https://photos.app.goo.gl/wf9YX5WwAh12b5zKA
I was very pleasantly surprised when a BlueBonnet crew showed up around noon.
They replaced one pole and added a pole. Moved the transformer from across the road to the replaced pole near my mail box. I was told I would get a 25kva transformer but they installed a 15kva. The old one was a 10kva.
I missed peak production today due to power being disconnected for the work. It does look like all the panels I currently have will produce during peak conditions. Today's production peaked at about 13kw and it looked like no inverters were shutting down. Need to get busy, install more panels, and see if I can put stress the new setup.
5/4/19
My power production with the 15kva transformer is up but only to 14-15kw. That's from my own monitoring system. Some of that restriction I attribute to the too small wire going to the new garage.
A few days after the upgrade I was disappointed to see sunny day sales at only 60-70kwh. That's down from up to 110kwh with the old 10kva transformer which had clearly lower peak powers.
After some Bluebonnet back and forth, they changed my meter though not because of my reports. It turns out that a thunderstorm near the time of the upgrade had killed about 50 meters in the area. I theorize that my meter quit working and that Bluebonnet did some estimating for several days. I don't yet have data from the new meter.
I will likely get a new and larger transformer if I can't push at least 30kw through the current one.
5/15/19
BlueBonnet finally started again reporting my meter readings yesterday. They filled in the two week blank period. Most illuminating! I had two sunny days (5/12 and 5/13) where I measured my production as 102.3 and 96.7 kwh. Bluebonnet reported my net production was 93.6 and 92.1 kwh. The 5-10 kwh differences are typical of my normal use in the absence of EV charging and air conditioning. SO! BlueBonnet meter readings now again agree with my monitoring!
I am getting little to no high voltage power cut back on my PV during high production periods so I will continue to add more panels and attempt to get my production up from ~15kw to ~20kw and beyond.
Thursday, April 25, 2019
Monday, April 22, 2019
RSS for Blogger
This is an experiment. Comments solicited.
I've used RSS to monitor EV sites of interest to good effect for quite a while. I asked myself how to get notification of new Blogger posts and RSS seems, perhaps, the best way.
https://oscarmini.com/2014/11/discover-rss-feed-address-of-a-blogger-blogs.html#Full_Site_Feed
Using the template
http://blogname.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss
This Blog's RSS feed would be:
http://wmckemie.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss
and Ray's would be:
http://rmenke.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss
Though I have not yet tried adding the above URLs to a RSS feed reader, I see giving the URLs to a browser shows nothing for wmckemie and the entire blog for rmenke. I wonder if Ray did something to enable RSS feed?
BTW, I have found the RSS feed of the mail client ThunderBird to be immensely useful.
I've used RSS to monitor EV sites of interest to good effect for quite a while. I asked myself how to get notification of new Blogger posts and RSS seems, perhaps, the best way.
https://oscarmini.com/2014/11/discover-rss-feed-address-of-a-blogger-blogs.html#Full_Site_Feed
Using the template
http://blogname.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss
This Blog's RSS feed would be:
http://wmckemie.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss
and Ray's would be:
http://rmenke.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss
Though I have not yet tried adding the above URLs to a RSS feed reader, I see giving the URLs to a browser shows nothing for wmckemie and the entire blog for rmenke. I wonder if Ray did something to enable RSS feed?
BTW, I have found the RSS feed of the mail client ThunderBird to be immensely useful.
Wednesday, April 17, 2019
April electric bill with PowerWall
My usage matches what I've been monitoring. I was billed for 2 kwh. That represents noise on the PW's attempt to use no grid energy; every once in a while, it will pull ~100 watts from the grid.
Under the "new" rate structure I expected to receive a credit at the end of each billing period rather than the previous annual credit. Hasn't happened. They added my over production, 1275 kwh, to my "banked" total. Banked total on that meter is now 2169 kwh. The month's over production should be worth about $63 which should have more than covered the "overhead" amount of $22.50 for which I was billed.
With my current configuration, I should be earning a bit more than $1/day from my electric supplier; that is above the $22.50 connection fee. I have hope of getting that up to around $5/day.
3/18/19
The reason for the failure of BlueBonnet to transfer to the new rate structure: The PW installer failed to notify BB that the final bit of work was ready to inspect.
As I understand, the changes to the rate structure:
1) Producers are debited immediately for any power pulled from the grid. Hour by hour. Old rate structure: power pulled is offset at full retail rates by power produced within the billing period.
2) Over production is credited monthly rather than annually.
3) Rates paid are a bit more.
With the PowerWall, I can contrive to almost never be impacted by 1). Without a PW, the average producer's bill will go significantly higher. So, I hope to preserve the old rate structure for my two meters that do not have PowerWalls and sell BB a lot of power from the meter with PW.
Under the "new" rate structure I expected to receive a credit at the end of each billing period rather than the previous annual credit. Hasn't happened. They added my over production, 1275 kwh, to my "banked" total. Banked total on that meter is now 2169 kwh. The month's over production should be worth about $63 which should have more than covered the "overhead" amount of $22.50 for which I was billed.
