Enphase and Iron RIdge are top-shelf products, but the IQ8H is overkill for 380W panels. I would have gone with IQ8Ms with those panels and saved a few bucks. If you have both south facing and east facing panels, you'll never have all your panels facing the sun at the same time, which is why you're only seeing 5 kW peak rather than something closer to 8 kW. Being as far north as you are and having what looks like a pretty low pitch roof, you'll probably see higher peaks in the summer. One thing you did not mention is that in order to commission an Enphase system, you have to take your their online courses and get certified, and that requires an additional investment in time. I did not do my own install, but after I signed on the dotted line last year, I decided I needed a full understanding of the system I was paying so much for, so I spent a lot of evenings taking their courses and got all the requisite certifications. This came in handy when I did a second system at my other house. I still had a lot of physical help with that one, but commissioned it myself.
Good job! It takes some time getting familiar and learning the ropes, but it's time well spent---especially because your friends will likely be the next ones asking for system design. Enphase offers some great courses online, and the design tool on both Enphase and IronRidge is top-notch too. For me, the courses weren't requisite to commission, but I did create a business account as an installer (I don't imagine this will be my last install).
I have Xcel in Colorado and they wouldn't have required a production meter under 10 kW. But I suppose that would have left no headroom for future expansion, so you put it in now. It will be a bit annoying to watch the daily power because it'll decline, then snow. March will be nice.
One thing to note is you could have gone with a smaller sized microinverter since your panels will never reach 390W. The panel rating you should always be looking at is the NMOT value((which is the real world number) since that value tells you the average output of the panel when the sun is shining on them. The rated 390W is an STC value which is basically a lab value. Of course, there's nothing wrong with oversizing your microinverters as that ensures little to no clipping. The NMOT value for your panel is 293W which an IQ8+ can cover since the max output of that micro is 300W. Of course, the output of the panel go over 300W during certain times of the year like for a few hours during certain days of the spring and fall where clipping then would occur. But the amount of clipping will not be meaningful in the totality of the system. There's also the IQ8M and IQ8As which are more powerful than the IQ8+. Of course, there's nothing wrong with pairing the IQ8H with that panel.
This is a good comment. I would add that your local utility will have their own way of calculating the Nameplate Wattage that you may or may not agree with. For us, the max rating for the panel was considered to be 390, even if the actual production is much lower as you're saying here.
@@JesusNowEschatology Interesting - my utility uses the inverter's AC max output to decide the system size for rebates and for interconnection. So it seems your utility just uses the DC nameplate rating of the panel.
Depending on angle and time of the year he should be able to get 350W out of those panels (sometimes even more). In spring I get over 85% of my panels rating routinely. So he made the right choice. Enphase is incredibly behind panel development as standard sizing is 430-450Wp nowadays, which will deliver more power than their best microinverters can use.
@@fintrollpgr I highly doubt he will get anywhere close to the STC value. The NMOT value is the average. Also, Enphase is not behind at all since 430-450W panels are STC values and are not real world values. The NMOT rating is the real world value which for an REC 460W panel is 350W which I have seen plenty of examples including for my own panels where that is the case. Can it go above 350-360? maybe, but for a short period of time.
@@alzuu1 NMOT is indeed average, but given winter-summer cycle that means 5-6 months more than NMOT and the rest under. I checked the data on my roof array. For 7 panels at 410Wp each, for a total of 2870Wp at 45 degrees south, with NMOT of 2142W I can see the following for spring-summer. I excluded short peaks as they are not relevant for production, I am talking about sustained power over a significant amount of time. April already surpassing 2200W 10 days, May was the best month with hitting over 2500W 18 times and 2200W over 28 times, June and July were cloudy this year so only 18 times each over 2200W, and 24 times for August. So in 5 months we're getting production hitting over NMOT values 98 days. I would say that is a significant amount of the year. It's true that with the shallow angle of his roof he might not hit those values that often. But my point stands, Enphase microinverters are not keeping up with panel power, and it gets only worse with bifacial. My temporary 480W ground mounted bifacial panel setup made STC quite regularly this summer, with sustained peaks (30min+) of over 500W on a few days. Your experience might vary but I have plenty of data to prove NMOT will be routinely exceeded during a significant amount of time during the year. And I am even pretty much high up north, no CA style sunny weather.
Hello! I needed to create an Installer Portal account, which is detailed here: enphase.com/installers/training/getting-started/commission Reach out to Enphase if you need help creating an installer Portal account.
