Renewables: "talking 'bout my generation"

Merlin139

Another nice-ish day for January. Late starter due to some mist for the first hour.

9.49 kWh or 2.39 O's

ggmf

presty1822 said:

Yeah - I've got Tigo Optimisers. I basically mentioned that I have tree shading, particularly as the sun drops lower, and was told the optimisers would counter that - "generation is from hours of daylight not direct sunlight"

Not sure I can see what each panel is producing. I have a Solax inverter, so monitoring it on their website (solaxcloud.com) and inverter analysis appears to be broken down by arrays (PV1 & PV2). 

Did you not have the Cloud Connect with the Tigo's? (it is a separate add-on)  that enables you to see what each panel is generating.

ggmf

Rubbish day 0.3 & 0.184 O's

Chris_Type_R

ggmf said:

presty1822 said:

Yeah - I've got Tigo Optimisers. I basically mentioned that I have tree shading, particularly as the sun drops lower, and was told the optimisers would counter that - "generation is from hours of daylight not direct sunlight"

Not sure I can see what each panel is producing. I have a Solax inverter, so monitoring it on their website (solaxcloud.com) and inverter analysis appears to be broken down by arrays (PV1 & PV2). 

Did you not have the Cloud Connect with the Tigo's? (it is a separate add-on)  that enables you to see what each panel is generating.

+1 to having the cloud connect, you get per panel monitoring, the ability to play back values over the day to visualise what's happening. If you array has Tigos on each panel the monitoring software will report a computed value of your improvements due to having optimisers.

I added Tigos to my 2011 array - I have some shading issues early morning and late afternoon. Pre. 2022 there was a tree in the way which was removed Dec 2021. Tigos have according to their saving estimate 'reclaimed' 226.5kWh - of a total of 2.0MWh - this was between March and December 2022. Not a massive amount - more than enough to cover the capital cost on 2011 FIT agreement. 

Anyway, this is what you *might* need, if you don't have it already, and your optimisers are compatible - Tigo Cloud Connect Advanced (with TAP) (midsummerwholesale.co.uk)

ETA: 2.1 O's for me today. 26.5, month to date.

legoman62

Sunless here today. 0.3 O’s😡

presty1822

Chris_Type_R said:

Anyway, this is what you *might* need, if you don't have it already


 

Thank you. Assuming you *'d might, as the only real reason of forking out £210 is for piece of mind i.e. working correct?
Or would having the software and seeing flaws in the analysis enable me to change anything?

Your generation on a smaller and older system is the exact envy I mentioned in my OP :-D 

ggmf

I wanted to (1) Visualise what each individual panels production is and (2) be able to identify if I have a problem and which panel may be causing it. Here is the manual, https://midsummerwholesale.co.uk/pdfs/tigo-manual-cca-tap-ts4.pdf, I had a problem when my system was 1st installed, quickly identified using the Tigo monitoring solution. Comparing with @Chris_Type_R's figures, mine shows 575kWh reclaimed from 3.89MWh so far

Chris_Type_R

presty1822 said:

Chris_Type_R said:

Anyway, this is what you *might* need, if you don't have it already


 

Thank you. Assuming you *'d might, as the only real reason of forking out £210 is for piece of mind i.e. working correct?
Or would having the software and seeing flaws in the analysis enable me to change anything?

Your generation on a smaller and older system is the exact envy I mentioned in my OP :-D 

Monitoring is nice to have - it's something I didn't have in the past. To a degree it protects you from a single panel developing a fault and this going unnoticed for months.

Ultimately, having the knowledge might prove frustrating too - maybe not knowing is better, unless you're prepared to act on the info. In my case (my array is on a ground floor roof), I was able to use the information to rearrange the panels such that the weakest generators were placed in the most compromised positions - I also moved the entire array up and sideways a couple of tiles and swapped rows such that the top and most exposed row now has the most panels. Having per panel monitoring also in my case helped identify which trees could do with trimming back. 

I DIY'ed my changes - having a professional in, with scaffolding etc in the current market would be quite pricey. 

ETA: I know that I have one panel which is underperforming (maybe 10% less than the rest), but I doubt there is any remedial action I can take - it'd be hard to find a replacement - especially as the panels are covered by a FIT agreement. 

Coastalwatch

0.34 & 0.3 O's for the last two days, so consistent at least I guess.

ggmf

Another poor day: 0.3 & 0.192 O's