Net Zero Home in Guelph

I have been meaning to do a write-up about a new home built in my subdivision in the south end of Guelph. It was built by Reid’s Heritage Homes and is a net-zero home. I'll still do my write-up, but in the mean time you can read this good article about it : http://www.greenenergyfutures.ca/episode/net-zero-spreading-across-canada.
These writers are quite supportive of this project. Reid's was one of 5 selected builders in Ontario to do this. It was funded in part by the previous federal government. Owens Corning was hired by Natural Resources Canada to deliver the program. Me, I was a little skeptical of several aspects of the home and the true commitment of the program and builder, but it is a good start. I'll write soon with my own observations.

Update to end of Nov 2014

It seems like it has been a fairly grey, mild, and somewhat overcast 2014 so far. And December is looking to be much of the same. It has been a while since I have updated this blog with data from our solar panels. My last blog post was about the TigoEnergy systems. I am really happy with the online monitoring system.
To see our system information, go ahead and check it out! [http://www.tigoenergy.com/site.php?guelphsolar_blogspot_com].
Below is my summary table of solar revenue and generation.

Sum - Revenue, daily	Years
Date	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	Total Result	CV
Jan		$136.10	$205.18	$194.58	$171.78	$707.65	0.21
Feb		$220.57	$258.66	$171.45	$157.93	$808.60	0.22
Mar		$449.77	$456.57	$400.57	$462.50	$1,769.40	0.07
Apr		$395.30	$501.84	$459.99	$491.71	$1,848.83	0.12
May		$428.51	$607.72	$615.85	$560.35	$2,212.43	0.19
Jun		$567.19	$573.10	$507.35	$607.37	$2,255.01	0.06
Jul		$616.75	$611.45	$555.82	$589.13	$2,373.14	0.06
Aug	$131.53	$528.09	$577.23	$582.20	$555.32	$2,374.37	0.05
Sep	$351.28	$423.49	$480.85	$459.41	$500.03	$2,215.06	0.13
Oct	$360.90	$313.65	$270.70	$133.86	$305.43	$1,384.53	0.14
Nov	$285.03	$253.69	$229.61	$237.50	$141.75	$1,147.58	0.05
Dec	$62.74	$176.31	$115.73	$171.78		$526.57	0.43
Total Result	$1,191.47	$4,509.43	$4,888.65	$4,490.35	$4,543.29	$19,623.19

You can see that there is quite a bit of variability between the months. I also added the coefficient of variation so you can see how much revenue varies from year to year for each month. December, January, and February have quite a bit of variation, particularily December. That is snow-induced shading. There is certainly snow shading in January and February - but is much more consistantly shaded in Jan and Feb. The high CV in December shows that some years snow is more and some Decembers it is less. Really, it is the very snowy December 2010 and 2012 that really reduced the output. We'll see what this December 2014 brings us, but the long range forecast is not too much snow and somewhat mild.
I highlighted October 2013 because that is the month that I did a system upgrade to increase the efficiency of my system. I still just have a 5 kW inverter. The Tigo Energy power optimizers were a big part of the efficiency upgrades.
Below is the kWhr of generation our system has produced.

Sum - Daily kWhr	Years
Date	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	Total Result	CV
Jan		169.7	255.8	242.6	214.2	882.4	0.21
Feb		275.0	322.5	213.8	196.9	1008.2	0.22
Mar		560.8	569.3	499.5	576.7	2206.2	0.07
Apr		492.9	625.7	573.5	613.1	2305.3	0.12
May		534.3	757.8	767.9	698.7	2758.6	0.19
Jun		707.2	714.6	632.6	757.3	2811.7	0.06
Jul		769.0	762.4	693.0	734.6	2959.0	0.06
Aug	164.0	658.5	719.7	725.9	692.4	2960.6	0.05
Sep	438.0	528.0	599.6	572.8	623.5	2761.9	0.13
Oct	450.0	391.1	337.5	166.9	380.8	1726.4	0.14
Nov	355.4	316.3	286.3	296.1	176.8	1430.9	0.05
Dec	78.2	219.8	144.3	214.2		656.6	0.43
Total Result	1485.6	5622.7	6095.6	5598.9	5665.0	24467.8
as of:	2014-12-08

See the Solar Output in Real-Time with TigoEnergy System

We recently had Merlyn Power install additional equipment on our 5 kW system. The panels now have TigoEnergy power optimizers on them. I had the old Fronius data logger pro taken out and now the Tigo website provides the online monitoring and data logging. I have not tried out download the data yet. I'll try that later and let you know.
Click the link to see the public access link to our solar panels. http://www.tigoenergy.com/site.php?guelphsolar_blogspot_com

