Solar Power Financing

[Crockel]

Have we already suggested the PVWatts calculator?

I don't think the PVWatts calculator was suggested. I ran it tonight and will have to compare the results to what was quoted. I'll have to see how close my month to month actual experience compares once the last inspection is completed and my panels are generating.

[Crockel]

My solar panel installation has hit a couple more snags. I managed to generate about 1500 kWh of power in the first month or so before I had to switch it off. Although my power meter is bi-directional capable, Fortis Alberta, the company that operates our power grid, doesn't have my site flagged as micro-generating in their system. To have it flagged and have a bi-directional meter installed, I needed to submit my inspection report, permit and micro-generating agreement to Fortis for review and the found an error. The DC kW capacity in the inspection report and permit didn't match that in the micro-generating agreement. I had to correct the micro-generating agreement and resubmit all the documents. The installer I hired has been absolutely useless and clueless through all of this. Once the last check was cashed, he pretty much flaked out. He keeps telling me, he'll look into it, but does nothing.

Progress on the grant and loan side is pretty much the same story. I had the same energy auditor as last time come out and do the post installation surver. He came out two weeks after the installation was done and was supposed to have all the reports completed and submitted within two weeks. I finally got copies of the reports yesterday, but nothing seems to have been submitted. I'll have to try calling the Greener Homes Grant number again and see what's going on.

[SparWeb]

Sounds like my garage. The contractor built it rather well, and quickly, but couldn't be bothered with the permits.  I had made it part of our agreement verbally, but he only completed the written parts.  He lied to me about the permit when the job was done so I paid him.  Then I did the electrical entirely myself, and hit a snag on the electrical permit because... that's when I found out.

Sorry to hear about your trouble.  So I understand this situation as you paying the cost of the installation without financing in advance but expecting this to come through once the permit and survey are complete.  With those dragging on then neither your grant or the loan can come through.  That must be terribly frustrating. 

Just in case this could take a while, here's something that could tide you over.  Try looking for functions in your inverter such as "NetZero" or "No-Sell" (there are many different names but they all mean zero delivery to the grid).  If you don't have a bidirectional meter and knowing what I know about Fortis, that's a reasonable path that some inverters support and completely legal for you to use.  The inverter monitors your current consumption and "tunes" the renewable system to deliver as much as it can to cover your self consumption.  If you have batteries it will draw from them when an excess is available.  If it can manage PV output then it will modulate their output to match your usage.  When it's well executed, it can limit what it takes from batteries to only what they can deliver, and stay within parameters that your PV can deliver.  If your inverter has this, then you might be able to use this mode to get at least some energy savings while you wait for permits to come through.

I have my eye on the local used market looking for Schnieder XW-plus and Outback Radian and Flex equipment as candidates for this kind of hook-up.  I've also found the feature in "Sunsynk" equipment but we are unlikely to find these in North America.

[Crockel]

I've always done everything on my house myself and have rarely dealt with contractors. I guess the key is to have everything in writing and have the signed contracts. It would be nice if contractors would explain each step of the project so nothing gets overlooked. Getting permits for garages isn't too difficult. Most municipalities are pretty helpful.

I've made a bit more progress on my panels today. Fortis has approved my application and agreement so I should have confirmation on my meter in 10 days. I was even able to get the forms uploaded for my grant. I just need to get copies of the invoices from the installer and home auditor so they too can be submitted.

[Mary B]

I've always done everything on my house myself and have rarely dealt with contractors. I guess the key is to have everything in writing and have the signed contracts. It would be nice if contractors would explain each step of the project so nothing gets overlooked. Getting permits for garages isn't too difficult. Most municipalities are pretty helpful.

I've made a bit more progress on my panels today. Fortis has approved my application and agreement so I should have confirmation on my meter in 10 days. I was even able to get the forms uploaded for my grant. I just need to get copies of the invoices from the installer and home auditor so they too can be submitted.

When I built my garage the city was like "You are going to spend how much? $40,000?? APPROVED!!!!!" because it boosts the tax base. Solar panels on a roof in most places will make your property tax go up...

[SparWeb]

Tsk- You are such a negative Nellie, MB
Property taxes in rural Canada are pretty low.

[Crockel]

Property taxes???
Yikes! That reminds me that I'd better update my home insurance.

[Crockel]

Everything is now finally settled. Both the loan and grant came through and my panels are generating and exporting to the grid. I even have the monitoring app to watch the performance of my panels and inverters. The only issue I'm having now is that some of my inverters are cutting out and not producing the same as the rest. I'll have to see how this affects my overall output and if it is, hopefully I can get the installer to fix it. As soon as I was set up on the monitoring app, I noticed that my inverters were exhibiting an anti-islanding fault and shutting down half the time. That problem was fixed with a programming update.

I'm rather disappointed with the monitoring app. It doesn't have a way to track total production day after day. I need to record prodution myself every day to monitor it.

From my power bill I only got credited for producing 1508 kWh for July. This is well down from the 2700 kWh the installer told me I'd be producing. I've been monitoring what my power meter shows I've produced each day and what my app is showing and noticed that there's about a 15 kWh per day discrepancy. The power meter also shows what I'm producing and used as DEL and REC meaning that it's measuring the net power flow to the grid and not what I'm generating and consuming. This may explain half the shortfall.

To save power, I had been using my oven and dryer less this summer and had done some plumbing upgrades so my pump comes on less. I was quite proud of myself when I had my power bill down to 413 kWh, but I'm realizing that it's because I'm using power from the panels instead and haven't managed to save much if anything.

I tried asking both Park Power and my installer about what my meter and bill are showing but, but they're rather vague. They probably don't wanting me doing what I'm going to do. Since part of the transmission and distribution portion of my bill is dependent on usage ($.03/kWh), I will be doing all my laundry and other power consuming activities during the day to save that. Sure it's only $15 a month, but it's something.

I'm excited to seeing how I did for the month of August. I think I'm the only person in Alberta looking forward to getting their power bill.

[SparWeb]

I think I'm the only person in Alberta looking forward to getting their power bill.

Yes, Crockel, yes you are.

Reducing consumption (long-term not just briefly delaying things) is hard. I tend to tumble clothes that were hung outdoors (to get the spiders out!) before folding them.  Microwave meals get boring.  The new better computer has to have a bigger power supply.  When the comparison wattage on CFL bulbs turned out to be imaginary numbers, I bought the highest rating possible to relieve eye-strain and headaches.  Everyone's house has a certain amount of consumption "baked in" that they might only change by replacing most of the big appliances.

Thank you for sharing your numbers.  And I hope you get your string inverters replaced, soon!

[DamonHD]

I measure production (generation), imports and exports.  From that I can compute actual consumption C = I + G - E.

But you do need to be measuring three quantities to compute all the values.

I use a mixture of sources, from my solar inverters and battery system to manually reading the generation, import and supply meters manually.

https://www.earth.org.uk/energy-series-dataset.html

Well done on getting this far!

Rgds

Damon

[Crockel]

It doesn't help my power consumption reduction to have a heated aquarium and now terrarium (kid's SNAKE!) in the basement where temperatures are coolest.