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

teachergirl

Hi micky2. I think it just depends on the day. If it is bright sunshine you might be alright. If you look back in the thread someone(sorry I have forgottn who explains how to tell if you have got it exactly balanced using an energy monitor. We spent ages having fun with this when we first got them...now I confess we don't look so much. (i am off out now but if you can't find the posts I mean I will have a proper look tomorrow.)

chubbster_1

Micky2 wrote: »

I am having a little chuckle, they get fitted 2 days after I get back from Florida .. if only we had their Sun !!!

In the winter months will I generate enough electricity in the middle of the day to run things like a Tumble dryer/ cooker/ dishwasher etc ? or will I have to use the imported lecky

Mike

Think it'll depend on:
a) how large your system is - i.e. the kwp.
b) if it's a bright or dull day
c) what else you run all the time.

If you run things one after the other and are careful, you should be able to run plenty without using imported electricity. One trick is to change certain appliances so they take a bit longer but use less power in one hit - for example, if you're running a 2.4kwp system, and it's producing it's full amount, you'll still have to buy in power to use a 3kw kettle as this is over the 2.4kw's you can produce. So if you buy a 1kw kettle, it may take longer to boil, but you'll be more likely to not have to buy in electricity to power it.

teachergirl

Hi micky2. Go back to post 38 and Jon Tiffiny explained it perfectly:)

Micky2

I'm not a happy bunny this morning .. One of the company's quoted me said my quote was too go to be true !! and I should beware .. hie might be telling the truth or it might be sour grapes .. but it has spoilt my day!! was looking at A rated tumble dryers ready for the install ...

digitaltoast

Micky2 wrote: »

I'm not a happy bunny this morning .. One of the company's quoted me said my quote was too go to be true !! and I should beware .. hie might be telling the truth or it might be sour grapes .. but it has spoilt my day!!

Eh? I don't understand that - can you explain a bit more?

Micky2 wrote: »

was looking at A rated tumble dryers ready for the install ...

Eh?! Is this to try and "soak up" some of the power generated?

How much is a tumbledryer?
How much does it cost to run per hour? When are you least likely to tumble-dry clothes? What are your costings?

Doc_N

keith_r59 wrote: »

I'm with E.on. Money was paid into my nominated account (no cheques!) within three weeks of providing the meter reading for all three quarters since my system was installed. Their current T&Cs specify 'within 30 days'.

zeupater wrote: »

Hi

Scottish Power are the same, BACS payment into account averaging just about 2 weeks from meter reading submission here .....

Anyway, if anyone is a small business there's always the 'Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998' ..... I would also wonder what would happen if individuals chased their FiT partner and mentioned interest on late payment .... probably just easier to change FiT partner ...

HTH
Z

I've found e.on to be pretty quick in the past, but that's changed with the latest payment - more than three weeks on now, and still no payment.

Looks like the energy companies have latched on to another way of boosting their profits - hanging on to more money that's due to other people. I can feel a publicity campaign coming on..........;)

Doc_N

Micky2 wrote: »

In the winter months will I generate enough electricity in the middle of the day to run things like a Tumble dryer/ cooker/ dishwasher etc ? or will I have to use the imported lecky
Mike

From personal experience, you're very unlikely to get the 3kW or so that you'll be looking for in the winter months for long enough (if at all) to make much use of it. It's down to the angle of the sun.

digitaltoast

Doc_N wrote: »

From personal experience, you're very unlikely to get the 3kW or so that you'll be looking for in the winter months for long enough (if at all) to make much use of it.

Or even a fraction of it:

http://lowcarbonkid.blogspot.com/2010/03/does-pv-solar-electricity-work-in-uk.html

Lesson 1: Solar panel manufacturers quote figures for the “peak power” and “installed capacity” of their products. According to industry standards these are the amounts of electrical output in watts that they would generate if one kilowatt per square metre of the sun’s energy were to fall on them. But how close is this to the amount of sunshine at your location? These figures can be found out from the same source on insolation given in the section on solar water heating. For most of the latitudes that cover England and Wales, the summer insolation is a fraction of that figure. Even Europe’s sunniest place, Limassol in Cyprus, only gets 325 W per square metre. London gets 198 and Edinburgh 172 in July. In December, the figures are 96, 22 and 13 respectively. So in the winter, it’s a lot less -- and that’s when you need more power because the lights will be on for longer.

