter, you also have shorter runs of low voltage wire, so again you cut your losses.

I don't remember how to figure the different mounting options and trackers, it was around 5 years ago that I took the class on solar site assessments and it's starting to get fuzzy, so your best option is to have someone come out to the site that you are planing to install solar and have them look at it first hand and to look at your needs, but with 4.9 sun hours per day (rather good) and $.18 per kwh you would be dumb not to install solar, worst case you have a 15 year return on your investment and all of the equipment tends to have a 25 year warranty and should last 50 years, but worst case everything stops working the day the warranty runs out and your electric rates never go up you've still saved over $6,000, but electric rates go up and I haven't seen any solar panels that don't outlast the warranty by double.

05-15-12, 08:44 AM	#4
Ryland Master EcoRenovator Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Western Wisconsin. Posts: 913 Thanks: 127 Thanked 82 Times in 71 Posts	Sun Isolation Hours in Canadian Cities - Solar Store That site seems to say that you have 4.9 sun hours per day, with that figure and because you said you don't have any shading at all, I would give an educated guess at 2,100 watts of panels to give you 10kwh per day. Yes, with Micro Inverters that have MPPT (maximum power point tracking) you don't have to derate them because the MPPT squeezes a little extra power out of each panel, making it operate at it's peek and that makes up for the losses in the inverter, you also have shorter runs of low voltage wire, so again you cut your losses. I don't remember how to figure the different mounting options and trackers, it was around 5 years ago that I took the class on solar site assessments and it's starting to get fuzzy, so your best option is to have someone come out to the site that you are planing to install solar and have them look at it first hand and to look at your needs, but with 4.9 sun hours per day (rather good) and $.18 per kwh you would be dumb not to install solar, worst case you have a 15 year return on your investment and all of the equipment tends to have a 25 year warranty and should last 50 years, but worst case everything stops working the day the warranty runs out and your electric rates never go up you've still saved over $6,000, but electric rates go up and I haven't seen any solar panels that don't outlast the warranty by double.