Renewables: "talking 'bout my generation"

EricMears

ispookie666 wrote: »

Still waiting for a perfect clear sunny day.

You don't really want one of them ! On such a day the generation will indeed shoot up to a peak but will then drop back as the panels warm up. It's against all 'common sense' but a few shady periods during the day will help panels cool down a bit and hence give a better total output.

theboylard

Apologies all, been away for a few days.
I've got a note from my Mum?

In reverse order, starting with today....

3.966 ho's
4.995 ho's
3.215 ho's

Still has us ahead of the game, so all good!

Oscargrouch

A/an disastrous day today...4.40 O's......

edwink

2.03 ho's .... Weds
4.19 ho's .... Thur
3.82 ho's .... Fri
4.90 ho's .... Sat
5.12 ho's .... Sun


Edwink

jrfarrim

Been away for the last 2 weeks, but July was my first full month.


Finished with 608kwh, 122 O's. 110% of PVGIS target.

Markj1110

4.66 O's yesterday, best day again this month! Quite hopeful for today unless the rain comes!

Paino7

Hi, loving this thread - very useful for helping me work out whether worth investing...can anyone with a fair bit of shading (esp. chimneys) tell me how they're getting on relative to PVGIS? Either with or without solardege/micros. Thanks!

Sterlingtimes

Paino7 wrote: »

Hi, loving this thread - very useful for helping me work out whether worth investing...can anyone with a fair bit of shading (esp. chimneys) tell me how they're getting on relative to PVGIS? Either with or without solardege/micros. Thanks!

I have trees around the property resulting in considerable shading which becomes apparent when I look at the daily time/kW charts. However, with the micro inverters in my case the shading does not preclude my achieving results that over achieve on PVGIS. My shading occurs at times when production would be lower, i.e. early to mid morning and a little late evening. The micro inverters appear to accommodate the situation well. The very high MTBFs of the micro inverters should offset the concern about have electronics on the roof. There are various opinions about how to address shading. Other posters have followed differing approaches including in one case chimney removal.

theboylard

Paino7 wrote: »

Hi, loving this thread - very useful for helping me work out whether worth investing...can anyone with a fair bit of shading (esp. chimneys) tell me how they're getting on relative to PVGIS? Either with or without solardege/micros. Thanks!

Have exceeded PVGIS now for the past 8 months, with only the last 6 being solaredge enabled.

A recap for you...

Had a few quotes and went with a localish co to me who offered 16 x ecofuture Black on black panels, sma sunnyboy 3300 and all the extra gubbins needed (roof mount system, cabling, dc and ac switches, labels etc.) plus a Geo Solo PV monitor, all in for £5500, installed 21/3/14.

When the co (and everyone else) came to quote initially, I pointed out my chimney and asked if the shade would cause an issue - only one said it may and they quoted for enecsys micro inverters (glad I didn't go with enecsys as they went bust) to combat the shading, with a hefty £7900 price tag.

So, all installed and noticed a big drop in generation after 2pm, even in April. Spoke to installer and they offered to add 4 standalone optimisers to the affected panels for a price. I felt they hadn't listened to my initial concerns, so wasn't keen on having half a solution.

So, I sourced some SolarEdge optimisers (46 actually, from a failed commercial project) for a stunning price, with a solaredge key too (which I didn't need but is worth £60 on it's own!), and a brand new but older software version SolarEdge se3500 inverter, uk model for less than if I'd bought with an install.

I then spoke to several installers about fitting and swapping the inverters, discovering there is an awful lot of misinformation and back covering out there, this went on for a few months.

FYI, and anyone else reading this, you can change every element of an install, except the panels themselves, and it has no effect on your FiT qualification.

So, decided better the devil you know and asked the original installer for a price.
It was doable and so my solaredge retro-fit happened on the 28/1/15.

There were some issues around the install which lead to some dodgy accusations which has resulted in me unable to recommend the installer - I'll happily tell privately and I have evidence and witnesses why.

Within the week I could see the difference in generation and there are some pics below to show the damage a bit of shading can do, but with a properly specced system, any roof can be sorted - but it is cheaper to do it on install than after.

warrenb

So today was pretty gloomy so only 2.95 Os