Im going from no solar experience to completely off-grid solar with generator backup this year.
my concern is that i live in central michigan, and im trying to figure how much ill actually need to run the generator during the dreaded winters.
Our house pretty consistently uses about 400kWh each month from april to october, then it fluctuates up to a max of about 1000kwh during the winter months.
The solar setup i am thinking of going with is a 14.4kw bifacial array, facing south with 60° tilt, and about 92kwh of battery storage.
I ran the info through the pvwatts calculator, and it came out with having the lowest producing month being december at 970kwh.
i know that weather is never the same, but im wondering if pvwatt's estimations have been close for other people in michigan, or if theyve been pretty far off.
also, im wondering if production happens in a few small windows that are far apart, or if production happens generally pretty regularly where the 92kwh storage would carry me pretty well.
my concern is that i live in central michigan, and im trying to figure how much ill actually need to run the generator during the dreaded winters.
Our house pretty consistently uses about 400kWh each month from april to october, then it fluctuates up to a max of about 1000kwh during the winter months.
The solar setup i am thinking of going with is a 14.4kw bifacial array, facing south with 60° tilt, and about 92kwh of battery storage.
I ran the info through the pvwatts calculator, and it came out with having the lowest producing month being december at 970kwh.
i know that weather is never the same, but im wondering if pvwatt's estimations have been close for other people in michigan, or if theyve been pretty far off.
also, im wondering if production happens in a few small windows that are far apart, or if production happens generally pretty regularly where the 92kwh storage would carry me pretty well.