Renewables: "talking 'bout my generation"

Fruit_and_Nut_Case

shafeeq wrote: »

...Shame about the tree...

KevinG wrote: »

...My problem is a telegraph pole...

I have the shadows from next door's chimney and Sky dish sweeping their way across my panels each afternoon. I deliberately specified a SolarEdge inverter to minimise the problem.

shafeeq

Hi

Similar as yesterday 4.76kwh

shafeeq

Fruit_and_Nut_Case wrote: »

I deliberately specified a SolarEdge inverter to minimise the problem.

What's the advantage of SolarEdge inverter?

Shafeeq

Martyn1981

shafeeq wrote: »

What's the advantage of SolarEdge inverter?

Shafeeq

My 2kWp extension has a SolarEdge system, I also specifically went for it, as there would be varying shading/shadowing from all directions.

Each panel has it's own power optimiser (PO's) adding about £50/panel to total cost, so each panel can do it's best (or worse) without dragging the rest down to it's level.

I've got 8 panels, the one next to the chimney get's the most shade, and is the only one I've named (so far), Slim Shadey. Checking back on the web-site where you can monitor individual panel performance, I've often seen Shadey running at about 20W, whilst the other 7 are running at around 170W (with maybe a +/- range of 5W).

So if you had a telegraph pole shadow slowly travelling across your panels, using PO's would allow the other panels to run 'free' and only those in shade to be reduced, rather than a constant drag on the whole system/string.

Downside, I've got an additional 8 things that can go wrong, and they're up on the roof. Upside, the PO and inverter combo is about 98% efficient, the inverter is pretty cheap and has a 12 year standard warranty, and the PO's have 25 year warranties.

Mart.

John_Pierpoint

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SolarEdge

Martyn1981

John_Pierpoint wrote: »

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SolarEdge

Also if you YouTube it, you should find 3 short animations (about 10 mins in total) that explain it all, but please note these are commercial. So all claims are those made by the company.

So far my system is matching PVGIS climate predictions, despite a chimney and bay window roof both being to the south of my panels. But (again) it is only early days.

One last consideration (and this applies to all inverters with very high efficiencies) is that the inverter will generate less heat (less wastage) so options for location may be greater. Comparing my SE2200 at 97.5% to my SB1200 at 91% means that for any given generation the SE produces only a quarter of the heat.

Mart.

KevinG

8.22kWh yesterday, mostly sunny.

SolarEdge would have been nice for the telegraph pole, but it's really only a winter problem and seems to cost me less than 10% of PVGIS from November to January, so quite a small hit. But it is a bit annoying when that diagonal shadow appears across the end panel at about 1pm and the output of the whole string drops.

Mind you, lots of things would have been nice, like 250W rather than 200W panels and a couple more up the middle of the roof - could probably have got the system up to 3kWp and got it for the same price (or less) if I'd shopped around. Still a good investment but not as good as it could have been.

John_Pierpoint

Martyn1981 wrote: »

Also if you YouTube it, you should find 3 short animations (about 10 mins in total) that explain it all, but please note these are commercial. So all claims are those made by the company.

So far my system is matching PVGIS climate predictions, despite a chimney and bay window roof both being to the south of my panels. But (again) it is only early days.

One last consideration (and this applies to all inverters with very high efficiencies) is that the inverter will generate less heat (less wastage) so options for location may be greater. Comparing my SE2200 at 97.5% to my SB1200 at 91% means that for any given generation the SE produces only a quarter of the heat.

Mart.

Probably increases inverter life too - taking the analogy of my light fittings where some ceiling embedded ones started as 100w, dropped to 80W and are now about 18w.
They are about 35 years old and not only has the heat turned the PVC into something solid rather than flexible it has also made the copper cable more brittle.

shafeeq

Hi

Better then last few days.. 7.95kwh

sly_dog_jonah

A mixed start to the week but can't be too unhappy with a 7.3, 5.8 and a barnstorming 19kWh yesterday. Already notched up 7kWh this morning so looking good for a ~20kWh day with cloudless skies and a nice cool breeze. September to date is 35% above PVGIS Classic pro-rata.