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

Mikejd

raider wrote: »

Great generating day today, best since mid-october. Managed 2 lots of washing, 2 tumble dryer loads, cooked lunch (electric hob), boiled kettle twice, pc on, TV on and had the oil heater at varing levels all day.

14.98kWh generated, peaking at 2.76kW, Efficiency: 4.65kWh/kW

3.22kWp - 50 degrees pitch - South Norfolk

How did everyone else do and how did you make the most of it?:)

At last something that relates to the thread title.
Not a bad day for me with just over 9 kw generated. 2 lots of washing and a couple of hours of panel heater as well as hot water and joint in slow cooker.

cazarol

I like the idea of comparing production. It becomes a bit like a new hobby !! Will get my hubby to let me have our system details, I know it is a 4 kw system, panels are east and west facing (either side of the roof) and we are in North Lincolnshire. Yesterday we produced 2.559kwh. We got ours installed in November and due to very low production the supplier installed a different invertor at the end of January which has made a big difference. The most we have ever produced is 4.298kwh which seems quite low compared to some on here. My friend has a 3.9kw system, south facing and the most he has ever produced is around 14kwh which seems massive compared to mine.

namoss

We have a generation monitor and a consumption monitor next to each other in the kitchen so that we can try to get the most out of what we produce. These are cheap Owl and Current Cost and not the expensive monitors from the solar companies. You just have to make sure that you place the wireless sensors on the correct cables. Some posters have suggested that this is complicated - but it is not. You should be able to work it out and check you have done it right by comparing the readings.

Thus, you can see how high you can turn up appliances such as the cooker. It is best to have an old cooker with solid metal plates as these use power at a constant rate, whereas more modern hobs such as induction use high levels for short uneven periods of time.

We need more low power appliances such as decent electric kettles that run at 1kw or 1.5kw instead of the standard 3kw models.

KevinG

cazarol wrote: »

I know it is a 4 kw system, panels are east and west facing (either side of the roof) and we are in North Lincolnshire. Yesterday we produced 2.559kwh. We got ours installed in November and due to very low production the supplier installed a different invertor at the end of January which has made a big difference. The most we have ever produced is 4.298kwh which seems quite low compared to some on here

That does seem very low for a 4kW system. I have had 7kWh from my 2kWp system on a couple of days in February but I don't know what the weather's been like in Lincolnshire! Someone on another forum with a split 4kW system also had suspiciously low readings after installation and it turned out that one of the strings wasn't connected properly so it could be worth getting it checked.

Dave_Fowler

KevinG wrote: »

That does seem very low for a 4kW system. I have had 7kWh from my 2kWp system on a couple of days in February but I don't know what the weather's been like in Lincolnshire! Someone on another forum with a split 4kW system also had suspiciously low readings after installation and it turned out that one of the strings wasn't connected properly so it could be worth getting it checked.

Hopefully the new inverter is a dual MPP version with the E & W panels on separate MPP tracking inputs. My neighbour is still waiting for the installer to change his single MPP inverter where he has the two strings (one 5 panels, the other 10) on different sides of the roof wired in parallel. He's getting very low generation figures as you might expect.

Dave F

Martyn1981

cazarol wrote: »

I like the idea of comparing production. It becomes a bit like a new hobby !! Will get my hubby to let me have our system details, I know it is a 4 kw system, panels are east and west facing (either side of the roof) and we are in North Lincolnshire. Yesterday we produced 2.559kwh. We got ours installed in November and due to very low production the supplier installed a different invertor at the end of January which has made a big difference. The most we have ever produced is 4.298kwh which seems quite low compared to some on here. My friend has a 3.9kw system, south facing and the most he has ever produced is around 14kwh which seems massive compared to mine.

Any chance you can post the make and model of inverter installed?

I'm assuming you have 2kWp of panels on each of the E and W roofs. If the inverter isn't designed to cope with these individually (MPPT type), then the W will brake the E in the morning, and vice versa. This will kill your generation all day.

