Solar Panel Guide Discussion

zeupater

oldskoo1 wrote: »

Thanks Orrey, i do have an electric company car coming shortly which i will be able to charge during the day as i work from home a lot.

I suspect this will capture most of what would normally be exported, i suspect it will also drop our hot water generation too so i will have to see what happens there.

Hi

Are you (/the company) looking at metering the EV charge and claiming it back on expenses ??

HTH
Z

oldskoo1

zeupater wrote: »

Hi

Are you (/the company) looking at metering the EV charge and claiming it back on expenses ??

HTH
Z

We looked into this and the accountant concluded it is probable that we could claim it as a legitimate expense by taking the meter readings.

From what i can remember electricity is not classed as a fuel and therefore attacks no BiK.

But ultimately i think he calculated the saving to be around £10 per month if i did 10k miles.

I can't quite remember as it was a few months ago we had this discussion.

I think his words were, for the little you save relatively speaking for the extra time spent logging it all and us doing the paperwork, it probably isn't worth it. And my accountant is usually pretty on the ball!

orrery

oldskoo1 wrote: »

Thanks Orrey, i do have an electric company car coming shortly which i will be able to charge during the day as i work from home a lot. I suspect this will capture most of what would normally be exported, i suspect it will also drop our hot water generation too so i will have to see what happens there.

Electric car = great news.

I've not found it a problem - it depends on the capacity of the battery in the car and your usage. I charge the car and have hot water (almost) every day since the start of May.

I do have a 6 amp charger cable, which helps with solar.

oldskoo1

orrery wrote: »

Electric car = great news.

I've not found it a problem - it depends on the capacity of the battery in the car and your usage. I charge the car and have hot water (almost) every day since the start of May.

I do have a 6 amp charger cable, which helps with solar.

Is the 6amp cable to help with keeping the charge below 1.5kWh?

I should be able to set the car to 2kWh charge rate which should help but I should be able to strike a balance and 1.5kWh draw for the car might be it!

Thanks

orrery

oldskoo1 wrote: »

Is the 6amp cable to help with keeping the charge below 1.5kWh?

I should be able to set the car to 2kWh charge rate which should help but I should be able to strike a balance and 1.5kWh draw for the car might be it!

Thanks

Yes indeed. 2kW doesn't sound bad. The cost of a new cable is prohibitive if it isn't going to pay its way.

oldskoo1

Thoughts from recently

My 4kW South facing array is performing really well. Now I've spent more time in different weather conditions and looking at the data I noticed a few things.

I had an almost perfect day and I nearly got my perfect bell shaped graph, not quite due to late afternoon haze.

I ended the day 1.3kWh down on a nearby SE array. This particular array is doing pretty well on fine days and I wondered is this because their panels are cooler in the morning and therefore managing to hit and sustain a higher peak? On fine days this is.

The cloudless day I did just over 26kWh that's with a few dips late afternoon with haze/very light cloud and 23c ambient peak temps.

It really seems that the big scores are going to come with much cooler temps and light cloud. It was a cooler day I did 27.7kWh and I'm wondering if there is enough in there for a 30kWh day.

michaels

We have two similar quotes for solar PV

One offers q-cell panels and a SMA TL inverter
The other suntech or suntelite panels and an ABB inverter

I can look at the spec sheets and google the components but it doesn't really leave me any the wiser over whether either is superior....

Thanks

Herts, dual aspect roof, prices are 4.8k including diverter, does this sound reasonable?

pw22

I've got an SMA inverter and have no complaints - it does the job well.

Price sounds good. At the end of the day, I went with the supplier who I felt most confident with.

Martyn1981

michaels wrote: »

Herts, dual aspect roof, prices are 4.8k including diverter, does this sound reasonable?

If it's 4kWp (or close) then sounds like a great price.

Mart.

michaels

4kw - for the same price I could have 14 270w panels (3.78kw) which gives a slightly better split between the aspects but given it is 2 aspect and thus I am not going to be getting the full output at any time I think going for the maximum nominal wattage makes sense.