Saving money after Solar Panel Installation

doodledooy

Last week I had solar panels installed, about 18 of them. I have been advised that I need to use my electric appliances separately throughout the day to use the power that is being generated from the panels.

I heat my water using gas, however I do have an immersion heater. I am considering turning this off (gas powered water heating) and switching on my immersion heater during the day, when I am not using my other big electrical appliances. Will my panels produce enough electricity to power my immersion heater?

Any advice welcome please

energysavingexp

not in this weather it wont even power your tv.
in summer time yes it will but in december my 4kw system at most only makes about 1kwh over the entire day.
so turning off the gas and using an immersion heater will cost you more.

Pennylane

Here on the sunny East Anglian coast we made 3.5 kw on several days last week. We did have some glorious sunshine. It's usually 2 or 2.5 most days though.

Martyn1981

Doodledoy, do you know the total size of the system, 18 panels would suggest somewhere between 3.2kWp and 4.5kWp depending on panel type.

You'll need some sort of energy monitor to get a feel for panel output. Give it a few months and you'll be an expert on your system.

Also do you know the power rating of the immersion, possibly 2 or 3 kW's.

Given the way panel output fluctuates rapidly depending on clouds, to avoid using import, you'd need to be reliably outproducing the immersion, and that is probably quite difficult at the best of times. In the autumn and winter months, next to impossible unfortunately.

You are absolutely spot on about running appliances separately. If you ran 4 appliances each at 1kW for an hour spread out, and your system was generating approx 1kW+ for those 4 hours, then you'd import little or no leccy. But if you ran them at the same time, you'd import 3kW's for 1 hour on top of your generation, then export the next 3kW's.

Hope that makes sense.

Enjoy, we're passed the solstice now, so average generation will keep on rising now till late June.

Mart.

energysavingexp

Martyn1981 wrote: »

we're passed the solstice now, so average generation will keep on rising now till late June.

Mart.

only going to get better now the shortest day has now gone dec 22 :j

Pennylane

Lighter much longer this afternoon.

Our panels were bathed in sunshine most of the day. I'm upstairs and the inverter's in the garage otherwise I'd check how much we made today.

Pennylane

It was over 4kw today:)

Brian99_2

Energysavingexpert ???

If you wanna be expert, please realise that your system is.... 4 kW peak... and it makes..... 1 kWh in a day.

I know it's a common mistake, the kWh thing.....but hell there is enough confusion anyway !!

rogerblack

Brian99 wrote: »

Energysavingexpert ???

If you wanna be expert, please realise that your system is.... 4 kW peak... and it makes..... 1 kWh in a day.

I know it's a common mistake, the kWh thing.....but hell there is enough confusion anyway !!

Err - no.
A 4kW system can quite easily make 1kW over most of the day, as it's not very sunny, and produce maybe 5kWh of power in 5 hours.

andy111

^^^

The comment related to the common confusion between peak power KWp and generation of KWh.

ie

my 4kwh system at most only makes about 1kw over the entire day.

and

If you wanna be expert, please realise that your system is.... 4 kW peak... and it makes..... 1 kWh in a day.

HalloweenJack

my system is currently outputting 1.2 kw - and so far generated 4.1 kwh today.

i can take a nice picture or 2 from the inverter to prove this