Which free solar provider?

free_juice?

K4blades wrote: »

PS, I'm still waiting for you to provide evidence that with PVs "there will be lots of days when you generate no electricty".......garbage indeed.

My 3.3 south facing system produced less than 1kWh on just over 20% of winter days. Under 300Wh on some days.

Not quite no electricity but the whole of last January and February was pretty much a waste of roof space. Over 2011 so far I'm a long way above prediction even though Jan/Feb was deeply depressing.

Cardew

K4blades wrote: »

Not exaggerating, just collecting data from as many possible and varied sources as possible, instead of assuming that I'm right about everything and that everyone else must agree with me.

The EST article also states that with bigger systems, there could be "significantly bigger" savings.
In the past Cardew, you have been very quick to dismiss anything EST say, but you seem very good at selective quoting.

PS, I'm still waiting for you to provide evidence that with PVs "there will be lots of days when you generate no electricty".......garbage indeed.

You just make up stories and quote them as fact.

I have quoted several sources that indicate that to save £100 pa would be very good.

People with export meters have posted actual figures on MSE and other places on the web that are in line with that figure - also WHICH.

EST have now stated £70, Yet you state:

I can tell you that it is quite typical for an average house to save over £200 from PV electricity, without FITs.

So why don't you give that data you have collected and tell them that a typical savings for an average house will be three times more than their figure?

Free Juice's post above shows just how low generation can be in winter. some days less than 0.3kWh(worth 3 pence) and 20% of winter day generating less than 1kWh (worth 10p)

You are fully aware that in the context of that post I was talking about minimal power generated in winter(indeed zero some days). You are rather grasping at straws to seize on what you hope might turn out an incorrect statement.

This posted on this section:

#61 teachergirl 16-01-2011, 4:59 PM
MoneySaving Stalwart
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Essex
Posts: 486
Thanked 1,416 Times in 368 Posts
Hello again Jon. I will try and post a picture next weekend. It is too dark now and work is quite busy this week so I will probably not see my house in the light! My estimated output is 3301Kw . (where does the 1kw on the end come from???) So far we have produced 75Kw with somedays making nothing at all. Obviously not the best time of year to be starting.
Thanks for all your help
Where in the country are you?

poppysarah

celerity wrote: »

Put another way, a couple with no children who work away from home will be saving relatively nothing during the day

Is there a demand for a device timer that switches things on when it's really sunny?

Loading the washer and dishwasher on a timer would be a great way of using free electric during the day.

celerity

poppysarah wrote: »

Is there a demand for a device timer that switches things on when it's really sunny?

Loading the washer and dishwasher on a timer would be a great way of using free electric during the day.

There probably is, but you wouldn't really need one for a dishwasher or washing machine - a normal timer would do nearly as well (providing you could rig the appliance to go into its cycle when turned on at the mains).
The reason is that you have to do washing anyway, and they don't pull that much energy in the grand scheme of things. So even if your panels couldn't quite power them fully on a cloudy day, you'd still be saving money compared to running them at night.

Put another way, if you timed them to go off at 11:30 and 12:30 respectively (when the sunlight is at max power) you'd be guaranteed to save money, even if there were the odd cloudy day.

The challenge lots of us are thinking about is how to use appliances for free that *aren't* needed, but have a benefit. One example given was to run an immersion heater, but this pulls much more power than a dishwasher or washing machine, so the panels would have to be nearly full power to run it for free - and this would only happen on days you wouldn't really need the heating .
Also, due to the way solar power works in practise, you'd often be in a situation where they couldn't quite run the immersion, so you'd have to use national grid electricity to run it, costing you money.

A better idea (in my opinion) would be to try and run pond filters, charge up a battery for outside lighting or maybe help out a hot tub heater.

All of these applications could benefit from a switch that activates when the sun is out. The problem though is that such a device would be likely to cost more than you could ever hope to save inside of its lifetime. It also wouldn't be perfect, as it wouldn't know the output from your panels or your current usage.

In my opinion, the best way to maximise the use of your daytime electricity would be to run a home-automation system controlled by a computer. This would need to know how much energy is available (solar output minus current house usage) and then switch things on accordingly, either via wi-fi or mains power networking. Again though, unless you had lots of the necessary kit lying around, and were a half decent programmer, the cost would likely be prohibitive.

/\dam

zeupater

celerity wrote: »

There probably is, but you wouldn't really need one for a dishwasher or washing machine - a normal timer would do nearly as well (providing you could rig the appliance to go into its cycle when turned on at the mains).
The reason is that you have to do washing anyway, and they don't pull that much energy in the grand scheme of things. So even if your panels couldn't quite power them fully on a cloudy day, you'd still be saving money compared to running them at night.

Put another way, if you timed them to go off at 11:30 and 12:30 respectively (when the sunlight is at max power) you'd be guaranteed to save money, even if there were the odd cloudy day.

The challenge lots of us are thinking about is how to use appliances for free that *aren't* needed, but have a benefit. One example given was to run an immersion heater, but this pulls much more power than a dishwasher or washing machine, so the panels would have to be nearly full power to run it for free - and this would only happen on days you wouldn't really need the heating .
Also, due to the way solar power works in practise, you'd often be in a situation where they couldn't quite run the immersion, so you'd have to use national grid electricity to run it, costing you money.

A better idea (in my opinion) would be to try and run pond filters, charge up a battery for outside lighting or maybe help out a hot tub heater.

All of these applications could benefit from a switch that activates when the sun is out. The problem though is that such a device would be likely to cost more than you could ever hope to save inside of its lifetime. It also wouldn't be perfect, as it wouldn't know the output from your panels or your current usage.

In my opinion, the best way to maximise the use of your daytime electricity would be to run a home-automation system controlled by a computer. This would need to know how much energy is available (solar output minus current house usage) and then switch things on accordingly, either via wi-fi or mains power networking. Again though, unless you had lots of the necessary kit lying around, and were a half decent programmer, the cost would likely be prohibitive.

/\dam

Hi

To save my fingers I'll just provide a link as washing during the day with timers has been raised before ..... http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=39448174&postcount=889

It's a lot more complex than many would first think ....

HTH
Z