Free solar panel discussion

slacky555

Cardew wrote: »

Unless you have an export meter, it is not possible to calculate how much of the generated output you use in the house.

As far as I am aware just two people on MSE have given figures for their 'in house' consumption of PV generated electricity.

Yakky58 uses approx 1,000kWh pa and Mcfi5 uses approx 500kWh pa(and he has wife and two children at home all day)

IMO some of the estimates for the amount of generated electricity people will use are wildly optimistic and 500kWh to 1,000kWh pa is realistic. Say £50 to £100 pa.


Which makes paying £500 and £5 a month for a 'rent a roof' system absurd IMO.

Cheers Cardew

Do you know more details on their systems? Total generated per year and what kw system they have?

Will try and have a look back in this thread see if I can find it.

jnorris235

I admit I have only read half the 84 pages herein. But I'll ask anyway.
Our house faces east and west but we have a large garden.
Could we not save on installation by having them on the ground?
As for reduced output in the evenings - is it silly to mount a large mirrored surface to gather extra light? probably very silly but it is the evening when one uses most electricity.

John_Pierpoint

When the sun is low in the sky its rays have to come through a very thick chunk of atmosphere - that is why it tends to appear red, cool and feeble.

As the house is connected to the national grid you just think of the grid as a giant battery where you draw out again some of the electricity pumped into it at noon.

Mcfi5dhc

slacky555 wrote: »

Cheers Cardew

Do you know more details on their systems? Total generated per year and what kw system they have?

Will try and have a look back in this thread see if I can find it.

I am one of the export-two mentioned above.
1.44kwp 8*180 Sharp system, owned by myself, produces about 1220 units per year. have had an export meter for over a year. I keep meter readings every month.

I would use about 500-600 units a year at home, the rest exported (obviously most of that in the summer months)

HTH

Gizmosmum_2

slacky555 wrote: »

I have called Eaga in the end to find out most of the info, the link below is to a pdf file for the spec of the panels they are fitting can you please look and see what you think i have never heard of them.

I dont see why they would be fitting 200w panels to a solar share customers if they could fit the 220w panels that they fit for people having the free system according to Zens website they are the same size.

So why wouldn't homesun/eaga fit the 220w panels for solar share customers so there FIT's are increased for them as the system would be 2.86kw rather than the lower 2.6kw system?

http://www.zenrenewables.com/downloads-en/123

Many thanks for any replies regarding the quality of the Zen panels.

Another eaga company I believe!! Aspirations to take over the World perhaps... running Warm Front, using their own insulation firms acquired over the last 5 years, installing heating with their own Iguana heating firm and now free solar with their Zen panels..... leave some work for the small guys eaga

Gizmosmum_2

jnorris235 wrote: »

I admit I have only read half the 84 pages herein. But I'll ask anyway.
Our house faces east and west but we have a large garden.
Could we not save on installation by having them on the ground?
As for reduced output in the evenings - is it silly to mount a large mirrored surface to gather extra light? probably very silly but it is the evening when one uses most electricity.

From what I've seen mirrors would void your panel performance guarantee. Have a look at pvgis to see whether it might be worth installing on East/West roofs prices for panels are dropping and the Fit makes even East/West orientations attractive in some circumstances.

slacky555

Mcfi5dhc wrote: »

I am one of the export-two mentioned above.
1.44kwp 8*180 Sharp system, owned by myself, produces about 1220 units per year. have had an export meter for over a year. I keep meter readings every month.

I would use about 500-600 units a year at home, the rest exported (obviously most of that in the summer months)

HTH

Thanks

So you are using 41-49% of what you generate which is great.

What do you use from the grid per year now?

zeupater

slacky555 wrote: »

Thanks

So you are using 41-49% of what you generate which is great.

What do you use from the grid per year now?

Hi slaky555

It is important that you note that Mcfi5dhc has a 1.44kWp system. If a larger system was fitted it would be very likely that the generated power used would only increase marginally, whilst the total power would increase proportionally to the size of the installed array, therefore the percentage of generated power exported would increase.

Generally, the larger the array the lower the percentage of generated power can be used 'in house'.

HTH
Z

slacky555

zeupater wrote: »

Hi slaky555

It is important that you note that Mcfi5dhc has a 1.44kWp system. If a larger system was fitted it would be very likely that the generated power used would only increase marginally, whilst the total power would increase proportionally to the size of the installed array, therefore the percentage of generated power exported would increase.

Generally, the larger the array the lower the percentage of generated power can be used 'in house'.

HTH
Z

Yes i do know what you are saying it depends on loads of factors i guess there must be a sweet spot where you will use the highest percentage of the generated electric.

And like you say Mcfi5dhc may just be at that sweet spot.

Would be nice to compare to the other person who has an export meter to see what their % of use againt generation is.

But cant seem to find any details on that system/ user Cardew mentioned :mad:

Cardew

zeupater wrote: »

Hi slaky555

It is important that you note that Mcfi5dhc has a 1.44kWp system. If a larger system was fitted it would be very likely that the generated power used would only increase marginally, whilst the total power would increase proportionally to the size of the installed array, therefore the percentage of generated power exported would increase.

Generally, the larger the array the lower the percentage of generated power can be used 'in house'.

HTH
Z

In fact there was a discussion on this in the 'green' forum and Mcfi5dfc was of the opinion that even if he had a much larger system, he would not use much more electricity in the house than he does at present.

P.S.
Love the term 'the export-two'!!