Quotes and install questions

Zarch

You know, i'm a bit worried that I miscalculated the amount of time that my 5.1 installation will clip and max out the 3.68 inverter.

If its doing this on a partly cloudy/sunny day in mid October, what is it going to be like in mid summer?

With a 0.9 / 4.2 split I thought it might only get there for an hour or so on good days.... but it looks like the install is going to do better than I thought. From what I've seen in this first week or so since install it looks like it could reach the highs for long periods.

Obviously nothing I can do now, the £300 Northern Power DNO application fee and the £100 extra for the 5kWh inverter didn't seem worth it, even over 20 years.... but now i'm not so sure, maybe it could have made the investment back? :huh:

And I do wonder what highs it could reach without the cap of the inverter.

Martyn1981

Zarch wrote: »

You know, i'm a bit worried that I miscalculated the amount of time that my 5.1 installation will clip and max out the 3.68 inverter.

Hi. Today and tomorrow might be a good guide as we are due loads of sunshine. Your graph looks excellent, but obviously generation is varying, suggesting clouds, so the cold temps (now, and again in Mch/April) will give high figures.

I'm guessing that the 4.2kWp array might hold 3.68kW if the temps are low enough, so a couple of fun days before we slide into poorer autumnal generation.

As for uncapped peaks - I'm guessing but I'd have thought over 4.2kW briefly in cold temps and if there are clouds to give bursts every so often.

Should make for an interesting graph post today/tomorrow?

JKenH

Hi Zarch

I wouldn’t worry too much. A guy 100yds from me has a 4kw solar edge system that through the summer was making 7 Os yet only peaking at about 3.4kw on those days with a perfect curve. See this link

https://pvoutput.org/intraday.jsp?id=42476&sid=44174&gs=0&dt=20180622

I have only had my system 3 months so I have little experience but I do find I get some very good peaks this time of year between the clouds and less when there is sustained sunshine.

Thanks for uploading the graph, it would be great to see more of these. ( Off topic how do you load photos, I can only add links from my iPad. Rather than drag the thread off topic, can you or anyone else please pm me with a solution.)

Zarch

Since the demise of the likes of photobucket, i've resorted to using Flickr to host photos/images to share on forums. Thankfully Flickr is still free too.

Upload the image you want to share to Flickr. You need to then copy/paste the BBCode of the photo into the forum post.

Some good instructions are explained here.

https://thelabradorforum.com/threads/posting-a-photo-from-flickr-update.10872/

EricMears

JKenH wrote: »

Off topic how do you load photos, I can only add links from my iPad. Rather than drag the thread off topic, can you or anyone else please pm me with a solution.)

No need for a PM, it's very straightforward.

Here's a screendump of the message entry form (if you can't see something similar you may need to click on "Go Advanced") :-



Just click on the Insert Image icon (circled in red above) and follow the prompts.

N.B. your image has to exist somewhere else on the internet. I'm using a school site which I run, if you don't have similar access you may need to upload to a photo sharing site.

P.S. just noticed it's also available on the 'quick reply' form

Zarch

So after a few months of studying my new system I don't think my multi aspect lends itself to hitting averages/predictions through the winter months.

The sun is so low that 3 of the 17 panels at the side of the house don't see any sunshine through the day.

Plus the rear of the two panels on the flat roof are being put in partial shadow by the two panels directly in front because the sun is so low.

So to get the best out of my system I really need to get that sun higher up in the sky to stop all these pesky shadow....... that could be months away?

But my systems a prime example for Solar Edge and separate PO's though eh?

Any good websites for 'sun angles'? When will it get high enough for me?



Here is Monday, which was 2.2 O for 273% of January daily average. Almost as good as it gets this time of year by everyone's report.

Ignore the 3 x zeroes as the monitoring is playing up (call logged with Solar Edge). But you can see the three panels on the side barely doing anything.

And you can see the four panels at the top, those are the flat roof ones. Look how the back ones are struggling with the sun so low.

All very interesting seeing how your system performs as the sun moves around etc.

Zarch

oooh, found this..... very interesting.... give it a month and lets see if the sun is high enough to fully hit those back flat roof panels.