Renewables: "talking 'bout my generation"

Oscargrouch

Rheumatoid wrote: »

Back down to earth - 0.35!

With a bigger bump than me; thank goodness..0.96 O's.....

carbry

dull and wet in lincolnshire today a miserable 0.675 O's

edwink

Exiled_Tyke wrote: »

I thought I was badly off with 0.56 but I now consider myself lucky.

Snap - 0.56 O's for us too

Edwink

Merlin139

0.75 O's here.

1 ray of Sun poked out of the cloud around 13:00 for 10 mins bar that rain and cloud!

jonokimber

Dear All

Once i've got the hang of Suncalc I'll take requests for sun azimuth, elevation and on special occasions I'll even sort the clouds out for you all.

Onto plan b for posting my flat top gen curve. please add 3 w's and a dot to the line of text below and let me know what you think?

dropbox.com/s/hexvznylg6ia7as/Solar%2015%20Feb%202016%20.png?dl=0

In keeping with the theme 0.5 O's for me today. It was windy, warm but very thick cloud.

Jono

jonokimber

DREKLY wrote: »

Hi Jonokimber, I see you have a Growatt inverter, and I only recently started another thread concerning a friend who had a 3.2Kw installation using a 3.6 K Growatt, and was asking if anyone had any experience of one, and you popped up!
His is fitted in the loft, so he hasn't easy access to it, but more to the point, I see you have a dongle to communicate to it?

Can you explain how that works, please, and what info can be accessed remotely, either via a smartfone or laptop, thanks !

That information may be of great help, as all he can see is the TGM meter...

(the recent thread was "Split East/West installation in New Forest" , you may find his production estimates of interest too, albeit from a smaller array)

It took some setting up as it was a bit quirky but it gives a lot of info and i'll explain more in the relevant thread you mention...

Oscargrouch

jonokimber wrote: »

Dear All
Onto plan b for posting my flat top gen curve. please add 3 w's and a dot to the line of text below and let me know what you think?
dropbox.com/s/hexvznylg6ia7as/Solar%2015%20Feb%202016%20.png?dl=0

Jono

Here you go Jono this is easier....

jonokimber

Top job Oscar thanks.:T So, onto my original question, does anyone think it's a bit flat from about 9am to 1pm? Between those times there is zero shading, that's for sure. My panels are 35 degrees incline from the ground. 2 strings of 7 @ 285w, one above the other. Maybe there's a problem with one panel and a string is being affected, who knows? When the sun is next shining i'll get the ladder to the loft and check the display on the inverter to see the individual string data etc.

Crowmann

Why do folk tolerate the inverter being put in the loft?


It makes the job easier for installers but is easily the worst place for an inverter - a loft can pass 50 degrees C in high summer! These things need to be kept cool, secondarily any heat source should be kept inside the habited space for efficiency?


Plus you cannot easily read the panel or be aware of a fault prompt.


My installers naturally wanted to fit in the loft - that idea went straight in the bin, as did most of the others including fitting the brackets to the racking over the slate!

Martyn1981

Crowmann wrote: »

Why do folk tolerate the inverter being put in the loft?

It makes the job easier for installers but is easily the worst place for an inverter - a loft can pass 50 degrees C in high summer! These things need to be kept cool, secondarily any heat source should be kept inside the habited space for efficiency?

Plus you cannot easily read the panel or be aware of a fault prompt.

Hiya. Like everything in life, nothing is that simple. Firstly those high temps relate to sun on slate/tile not ambient temps, so by blocking the direct sunlight with ...... say ..... PV panels, you will only really get ambient temps. But still quite high. [Obviously, if you have a massive south facing roof, only partially covered in panels, then it will still get dam hot.]

Next, I have an insulated loft, and a Velux which gets vented or cracked (opened 1 or 2 inches) for most of the BST period, so no high temps.

Also, depends on the inverter. In my loft I have a SE2200 which is around 97/98% efficient. But in my downstairs loo (northern side of house) I have my SMA's which are 92% and 95% efficient, giving off proportionately 2 to 4 times as much waste heat.

Also (lots of also's, sorry!) the loft inverter reports all data to the SolarEdge monitoring site so I can see it easily, though I do have stairs for a simple visual inspection too.

Also (last time) the loft is a simple location for installation and panel cabling, so whilst temp and accesability may be issues, there is a logical reason for it as a first choice, though a better cooler location may be worth considering.

Back to gen, got a lovely 0.29 O's yesterday, woohoo!

Mart.