Frame Build

This is some photo's of the frame that I made to hold the solar panels.

Solar Tracker Build Project 2010

The pole is mounted 5 feet below the surface.
This is a 4 inch pipe about
1/4 inch thick.
Ok, The roof mount has served me well. I now want to build a solar tracking mount, pole mount. I have researched this for the past 4 months and have decided on the following. 6 200 watt GE Panels, Kaco Inverter, Pole and frame mount designed and welded by myself. This will be a 1200 watt grid tie system and will give me a total of 6.24 KW total along with my roof mounted panels.

Electric Bill March 2010

The temps have been milder now in March. I was surprised to find that my total electric bill was $17.40. I have never seen an electric bill that low.

The panels produced 436 Kwh from Feb 20 to March 19. We did not use much electricity with the milder temps. Electricity consumption was 604 Kwh during that same time. No problems with the panels or any part of the system. I am quite pleased with the results.

29.77 Kwh

The days are getting longer and today the meter read a total of 29.77 Kwh. Not too bad. I am still waiting for the landmark 30 kwh in one day. So far I have had no problems with the system, no maintenance, no issues, just making kw every day.

Power Output Update

Ok, today was a very clear cloudless day and I checked the power output at 1:30 pm. The system was producing 4850kw. This is the most I have ever seen the system produce. Total output today was 29.5 KwH. I now have a better understanding as to how the longer days (as opposed to winter solstice) will affect the systems daily output. Overall, the system has only produced 256 Kwh. This is the first truly sunny day since my reading last month on 1/20/10.
If we were able to produce this amount of electricity every day, our energy bill would be essentially zero.

First Month Results

The first month results are as follows: The service meter delivered 757 kwh and 362 kwh were credited from the solar panels. The solar panels produced a total of 493.1 kwh over 257 hours of operation. This saved 838.8 pounds of CO2.

I was hoping for a litte more credited but there was nearly a week of cloudy, rainy weather. It was also a record cold front that persisted here for about 2 weeks. In addition this is the short winter days. Anyway, we shall see about next month.

Numbers Update 3rd Week

After 3 weeks of use the solar panels have produced 350.6 kwh and saved 596 lbs of CO2. Total operational time of the inverter is 189 hours. It has been very cold lately and we have been using the central heat some along with our gas heat. We have used a total of 550 kwh over the 3 weeks and the solar panels have credited 244 kwh to the service meter. So, if the meter were read today, we would have to pay for 306 kwh. Not too bad considering the short winter days and lots of rain and clouds. I have seen that the majority of our kw use is through hot water. My wife takes 2 or 3 baths a day and my little girl takes 1 bath per day (you have to make her), and I shower daily. I think this system is going to do well for our family.