Renewables: "talking 'bout my generation"

KevinG

Better today, back to the 12s with 12.09 kWh (6.05 O's).

First 6 days of May 2012: 14.20 kWh.
First 6 days of May 2013: 62.26 kWh.

Martyn1981

tunnel wrote: »

Anyone got anymore one hit wonders(hopefully not your days generation)?

Bit of both:

5.38 O's (30kWh's) yesterday.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjPau5QYtYs

Mart.

jackieblack

Excellent start to the month :j, ranging from 4.5 to 7.2 'O's each day, averaging 6.23.
Another good day forecast today:) , but due to change starting tomorrow:(

silverwhistle

tunnel wrote: »

A tad over 6 O's today, plenty of washing, drying(on the line:D) and dishwasher x 2.

Just out of interest, what do you estimate your percentage of personal usage? I've just had an informal quote (no site visit possible yet) and the payback estimated 25% personal usage. I reckon I could do better as I'd be part-time/semi-retired and able to time my major usage but I'd be interested in other's experiences (immersion or not!).

tunnel

silverwhistle wrote: »

Just out of interest, what do you estimate your percentage of personal usage? I've just had an informal quote (no site visit possible yet) and the payback estimated 25% personal usage. I reckon I could do better as I'd be part-time/semi-retired and able to time my major usage but I'd be interested in other's experiences (immersion or not!).

Well I generated another 23kWh today. Out of that I probably exported most of it as we did all the washing yesterday. We don't have an immersion heater so no need to channel the excess in that direction. I'm not personally that bothered if I export it, as long as when i'm generating i'm not buying off grid at the same time. A simple look at the inverter and if there's 2-3 kwh being made then put summat on, ie washer or dryer or dishwasher, but never all together.

It's certainly brought my usage down, midsummer we only consume in the dark hours, no choice. That can be as little as 3kWh a night.

Tunnel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTsSk0r_Tq8

Dave_Fowler

silverwhistle wrote: »

Just out of interest, what do you estimate your percentage of personal usage? I've just had an informal quote (no site visit possible yet) and the payback estimated 25% personal usage. I reckon I could do better as I'd be part-time/semi-retired and able to time my major usage but I'd be interested in other's experiences (immersion or not!).

A lot will depend upon the size of your system. For example, a 3kWp system can be expected to produce an average of 12kWh per day in May. Some days will be around 20kWh, some 10kWh.

If you have a device such as an Immersun to push any excess generation into an immersion heater then 6 to 8 kWh per day will go to heat water. If your background load is around 400W then in the 10 good productive hours you will use a further 4kWh. So on a 'poor' day you will use 100% of the generation without resorting to doing dish-washing, clothes washing, lawn mowing etc. On a 'good' day, these extra activities will use some of the excess power.

So with a 3kWp system, you can expect to use well in excess of 50% without really trying if you have an Immersun device. However, without an Immersun, you would not be able to use a 3kW immersion heater as there would never be 3kW spare power and so your percentage use would drop considerably.

If you are using an Immersun, you won't use very much more power from a 4kWp - just a little extra in early morning and late evening, so the percentage use of generated power may well drop below 50%.. Without an Immersun, you could manually operate a 3kW immersion during peak generation to try to achieve a similar power usage on a 'good' day, but on a 'poor' day you would probably not be able to use much more than your base load.

Some people have fitted low power immersion heaters or are using step-down transformers to overcome these problems.

I've got a 6kWp system and today have produced 35kWh - a reasonably 'good' day. I have done quite a bit of 'unusual' power hungry work and have exported only 12kWh. Normally I would have expected to have exported far more.

Dave F

legoman62

Nice morning and early afternoon...til it turned cold and misty:(
4.87 O's tho:D

shafeeq

12.36 kwh or 4.12 O's today

silverwhistle

Thanks @Tunnel and @dave Fowler. My roof would probably only take 2.5kw (possibly 3), but there is a tank and it would be easy enough to put in a 1kw immersion heater, As I'm often home manual switching and selective usage would often be possible, and my main holiday is always in the winter.

As for 3kw overnight Tunnel, that seems quite a lot to me! Perhaps already being a low user, low energy bulbs, not having a TV etc, makes a difference. Ruined it a bit this evening my having two loads of the football team's kit to wash: it's not true that girls and women never sweat or get dirty and it wasn't on my normal low temperature!

Thanks again.

Oscargrouch

silverwhistle wrote: »

Thanks @Tunnel and @dave Fowler. My roof would probably only take 2.5kw (possibly 3), but there is a tank and it would be easy enough to put in a 1kw immersion heater, As I'm often home manual switching and selective usage would often be possible, and my main holiday is always in the winter.

As for 3kw overnight Tunnel, that seems quite a lot to me! Perhaps already being a low user, low energy bulbs, not having a TV etc, makes a difference. Ruined it a bit this evening my having two loads of the football team's kit to wash: it's not true that girls and women never sweat or get dirty and it wasn't on my normal low temperature!

Thanks again.

I have a 2.5 kWp system and my usage of Pv was as follows this year:-

My Energy Came from PV..... How Energy Gen was Used from PV
Jan - 17.83%...................... Jan 68.4%
Feb - 34.36% ......................Feb 68.1%
Mar - 41.78%.......................Mar 66.6%
Apr - 61.7%.........................Apr 58.8%

These figures are derived from a Wattson Energy Monitor and its associated Holmes software. To save you running back and forth switching an immersion heater on and off; the best way to go would be to fit an OptiPlug (Google & Read). But as Dave Fowler points out, the more you generate, chances are, the less you can use (pro rata). Unless you can switch something on for the H**l of it.

6.68 O's for Tuesday already made 39.09% of PVGIS for May in 7 days........