Solar Panel Guide Discussion

zeupater

Pedro1874 wrote: »

Anyone got any links to reviews from experienced owners? I would love to hear from anyone who has owned solar panels for a few years to hear about their results and income?

Hi

Okay, if you really want to blow your mind and become totally bewildered ... try these for starters ....

http://www.bdpv.fr/index_en.php
http://www.pvoutput.org/listteam.jsp?tid=110

... You'll be lucky to find many with systems much over 12 months old in the UK at the moment .... results & income, well I don't think I've seen any information on a system which has seriously underperformed expectation, so feed your location & details into PVGIS and see what you could expect to generate .... http://re.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pvgis/apps4/pvest.php ....

HTH
Z

moneyfool

Pedro1874 wrote: »

Anyone got any links to reviews from experienced owners? I would love to hear from anyone who has owned solar panels for a few years to hear about their results and income?

tons of info if you read all these pages but try this :-
http://www.uksolarcasestudy.co.uk/systems-in-detail
and this :-
http://www.celerity.co.uk/solar-pv.html
both gleaned from this site thread.

Cardew

Pedro1874 wrote: »

Anyone got any links to reviews from experienced owners? I would love to hear from anyone who has owned solar panels for a few years to hear about their results and income?

The current subsidy system - Feed in Tariff(FIT) - only started last year.

Pedro1874

moneyfool wrote: »

tons of info if you read all these pages but try this :-
http://www.uksolarcasestudy.co.uk/systems-in-detail
and this :-
http://www.celerity.co.uk/solar-pv.html
both gleaned from this site thread.

Both these sites exatly what I wanted to see. One quote from the Celerity company who have powered their office with sp since May this year seems very strange and would invite comments from other owners - "One thing that has become apparent is the negative effect on efficiency when the panels get too warm. So, on very hot clear days, we don't always generate as much as on cooler clear days, for example when there is a strong wind.":exclamati Actual and predicted enrgy/payment very interesting on the other website.

Pedro1874

Pedro1874 wrote: »

Both these sites exatly what I wanted to see. One quote from the Celerity company who have powered their office with sp since May this year seems very strange and would invite comments from other owners - "One thing that has become apparent is the negative effect on efficiency when the panels get too warm. So, on very hot clear days, we don't always generate as much as on cooler clear days, for example when there is a strong wind.":exclamati Actual and predicted enrgy/payment very interesting on the other website.

perhaps the answer is :
"As solar panels are not powered by heat, but by light, and are unaffected by outside air temperature, they will continue to generate power even during the winter months, as the panel will still be absorbing energy and converting it into electricity to be used within the home.
In fact, solar panels can be more effective during the winter months as the sky is clearer and light is able to reach the panel more easily.
Solar PV systems use photovoltaic cells to convert light into an electronic current. The photovoltaic cells draw in energy emitted from the sun and turn it electricity, meaning the electricity can be generated even when the sun is not shining directly on them."



Info from Solar feedin tariffs site.

Doc_N

Pedro1874 wrote: »

Anyone got any links to reviews from experienced owners? I would love to hear from anyone who has owned solar panels for a few years to hear about their results and income?

Cardew wrote: »

The current subsidy system - Feed in Tariff(FIT) - only started last year.

True, but there are some early adopters who put their panels in some time before that. I know a couple, and they're spitting feathers now.

furndire

When they say that panels produce electricity at low levels of light, they do, but when very low, it is not enough to wake up the invertor.
On that point does anyone know what is required to start the invertor. Ours is a fronius 4 (I think)

zeupater

Pedro1874 wrote: »

perhaps the answer is :
"As solar panels are not powered by heat, but by light, and are unaffected by outside air temperature, they will continue to generate power even during the winter months, as the panel will still be absorbing energy and converting it into electricity to be used within the home.
In fact, solar panels can be more effective during the winter months as the sky is clearer and light is able to reach the panel more easily.
Solar PV systems use photovoltaic cells to convert light into an electronic current. The photovoltaic cells draw in energy emitted from the sun and turn it electricity, meaning the electricity can be generated even when the sun is not shining directly on them."

Info from Solar feedin tariffs site.

Hi

But perhaps it's not .....

Solar pv panels are nominal output rated at a panel/cell temperature of 25C. For every 1C above the nominal rating they tend to lose ~0.5% efficiency and conversely below 25C they gain ~0.5%. On a really bright sunny summers day (anyone remember them ? :D) the panels are likely to be operating at around 45C, so a loss of generation of somewhere around 10%.

HTH
Z

John_Pierpoint

Doc_N wrote: »

True, but there are some early adopters who put their panels in some time before that. I know a couple, and they're spitting feathers now.

Some early adopters put them in 6 months before the FiT started. AND GOT A GRANT OF ABOUT 2,5k (I think) - Probably grinning all the way to the bank?

KevinG

John_Pierpoint wrote: »

Some early adopters put them in 6 months before the FiT started. AND GOT A GRANT OF ABOUT 2,5k (I think) - Probably grinning all the way to the bank?

But that's peanuts compared with what you earn from the FiT payments.