Enphase and Iron RIdge are top-shelf products, but the IQ8H is overkill for 380W panels. I would have gone with IQ8Ms with those panels and saved a few bucks. If you have both south facing and east facing panels, you'll never have all your panels facing the sun at the same time, which is why you're only seeing 5 kW peak rather than something closer to 8 kW. Being as far north as you are and having what looks like a pretty low pitch roof, you'll probably see higher peaks in the summer.
One thing you did not mention is that in order to commission an Enphase system, you have to take your their online courses and get certified, and that requires an additional investment in time. I did not do my own install, but after I signed on the dotted line last year, I decided I needed a full understanding of the system I was paying so much for, so I spent a lot of evenings taking their courses and got all the requisite certifications. This came in handy when I did a second system at my other house. I still had a lot of physical help with that one, but commissioned it myself.
Good job! It takes some time getting familiar and learning the ropes, but it's time well spent---especially because your friends will likely be the next ones asking for system design. Enphase offers some great courses online, and the design tool on both Enphase and IronRidge is top-notch too. For me, the courses weren't requisite to commission, but I did create a business account as an installer (I don't imagine this will be my last install).
I have Xcel in Colorado and they wouldn't have required a production meter under 10 kW. But I suppose that would have left no headroom for future expansion, so you put it in now. It will be a bit annoying to watch the daily power because it'll decline, then snow. March will be nice.
This is great!
One thing to note is you could have gone with a smaller sized microinverter since your panels will never reach 390W. The panel rating you should always be looking at is the NMOT value((which is the real world number) since that value tells you the average output of the panel when the sun is shining on them. The rated 390W is an STC value which is basically a lab value. Of course, there's nothing wrong with oversizing your microinverters as that ensures little to no clipping. The NMOT value for your panel is 293W which an IQ8+ can cover since the max output of that micro is 300W. Of course, the output of the panel go over 300W during certain times of the year like for a few hours during certain days of the spring and fall where clipping then would occur. But the amount of clipping will not be meaningful in the totality of the system. There's also the IQ8M and IQ8As which are more powerful than the IQ8+. Of course, there's nothing wrong with pairing the IQ8H with that panel.
This is a good comment. I would add that your local utility will have their own way of calculating the Nameplate Wattage that you may or may not agree with. For us, the max rating for the panel was considered to be 390, even if the actual production is much lower as you're saying here.
@@JesusNowEschatology Interesting - my utility uses the inverter's AC max output to decide the system size for rebates and for interconnection. So it seems your utility just uses the DC nameplate rating of the panel.
Depending on angle and time of the year he should be able to get 350W out of those panels (sometimes even more). In spring I get over 85% of my panels rating routinely. So he made the right choice. Enphase is incredibly behind panel development as standard sizing is 430-450Wp nowadays, which will deliver more power than their best microinverters can use.
@@fintrollpgr I highly doubt he will get anywhere close to the STC value. The NMOT value is the average. Also, Enphase is not behind at all since 430-450W panels are STC values and are not real world values. The NMOT rating is the real world value which for an REC 460W panel is 350W which I have seen plenty of examples including for my own panels where that is the case. Can it go above 350-360? maybe, but for a short period of time.
@@alzuu1 NMOT is indeed average, but given winter-summer cycle that means 5-6 months more than NMOT and the rest under. I checked the data on my roof array. For 7 panels at 410Wp each, for a total of 2870Wp at 45 degrees south, with NMOT of 2142W I can see the following for spring-summer. I excluded short peaks as they are not relevant for production, I am talking about sustained power over a significant amount of time. April already surpassing 2200W 10 days, May was the best month with hitting over 2500W 18 times and 2200W over 28 times, June and July were cloudy this year so only 18 times each over 2200W, and 24 times for August. So in 5 months we're getting production hitting over NMOT values 98 days. I would say that is a significant amount of the year. It's true that with the shallow angle of his roof he might not hit those values that often. But my point stands, Enphase microinverters are not keeping up with panel power, and it gets only worse with bifacial. My temporary 480W ground mounted bifacial panel setup made STC quite regularly this summer, with sustained peaks (30min+) of over 500W on a few days. Your experience might vary but I have plenty of data to prove NMOT will be routinely exceeded during a significant amount of time during the year. And I am even pretty much high up north, no CA style sunny weather.
Buy USA for more sustainability. The way you evaluated the investment in solar versus paying down mortgage is very good though for sure.
How did you commission your system & get the app started because only certified enphase can do it?
Hello! I needed to create an Installer Portal account, which is detailed here: enphase.com/installers/training/getting-started/commission
Reach out to Enphase if you need help creating an installer Portal account.