I created a few new charts this year to evaluate the performance of my solar panels in 2016. Overall they did about as well as expected, though production was a bit lower than last year. I guess I shouldn't have skipped a year of cleaning!
Read MoreYear In Review 2015 - Power of the Sun
Readers of my posts will know that I collect quite a bit of data about my solar panels. Once a year I like to take a look at the bigger picture and see how the system is performing over time. First some quick numbers: Overall system efficiency averaged just over 13.1% in 2015, slightly up from 12.5% in 2014. The panels themselves were also a bit more efficient, up to 14.4% from 13.7%. This is a little surprising since they're expected to drop 0.5% per year.
Read MoreDC to AC Conversion Efficiency
One source of loss with a solar power system is the conversion of the DC power produced by the panels to the AC power used by the electric grid. This is done by a piece of equipment called an inverter. I was curious to see how my setup compared to the spec, so I pulled data for December 2013 through October 2014.
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