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Renewables: "talking 'bout my generation"

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  • jevban
    jevban Posts: 199 Forumite
    edited 5 December 2013 at 11:01AM
    Shouldn't that middle one be SE (or possibly ESE)?
    I was just about to compliment you on the 'old school' spelling of rooves (albeit with typo) then you go and 'correct' it to roofs! :doh:
    I'm presuming you're already on Economy 7, right?

    Hi Kernel..no to economy seven. Sorry for the correction of rooves..was reading one of the hundreds of threads and kept seeing roofs..so doubted myself !

    In respect of the direction..my compass is so temperamental...if I stand in the living room to the rear of the house..they are the readings they find me...who knows...I clearly don't ! The compass appears to be temperamental..to the rear facing, the four there show as SW, on the extension, the 4 show as S/SSE, the 6 on the upper side hip show as NW.

    Jan
  • EricMears
    EricMears Posts: 3,308 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    jevban wrote: »
    Sorry for the correction of rooves..was reading one of the hundreds of threads and kept seeing roofs..so doubted myself !

    Widespread ignorance doesn't make them correct :D

    How may horses' hoofs have you seen mentioned lately ? :rotfl:
    NE Derbyshire.4kWp S Facing 17.5deg slope (dormer roof).24kWh of Pylontech batteries with Lux controller BEV : Hyundai Ioniq5
  • EricMears
    EricMears Posts: 3,308 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    jevban wrote: »
    In respect of the direction..my compass is so temperamental

    Luckily, there's a free one available to all. It's a big yellow thing which hovers due South at (true) noon - though alas is seldom seen at this time of year:mad:

    True Noon depends on where you live. If you happen to be in the London Borough of Greenwich it's at exactly 12:00 (or 13:00 BST). For anywhere else not on the Greenwich Meridian, find your local Noontime from longitude - it will be 4mins after 12:00 GMT for every degree you are West of GM (or of course 4mins before for every degree East - not that there are a lot of places apart from E Kent) very far E)
    NE Derbyshire.4kWp S Facing 17.5deg slope (dormer roof).24kWh of Pylontech batteries with Lux controller BEV : Hyundai Ioniq5
  • Martyn1981
    Martyn1981 Posts: 15,382 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    jevban wrote: »
    Hi Kernel..no to economy seven. Sorry for the correction of rooves..was reading one of the hundreds of threads and kept seeing roofs..so doubted myself !

    In respect of the direction..my compass is so temperamental...if I stand in the living room to the rear of the house..they are the readings they find me...who knows...I clearly don't ! The compass appears to be temperamental..to the rear facing, the four there show as SW, on the extension, the 4 show as S/SSE, the 6 on the upper side hip show as NW.

    Jan

    Hiya Jan, hope you're all well.

    (Right - this is technically about generation, so apologies to those who think I'm going a bit off thread)

    A few tips and concerns. Firstly, it's not ideal to have different orientations (and/or even pitches) on the same inverter, as the panels not in the sun (as well) at any given time, can drag down the generation of the other panels.

    Now, the solution is to put the differing panels onto different MPPT's, which in your case is great for the NW, as your inverter is a dual inverter. But ...... presumably the other 2 sets of panels are sharing the second MPPT, and that could reduce generation a bit.

    Please don't worry, and I hesitated to mention this (and why I sort of asked before, as this was concerning me a bit) before as I thought the orientations were very similar.

    It might be worth you working out a guesstimate of generation, so that you can monitor it, and see if it's working ok.

    So, secondly, how to do this. Well this thread post #1, section 5 gives you a walkthrough:

    https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3872445

    but with three orientations you may find this tricky. If you want some help, send me a PM with your approx location (nearest city or if you don't mind first half of the postcode) and I'll have a go. But ideally I'd need approx pitches, and fairly accurate orientations.

    So, thirdly, have another go at the orientations, you can download free compass apps for a smart phone or pad, but avoid holding these near to leccy sockets, as it will throw out the readings (guess how I know that!). Hold the device against a wall that points in the same direction as the panels, or maybe line up with floor tiles etc.

