Solar Panel Guide Discussion

jetski690

I've got two generation meters and on the fit application form it said about having two meters and at time of billing you just total the two together for the one reading so no it should not be a problem otherwise I'm in the brown stuff.

zeupater

lanstrom wrote: »

Thanks.

Roof angle is about 30 degs. House is 177 deg south.

I am in north east Birmingham.

Also the voltage on the PDF he attached says 30.7v RPP220 UM60 not UM96.

Hi

I'll reserve judgement on the figures, but according to SMA SunnyDesign 2 software ........

Birmingham, 30 Deg Roof, South -3Degrees, SB4000TL Inverter, 4kWp panels.

18 x REW220 = 4001.9kWh/y
16 x Sanyo HIT240HDE4 = 3298.9kWh/y
16 x Sharp NUE-245(J5) = 3356.3kWh/y

... it is still my personal opinion is that the data describing panel performance in the SMA database is incorrect .... I cannot find reference to the Premium Plus UM60 panels on the REW site, only the UM96, so I can't check the database entry against the spec sheet ....

Also the MCS database doesn't contain the 230W version you first mentioned, however, that's not a surprise as the MCS seem to be pretty useless at administration of their consumer dataset ... they might as well take it off-line for all the use it is ....

If I were looking at this system and paying a premium for the panels, I'd get some cast iron enhanced performance guarantee with appropriate penalties built into the supply contract, or go for something else ......

HTH
Z

(As an afterthought, it would be interesting to have a set of panels to test against/alongside my system .... anyone from REW or a distributor reading this thread ?? )

zeupater

Greenfingers3 wrote: »

I have been looking at getting Solar PV panels installed on our home. I was wondering about having some of the panels on an outbuilding and some on the roof of the house. This would mean there would be two generation meters. Can anyone see any pitfalls in having two generation meters?

Thanks for your help.

Hi

You can have multiple inverters, or a single inverter with multiple MPPTs, depending on the length of the DC run to the outbuilding.

Multiple inverters will connect to the grid and your house supply through a single 'total generation' meter.

HTH
Z

Greenfingers3

zeupater wrote: »

Hi

You can have multiple inverters, or a single inverter with multiple MPPTs, depending on the length of the DC run to the outbuilding.

Multiple inverters will connect to the grid and your house supply through a single 'total generation' meter.

HTH
Z

It would have to be two inverters as the outbuilding is quite a long way from the house. I am trying to understand how it would work as the house and outbuilding electrics are independant of each other they each have their own fusebox and each a seperate cable to the electricity meter.

Thanks

zeupater

Greenfingers3 wrote: »

It would have to be two inverters as the outbuilding is quite a long way from the house. I am trying to understand how it would work as the house and outbuilding electrics are independant of each other they each have their own fusebox and each a seperate cable to the electricity meter.

Thanks

Hi

My guess is that you'd probably have your total generation meter close to the current 'import' meter and Tee this and a new 'garage' dedicated pv consumer unit into the power tails to the existing meter with some henley blocks. The array on the outbuilding will need a new and separate AC cable to the new consumer unit/ generation meter, as would the system on the house .... your installers will provide details when they survey the site for quotation ....

HTH
Z

khris210

Of course my meter is legal, it was fitted by the Electricity board in 1914 (possibly!) I did inform NPower of this when I filled in the FITS form, as mentioned before there is a tick box for it. I doubt if they can claim the money back, after all I'm only paying for elect I actually use from them, and the 3p is part of FITS. I have no idea how long this will last, after all I said they'd never tax income but Boney made that possible. As SuperMac said when asked what his biggest problem in Government was,"Events, dear boy, events"

zeupater

khris210 wrote: »

Of course my meter is legal, it was fitted by the Electricity board in 1914 (possibly!) I did inform NPower of this when I filled in the FITS form, as mentioned before there is a tick box for it. I doubt if they can claim the money back, after all I'm only paying for elect I actually use from them, and the 3p is part of FITS. I have no idea how long this will last, after all I said they'd never tax income but Boney made that possible. As SuperMac said when asked what his biggest problem in Government was,"Events, dear boy, events"

Hi

It is very likely that your electricity supplier will estimate & claim the value of the reverse metered electricity .... there are already examples of this happening on other forums, so make sure that you allow for the eventuality.

As for the 'tick box', that's on the FiT form ... you don't expect the microgeneration department of any electricity supplier to actually communicate with another department, either in the same company, or a different one, this early in the process, do you ???:D

HTH
Z

lanstrom

zeupater wrote: »

Also the MCS database doesn't contain the 230W version you first mentioned, however, that's not a surprise as the MCS seem to be pretty useless at administration of their consumer dataset ... they might as well take it off-line for all the use it is ....

Is this the database you mentioned ? ...
http://www.microgenerationcertification.org/mcs-consumer/product-profile.php?ID=188367

Its really strange how there is no mention of the U60 model on REWs own web site. Even if it were an outdated panel I would still expect to see some mention of it.

I think expecting an output of 4002 kWh is expecting too much since no other panel gets anywhere near that

Also the UK distributor is registered at a small house in Hertfordshire and is also a film distributor (I dont know what sort of films !). Is that normal ?

zeupater

lanstrom wrote: »

Is this the database you mentioned ? ...
http://www.microgenerationcertification.org/mcs-consumer/product-profile.php?ID=188367

Its really strange how there is no mention of the U60 model on REWs own web site. Even if it were an outdated panel I would still expect to see some mention of it.

I think expecting an output of 4002 kWh is expecting too much since no other panel gets anywhere near that

Also the UK distributor is registered at a small house in Hertfordshire and is also a film distributor (I dont know what sort of films !). Is that normal ?

Hi

Yes, that's the MCS database ...... strange, I'm quite sure that the German manufacturer (REW Solartechnik GmbH. Dusseldorf, Germany.) didn't appear on the site when I searched the other day, only "REW Solartechnik GmbH trading as REW Solar UK Ltd.", either it's just been added, the database wasn't working properly a couple of days ago .... or I must get my eyes tested .

Regarding the panel output, I'd get the installer to query this with SMA and the manufacturer .... if they stand by the figure I'd be tempted to dump them and look somewhere else ....

HTH
Z

lanstrom

zeupater wrote: »

Hi

Yes, that's the MCS database ...... strange, I'm quite sure that the German manufacturer (REW Solartechnik GmbH. Dusseldorf, Germany.) didn't appear on the site when I searched the other day, only "REW Solartechnik GmbH trading as REW Solar UK Ltd.", either it's just been added, the database wasn't working properly a couple of days ago .... or I must get my eyes tested .

Regarding the panel output, I'd get the installer to query this with SMA and the manufacturer .... if they stand by the figure I'd be tempted to dump them and look somewhere else ....

HTH
Z

I have been trying to input my own panel specs into the SMA software but it just keeps telling me that I can not have that combination of values (even when I exactly copied the details for the 220W that are already in the software).

These are the specs for the 230W panels ...

REW Premium Plus RPP230 UM60
Rated power (Pmpp) - 230
Rated voltage (Umpp) - 30.5
Rated Current (lmpp) - 8.20
Open-circuit voltage (Uoc) - 37.3
Short circuit current (lsc) - 8.70
Cell efficiency - 17.4%
Module efficiency - 15.3%
Max voltage - 1000
Temperature coefficient (Uoc) - -0.35% / deg c
Temperature coefficient (Pmax) - -0.40% / deg c
Temperature coefficient (lsc) - 0.065% / deg c
Outer dimensions - 1637 x 997 x 46
Weight - 19.5Kg

Could you have a go see if you can get the details into the SMA software, if you get chance please ?

Thanks.