1. Solar Panels: Powering your home with the sun starts here! Typically mounted onto your roof, solar panels are made up of photovoltaic (or PV) cells, which convert sunlight into direct current (DC) electricity. Solar panels can also be integrated into other structures such as carports, ramadas, fixed ground mounts, and trackers.
2. Inverter: Solar panels create DC electricity, which the inverter then converts to AC electricity, which is used in homes.
3. Solar Meter: The solar meter measures how much electricity your PV system produces.
4. AC Disconnect: This enables electricians to disconnect the building’s electrical system from the solar electricity system. By switching the AC disconnect off, workers can safely perform system maintenance.
5. Electric Panel: AC electricity from your inverter is passed onto the electric service panel where it is routed to power your home’s various electric loads. Any energy used directly from solar will provide savings to the homeowner at the retail rate.
6. Bi-directional Meter: Energy consumed form the utility will be billed at retail rates and energy exported to the utility (excess solar production) will be credited at the solar export (RCP) rate."
A closer look.
7. Utility Grid: Grid-tied solar photovoltaic systems interface seamlessly with the utility grid, which allows the utility to serve as the back-up power for your building, rather than storing excess electricity in batteries. During the day, your PV system will first power any electric loads in your building, before sending any excess generation back to the utility grid. At night you’ll draw from the utility grid, essentially using the electrical grid as a giant storage battery.
PERFORMANCE
Performance monitoring allows both you and TFS to monitor your solar electric (PV) system remotely via the Internet. TFS regularly assesses your system’s electricity production to be certain that your system is continuously operating at peak performance.
With performance monitoring, you can see exactly how much electricity your system is producing, and track your environmental benefits and financial savings since the solar system installation. In real time, monitoring records, stores, and presents your system’s daily, monthly, and annual performance using easy-to-understand diagrams and graphs.
Offered with SunPower Data Monitoring, Consumption Monitoring clearly shows your household’s electrical consumption, side by side with your system’s electricity production. This can be used as a tool to monitor and potentially reduce your electrical usage.
How does Performance Monitoring Benefit You?
Assure Optimal Performance - Monitoring your system enables us to quickly assess if your system is down or under-performing due to solar panel shading, excessive accumulation of dust, or a possible component glitch.
Monitor Solar Savings – Easily understand the financial benefits of your solar electric system by tracking how much you have saved over the lifetime of your system. Leverage your savings by assessing your household’s energy use and optimizing net metering.
Quantify Environmental Impact – Using clear dynamic graphs and charts, performance makes it easy for you, your family, and friends to understand the environmental benefits of your system.
Measure History & Trends – Easily view long-term trends in energy production and usage patterns under various times of day and year. You can even compare daily, monthly, or annual information.
VIEW SYSTEMS LIVE
Click the links below to see some solar systems in action.
Brooklyn Pizza Company
Haley & Aldrich, Inc.
Canyon Ranch
Casas Church