So now I have a solar PV system how do I make the most of it???

HalloweenJack

how much for the 1kw element?

don0301

who needs a 1kW element?

Martyn1981

Brian99 wrote: »

Martyn, cheer up... there could be worse results than yours...

Anybody in Wet West of Scotland ?

Apparently there's a ship full of panels still in the crates docking in the UK today, and they got more generation than me in Jan too!

I'll be back, once my 20 and 30 degree panels spot the sun.

Mart.

Mikejd

Not cheap. Around £70

Mikejd

HalloweenJack wrote: »

how much for the 1kw element?

Not cheap Around £70 when I bought mine at beginning of October.

sly_dog_jonah

Mikejd wrote: »

Not cheap Around £70 when I bought mine at beginning of October.

Our total gas bill in the Q2 & Q3 'summer' months when we don't have the central heating on is about £100, so we probably use about £200 annually heating water.

Our 3kW immersion (which we never use) is on a dedicated circuit on our Consumer Unit, so we could replace it with a 1kW element and switch it on using a current-switch on the inverter output, eg turning the immersion on only when the panels are kicking out >1.5KW (but this assumes you're only using 500W elsewhere in the house, otherwise you will import electricity).

This blog post explains it all:

http://chrisrudge.blogspot.com/2011/08/optimised-power-use-with-pv-system-make.html

However the kit and cost of installation is considerably more than just the £70 for the replacement immersion element. Looks like it would take several years for the gas savings to outweigh the inital outlay.

jamesingram

"£200 annually heating water. "
this seems a bit on the high side. Do you cook with gas ?

phsci

Total kWh generated in Jan = 94.77
3.8 kWp system
kWh/kWp = 24.94
(30 deg pitch, SSW facing*, N Cheshire)

*PVGIS describes this as 15º, why not 195º ?

What a difference the weather makes at this time of year: over 10 kWh today and it's still daylight.

don0301

phsci wrote: »

Total kWh generated in Jan = 94.77
3.8 kWp system
kWh/kWp = 24.94
(30 deg pitch, SSW facing*, N Cheshire)

*PVGIS describes this as 15º, why not 195º ?

What a difference the weather makes at this time of year: over 10 kWh today and it's still daylight.

it's 15º from azimuth (which they take as south), which they take as 0º.

it's not a compass bearing.

they take south as 0º, cos you'd be hard pushed to find the sun to the north in the uk anytime of year

sly_dog_jonah

jamesingram wrote: »

"£200 annually heating water. "
this seems a bit on the high side. Do you cook with gas ?

Nope cooking is electric. We have a toddler who has a pre-bedtime bath almost every day, and two adults who have about 17 showers/week on average in total. £200 is a guestimate based on our summer gas consumption being about £16/month, which is when our only gas consumption is for water heating. Hot water heating program is the same year-round so extrapolated the figure from that.