What you can EXPECT out of a Solar System in the winter
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- Опубліковано 8 лют 2025
- Solar Performance in Winter months - November, December, January, and February. Real data on how my solar system performed in the winter. Winter is not an ideal time of year for solar production. In this video, I will cover the solar production numbers from my 10kW solar system.
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Justin, you're the best brotha and I appreciate you! I've checked out a lot of your videos over the last 2 days and I not only have I learned a lot, you've saved me some money. I'm in the process of trying to get a pretty big system installed (60+ panels) and there's plenty of opportunity for someone to take advantage if I didn't know what I know now from watching your videos. The specifics on the EnPhase inverters IQ7+ vs IQ8A was especially interesting and helpful. Thanks again brotha.
Appreciate you sticking with me on this journey. I am glad to hear that I was able to help out in some way. 60+ panels is a massive system. Are you putting it on a roof or in the ground? Thanks for watching and commenting 👍🏻
@@JustinsProject on the roof. 1 side of my house is all south facing so it's getting the majority of them. I'm pretty excited but I definitely want to make sure I'm making the right moves now instead of referring it later. That's why I'm considering the IQ8A inverters in hopes of having more control when I add battery backup later down the road👍🏾
Thanks for sharing your dashboards directly from Enphase! This is helpful for people starting solars! Please keep up the great work, your videos are very informative!
I'm glad it was helpful. Thanks for watching and commenting 👍🏻
suggestion for your next video on energy production/consumption: at the beginning, just say that all values are in kWh. This will prevent you from mixing up kW and kWh all the time. I just subscribed anyway
Thanks for the feedback.👍🏻 Thanks for watching and subbing.
Making money is an action. Keeping money is a behavior, but "Growing money is wisdom"
That's true you've to put money working for you instead of you working for money
Same here, I'll praise Mr Taylor Scott over and over again because he has great skills, i started with $2000 and after 2week i received a returns of $6,000 then i continue with him ever since he has been delivering.
I just withdraw my profits a week ago, it was so shocking when I withdrew $32,450 knowing I invested $3,000. I wish I could reinvest but, too much bills 😩
🤔
Excellent. Thanks Justin
Thanks for watching and commenting 👍🏻
My array is about 2.5 months old ( 13 x 395W Q.Cells), and Jan / Feb was very cloudy. March so far has been VERY sunny, and Ive seen multiple 30 kWh days which for this time of year appears to be the peak production since they were perfectly cloudless days. That far exceeds my expectations for winter. Im sending about 15 - 18 kWh back to the grid on those days. Next winter I will likely add an electric heater in my basement bedroom and one in my garage to trim natural gas heat usage.
Awesome. I really need to work on how much we consume. When looking at it over time, it seems like we are consuming a lot. Even considering our heat, range, dryer and water heater are all electric. It has been extremely cloudy this winter. We typically have nice sunny days from late April to Oct, so I am anticipating building a nice net metering bank to help with next winter.
@@JustinsProject I was going to say (but hesitated) that your consumption seemed really high. But you are running a shop out of the garage eh, that must use quite a bit
@@SSMLivingPictures I do have a lot of things going on 😁 Gobbling up kWh like PacMan.
@@JustinsProject Waaahaha!!! Ah well, like you said, spring and summer it will time to load the boat with credits!!
Similar results with our 395 Q.cells.
We have been very happy.
Which inverters did you go with?
We end up with the IQ8M’s.
We did have one fail out of 27 about 5 months in.. installer replaced it with in a few days no problems.
Did you do 😅batteries also?
It seems an "average" production for the entire day for cloudy days is 50% of the solar panels wattage. So if one has 10kw array, even if some days you produce 3kw, it doesn't seem like 3 or 5 days in a row of that low a production. Since the next day or 2 it will be higher, so a rough estimate as I say could be said to be 50%. This is important for those who don't have enough batteries (most expensive part of the setup, and most people in the world are poor) as well as if you have lots of cloudy days, and to calculate your consumption and setup costs for your needs. So basically if you want to be covered in cloudy days, whatever your daily consumption is, multiply by 2 to know how much solar you'd need. For 10kwh daily consumption, a 20kw solar array would be a "safe" bet. Of course if you can have lots of batteries or use generator, the grid, etc. then you would compensate those low production days, but for completely isolated off grid systems with no grid and don't want or can't use a generator, then it is useful I think.
