January 2009 Solar Results

January 2009 Snow Covered Tree in Bend Oregon

This picture was taken at a friend's house in Bend. We had a fun time there and played at the Wanoga Snow Play Park. Meanwhile, at home our faithful little PV system was generating power. 

Here are the January statistics: 

  Energy: 122 kWh
  Peak Power: 2 kW

This January did better than last year. Jan 2008 yielded 105 kWh with a peak of 1.8 kW. 

Our total power is now at 4078 kWh. We have crossed the 4 Megawatt-hour mark!

* Pomp and Circumstance * Fan fair and Much Ado * 

This year, I am going to add a little more to the monthly reports. They will now include the EV miles that I have driven and an Estimate of the power this used. This way you can see if my driving is net zero. I'd like to have an actual meter on the charger, but it is 220V and these are hard to find (reasonably priced). 

Looking at last years data, the trend should go that during the winter the PV system cannot keep up with the driving power needs, then in the summer the PV more than makes up the deficit and generates a surplus that carries throughout the year. This seasonal shift in demand vs generation is beneficial to the grid since the PV system makes most of its power in the summer when it is needed to run all those air conditioners (including mine). 

The graph of power generated vs power used would look much better if the cycle were June to June. The point is not a pretty graph, it is annual net zero (or surplus). 

In Jan the EV had 426 miles. That is an estimated 298 kWh used by the EV. The PV system made less than half of this amount.

MPQ