Solar Panels 1 Year Later - What I WISH I Knew

Check out Hoymiles for WORLD CLASS Solar Inverters! geni.us/Inverters

When you upgrade your HVAC system get every duct airflow tested! I see so many homes that are loosing close to 50% of the airflow to the crawlspace or attic. Getting the ductwork fixed or sealed is often the largest efficiency upgrade.

Never heard of "Hoymiles" before and not a lot of info about the company, other than they are Chinese and went public a couple years ago. Appreciate you named this company as a sponsor. Looking it up it's not a cheaper product than Enphase though. That 4 into 1 unit seems like a great idea but it's almost $500! One new IQ7 is $85 and a long proven product/company. I'm not pushing Enphase but they'd be my choice today. I actually have a 9 year old Solaredge system which had the inverter replaced this year under warranty and one optimizer replaced a few years ago, also under warranty.

Since you are not on Nem 3 watch out for the utility company upgrading you to Nem 3 when you upgrade by over 10%. That's the rule here with PGE. You may want to use the new array for charging and daytime use only and not grid tie it.

What amazes me is how fast the panels themselves are improving. Once battery technology becomes better and better, the whole system could take off. It'll be interesting to see where solar goes.

I love your channel. As far as a 25 year warranty or a lifetime warranty goes ,if the company is no longer around/out or business…no warranty.

If you’re looking to swap your central air I’d suggest Mitsubishi ducted inverter heat pumps. The inverter compressor soft start is much easier on those batteries along with the highest quality and reliability.

One con you didn't mention with microinverters is the Dc -> Ac ->Dc (battery) -> AC more ac/dc conversions and the losses there. String inverters don't have that.

I've installed many of both types of inverters. In microinverter systems there always seem to be a handful that fail very early. SMA string inverters have been super robust and reliable in my experience.

A year later, and even with a string inverter, the newer panels are better with shading, without having 27 points of failure under every panel. ...and the string inverter isn't under a panel up on the roof. Oh, and like in southern Nevada with Nevada Energy, you are not allowed a solar system that creates more than you can use. It must be to a max of 95% and cannot send any excess back to the grid. ...and if there is a brown-out / black-out and line power to the residence is lost, the solar system must also go offline. Just another reason on top of so many others to move to the Philippines! !!!-Mabuhay-!!! Life is good again!

Man i'm from the Netherlands and we (a family of 5) use 3500kw a year. The energy usage you have is crazy for us! Love your videos, keep em coming!

Quad-microinverters are usually a lose, not a win. They are not nearly as reliable as single-panel micro-inverters due to the heat dissipation problem. The bigger problem for you, however, is that custom cable. MC4 connectors are a major failure point for roof-top solar systems . Solar panel makers generally do a good job, but custom installer-crimped cables are usually really bad. When doing a custom MC4 cable, you always want to crimp AND solder. Yah yah, I know, MC4s are supposed to work just fine with only the crimp, but if you really want the cable to last you solder it too... and those crimp areas are really easy to solder. In anycase, the issue with installer-crimped cables is that when not done properly they can actually be a fire-hazard. You are lucky that wire pulled out completely. A partial pull-out could have resulted in a high-resistance connection and melting / burning / possibly even a fire. I would check under the panels with a thermal camera at all the installer-specific cabling connectors (during a sunny day) to make sure there aren't any hot spots. -Matt

I always find it curious when I tell people I have solar, their first question is "how much did it cost?" and second, "what's the payback period on that?" BUT if I were to add something like a new front door or new siding, nobody asks those questions. When I add a new door next year, I want someone to ask me "what's the payback period on that door?" I like to tell people that solar is THE ONLY thing you can add to your house that starts paying you back on day one! It goes in one ear and out the other.

I have to say that I just love the information provided by so much of this kind of equipment and the software or apps designed to run with it all. My Victron charge controller can be bluetoothed to a phone and you can see the day by day power production, you can see total kwh from the first day of using the equipment to the current date of using the equipment, you can see current usage, current power generation. It's just kinda fun to nerd out seeing all this data haha. It's also helpful beyond just nerding out too though because you can become significantly more aware of your power needs.

I have a full solar roof facing SSE and NNW, where I’ve had up to 35% peak over-production with micro inverters connecting to 6 cells with same facing. After rewirering 4 SSE and 2 NNW, the peak has been reduced, and my production on sunny days has increased with 15-20%. Another benefit to micro inverters. As always a great informative vlog. T’as from 🇩🇰

Thank you for these vids Ricky. They were a huge help in preparing us for our solar system. Now that’s it’s up and running it’s so obvious we should have made this addition years ago. Enphase micro inverters with Canadian Solar panels.

The turn off for your panels is quite troubling. Panels should work in those lighting conditions. But it also depends on the type of panels: some are better for indirect lighting. I live in the Netherlands, and we have enough clouds, and it still works. That's also the difference between microinverter and string: the minimal lighting conditions are better.

To find which panel is not perform to its full potential, or not working at all. I would use a cardboard sheet cut to size of a panel. During peak light, cover one panel at a time and read your total output, the one that gives the least power drop is the problem one.

I just want to aknowledge your work here, since i started watching you. You got really more professionnal looking, more professionnal editing, and almost always listening to advices that we, viewer, can provide to you. I am really happy to see you grow. If you ever hear about some solar alternative for people far more north than you, please review it :).

adding a heat pump is a great way to ditch NG, especially as you are in San Diego a warm climate. We have a heat pump, that replaced a corn burning furnace, and a mini split with 2 head units for the upstairs. It is great, but it is a energy consumer for sure. Yes it is more efficient at moving heat than old resistive heaters, but it is still a lot to account for and see what your battery can handle for starts and continuous loads. Thankfully we still have 1:1 net metering in Illinois so my 21kW system doesn't need a battery and we also charge our Ioniq 5 every other day.