Mar 11, 2015

How Much Energy Solar Mike's Home Produces in a Day

Solar_Mike's_Roof
Looking north (top) and looking south (bottom)
on Solar Mike's roof
On January 25, BJ and I went to visit Solar Mike's home. Remember, Solar Mike is the guy that gave the great interview on the roof of the Church of the Reformation.

Mike has 32 Schott solar panels on his roof, each with its own inverter. Usually, you would have one or two central inverters for the whole array. Microinverters like Mike's are becoming more popular because they can save you money (Energy Informative) and they make monitoring your energy production much easier. Enphase Energy--a leader in the microinverter market--allows you to watch online exactly how much energy each panel is producing.

In below video, you will see Mike's solar panels as they catch the sun over 12 hours via his Enphase account. Watch the panels change shades of blue depending on what time of day it is and where they are on the roof. The lighter the blue, the more energy. There are three panels that remain particularly dark because they're behind the Broan air conditioning unit pictured above. Panels on the southern, sunnier side of the house light up like Christmas trees.


So how much energy did Solar Mike's home produce on January 25, 2015? 11.2 kwh. Mike says that annually, the solar array covers 85% of his electricity.

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