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

digitaltoast

Cardew wrote: »

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You have stated(but not used) 14p/min for for all rates!!!!!

Now THAT is an epic fail of outstanding proportions on my part!

Well spotted - duly corrected!

Cardew

digitaltoast wrote: »

mickyduck: Do what we've done in similar circumstances - turn the gas off in the summer, get a twinheat off-peak tarrif, shower between 4am and 8am or 2:30pm-5:30pm (BST, shift back one hour in winter), set dishwasher/washing machine to run at those times, and watch those bills plummet. 10kW is a BIG electric shower, so...

Let's assume you only get the morning on the cheap (someone correct my sums below if I'm wrong - rounding to nearest p)

5 mins = 1/12 hour

Using a Twinheat A tarrif

Peak: 14p/kWh. Shower for 5 mins @ 10kW/12 = 0.83kWh*14p=12p * 30days = £3.60/month.

Offpeak: 14p/kWh. Shower for 5 mins @ 10kW/12 = 0.83kWh*6p=5p * 30days = £1.50/month.

Total cheap morning plus peak evening: £5.10 per month

Or... all on standard flat rate of 12p:

14p/kWh. Shower for 5 mins @ 10kW/12 = 0.83kWh*12p=10p * 30days * twice a day = £5.98

Twinheat over a year of showering: £61.20
Standard over a year of showering: £71.76

So, you only save a tenner which will offset the slightly higher daily charge BUT ... ALL your immersion heating, laundry, dishwashing etc will be half price. We've taken our summer bills from £80/month gas/electric last year, to £45 electric only. Just gave daily charge to pay.

It's not for everyone, but worth a look. If you can do ALL your showing off-peak, or use an immersion heater to provide the hot water for the shower, then there's no question - you're onto a winner.

So basically I'm saying that all this stuff about "soaking up" excess PV by staying at home to turn on x appliance every time the sun shines will only soak up time!

Hate to be pedantic but see figures in RED

digitaltoast

Cardew wrote: »

Hate to be pedantic but see figures in RED

I really was having a bad copy and paste and not check day, yesterday! Corrected.

kathleenehatvirginmedia

Dear all, with regards to E-on, apparently once they have got you installed the solar panels which will generate electricity in a feed-in tariff you, the householder, will only benefit yourself from the electricity generated by the solar panels during daylight, thus I assume this means that from the dark English winter months from about 5:30pm to 7:30am, i.e. a good proportion of any twenty four hour English winter day, when most working age people are at home they will be using electricity from the grid, generated presumably from coal, gas or nuclear stations. If we are to seriously reduce Britain's carbon footprint is it too far fetched therefore to ask why we don't mix the current Smart car battery technology with this new wave of home renewable way of generating electricity and use a battery for the home, to store and recharge electricity for use in the home in the darkness hours, which take up a great deal of the time in England? In the 1960s I remember as a kid having a huge oil tank in the back garden for use in the central heating in the home, so surely this is no more or less dangerous for any household than having a double sided street of modern smart cars parked (one to two metres) outside your house? Fantasyor could this be a reality for storing daytime leccy for nigh time use? I am sure someone out there will have this answer? I do hope so.:cool:

ecognome

Hope this is the right place for this - Does anyone have any experiences (or know of any websites - I've drawn a blank) - about using the bluetooth data available from some inverters (mine is a Sunny Boy 4000TL with a 3.9kw system) to make semi intelligent decisions to control x 10 modules, (or any other method), and turn on home appliances, such as washing machines, tumble dryers, dishwashers etc according to the level of power being generated.

I realise that there are problems about knowing if the power is going to continue at a particular rate for a washing machine / dishwasher - so that would have to be best guess. But for tumble dryers & water heating a more direct on/ off approach could be taken.

energysavingexp

ecognome wrote: »

Hope this is the right place for this - Does anyone have any experiences (or know of any websites - I've drawn a blank) - about using the bluetooth data available from some inverters (mine is a Sunny Boy 4000TL with a 3.9kw system) to make semi intelligent decisions to control x 10 modules, (or any other method), and turn on home appliances, such as washing machines, tumble dryers, dishwashers etc according to the level of power being generated.

