Has anyone considered or installed Solar Roof to charge their EV?

x43x said:

Not sure what it's like where you live, but in WA, I had to wait for L&I to come out and inspect the installation, then our utility provider came out for final testing before the switch was pushed. Not helping the situation was the installers not taking proper photos the first time and dropping the ball for over a month before coming back out to finish the job. It was a couple weeks between L&I and Puget Sound Energy. You also might need to get a Net Meter installed by your provider if going that route. The day after the button was pushed, I got an email from Enphase and got the app setup. It's pretty nice since I can see output from each panel and it has info on all the inverters and gateway, not to mention several different ways to see your production.

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yea I guess PPL ( Pennsylvania Power and Light) has to come out and inspect it, then it will get turned on. Hopefully that won't take too long.

Flyingman said:

The 10% (actually it is 115%) rule is the annual average production, not anything instantaneous or hourly, daily, etc.... There was an article about some Florida guy that installed a massive solar panel system for a home and FP&L refused to connect him because he was producing way more. He sued them. Never heard what the outcome of that was. I'll find and post article here.

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Thank you, but I was referring to a very different 10% rule:
“You must be 10% smarter than the equipment you are trying to operate to be successful.”
Most commonly, it is directed at someone who is pushing on a pull door (or vice-versa) in the time before they figure out what they are doing wrong.
I was suggesting that I was not as smart as my solar panels, which certainly could be true.

Elle BMW said:

yea I guess PPL ( Pennsylvania Power and Light) has to come out and inspect it, then it will get turned on. Hopefully that won't take too long.

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It was very bureaucratic here in Florida as well. Several gyrations between City Inspections and FP&L. I had to replace the wire from Transformer to my meter box because the new box was just different enough that the wire was short and they do not allow a splice in it. About $600 bucks more but I got installer to cover that expense. I've been live since Nov 12, 2022 and it hasn't missed a beat. My surplus is right at about 600kwh (+15%) at the moment and my monthly minimum bill is $30.06. Loving it! Let's see how the summer months go with more cloudy days and higher temps with more A/C.

Hmm... Generated 45.3 kWh today and used 10.2 kWh so far.

Definitely think that I sized the system pretty well.

rollermonkey said:

Hmm... Generated 45.3 kWh today and used 10.2 kWh so far.

Definitely think that I sized the system pretty well.

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Flyingman said:

It was very bureaucratic here in Florida as well. Several gyrations between City Inspections and FP&L. I had to replace the wire from Transformer to my meter box because the new box was just different enough that the wire was short and they do not allow a splice in it. About $600 bucks more but I got installer to cover that expense. I've been live since Nov 12, 2022 and it hasn't missed a beat. My surplus is right at about 600kwh (+15%) at the moment and my monthly minimum bill is $30.06. Loving it! Let's see how the summer months go with more cloudy days and higher temps with more A/C.

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To correct the record FP&L allows solar pv system to be up to 115% of your annual energy consumption. My installer told me they flag any submission for their approval that exceeds 5%, but allow 115%. In my case I didnt have an EV before I ordered the Solar PV so that energy wasnt reflected in my annual consumption but I did size it accordingly. It was approved.

FP&L also require you to carry $1.0m minimum in personal liability on your home policy. $500k seems to be standard. They require this in case your system were to accidentally cause harm to someone or someone else property, for example during an outage the Solar PV is supposed to trip off but it could stay on causing a live energy to remain on the cables and a worker, etc... could get electrocuted. That was the argument provided to me.

x43x said:

Less than a week since our panels were turned on and I'm obsessed with the Enphase app. Our 6.8kw system (17 panels) is in three arrays, all in different orientations thanks to our roof angles. They all seem to be doing really well though. It's been fun seeing the graphs form depending on the weather, and we get all the flavors here in spring. Hoping for a 40kwh day before solstice...maybe today!

Rain and overcast
View attachment 27556

Partly Sunny
View attachment 27557
Full sun (rogue cloud?)
View attachment 27558

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Awesome! I am loving mine, hit a peak day of 88kwh waiting to see 90+ one of these days. Have you looked at the array view? Mine is a mimic on a photo of my roof taken by a drone they used. You can check if any panel is having problems. I know I have some early morning and late afternoon shading on certain panels but they are all within about 10% of each other. Free electricity and charging your car at home is really awesome!

Enphase is not like EA, they work!😮

Yeah, I check all the views about 400x a day. We cheat a bit though with 90% of our charging done at work for free.

Your app looks fancier than mine. I don't seem to have the Import/Export readings

The number of apps that enphase has on the App Store is ridiculous. The one I’m using is named “Enlighten”.

Yeah, that is the App I'm using, as well as in the browser. Neither show my consumption and what I'm sending back to the grid. I looked at their site to see if they have different gateways, and they all are supposed to show consumption monitoring.

Edit: Figured it out. There are two Consumption Current Transformers that need to be installed, and it appears my installer failed to do so. It's a $52 option on the Enphase site.

x43x said:

Yeah, that is the App I'm using, as well as in the browser. Neither show my consumption and what I'm sending back to the grid. I looked at their site to see if they have different gateways, and they all are supposed to show consumption monitoring.

Edit: Figured it out. There are two Consumption Current Transformers that need to be installed, and it appears my installer failed to do so. It's a $52 option on the Enphase site.

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Unless there is no Net Metering where you are, it sounds like they didn't do the job right. You can either contact enphase or your installer to see about getting it fixed.

Already did. Awaiting a response. Pretty perfect NW day today and I managed 39.3kwh. I should be able to hit 40 end of May when we have another hour of sunlight.

Yeah, today was my best day yet: Produced 47.2 kWh, exported 42.4.
With tomorrow's forecast, I should reach net positive exported for April, even with the system being turned on on the 14th.

💯

Should be interesting to see how things go once I start plugging the car in.

rollermonkey said:

Hmm... Generated 45.3 kWh today and used 10.2 kWh so far.

Definitely think that I sized the system pretty well.

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Oh God, am I going to be like this?

rollermonkey said:

Yeah, today was my best day yet: Produced 47.2 kWh, exported 42.4.
With tomorrow's forecast, I should reach net positive exported for April, even with the system being turned on on the 14th.

💯

Should be interesting to see how things go once I start plugging the car in.

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am i going to turn into this when my panels get turned on?

Elle BMW said:

Oh God, am I going to be like this?

am i going to turn into this when my panels get turned on?

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Ummm...

OF COURSE!

Although... is it really "turn into" in your case?

Joiiiiinn ussss....jooooiiiin uuuuusssss

You will certainly start checking the app a zillion times a day, but how much you post about it is up to you. 👍

I heard back from Lumio about the Consumption Transformers. Apparently they stopped installing them as they were supposedly sending false data. They recommend just using the bill at the end of the month. I think they are just lazy. They also said I could purchase the transformers from Enphase myself, and they would assist with installation if I wanted. I'm sure there would be a fee involved....