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

teachergirl

Glad everyone has had a good day. Free juice I may do better on the days I post but I am only just over half of my predicted March production so you must be having more light days than me. It has been particularly grey here. Cardew I have to say I think you are correct. It is very difficult to plan although some of us have good fun trying. However the income from the FITs as you say is what makes the solar panals wothwhile.

rhiwfield

Cardew wrote: »

I wonder what the percentage difference in savings(of power consumed in the house) would be between those who carried on using their normal routine and those who put a great deal of effort into trying to match consumption to generated power?

We can only speculate, but I suspect it would be less than 10% over a year. Almost insignificant alongside the income from FITs.

I'd expect more than 10%, if you are at home to take advantage of both the power bell curve and fluctuations.

Here we are off gas grid, heat by oil or woodburner and cook with leccy. Mentioned some time ago that pv could be used for spot heating at nil cost in sunny but coolish shoulder seasons. Thats proved to be the case this March, using the convector heater at settings of either 750, 1250 and 2000W gives flexibility and avoids using CH during day.

I'm expecting that any summer hot water demand will be met at nil cost thru use of immersion at peak generation times, taking advantage of the high level of home leccy generation at that time of the year.

While our main target is to reduce grid import we are more than happy to substitute free leccy for wood or oil use, as well as full price leccy.

So for house of 3 adults, continuously occupied, 3000kWh pa system installed March/July 2011, still learning the ropes, grid import as follows for years ending 28 Feb:

2007: 8000
2008: 7671
2009: 6711
2010: 4750
2011: 3144
2012 target: 2874 (running annualised average to date 2305, but only 19 days into year so far!)

thenudeone

penrhyn wrote: »

Sorry you are correct, you get paid handsomely for every Kwh you generate, around 40p/kwh atm, the export tarrif is not so generous @3p/kwh exported.

Which is why it's much better to shift your own consumption (for water heating, for example) to the times when you are generating leccy.
It's much better to save 12-15p (by replacing bought in leccy with self-generated leccy); than to sell spare capacity at 3p.

teachergirl

A question for the more technical among you . Obviously one of the big problems with solar energy is that we cannot store the electricity. I'm sure that this is probably a question that I should know the answer to:o but How come solar lights in the garden store up the light in the day and then come on at night????? Could this technology not be adapted? (Just a thought that came to me in the middle of the night.)

Well the last week or so has been brilliant compared to the rest of the year and I have surpassed March's expectation...which makes up for the fact that I failed to hit the target for both January and February;)

jackieblack

teachergirl wrote: »

Well the last week or so has been brilliant compared to the rest of the year and I have surpassed March's expectation...which makes up for the fact that I failed to hit the target for both January and February;)

Same here!

Just a reminder for everyone - the FIT tariff payment rate increases from 1st April. Ofgem recommend everyone submits a reading on 31st March otherwise your provider may pro-rata the next payment.

Cardew

teachergirl wrote: »

A question for the more technical among you . Obviously one of the big problems with solar energy is that we cannot store the electricity. I'm sure that this is probably a question that I should know the answer to:o but How come solar lights in the garden store up the light in the day and then come on at night????? Could this technology not be adapted? (Just a thought that came to me in the middle of the night.)

Well the last week or so has been brilliant compared to the rest of the year and I have surpassed March's expectation...which makes up for the fact that I failed to hit the target for both January and February;)

The lights have rechargeable AA or AAA batteries.

It would be very easy for your panels to charge car batteries. Have you got a big well ventilated shed to keep them(health and safety)

Then of course you don't want them charged from the mains if your panel's output is insufficient!!

Then another inverter to change the battery DC voltage back to 240v AC

A couple of thousand pounds should be sufficient.;)

free_juice?

teachergirl wrote: »

I have surpassed March's expectation...which makes up for the fact that I failed to hit the target for both January and February;)

Same here. 20% down on expectation in February and 20% up in March so I am now just a little above prediction for January through to the end of March.

On 1st April the FIT goes up. Does the export tariff rise too and if so what to? Apart from a post on this forum no 'official' website I have found gives a new figure.

Moist_von_Lipwig

free_juice? wrote: »

Same here. 20% down on expectation in February and 20% up in March so I am now just a little above prediction for January through to the end of March.

On 1st April the FIT goes up. Does the export tariff rise too and if so what to? Apart from a post on this forum no 'official' website I have found gives a new figure.

It does go up, to 3.1p per kWh - it can be found in the PDF file on the ofgem site.

jackieblack

free_juice? wrote: »

On 1st April the FIT goes up. Does the export tariff rise too and if so what to? Apart from a post on this forum no 'official' website I have found gives a new figure.

http://www.ofgem.gov.uk/Sustainability/Environment/fits/Pages/fits.aspx

ChrisJD

Cardew wrote: »

It would be very easy for your panels to charge car batteries. Have you got a big well ventilated shed to keep them(health and safety)

Then of course you don't want them charged from the mains if your panel's output is insufficient!!

Then another inverter to change the battery DC voltage back to 240v AC

A couple of thousand pounds should be sufficient.;)

Actually, you don't really want car batteries, they are more for high current than deep discharge. They also have a relatively short life, so you need to factor in replacement costs.

You also wouldn't be able to claim FIT for this kind of installation.