I realise that there are problems about knowing if the power is going to continue at a particular rate for a washing machine / dishwasher - so that would have to be best guess. But for tumble dryers & water heating a more direct on/ off approach could be taken.

hi i have one i made my self posted alot about it

Cardew

ecognome wrote: »

Hope this is the right place for this - Does anyone have any experiences (or know of any websites - I've drawn a blank) - about using the bluetooth data available from some inverters (mine is a Sunny Boy 4000TL with a 3.9kw system) to make semi intelligent decisions to control x 10 modules, (or any other method), and turn on home appliances, such as washing machines, tumble dryers, dishwashers etc according to the level of power being generated.

I realise that there are problems about knowing if the power is going to continue at a particular rate for a washing machine / dishwasher - so that would have to be best guess. But for tumble dryers & water heating a more direct on/ off approach could be taken.

Lots of posts in other threads about such a device(most very expensive)

The biggest 'logistic' problem - even if such a device is fitted - is the variable power output from the panels - a heavy cloud can drop the output in seconds.

Also the power consumption of a washing machine(and dishwasher) varies from 3kW for a short period for the heater, to zero and then a couple of hundred watts for pump and motors. On most cycles these days modern washing machines use no more than 0.4kWh to 0.6kWh per cycle. Pity the PV panels can do nothing about water consumption which costs(for my Bosch machine) 3 to 4 times as much per cycle as the electricity cost.

It will be impossible to 'match' output to consumption.

Also as discussed in threads, attempting to heat water with an immersion heater with PV power can actually cost the customer money.

digitaltoast

kathleenehatvirginmedia wrote: »

If we are to seriously reduce Britain's carbon footprint is it too far fetched therefore to ask why we don't mix the current Smart car battery technology with this new wave of home renewable way of generating electricity and use a battery for the home, to store and recharge electricity for use in the home in the darkness hours, which take up a great deal of the time in England? [...] so surely this is no more or less dangerous for any household than having a double sided street of modern smart cars parked (one to two metres) outside your house? Fantasy or could this be a reality for storing daytime leccy for nigh time use? I am sure someone out there will have this answer? I do hope so.:cool:

Someone does! It's in a book called Sustainable Energy - without hot air which you can buy as a book, or read for free on the web. I think it should be required reading for anyone with an opinion on renewables.

Anyway, read from page 194 of chapter 26 titled "Demand management using electric vehicles". Really, do read it. It's about 3 pages.

Personally, I believe that with current battery technology, the home storage system you're talking about is unworkable for most situations. And note that he is talking about energy created from WIND power here.

Each wind turbine (when it's spinning!) produces the equivelant to several thousand roofs worth of power, therefore couldn't be directly applied to solar.

So while I think David MacKay, and you, have some very interesting ideas and points, many of which I think can and hopefully will become reality, they're not going to be achieved by the current generation of piddly little low-output panels. The £8.2bn being squandered on the Great Solar Swindle over the next 25 years would be better spent funding research into new storage and electricity transmission technology, and thorium reactors to provide the essential "safe" base load.

My problem with the current situation and scheme is that it's a scheme put together by people who don't know what they're talking about, to satisfy the short-term demands of people who don't know what they're talking about.

If an engineer rather than an industry lobby group had come up with the idea of heavily subsidised PV on millions of roofs at huge cost and virtually no benefit, I'd be... no, hang on, I wouldn't be all for it, because he wouldn't have come up with that idea!

thenudeone

kathleenehatvirginmedia wrote: »

is it too far fetched therefore to ask why we don't mix the current Smart car battery technology with this new wave of home renewable way of generating electricity and use a battery for the home, to store and recharge electricity for use in the home in the darkness hours, which take up a great deal of the time in England?

Several reasons:
Efficiency losses in transmitting and storing energy in a battery
location /weight of battery
hazardous chemicals
cost of large batteries

A much better way to smooth out the peaks in demand is intelligent management - i.e. devices such as fridges, freezers, and ASHPs could be told by the grid to switch off for short periods when electricity demand is high. The cost of implementing this solution is much much lower than buying huge batteries - have you seen how much an electric car costs?:eek: But that would need central control and implementation. I am not holding my breath.

John_Pierpoint

Cardew wrote: »

Pity the PV panels can do nothing about water consumption which costs(for my Bosch machine) 3 to 4 times as much per cycle as the electricity cost.

It will be impossible to 'match' output to consumption.

Also as discussed in threads, attempting to heat water with an immersion heater with PV power can actually cost the customer money.

How much are you paying for water?
I'm a smidgen under £1 a tonne.

That is 10 litres for a penny.

Where I live it is "drier than Rome".