With my current configuration, I should be earning a bit more than $1/day from my electric supplier; that is above the $22.50 connection fee. I have hope of getting that up to around $5/day.
3/18/19
The reason for the failure of BlueBonnet to transfer to the new rate structure: The PW installer failed to notify BB that the final bit of work was ready to inspect.
As I understand, the changes to the rate structure:
1) Producers are debited immediately for any power pulled from the grid. Hour by hour. Old rate structure: power pulled is offset at full retail rates by power produced within the billing period.
2) Over production is credited monthly rather than annually.
3) Rates paid are a bit more.
With the PowerWall, I can contrive to almost never be impacted by 1). Without a PW, the average producer's bill will go significantly higher. So, I hope to preserve the old rate structure for my two meters that do not have PowerWalls and sell BB a lot of power from the meter with PW.
Tuesday, April 16, 2019
Bless this Mess
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bless_This_Mess_(TV_series)
Premiers on local ABC ch 24 tonight (4/16/19), 8:30 pm.
Though otherwise not enticing, of interest because it features a couple moving from New York to Nebraska in a Leaf. And for the presence of notable EV advocate Ed Begley Jr.
4/17/19
The old Leaf pulled an apparently heavy trailer from New York to Nebraska apparently with no need to charge. I estimate range, even with a rare good battery, to be no more than 50 miles.
Wednesday, April 10, 2019
New roof for "New" garage.
This "New" Garage was built in about 1978 at a cost of about $4k. "New" because it supplemented an older garage circa 1940. Roof was poorly done and leaked at the juncture of the two slopes. Now, it needs a new roof and the rotting wood replaced. Cost? ~$10k. The new roof may be a candidate for a PV install. The building has become of increasing interest to me because it is the electric connection point for all the new PV I've been installing.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/1xMPYMtmaSwvthdw8
https://photos.app.goo.gl/1xMPYMtmaSwvthdw8
Saturday, April 6, 2019
Update on South Field + Guerrilla
I now have the new hitching rail fully populated with 25 producing panels. I have completely used my stock of panels though I have 30 more on the way.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/hUcmfanF8G9Lw7DMA
Photos 1, 3 and 4 show development of the rail while 5 shows the completed rail. But with weed blocking sheet metal installed only on the near half. Photos 2 and 6 show the heavy pipe rail.
Total number of producing panels in the South Field is 48:
1) 5 leaning on the west fence (go be moved)
2) 25 on the chain link fence top rail hitching rail (one to be removed but I see the rail remaining un-moved)
3) 18 on the heavy pipe rail on the east side. (to be increased in length and re-positioned)
In the yard are 29 panels. The 77 ground mount panels are known as the "guerrilla" system. On the roof are 26 panels known as the "roof top" system. Power and energy are independently monitored on the two systems.
In the past, before it grew like Topsy, the guerrilla was a minor contributor compared to the roof top. Now, during low production periods, the guerrilla produces about twice as much as the roof top. As power approaches my service limit, guerrilla power is reduced due to high voltage inverter shut downs. It seems imminent that BlueBonnet is about to fix my service bottle neck.
Right now, total power is limited to about 12kw. After the service fix, I hope to see about 15-18kw peaks from the currently installed panels. Then, ONWARD, THROUGH THE FOG!
I believe I have a good supply of pipe on the way. After it arrives, barring more glitches, I expect to permanently install three pipe rails and leave the chain link rail in place. Each pipe rail holding 28-34 panels and the chain link rail holding 24. AC power connections will be at the mid points of all rails.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/hUcmfanF8G9Lw7DMA
Photos 1, 3 and 4 show development of the rail while 5 shows the completed rail. But with weed blocking sheet metal installed only on the near half. Photos 2 and 6 show the heavy pipe rail.
Total number of producing panels in the South Field is 48:
1) 5 leaning on the west fence (go be moved)
2) 25 on the chain link fence top rail hitching rail (one to be removed but I see the rail remaining un-moved)
3) 18 on the heavy pipe rail on the east side. (to be increased in length and re-positioned)
In the yard are 29 panels. The 77 ground mount panels are known as the "guerrilla" system. On the roof are 26 panels known as the "roof top" system. Power and energy are independently monitored on the two systems.
In the past, before it grew like Topsy, the guerrilla was a minor contributor compared to the roof top. Now, during low production periods, the guerrilla produces about twice as much as the roof top. As power approaches my service limit, guerrilla power is reduced due to high voltage inverter shut downs. It seems imminent that BlueBonnet is about to fix my service bottle neck.
Right now, total power is limited to about 12kw. After the service fix, I hope to see about 15-18kw peaks from the currently installed panels. Then, ONWARD, THROUGH THE FOG!
I believe I have a good supply of pipe on the way. After it arrives, barring more glitches, I expect to permanently install three pipe rails and leave the chain link rail in place. Each pipe rail holding 28-34 panels and the chain link rail holding 24. AC power connections will be at the mid points of all rails.
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