Micro-Fit Solar Energy Project Update

In April of this year, in a quest to continue to  “go green” as a home and Flyingbow Ministry office we undertook a Micro-Fit Solar Energy project. You can read our process, research and progress postings here:

Going Green … Decreasing our Footprint
Our Solar Energy Project began Yesterday …
Solar Panel Install – Day 2
Solar Panel Update – Live and Connected to the Grid!

Many have asked Le-Anne and I how the project has been going. We are so far very happy with our decision. The panels are working well and on track in terms of production forecasts. Here are a few screen shots from this morning of the Enphase Energy Enlighten Computer Monitoring System:

This shot shows each of the 33 panels and their individual production of electrical energy in kWh. Daily, weekly, monthly and lifetime totals are on the right. It is helpful to see the individual power of each panel to make sure none are under-producing for some reason (ie. due to snow or leaf cover).

You can access all kinds of different stats and reports on energy output/production in the system. This is a month-to-date graph showing the daily production of energy. There has been a lot of rain in Guelph over the last week! It is amazing to me that the solar panels continue to produce electricity even on cloudy/rainy days (ie. June 6, 7 and 10, 2013).

This graph shows daily, minute-by-minute production of solar power. The “spikes” of power show when there is direct sun on the panels. The “valley’s” are showing cloud cover. The spaces between each “mountain” are the evenings where there is no energy being produced. Enphase Energy sends a monthly report on your solar system. Here is our report from the month of May. It is great to know that in only one month, we have offset 2020 pounds of carbon – the equivalent carbon offset of 23 trees! David Suzuki has a good article on Carbon Offsets here.

Until next time. T