What you HAVE to remember is that the installation of Solar PV is not a method of generating viable amounts of reliable or green energy.

Keep in mind that the primary purpose of PV is to provide a tangeable asset to make the transfer of £8.2bn from the poor to the rich palettable to "the left" (this £8.2bn poor-to-rich scam is Labour's baby, remember).

It's almost impossible to do a viability or engineering calculation when the product itself bears no relation to real world markets or energy requirements, and even less so when the viability of the product has been deliberately skewed.

thenudeone

digitaltoast wrote: »

It's almost impossible to do a viability or engineering calculation when the product itself bears no relation to real world markets or energy requirements, and even less so when the viability of the product has been deliberately skewed.

An unbiased view anyone???

Whenever people criticise solar PV (or any other renewable) schemes they never seem to have the answers to two simple questions:
1) How do we provide for increased world demand for power in an age of significantly declining fossil fuel availability without providing a kick-start to speed up the inevitable efficiency improvements in renewables?
2) How do we stop the catastrophic effects of climate change (which is almost universally accepted by the scientific community, although not by all politicians) without replacing fossil fuels with renewables?

If anyone can satisfactorily answer those two questions, there would be no need to provide a temporarily skewed market in renewables. Go on - just about every developed country in the world is listening.

digitaltoast

thenudeone wrote: »

An unbiased view anyone???

Why would you want an unbiased view? Bias is about evidence. I'm biased against Nazis, terrorists and the idea of hefty card surcharges on cheap flights. Is that a bad thing?

thenudeone wrote: »

Whenever people criticise solar PV (or any other renewable) schemes they never seem to have the answers to two simple questions:
1) How do we provide for increased world demand for power in an age of significantly declining fossil fuel availability without providing a kick-start to speed up the inevitable efficiency improvements in renewables?

We start by looking for engineering solutions and performing tests and calculations. We don't, in general, find THE most inefficient and unreliable method known to man with by far the highest cost-per-ton of carbon savings, then subsidise it by taking money from those least likely to be able to afford it, and pay that money to vast "rent-a-roof" companies. Or do we? I don't know - is that how you'd like things done?

thenudeone wrote: »

2) How do we stop the catastrophic effects of climate change (which is almost universally accepted by the scientific community, although not by all politicians) without replacing fossil fuels with renewables?

If anyone can satisfactorily answer those two questions, there would be no need to provide a temporarily skewed market in renewables. Go on - just about every developed country in the world is listening.

Well, I tell you what, I've asked the same question I'm about to ask you AT LEAST 20 times (and I'm not exaggerating) on various renewable forums across the internet, including probably 5 times in the solar PV threads right here. So maybe YOU can be the one to answer this:

Electricity is not storable (longer than the 2 hours emergency pumped storage the UK has). Base load is defined as that much "known" reliable provision (nuclear, fossil etc). Generators cannot just be spun up when needed - and in fact, when running in "hot reserve" mode because they're not needed (ie: lots of sun shining) they are *LESS* efficient.

So, given that 5pm on a winter's evening is peak demand, we define that as our "base load". Can you take a guess how much power is being generated by ALL the UK's solar PV combined at that time? I'll give you a hint - it's less than the amount required to run the little monitoring box from just one of the thousands of installations. And when I say less, I mean zero.

Incidentally, I've toured Didcot (coal), Sizewell (Nuclear), Hoover Dam in the USA (hydro), the Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales (3 times, including a special interest "private tour), one of the world's largest wind turbine farms near Palm Springs (USA) and a geothermal facility in New Zealand, and I got the pics to prove it too (except Sizewell, no cameras!).

Oh, and I worked for 2 years at The National Grid. I think I might just have picked up a little knowledge about the subject...

What's YOUR experience on the subject?