Solar Costs in Germany and USA

I found this interesting article that analyses the differences in costs of solar PV systems in Germany versus USA. I don't have a similar analysis of Ontario costs, but I am looking - let me know if you have seen any research on Ontario solar PV costs.
http://cleantechnica.com/2013/02/17/why-german-solar-is-so-much-cheaper-than-u-s-solar-updated-study/

Solar Generation Results to Sept 2013

I am updating the results of the solar PV system, below. It is now 3 years and a month since the system was installed [well, and a little bit of October too and the few days in August 2010]. This is giving me a good range to see what good and bad months are, as well as how the system is faring relative to what i hope was to be the rate of return.
First, I have my set of important variables : mean daily total kilowatts, mean kilowatts per watt installed, minimum and maximum output days. And the same is in dollars, as calculated from my data. However, what my datalogger calculates as output and revenue is less than what my Guelph Hydro meter shows. This is what I hear from others - what their system reports seems to be less than their utility's meter.  I haven't heard of anyone producing more than what their meter is reporting.

Variables	kW	Dollars
Mean	15.96	$12.80
Per 1 kW	3.26	$2.61
Min	0.05	$0.04
Max	35.44	$28.42
Sum - Daily kWhr	Years
Date	2010	2011	2012	2013	Total Result
Jan		169.7	255.8	242.6	668.2
Feb		275.0	322.5	213.8	811.3
Mar		560.8	569.3	499.5	1629.6
Apr		492.9	625.7	573.5	1692.2
May		534.3	757.8	767.9	2060.0
Jun		707.2	714.6	632.6	2054.4
Jul		769.0	762.4	693.0	2224.5
Aug	164.0	658.5	719.7	725.9	2268.1
Sep	438.0	528.0	599.6	572.8	2138.4
Oct	450.0	391.1	337.5	87.8	1266.4
Nov	355.4	316.3	286.3		958.0
Dec	78.2	219.8	144.3		442.4
Total Result	1485.6	5622.7	6095.6	5009.5	18213.4
as of:	2013-10-08

And you are likely asking, well, just how variable is it by month? Are the summer months consistently bright and the winter consistently dull? I know, you wanted to know the coefficient of variation, and now that i have 3 months (4 Septembers), i have done the calculations for you:

Month	CV
Jan	0.21
Feb	0.20
Mar	0.07
Apr	0.12
May	0.19
Jun	0.07
Jul	0.06
Aug	0.05
Sep	0.13
Oct	0.14
Nov	0.07
Dec	0.48

What it shows, for this limited dataset is that June, July, and August are fairly consistent between the years, with only 5 to 7% variation, whereas Jan, Feb, and esp Dec are quite variable between the years. 

Plotting microFIT Revenue and System Costs to March 2013

I keep logging the daily power generation and the bank keeps logging my 2nd mortgage payments for the system. Time for another update for you to see if this thing really does make any money. Below are the results for revenue, microFIT payments (cheques from Guelph Hydro), and the loan payments. You'll notice that the microFIT payments are just keeping pace with the loan payments! Hummm,  think I need to figure out why my metering of revenue is so different than my power utility's metering. I have spoken with several friends with PV solar systems in Guelph and in other utility regions and they all report similar findings - no one's meter show LESS power produced than what their utility is reporting, and paying, them.

PV Generation to Mid-April 2013

I'm posting my latest data updates here. The April 2013 is only to the 15th of the month hence the 268 kWhr. February, March, and even the first half of April are not so good for production, but then Jan-April 2012 were exceptionally beautiful conditions.
I also have posted immediately below my basic stats of kWhr and Dollars per day, averaged over the 2 3/4 year lifetime of the system. Overall my most interesting stats are 3.05 kWhr/kW/day and $2.44/kW/day. These numbers would be helpful for anyone to help estimate their expected revenues. Of course every system is different, mine is facing south east, etc. A more representative statistic will be from August 2013 when we will have the anniversary date. The 3.05 and $2.44 will increase a bit over the summer because we get most of our solar generation happening then, and the stats below don't include the 2013 summer data of course.

Variables	kW	Dollars
Mean	14.93	$11.98
Per 1 kW	3.05	$2.44
Min	0.05	$0.04
Max	35.13	$28.17
Sum - Daily kWhr	Years
Date	2010	2011	2012	2013	Total Result
Jan		170	256	243	668
Feb		275	323	214	811
Mar		561	569	499	1630
Apr		493	626	268	1387
May		534	758		1292
Jun		707	715		1422
Jul		769	762		1531
Aug	164	658	720		1542
Sep	438	528	600		1566
Oct	450	391	338		1179
Nov	355	316	286		958
Dec	78	220	144		442
Total Result	1486	5623	6096	1224	14428
as of:	2013-04-16