Solar mistakes you made

In January I designed and installed the solar array on my south facing patio roof do maximize the output.

I did not think of throughout the day shading pattern  from  house roof  overhang above in summer (Houston TX)

In early April one sunny day got 22 kWh production out of my 8 panel 3.5kW array.

Now in June the best attainable is 13-14 kWh production due to 2-8 inch shading from the house roof above.

Will  have to  re-arrange the panels and invest in optimizers for the affected panels.

Lessons Learnt:

Think of the shading throughout the year when designing solar array.

Consider optimizers for affected panels

Hope that might help someone

Brgds

K

In 2015 we added Grid Tied under San Diego SDGE NEM2 panels. X's 24 LG315's with Enphase S280 MI's. These were all on South facing roof, with two panels having some shading early, due to furnace & water heater exhaust stacks. This worked well, and we had full ROI with ~ 4 1/2 years (Thanks to the ongoing price increases of SDGE!). Of course peak usage TOU here is 4:00-9:00PM. During the longer months of summer, we were still offsetting peak usage cooking (Electric Oven and Toaster Oven, etc.). Winter time months, not so much... So when NEM2 was going away in 2023, we installed X's 7 REC400's, with IQ8+ MI's and IC4 Combiner (For the new panels. Still had Envoy-S for the 24 panels.). We mounted these on West facing walls. And in the 2 1/2 years since, that West facing group of panels, has really helped us offset Peak Usage and prime Cooking and Living time.... 

So my mistake, was trying to max peak power output during the day, with the South facing panels. I probably would have been better off, diverting say 10 of those 24 LG315's to West Facing roof. (Of course, this is all so dependent on the specific's of the home!)

(I'll also share, not a mistake, by more FYI. We just had out panels dismounted, new roof installed, and panels remounted. During this process. I used the Enphase Upgrade Path, and we swapped out the 24 S280's with IQ8+ MI's. Did this for simplification of adding battery backup ahead. We also used Cool or Reflecting Series shingles, as well as added Ridge Venting (We had poor venting on our two roof zones, so high attic heat buildup.). The combination of the cooler roofs, and this cooler solar panels. Coupled with the higher AM/PM and cloudy day efficiency output via the IQ8+'s - we're so far seeing ~4-7% higher output. Over the years, that will add up.)

Will be lingering here to learn, as GridBOSS and FlexBOSS21 with X's 3 14.3K Inside Mount Batteries - are in our future! Can't do it this year, due to the recent other expenses. So will need to have my Solar Gent help me out with a 'lease' of the battery system, and then 'buy out' the lease afterwards. Hoping he'll take 10% of the 30% ITC Credit, for the PITA of us doing the Lease approach. Better then nothing:)!

Best to all,

Smitty

My biggest mistake was buying 24V batteries instead of 48V.  At the time 24V batteries were much cheaper, but running series parallel with so many batteries can create some balancing issues.  Overall the system works well with my EG4 inverters, but lesson learned.

Howdy.  Hopefully this will save someone the $3K the lesson cost me!

My biggest mistake was under estimating the amount of water I would need.   Needless to say, growing stuff in your back yard and growing stuff on 4 acres of North Central Texas prairie grazing land.  The Size & capacity of your equipment IS important!  My initial planning was VERY short-sighted.  The short version & bottom line is that I'm very glad I don't have to pay for the water.   Mind you I don't waste the water either; I live amongst  cattle & horse ranchers and try to respect their need for water (it is how they feed their families and us!).  I only take what I need for the trees,  this time of year, the sprinklers are off.

 (from an earlier post)  ...  My watering issues have gotten MUCH better.   I have been trying to find a "rule of thumb" to work by here in Central Texas with regards to how much water a new tree needs.  The tree farms & the like tell you every other day, when temps are under 90 and daily when over.  However, NO ONE has ever mentioned HOW MUCH to give each tree.    I ran into an Ag Prof who is also a gardener (surprise right?),  she said to use as a MINIMIM the size of the container it came in.  So 65 gallons of water for a 65 gallon potted tree or shrub; 95 gallons for a 95 gallon potted tree, etc..

Keep the SUNNY SIDE UP!   

Good Day!