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

John_Pierpoint

grahamc2003 wrote: »

So - how do I get rid of a massive tree or two? I'm ok with a chainsaw, but I know my limits, and these are beyond them. Any council workers here? If I asked the council/road authorities or whoever owns them, are they likely to prune it (heavily) if I ask them? Or slap a protection order on them? I only want to save the planet after all.

You will be surprised at how high the sun gets in the sky in the Summer.

Even I have a quandary about one evergreen I planted 35 years ago.

The eucalyptus has already gone about three years ago because it was a threat to the house foundations.

The willow, which is about 75 feet away is going to have a hair cut [It too is too close in theory by a meter or three].

Are you on clay soil ?

The best legitimate approach is to worry about damage to the foundations, though just lopping the tree makes that threat worse as it stimulates faster root growth.

Is the evergreen "exotic" - the only native evergreens are holly yew and in some places Scots pine. So in theory you would be doing a service to the environment and local ecology by replacing the evergreens.

If all else fails then there are techniques for poisoning trees that are not so obvious as copper nails.

In Sydney harbour there was a dying eucalyptus, the local authority had festooned it with rags, as a warning to anyone else contemplating a similar trick.

I "own" half a dozen exotic evergreens that are reaching the end of their natural life. In the meantime an estate of wealthy retired folk has developed on the other side of the lane.

So we have tree wars - they want them down to improve the view. I have been slowly felling them under duress about threats to life limb and expensive housing. The real reason is usually the desire for a better view.

After I had got three of them down as "dangerous" the local authority under pressure from the local environmentalists, ordered me to replant.

After some discussion, we agreed on Scots pine.
The environmentalists offered to extract "protection" money from me for planting and caring for the replacements; but I shelled out £15 quid on 5 suitable saplings, and had a fun day replacing them myself [when a suitable reason came up to make a 4 hour car journey to do so]

Funny thing that every sapling has "died", in fact they all mysteriously not only died but dug themselves up.

Watch this space!

GaryMo_2

18.45kW in the Manchester area (4kWp system).
28 degree south facing roof, 16 x 250w JA Solar Mono's, Fronius IG TL 3.6 inverter.

Happy to see what a bit of sun can produce

don0301

grahamc2003 wrote: »

1st sunny day here (Surrey) since I got my system, and I now realise I've got major problems. What a killer shading is! Panels (1.75kW) face SW. Generation built up nicely to 1.1kW at about 11am when is started getting shading from trees. It just plopped down to 100-200W most of the rest of the day - there are about 4 trees (two evergreens, the rest not even any leaves yet!) which go from S to SW. They're massive - owned by council/road people. Maybe in a few weeks the sun may be above a couple, but the other two are closer and I doubt it'll ever clear them. The shadows aren't hard or distinct. The near one, the worst, a now enormous beech) is one I planted after the 87 storm - thought so many trees gone I should replant one. We're in a country lane with houses just one side - the other side is just about 40 feet of trees (publicly owned) then a road then a private golf course.

So - how do I get rid of a massive tree or two? I'm ok with a chainsaw, but I know my limits, and these are beyond them. Any council workers here? If I asked the council/road authorities or whoever owns them, are they likely to prune it (heavily) if I ask them? Or slap a protection order on them? I only want to save the planet afterall.

This is a wind up, right?

Or, you seriously spent £000's of pounds on a system without looking at your roof, and seeing the big trees in front of your house blocking sunlight?

jimjames

13.3kWh today in Kent from 3kWp system with SMA 3000HF inverter. From the outputs so far that have only very rarely broken the 2.5kW barrier I am wondering if the inverter would have been better as a 2500HF to get better efficiency. I'd certainly look at a lower rated one if I ever need to replace it as by then the panels will have also dropped in effeciency too.

edwink

Hello all

I had my solar panels installed and up and running by Tuesday morning ~ (14th Feb).
I have a 2.4kwp system (10 panels) and a 2500 (not sure the make) inverter in the loft. Over the last 5 days up to this morning it generated 12.25kwh in total, the weather has not been good this week. Today it generated 3.94kwh and the sun has been on the panels about half of the day, the rest of the day it was cloudy and it was still generating but a lot less. I think these readings are on the low side or am I expecting too much too soon!!!

I have 6 panels on the main roof of the house and 4 panels on a ground floor extension just above the guttering, this area is where I was getting some shading as the sun was low. This should not happen as the year progresses as in the summer the sun is in my garden all day as the house is south facing. I am in Hertfordshire.

Reading through the pages of this forum from page 1 right to the end of page 80. PHEW!!! Has left me a little confused as to what the panels should actually be generating. Some readings for the same size panels and inverters are lower than mine and others are a lot higher.

Does anyone know what I should roughly be generating at this time of year for my location? Any advise would be very welcome. This is all new to me and I am still learning. Just thought I would check just incase things were not as they should be with the system!!! Thank you!!!

prosaver

Zenoka wrote: »

Does anyone know if there is a device that can sense when you are exporting and send that electricity to a hot water heater? We would really like to use the surplus to help towards heating our water, DH is good at diy and is already talking about fitting a 500w imersion, but we want a system that will automatically control it for us.

Does such a thing exist? I've searched but not been able to find anything.

yes its called a electric shower:p

don0301

edwink wrote: »

Hello all

I had my solar panels installed and up and running by Tuesday morning ~ (14th Feb).
I have a 2.4kwp system (10 panels) and a 2500 (not sure the make) inverter in the loft. Over the last 5 days up to this morning it generated 12.25kwh in total, the weather has not been good this week. Today it generated 3.94kwh and the sun has been on the panels about half of the day, the rest of the day it was cloudy and it was still generating but a lot less. I think these readings are on the low side or am I expecting too much too soon!!!

