How much power will you produce each month ?
A popular question i get a lot is how much power will your panels put out each month . That is always a difficult question to answer . Perhaps May it rains a lot or its dark cloudy, even though the panels are going to produce energy they just wont put out as much as if it had full blown sun dropping down on it . There is no exact way to tell someone exactly how much power that a solar panel will put out in any given month . Unless its past month With my panels i walk out to the inverter a lot of times and see when it gets really bright between clouds it may jump to 5kw then once the cloud begins to come back over the sun i see the output drop to around 1 or 2 kws. This still is not to bad . But it is a variable . in my graph you can see the lines up and down this is a ok day but certainly not the max it can produce . Cloudy days will look like this if your setup comes with one.
How do i even guestimate my production or maximize it ???
Well this is a simple question . Long way is to compile a lot of data on weather or short way is go to pvwatts. This is close and can give you an estimate but still this will absolutely not be exactly what your panels will produce . To make the most of your panels if you have time to plan (which i suggest and not just jumping at the first thing you see) . If you have plenty of space and dont mind them being on the ground . You can pick a few places on your land take pictures or just setup a camera to do it each hour to be able to see what spot recieves the most sun each day . This will ensure that you get the most of the panels each day . If your not set on one spot you may notice one tree that can be cut and it may be a much better spot than your original pick . ( This was my case . Originally i wanted mine on the house but then later decided that the shop was a much better location. I only had 1 giant oak that had to come down. If your thinking on solar this may be something to think about .