Waiting for my solar system to be installed and grid-tied in California. As long as I sign up with the utility before NEM 3 hits in April then I will be good. Will be using a 16 panel 400 watt system (6.4 kW) with IQ 8A micro inverters. No battery backup now but maybe in the future. Our house electricity use is about 5,500 kWh last year, way less than the amount you are using. If we can produce an average of 15 kWh/day we will be net zero. That will change when we switch from gas to electric range.
Definitely want to get in on the current program in CA before it changes in April. Net metering is a very important aspect of being able to afford going solar. Thanks for watching and commenting 👍🏻
A “lesson learned” we had dealing with our electric coop…. I had double checked with the electric company everything that our installer said… Both by phone and Luckily by email also… we signed the contract in January 2022 and then there was a delay getting the REC 400 panels. During that 7 month delay the Electric Company changed its Net Metering from 1 to 1 down to whole sale buy back and Full Rate charge for importing!!!!
This Totally Changed the Economic Incentive for going solar… I thought thank God we got in just in time!…… Unfortunately our installer Did NOT complete All the required paperwork necessary so we fell into the new Rules once the System was finally installed in August.
The Only thing that saved us was the Email Exchanges confirming all the details of the Net metering directly with the “Residential Solar department” at the Electric Company. Thankfully they Grandfathered us into the old 1 to 1 system. Just those two emails are going to save us tens of thousands of dollars.
Just the kind of information I was looking for. Seems like it's still possible to keep the gas heater working for around 8 to 10 hours during a long blackout, which is a life saver (correct me if I'm wrong).
Liked the video, keep up the good work
Much appreciated 🙏 Thanks for watching and commenting 👍🏻
I just put a wind generator up yesterday. I have two more panels coming, 1200 watts now. I burn wood 🔥. They sent me a 12 volts model and I ordered a 24 volts model. So I can only use it on half of the battery bank. The wind blew all night and the battery bank went from 24.4 to 25.1 volts. I have twenty marine batteries. I'm living in my uncle's barn so my system is about maxed out. This is my third winter off the grid. The last two years in March, I've had to use the gasoline generator. It's windy here. This year the wind generator will help.
I have been looking into wind turbines for years. I want to build a vertical axis. Maybe someday I'll ll get to start that project. Thanks for watching and commenting 👍🏻
So what was monthly bills with the solar?
It depends on the month. In the summer it over produces. In the winter it under produces. Thank you for watching and commenting! 👍
It is impossible to build a battery bank large enough to overcome the energy shortage during the winter months. Still nice to have a landline for the needed electricity. So the energy companies will be needed during the winter period. That explains the high energy prices because then they have to make money for the whole year ;-)
I think during the late spring, summer, and early fall, we will overproduce enough to offset most of that winter demand. That's way the net metering was so important to us. We build credits in the summer to use in the winter. Time will tell. Thanks for watching and commenting 👍🏻
Thank you for this video. What state are you located in? Also, many sq ft is your house, and what are you using for heat? Thank you.
I am in KY. My house is a little over 1700 sq ft and my shop is over 2000 sq ft. Everything is electric. Including a 7 person hottub out back. My shop is currently connected also. I consume a ton of energy. 😁
@@JustinsProject have you considered heat pumps? Mitsubishi mini-splits real world performance move about 3 times the heat vs direct electric heat. They also have so called hyper-heat versions that can still heat down to -5 deg F without resorting to resistor heating.
But they are not cheap. Probably 15-25k. Im sure I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know. Thanks again for your videos.
Appreciate the input, I have plans to install two of them in my shop. Actually, EG4 mini splits that can run directly from 4 solar panels during the day. I am excited to get them installed and showcase them on my channel.
Those numbers all MUCH sound higher than I'd expect here in WI. Where are you?