Possibly you have shallow roof angle that is pulling generation down a bit during winter, but 4.3kWh's sounds low given some of the good days we saw in early Feb, even with 'new' inverter.

No need to panic, but something doesn't add up here. Any specs you can post would help?

Mart.

Edit: Damn, Dave just beat me to it!

r.cordrey

A simple-sounding good idea has been proposed by our solar panel installers, where any time that the output from the PV panels exceeds 1kW an immersion heater is turned on to use the first part of the output. Effectively, you are storing PV energy in the form of hot water.

We have not gone for it as we are away from home for a large part of the summer (when it would be most valuable) and the quoted cost was quite high at £999 (fitted, all in). But I am sure competent electricians will work out how this can be achieved at a more reasonable cost.

orrery

namoss wrote: »

We have a generation monitor and a consumption monitor next to each other in the kitchen ....

Thus, you can see how high you can turn up appliances such as the cooker. It is best to have an old cooker with solid metal plates as these use power at a constant rate, whereas more modern hobs such as induction use high levels for short uneven periods of time.

We need more low power appliances such as decent electric kettles that run at 1kw or 1.5kw instead of the standard 3kw models.

Firstly, having the two meters next to each other and using them to gauge usage isn't so easy, as most people will have the consumption metering on the incoming feed - this will show both usage and export and can be very confusing - especially if there are two people in the house turning things on and off.

Cookers: I'm not sure whether your claim about cookers is true any more - most use some sort of thermostat (or bi-metalic mark-space equivalent) to control the ring temperature, so power is either full on or full off. I've never owned a hob that works gradually as you describe - the last I saw was my gran's which would be almost 50 years ago. There are, however, microwave ovens about that do this now with 'inverter' designs.

Kettles: I have a Kenwood travel kettle which I now use which is 500W. This boils enough to do 2 cups and no more. The saving must be huge as I have much more chance of covering 500W from solar than I do 1 or 2kW and its almost impossible to boil too much water, as I would normally do in the big kettle!

EricMears

namoss wrote: »

We have a generation monitor and a consumption monitor next to each other in the kitchen so that we can try to get the most out of what we produce. These are cheap Owl and Current Cost and not the expensive monitors from the solar companies.

I have a Wattson meter (around £140 from www diykyoto com but s/h from eBay was a lot less) which is wired to measure generated and used currents separately and has facility to indicate the nett effect.

There is software to transfer historic readings to a computer but that's not so effective for instantaneous (I'd like to have said 'current' but that might confuse )readings.

Meter is in kitchen and usually consulted when we're thinking of switching something on.

No problem with washing machine , dishwasher etc in summer but at this time of year we usually opt for using a 500w 'caravan kettle' rather than a 3kw 'real one' to boil water.

I too would be interested in details of anything that automated the process of dumping electricity to (say) immersion heater at high surplus times but paying a thousand pounds for that is completely unjustifable.

Martyn1981

EricMears wrote: »

I have a Wattson meter (around £140 from www diykyoto com but s/h from eBay was a lot less) which is wired to measure generated and used currents separately and has facility to indicate the nett effect.

There is software to transfer historic readings to a computer but that's not so effective for instantaneous (I'd like to have said 'current' but that might confuse )readings.

Meter is in kitchen and usually consulted when we're thinking of switching something on.

No problem with washing machine , dishwasher etc in summer but at this time of year we usually opt for using a 500w 'caravan kettle' rather than a 3kw 'real one' to boil water.

I too would be interested in details of anything that automated the process of dumping electricity to (say) immersion heater at high surplus times but paying a thousand pounds for that is completely unjustifable.

Eric, the word EMMA, is one I hear a lot, here's one such link

http://www.riomicropower.co.uk/emma.php

The systems seem pretty expensive, especially for small domestic use, and also if winter generation is low.

Not the place for moral arguments, but if smart metered, then need to compare savings against 3.1p export tariff. Plus, is the high quality leccy better exported, than used to produce low grade heat.

On purely financial basis, and lack of high cold weather generation, this may not be financially viable to most at the moment. But if energy prices keep rising ..... ?

Hope this helps.

Mart.