    Once you've got an annual (and monthly) target, you can start seeing how it's going. But even that ain't easy, as generation varies, and local weather can change things a lot too, so it might take a few months, and some chatting on here to get a good feel. But worth doing in case you need to go back to the installers if it's underperforming.

    Worst case, we'll find you some solutions/suggestions (famous last words).

    Have fun.

    Mart.
    Mart. Cardiff. 8.72 kWp PV systems (2.12 SSW 4.6 ESE & 2.0 WNW). 20kWh battery storage. Two A2A units for cleaner heating. Two BEV's for cleaner driving.

    For general PV advice please see the PV FAQ thread on the Green & Ethical Board.
  • Kernel_Sanders
    Kernel_Sanders Posts: 3,617 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    edited 5 December 2013 at 2:17PM
    EricMears wrote: »
    Widespread ignorance doesn't make them correct :D

    How many horses' hoofs have you seen mentioned lately ? :rotfl:

    Indeed, there are certainly some gooves on MSE :D

    Actually both spellings are allowable in British English. What do you use as the plural of proof, or even !!!!!!? :)
    It is one flash per watt and by timing those flashes you can calculate what is really happening.
    How is Jevban supposed to comprehend that when s/he can see hundreds of watts going through the meter during a flash and inbetween them as well? :doh:

    Jan, each flash simply indicates that another watt hour (Wh) has been recorded on your generation meter. (A Wh is an amount* of electricity that, e.g., will power a small mains radio for about 8 minutes, or a 2W LED light for 30.)
    If you have a stopwatch on your mobile phone, count how many flashes occur in 36 seconds of steady generation. This will give your output in hundreds of watts.

    *Can anyone think of a more appropriate word, maybe volume? Unit usually refers to 1000 Wh.
  • shafeeq
    shafeeq Posts: 973 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 500 Posts
    0.75 O's today. Pretty good compare to the windy day ...
  • jevban wrote: »
    Hi John and thanks...my import Meter is like your first picture. My export Meyer looks totally different..will try to take a photo and upload. The Meyer I was talking about is a 'currency cost' Meyer. I wasn't aware that I could calculate the wattage by monitoring the red flashes. God, this is going to take over my life! Anyway, the sky is thick cloud here in Runcorn today so the panels have not even raised a sleepy head as yet.

    Thanks for the info. People on here really are fabulous for information no solar company ever told me.

    Jan

    I don't think you have an export meter ?!?
    Do you mean a generation meter, something that started close to zero when the panels & inverter were first turned on ? It is the reading of that meter which gets you the FiT payment.

    You obviously have some sort of gizmo that tells you what the inverter "thinks" it is generating and also can be programmed to express this in money..

    I have such a gizmo but it is not to be trusted:desktop.png

    Don't you just love the illustrated output - because it can in theory be used to monitor multiple inverters,
  • jevban
    jevban Posts: 199 Forumite
    edited 5 December 2013 at 7:35PM
    Sorry for some of the typos on my responses..My tablet has predictive text and its often when I re read my entries I can see the glaring errors, ie Meyer instead of meter.

    Jan
  • jevban
    jevban Posts: 199 Forumite
    Hi yes, it is a generation Meter. I was working away during the install hence my actual lack of knowledge. I was sent at really short notice on training...couldn't have been a worse time really. Hey ho, will just pick the brains of you lovely people.

    Jan x
  • tunnel
    tunnel Posts: 2,601 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    jevban wrote: »
    Hey ho, will just pick the brains of you lovely people.

    Jan x

    Would be nice to add a thanks sometimes when you pick the brains of these lovely people, it costs nothing but gives us a nice warm feeling inside that we're helping someone and feel appreciated;)
    2 kWp SEbE , 2kWp SSW & 2.5kWp NWbW.....in sunny North Derbyshire17.7kWh Givenergy battery added(for the power hungry kids)
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