Renewables: "talking 'bout my generation"

ajbell

Only 3 days into this now.


I have a question about my hot water tank.
I have always used my gas boiler to heat the water tank but now
have the iboost to use solar power to operate the immersion element.
I only have one thermostat on the water tank and know that this works for the boiler but it seems to heat beyond this setting when
the iboost kicks in and i have yet to see the "water hot" display on the iboost.

pinnks

You can only divert excess to the hot water tank when there is an excess. At this time of year that won't happen that often. I need about 2-3kWh per day to heat my water. In the last 7 days I have only generated enough to divert 4.5kWh, so have perhaps seen water hot on one day.

In that same period I have generated 20kWh, exported 1 and used the rest to power the house. I have also imported 70kWh to keep the house running!

Compare that with a single day in July and you might generate 25kWh, heat the water, power the house and still export 10kWh or more. Over a week you will probably export 50% of what you generate, even with a diverter.

Welcome to the seasonal world of PV...

edwink

ajbell wrote: »

Only 3 days into this now.
I have a question about my hot water tank.
I have always used my gas boiler to heat the water tank but now have the iboost to use solar power to operate the immersion element. I only have one thermostat on the water tank and know that this works for the boiler but it seems to heat beyond this setting when the iboost kicks in and i have yet to see the "water hot" display on the iboost.

At this time of year you may find that you are only covering your base load so there will not be any spare generated electric to divert to your hot water tank. Our iBoost is rarely switching on at the moment because of our low generation amount. When the generated electric is diverting to the water tank the iBoost will read "Heating by Solar". To see this you will need to press the first button on the left and the display will light up for a while so you can read it. As a rule you will only see "water Hot" in the summer months and a few months either side of that.

Not sure about the heating beyond the setting though. Someone else should be able to help you with that.

Hope that is of some help.

Edwink

legoman62

Oscargrouch wrote: »

Managed to nearly double yesterdays take: 0.48 O's today, what a rubbish time of year....no point fretting over it though.......

Only 0.425 O's here today:(

On the bright side I've got a FIT payment of nearly £400.00 due this week:T

Oscargrouch

ajbell wrote: »

Just 0.92 kwh today.

That would be 0.23 O's then.....

Managed to nearly double yesterdays take: 0.48 O's today, what a rubbish time of year....no point fretting over it though.......

7 more days before my FIT reading; last year was £252.51; currently at £249.21: too many pence and not enough £ for November....

michaels

ajbell wrote: »

Only 3 days into this now.


I have a question about my hot water tank.
I have always used my gas boiler to heat the water tank but now
have the iboost to use solar power to operate the immersion element.
I only have one thermostat on the water tank and know that this works for the boiler but it seems to heat beyond this setting when
the iboost kicks in and i have yet to see the "water hot" display on the iboost.

The immersion will have a thermostat, take off the plastic 'cap' and you will see it, it will have been factory set at about 65 degrees. Since getting the iBoost I have turned down the gas boiler hot water thermostat to 50 degrees and turned up the immersion to 75 degrees so that I will always have hot water at least 50 degrees but there is still a decent number of kwh (up to about 7 by my calcs) that I can store in the tank.

michaels

So I think I am going to go for a 'pension investment' second array. Even though it faces 16 degrees N of E and I will hardly use any of the output I still calculate it to return 8% pa over 20 years. Lets just hope we don't suddenly win the lottery and decide to move house.

4,250 for 4kwh 265w JA x 15 and 4000tl sunny boy.

ajbell

michaels wrote: »

The immersion will have a thermostat, take off the plastic 'cap' and you will see it, it will have been factory set at about 65 degrees. Since getting the iBoost I have turned down the gas boiler hot water thermostat to 50 degrees and turned up the immersion to 75 degrees so that I will always have hot water at least 50 degrees but there is still a decent number of kwh (up to about 7 by my calcs) that I can store in the tank.

Thanks, that explains what is happening then.
I will keep the thermostat for the gas boiler down to 50.
It explains why the water is hotter than usual and why the iboost keeps kicking in even though the water is up to the temperature set by the gas boiler thermostat.
It sent 4.5kw to the tank on friday.

edwink

0.42 O's for us today


Edwink

Markj1110

Half an "O" here yesterday.:(