Located in Central KY. Thanks for watching and commenting 👍🏻
The fact that you are running a hot tub SHOULD be mentioned. Im in Saskatchewan off grid. My 1700sq ft home only uses 10-12kw/day of power in the winter. And with 32kw of solar and 30 kwh of batteries? Its easily managed. All the the excess energy I create all year long? Im turning into heat and storing in an 800 gallon tank of sand buried in an insulated pit in the back yard. Which heats the hydronic in-floor heating system that I use all winter to heat the house. That tank is 582C right now. By the end of February it will be down around 200C. But then the days start getting long enough that I can start moving the needle the other way. In summer? Im dumping heat into the tank most days before I finish my first cup of coffee.
I do use a lot of power. That hot tub is an energy hog for sure. Thanks for watching and commenting!
@@JustinsProject Dude? To meet your kind of power demands in the winter? You would need at least 40kw of solar in Tennessee. Up here it would be more like 80kw, because the days are so short. At the shortest day in the winter? The sun doesn't come up till 10am. And its pretty much gone by 3:30pm. And even with 32kw of solar on tap? On cloudy days in the winter we don't do laundry or use the oven for more than an hour.
@@davefroman4700 🤙🏻
@@JustinsProject This planet receives more energy from the sun in 65 minutes? Than our entire species consumes from all other sources of energy combined? Each year.... Its a stupidly small fraction of a percentage point of that energy that we need to capture and store to meet our daily needs in comparison. If we are smart about it... If I wanted to have your hot tub? I could have done it. Simply by placing an extra loop above the buried sand tank, and plumbing it into a heat exchanger for the tub. An extra 20kwh of batteries and another 4-6 kw of solar on a stand alone circuit and I bet you I could jump in that tub every night for a couple hours.
Haha man that’s awesome I found this comment, cause the reason I was looking at this video is because I found a nice quarter section of land in east Sask but it has no power or water hook up, but the land is cheap.
So I was thinking why not move a bungalow onto it and cover it in solar 🤘
Where are you located how bad is the winter?
Central KY. Winters are not terrible.
How about this, would it be windy enough to utilize wind power during those winter months to offset your solar system losses? Just curious!
I am looking for ways to connect a wind turbine to my overall power production. Would love to figure that out. Thanks for watching and commenting 👍🏻
@@JustinsProject When your time is more plentiful, do the same thing you did for solar; investigate, research, and accomplish! Impressive!!!!
Do you have a heat pump water heater?
I have an energy hog furnace and separate energy hog water heater 🤣 Thanks for watching and commenting 👍🏻
@@JustinsProject my Rheem HP water heater only uses about 7-8kwh a day during the winter in an unconditioned basement.
@@jepito29 I have a hottub that is continuously heated during the winter 😳 So we have some serious energy consuming items
How the hell do you use so much power in a single day, that must be a big house with more than just 2-3 people and many heaters, tv's computers and a lot of electronics...
Everything electric. My setup is an electric consumption hug.
@@JustinsProjecti am having same issues everything is electric in my house
justin look at projects with everyday dave on you tube he has a 9.4 kw system with simiilar results he has a monthly graph on his first year totals your in line with him hes located probabaly around columbus ohio great info
I'm a subscriber of @ProjectsWithDave He has a great channel. 👍🏻 Oddly enough, I used to live in central Ohio also, lol. Hopefully, my summer production and net metering will offset next winter's demand. Thanks for watching and commenting 👍🏻
Too much non info
talk talk
10.6 Kw system. 27 of the 395 Q.cells coupled with IQ8M’s.
November produced 911kWh and we consumed 638kWh.
Roof mounted panels 4 of which face 212 deg and the other 23 face 122 degrees. Our Latitude is 30 degrees but we had a lot of cloudy days that month.
You do use A Lot of energy but it sounds like you have a lot of heating to do!
One side not I will pass on to your viewers… because of our monitoring of the power use we did eventually find that one of the Biggest Waste of energy was a improperly wired Central A/C… even the the Train we had was “top” of the line and 3 techs had came and certified it in good working order…. The 4 tech actually listen to my reasoning and found in 3 Minutes that the Heat Strips were wired to come on every time the A/C Cooling was on!!!! That cut our power use in HALF! So even if you have a nice new appliance with great efficiency ratings I suggest everyone confirm it’s using the amount of power it is supposed to be!!
Great Video Justin thank you 👍
Good find! Yeah, I have a lot of heating elements on. Those gobble up a lot of kW's. Thanks for watching, commenting and sharing your experience.