Renewables: "talking 'bout my generation"

EricMears

tunnel wrote: »

as Eric says above...only 15 days to go now

Not quite what I said.

15 days of getting worse; another 15 to get back to today's levels then hopefully steady improvement for next 5 & a bit months

tunnel

EricMears wrote: »

Not quite that bad ! Only 15 days till the winter solstice (potentially the very worst day) )

EricMears wrote: »

Not quite what I said.

15 days of getting worse; another 15 to get back to today's levels

And i said only 15 days to go now(14 actually now)

You say potato i say potarto, same difference:rotfl:

legoman62

1.05 O's yesterday

Wind has dropped and we've got sunshine here:D

John_Pierpoint

Oscargrouch wrote: »

56.72 kWh WOW what day was that then.....:rotfl:

Judging by the shape of the graph, that was just the morning;)
However it looks like something nasty like a thunderstorm must be gathering at lunch time, as it is well down from its peak power output of (say) 25kW

John_Pierpoint

Kernel_Sanders wrote: »

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.

For the sake of clarity but in danger of confusing things further.
When I grew up in the "white heat of technology" in the 1960s; the unified way of looking at the world was being promoted by the scientists, but as things have panned out we failed to realise the conservatism of commerce and the failure of the faith vested in men in white coats.
My schooling was a shambles of imperial, cgs, MKS and eventually SI units, at one stage maths was taught in funny things like foot poundals and horse power, and even chemistry & physics were in different units; but never mind most of us had flexible young brains and after all everyone had to cope with £-s-d. (Some flunked the physics "O" level, because we had been taught in calories but not really understood the unified theory underlying the questions, when calories failed to appear in the exam).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calorie

The watt is really power rate of working of one joule per second BUT the bills do not come in measured in joules, the time dimension has to be added back and we end up with kWh. Strictly speaking those red flashes are counting joules. So taking a simple example of one flash per second, we look at our digital watch and count one flash per second for a minute on the generation meter.
It does not matter much what the other meters and gizmos say, this is what we are getting paid as FiT. So we calculate 60 * 60 = 3.600 kWh assuming the rate of generation stays constant for an hour. Similarly after dark, we can hold the other parasitic uses of electricity constant and turn on a 3kW kettle and see if the rate of flashing increases by 60 flashes per minute.
I have been given a second hand "OWL" as a present, to feed my addiction (and torture my wife), by my mischievous children. I am pleased to say it is reasonably accurate even at low consumption levels. (It displays the electricity being used regardless of internal v external supply)


(my display is in kW with two decimal places).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joule
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watt

American commerce is a major barrier to the SI units being used in everyday commerce. I am amazed how soon our building industry accepted metric units, even though for a time there were funny expressions such as "metric feet". Over in the USA they do love their funny gallons, their short tons, their phew what a scorcher its over 100 temperatures and its effect on the bushels of corn in the harvest.
We get muddles like this:
http://www.which.co.uk/cars/driving/driver-tools/power-converter/questions

Unfortunately there us a large section of the population who don't want to understand and would rather focus on celebrity magazines & tarot cards to explain how their world works.

shafeeq

0.97 O's today

jevban

Hi folks. What is the minimum distance my panels should be from my roof edge? Have had problematic guttering since an install in June with rogue builders and since PV install noticed heavy dripping at side of the house. Bit the bullet today and having the guttering replaced by another company as the original suppliers are nothing more than threatening bullies and refuse to do ongoing remedial works. Anyhow, had the PV roofing guys out and they say there is sufficient distance. The guttering chap today asked to speak with me before he left and commented that he was concerned that the panels are right to the edge of the roof, but not overhanging the gutters.

I think that in heavy rain, water will flow off the top edge of the panels. What does anyone think please/or are there any suppliers lurking on the form with up to date knowledge on the rules and regulations please?

Thanks in anticipation

Jan x

Oscargrouch

John_Pierpoint wrote: »

(Some flunked the physics "O" level, because we had been taught in calories but not really understood the unified theory underlying the questions, when calories failed to appear in the exam).

Still going on John, even on this thread, some won't accept the O's.......

1.48 O's from my roof or roove today.......

Oscargrouch

jevban wrote: »

Hi folks. What is the minimum distance my panels should be from my roof edge? Have had problematic guttering since an install in June with rogue builders and since PV install noticed heavy dripping at side of the house. Bit the bullet today and having the guttering replaced by another company as the original suppliers are nothing more than threatening bullies and refuse to do ongoing remedial works. Anyhow, had the PV roofing guys out and they say there is sufficient distance. The guttering chap today asked to speak with me before he left and commented that he was concerned that the panels are right to the edge of the roof, but not overhanging the gutters.

I think that in heavy rain, water will flow off the top edge of the panels. What does anyone think please/or are there any suppliers lurking on the form with up to date knowledge on the rules and regulations please?

Thanks in anticipation

Jan x

I think there is a minimum distance to avoid wind lifting the panels, don't know what it is though. I am sure some one on here will inform you.....

jevban

Thanks...I've downloaded lots of building regs stuff, but want to be sure of my ground when arguing the point with the roofers.

Jan x