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

furndire

stoozey wrote: »

i have one of the old fashioned ones with a wheel. It definitely doesn't move anymore in the daytime.

Do you have an export meter?

themaverick1953

stoozey wrote: »

i would think it cheaper to bury a couple thousand liter tank and fill it from rainwater over the winter

I can't bring myself to hack into my new downpipes with those rain diverter things - they clog up with leaves and block up.

themaverick1953

jimmyg1981 wrote: »

im also in east yorkshire, just had a 6.62kw system fitted on the 27th april, the generation meters reading 156kwh at the mo, should get it pulsing again today.

Where are you JimmyG?

Trevor
Kirkburn
Driffield

keith_r59

furndire wrote: »

To all you folks who have not had Solar long, please check that your Mains meter is correct, and not like mine, and racking the electricity on that you are producing. I am not the only person this has happened to.

First thing I did was to check that my electricity consumption had reduced after the installation. Didn't everyone do this?

furndire

I tried, but installation coincided with getting new appliances, also dull summer, plus we were away for a lot the summer - my daughter was at home.
We knew something wasn't quite right, but when you are talking small amounts - digital meter - its very difficult to work out just what is wrong. Also, I did not have huge expectations of the amount of electric we would save - its only now that the sun is really blazing that it is easy to work out. When its a dull day with a digital meter, you would have to turn everything off for quite a long while for the mains meter to click over. We did try it last year, but obviously not long enough.
I had been saying to our electric suppliers that there was something wrong, but because our consumption had dropped drastically over the past 3 years, they kept saying that it wasn't. Self doubt then creeps in - no chance of working anything out in winter. Our electricity consumption hasn't gone down, but it hadn't gone up a huge amount either - until now when it should have gone drastically down.

John_Pierpoint

stoozey wrote: »

i would think it cheaper to bury a couple thousand liter tank and fill it from rainwater over the winter

I managed to buy a tonne tank (That is 1,000 litres for those not raised on the metric system) for a tenner, some years back - turned it into a second chamber for a "septic tank" system.

Both my sink (dish washer) & bathroom basin (clothes washing machine) drain into the same grating, but it is a simple manual job to swivel both outlets to squirt into a dustbin. Produces 1 - 2 dust-bin-fulls of "grey" water per day.

Note to self: get back on thread.

themaverick1953

John_Pierpoint wrote: »

I managed to buy a tonne tank (That is 1,000 litres for those not raised on the metric system) for a tenner, some years back - turned it into a second chamber for a "septic tank" system.

Both my sink (dish washer) & bathroom basin (clothes washing machine) drain into the same grating, but it is a simple manual job to swivel both outlets to squirt into a dustbin. Produces 1 - 2 dust-bin-fulls of "grey" water per day.

Note to self: get back on thread.

I've been asking around - I think they're called IBC's - come in a metal crate - it seems farmers get stuff delivered in them, but they're not for sale as far as I can see.

Back to the thread ah hem.

stoozey

themaverick1953 wrote: »

I've been asking around - I think they're called IBC's - come in a metal crate - it seems farmers get stuff delivered in them, but they're not for sale as far as I can see.

Back to the thread ah hem.

You can buy them, the bio-diesel people use them a lot. Look on the bay, they go for around £40 collected.

stoozey

furndire wrote: »

Do you have an export meter?

No, only a generation meter. I read someplace that it was more beneficial to take advantage of the 50% rate for sub 4KW systems.

furndire

So did I, hence we didn't get one - do they run them side by side with the meter you have in, or change the original meter?
Just curious, how much electric are you using during the day at the moment - does that include dishwasher or washer or major gobblers of electric?