Logging into Fronius Solarweb to see our Data

You can see our system's data on-line by logging into http://solarweb.fronius.com, user name: 243farley and passwd is the same: 243farley.
I'm not all that impressed with Fronius' online data viewing system. You'll notice some gaps in the data. For some reason it is not always uploaded. My computer-based program that comes with the datalogger for the system has a similar look and feel, but it shows all the data [below].

Charting out the Generation, Revenue, Expense of our PV System

I've cumulatively plotted out the revenue my PV system has generated over time as well as what I've paid on our load. I've also plotted out the microFIT payments I've received from Guelph Hydro. Note the following:

• revenue (blue) increases relatively over the spring and summer months and slows down over the winter
• our revenue was initaially greater than out payments, then over the first winter revenue was lower than the payments. The revenue overtook the loan payments in June 2011 and has been a net income ever since
• our net earnings to date have been approximately $8500-$7500=$1000
• the microFIT payments are lagging my loan payments - I've needed to keep a float in my account to cover the delay of payments
• the time period between microFIT payments from Guelph Hydro is rather variable. The last payment in particular was delayed quite a bit and I had to put extra money in my account to cover the automatic withdrawal of the loan payments. Guelph Hydro told me they are implementing a new billing and payment system that will automate their payments. They told me they had now over 100 microFIT contracts connected in Guelph. It also tells me that Guelph Hydro is much more consistent in sending bills to me than wanting to pay me.

Revenue generated, loan expenses, and microFIT payments

Results of My System and My Colleagues' to July 2012

An email from my colleague prompted this posting. I updated my stats and post them below and reflect on what some comments from today's email I received.

Revenue to 12 July 2012

Sum - Revenue, daily	Years
Date	2010	2011	2012	Total Result
Jan		$136.10	$205.18	$341.29
Feb		$220.57	$258.66	$479.22
Mar		$449.77	$456.57	$906.34
Apr		$395.30	$501.84	$897.14
May		$428.51	$607.72	$1,036.24
Jun		$567.19	$573.10	$1,140.30
Jul		$616.75	$230.88	$847.63
Aug	$131.53	$528.09		$659.62
Sep	$351.28	$423.49		$774.77
Oct	$360.90	$313.65		$674.55
Nov	$285.03	$253.69		$538.72
Dec	$62.74	$176.31		$239.05
Total Result	$1,191.47	$4,509.43	$2,833.97	$8,534.86
To 12 July 2012

This July has been very bright and very hot. The longer and clear days have been very good for power output, but the heat seems to have taken their toll on the maximum output too. 

Last July 2011 was my best production, closely followed by May 2012. This June was also good but the first 4 days were cloudy and seems to have reduced the power generation for the month compared to June 2011. 

I think there is a temperature effect that is reducing the panel production. The panels seem to max out at 4000 to 4200 W in June and this July, but 4500 to 4700 W in April. 

My colleague said there are water cooling systems you can add to the panel backing which cools the panels. He heard/read that you can attach a water pad on the back of the panels that produces at least 2 kWh heat for every kWh electricity. Cooling the panels should increase the voltage and therefore the total output. Some of dude posted a video on You Tube of temperatures, voltages, of a dry panel and one he dumped into an aquarium. He shows the differences of a cool panel and hot panel. Quirky, but good on him for the demo. Another fellow experimented with spraying water over his panels. There is even a Wiki page about "hybrid panels". I wouldn't be spraying water on the panels - the salts would accumulate and reduce power output. And I found this discussion on a forum based in Australia about cooling PV panels. (BTW, that Aussie whirlpool forum has all kinds on info on it).

The most interesting example of water-cooled panels is a floating solar concentrating research system in Italy.  They take advantage of mirrors to increase the amount of light. 

Another neat story about Solimpeks hybrid panels. And yet another interesting solar source on this Environment Advantage energy blog.

Some Observations from My Colleagues

• a 10 kW tracker (need to confirm the amount of solar panel wattage) produced 2500 kWhr.
• my system in June: daily max 33.2 kWhr, monthly daily average 23.8 kWhr, monthly total 714.6kWhr
• another colleague has has his 10 kW tracker running for 18 months. One day high was 127 kWhr and a monthly max total of 2575 kWhr. He reports many other days of 115 to 120 kWhr. He reports daily average in June was 85.8kWhr. He also said that June's daily average output was 10 kWhr higher than any other month daily average. 

So... so what? I'll look into these water pads for the back of solar panels. It would be neat to heat my pool by cooling off my roof-top panels. One thing I did do to keep my panels cool was to:

• use relatively high rack mounts to raise the panels off my roof
• have a gap between column 3 and 4 of my solar panel array to increase a little more air movement (my array is 3x3 panels, separated by this small gap, then another 3x3 panels)
• see a close-up picture of my panels below.

Close-up of my solar panel install.

Generation Results up to June 2012

A quick post here to share my June power generation. It was a great month, and so far every month this year has been better than last year. Much more sun, not as much snow.

Sum - Revenue, daily	Years
Date	2010	2011	2012	Total Result
Jan		$136.10	$205.18	$341.29
Feb		$220.57	$258.66	$479.22
Mar		$449.77	$456.57	$906.34
Apr		$395.30	$501.84	$897.14
May		$428.51	$607.72	$1,036.24
Jun		$567.19	$573.10	$1,140.30
Jul		$616.75	$61.57	$678.32
Aug	$131.53	$528.09		$659.62
Sep	$351.28	$423.49		$774.77
Oct	$360.90	$313.65		$674.55
Nov	$285.03	$253.69		$538.72
Dec	$62.74	$176.31		$239.05
Total Result	$1,191.47	$4,509.43	$2,664.65	$8,365.55