I have 6 panels on the main roof of the house and 4 panels on a ground floor extension just above the guttering, this area is where I was getting some shading as the sun was low. This should not happen as the year progresses as in the summer the sun is in my garden all day as the house is south facing. I am in Hertfordshire.

Reading through the pages of this forum from page 1 right to the end of page 80. PHEW!!! Has left me a little confused as to what the panels should actually be generating. Some readings for the same size panels and inverters are lower than mine and others are a lot higher.

Does anyone know what I should roughly be generating at this time of year for my location? Any advise would be very welcome. This is all new to me and I am still learning. Just thought I would check just incase things were not as they should be with the system!!! Thank you!!!

you need to give more information for any useful advice

roof angle, roof orientation ( direction of panels to south), amount of panels (you said 10?) and spread of panels (if on different roofs) think that covers it :P oh and location

or try this

http://re.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pvgis/apps4/pvest.php



oh, also any shading issues, recent advocates can probably advice on that

edwink

Hello I am in Hertfordshire. Had a look at the website you suggested. Could not make head nor tail of it. Maybe because it is past my bedtime!! Will have a look at it again in the morning, Thanks for that!!! Not sure what you mean by spread of panels. I have 6 on the main roof and 4 on the lower ground floor roof. Both pitched. The house south facing but ever so slightly to the left being east. Is that any help. Told you I do not know what I am doing. Ha! Ha! Ha! Thanks!!!

Martyn1981

edwink wrote: »

Hello I am in Hertfordshire. Had a look at the website you suggested. Could not make head nor tail of it. Maybe because it is past my bedtime!! Will have a look at it again in the morning, Thanks for that!!! Not sure what you mean by spread of panels. I have 6 on the main roof and 4 on the lower ground floor roof. Both pitched. The house south facing but ever so slightly to the left being east. Is that any help. Told you I do not know what I am doing. Ha! Ha! Ha! Thanks!!!

Ed, rough attempt at entering your details on the site Don posted. Here's what I entered so you can keep playing.

Click on the map and zero in to your location, I just clicked on St Albans for a reference point.

Changed installed peak from 1 to 2.4
Changed mounting from Free standing to building integrated
Changed slope from 35 to 30 (just an average guess (you pop in the right figure)
Changed Azimuth (point of interest / sun) from 0 (south) to -10 (slightly East as you said).

Left losses alone, but I find 10% more accurate than 14%, but lets leave it higher for now.

Click calculate. Got this table, bit distorted here.

Fixed system: inclination=30°, orientation=-10°
Month Ed Em Hd Hm
Jan 2.10 65.0 1.09 33.7
Feb 3.44 96.3 1.82 50.9
Mar 4.93 153 2.69 83.3
Apr 7.22 217 4.09 123
May 7.91 245 4.56 141
Jun 8.11 243 4.76 143
Jul 8.31 258 4.92 152
Aug 7.67 238 4.54 141
Sep 6.12 184 3.52 106
Oct 4.23 131 2.33 72.3
Nov 2.53 75.9 1.34 40.1
Dec 1.59 49.3 0.82 25.6
Yearly average 5.36 163 3.05 92.6
Total for year 1950 1110

Column Em of interest for monthly figures, and total of 1,950kWh's.

These are only averages, and will vary with weather. You can now keep an eye on them to see how you are doing.

Now, onto your set-up. What make and model of inverter do you have, and are both set ups (6 & 4) on identical orientation and roof slope?

I'm guessing here, and really need an installer to comment, but if your figures are low, then it might be that all ten panels are on one string, so if any one is in shade, it'll pull the whole system down (possibly by about 50%). If all panels aren't on identical orientation and slope then this will also cause a problem unless the inverter is a dual MPPT model, and can cope. I need advice here too, if inverter is a single MPPT, can Ed's system be split into 2 strings of 4 & 6? I suspect both strings need to be identical (5 & 5).

I have 2 systems, like you on main and lower roofs, identical azimuth, but there were too many differences (size, panel type, roof slope), so I used 2 inverters.

Lastly, anyone near you with a system, so you can compare and contrast good days. Need to be close as weather differences can cause enormous variance over quite small distances.

The more you can tell us, the more we can hopefully help. Come back and chat.

Mart.

edwink

Hello Mart

Thanks for your reply and your help. I will endevour to get the information you suggest reagrding the inverter. It is up in the loft so will need hubbie to retrieve that info. The other questions I will hopefully have answers for you later today.

Briefly, when the panels where instsalled 6 were located on the roof of the house 5 in a row 8 inches from the guttering where there was not enough width for 6, so lower down the roof so to speak and 1 has been located above the 2nd panel of the row of 5 below. (if that makes any sense). We have a chimney there almost in the centre but slightly to the right of the roof space so the 6th panel is slightly left of the chimney.

The other 4 panels were put on the extension roof again 8 inches above the guttering. These were installed the same day as the other 6. But, because it got dark they were wired up the following afternoon by an electricain.

We have one inverter in the loft. Last friday week an electrcian installed a 12.5 I believe inverter. But when the installer saw this he said it was not the correct inverter for the amount of panels that were installled. Hence the reason the electrician (well a differnt one) had to come back and change it and whilst here conntected the remain 4 lower panels on the extension roof.

I'll get back to you later when hubbie is home and hopefully offer more info. Thanks so much for taking the time to help!

Ed