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Old 08-23-2017, 11:10 AM   #6
FlyingScot
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Peter--I really enjoy your posts, but I don't think you quite answered jazzman's question. I'm still learning on solar, so please correct me if I'm wrong. Here's my take:

jazzman is correct that on a runrate basis, the panels did not approach their capacity in the chart. They delivered 32.31 kWh for the whole day, with their best hour being less than 5kWh.

The reason for the gap between 5 and 8.4 is some combination of being in NH where the sun is less intense, the angle of the panels relative to the sun at any given moment, and cloud cover.

But most importantly--to Slickcraft's good question--we should not care if panels are less efficient in NH than, say, Arizona. We should just focus on the cost of whatever number of panels we decide to buy (after incentives), the amount of electricity they produce on our home, and impact on our electric bill after net metering. In other words--I shouldn't care if my 8.4 kWh panels are never going to hit 8.4kWh, I should only care that my panels are going to pay for themselves soon enough that they are economical.

Please advise. Thanks
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