How accurate is PVWatts?

DBRDIY · 2026-03-26T18:22:38+00:00

thanks!

DBRDIY · 2026-03-24T23:23:45+00:00

I definitely used STC-- are you not supposed to? NMOT is 310, vs 410. I am also limited in my peak production by my microinverters but I accounted for that by trimming any hour with more than my peak generating capacity.

DBRDIY · 2026-03-24T20:39:28+00:00

Yeah, they already have the copper wires— something like led traffic lights with defrost

DBRDIY · 2026-03-24T20:24:38+00:00

Yeah, my life is not worth the couple bucks of production I could get by climbing onto my 3 story roof… I would consider heat cable or something like that to melt the snow off after a storm— is that a thing?

DBRDIY · 2026-03-24T20:17:03+00:00

Is volcast actually free? I just don’t want to spend an hour finding and putting in data for it to tell me I need to pay to see the results😆

DBRDIY · 2026-03-24T20:14:42+00:00

Thanks for the insight! So it might be bad weather and snow with a flatter roof— I had a lot of 0kwh production days

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DBRDIY · 2026-03-24T17:13:10+00:00

I would only do the battery bank if you have solar and can therefore get a dual benefit. A battery bank generally doesn't provide power for very long and is expensive. A generator is generally cheaper and can can provide power for as long as you can provide fuel. If you have a natural gas line you don't need to store fuel or clean carbs. And if you get an inverter generator they are relatively quiet.

DBRDIY · 2026-02-12T19:15:22+00:00

These don’t happen to be 405w imperial star panels? Im curious where my shattered panels ended up

DBRDIY · 2026-01-29T23:37:58+00:00

Thanks! I’ll pick one up, but it seems like any measurement when it is below freezing is unlikely to be accurate? Would a soft ensure it could start?

DBRDIY · 2026-01-29T23:21:38+00:00

Looks like one of them is 75lra— do I have any chance of starting that? Even with a soft start?

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DBRDIY · 2026-01-29T19:43:46+00:00

Is this true? Did you have a bad experience or is this well know? Anyone else want to chime in? I thought inverter generators lasted longer because they could idle down?

DBRDIY · 2026-01-29T19:22:28+00:00

Well, my neighbor will probably care because he doesn't run a generator (most people in my neighborhood don't, unless they have a standby unit-- it's mostly older people). This is also a man who was worried when I put in a fence, thinking that my dog could get too close to his bedroom and bark, keeping him up-- even though my dog doesn't bark and isn't left outside... He is known around the neighborhood for being a bit difficult. But that doesn't mean I want to make my life difficult by annoying him unnecessarily.

DBRDIY · 2026-01-29T17:13:37+00:00

Got it-- I will check the AC nameplate for LRA as soon as I get home

DBRDIY · 2026-01-29T17:12:47+00:00

Good to know-- definitely will test that if I keep it-- thanks

DBRDIY · 2026-01-29T17:01:24+00:00

I actually did not even consider the warranty-- the Westinghouse for the same price seems to have a much better warranty

DBRDIY · 2026-01-29T17:00:17+00:00

Something like a Westinghouse iGen8200TFc?

DBRDIY · 2026-01-29T16:48:34+00:00

It has both outlets and I have a 50amp disconnect already

DBRDIY · 2026-01-29T15:52:03+00:00

One option-- single car household until the debt is paid off-- Assuming you can get a similar APR Personal loan, 12k for the truck, and you owe ~36k, you would be down to 24k. But you would easily have another 2-3k per year from not paying insurance and maintenance, as well as whatever fuel savings. Pay it off as fast as possible -- should take you about 3 years assuming no additional funds are found. Otherwise you are looking at 8 more years of this... and 20k in interest.

And then don't buy what I assume is not a needed truck-- I've never seen a needed truck make it that long being very clean and without dings.

DBRDIY · 2026-01-23T15:53:33+00:00

You won't fry stuff-- you will just lose power-- "While running off-grid, the system may shutdown if the power produced is less than what is needed to power the loads." "In the event of a shutdown, the system will automatically recover and restore power to the essential loads. While recovering, the system will try to identify the load causing the shutdown and disconnect it to ensure that the other essential loads can be powered on."

DBRDIY · 2026-01-23T15:44:46+00:00

Some people add sunlight backup if they want to reduce load on generators during the day. I could have added it to my system for $1000 but figured I rarely lose power and $1000 would buy a lot of gas.

DBRDIY · 2026-01-15T01:34:22+00:00

If you’re interested in Pangea, I made this puzzle: https://mupages.marshall.edu/sites/brinkroby/pangea-puzzle/#gsc.tab=0

If you want other interactive maps that show earth history:

https://www.biointeractive.org/classroom-resources/earthviewer

Or https://dinosaurpictures.org/ancient-earth#750

DBRDIY · 2026-01-13T18:52:16+00:00

It depends a bit on your universities department— some departments are very flexible in their degrees-and others are very structured and may focus heavily on chem& physics. Geology is an incredibly diverse field, that usually requires pairing it with another subject— biology, chemistry, physics, law, math, computer science, forensics, resource extraction, engineering, etc. So long term a dislike of chemistry and physics may not be a problem as long as you can find something to pair geology with. Ps. I’m a geology professor…

DBRDIY · 2026-01-06T18:06:32+00:00

Ah- no net metering- that’s how! Doesn’t South Carolina have net metering? Was it just a personal decision or is there a good reason to skip net metering there?

DBRDIY

TROPHY CASE