Solar Inverter Query

Telegraph_Sam

I have an Aurora Power One inverter. During daylight hours a green light comes on, and this disappears at night time. Is it as simple as that OR does the green light indicate that generation exceeds consumption (giving a net gain) at any one time?

Qyburn

Telegraph_Sam said:

.. does the green light indicate that generation exceeds consumption (giving a net gain) at any one time?

Unless your inverter has a CT clamp on your grid connection, it will only know how much power is being generated. It won't know whether that does or doesn't exceed your consumption. So the green LED may just mean it's generating something.

Telegraph_Sam

Tks for clarifying that

Telegraph_Sam

Interesting how the wee green light still seems to come on when it is almost but not quite dark.

Does the  amount generated depend on the strength of the daylight, or is it a binary off - on?

If I have solar panels (south facing) but no batteries, does it make sense to run appliances etc during the "peak" charging hours (counter intuitive), when the panels are producing, rather than during the "cheap" periods? Or does this depend on some clever balancing act guesswork between the no of kWh's produced vs the no consumed at any one time?

mmmmikey

Hi @Telegraph_Sam the amount the panels generate varies with the intensity of the sunshine / position of the sun in the sky etc. so you'll get more at midday in June than you will at midday in December even if it's a cloudless day with clear blue skies. Similarly, the amount the panels are output will steadily increase until the sun is directly overhead and then steadily decrease until the sun sets.

On my system the "wee green light" comes on whenever there is any generation at all, however small, and goes off when there's no generation.

As far as the best way to make the most of it is concerned, it really depends on what tariff you're on, both for import and export. If you could let me know which tarriff(s) you're on then I'll post a few basic guidelines as to what to do when to make the most of things which should get you started.

Telegraph_Sam

Thanks for that. For consumption I'm on Tracker Dec 2023 but have been "following" Agile April 2024 to see if there would be an advantage in changing. To date not.

I'm  on Octopus Outgoing Fixed for export only. FIT generation is with Scot Power. Not exactly simple. 

I suppose the logical way would be to attach a gismo that would measure the no of kWh's being generated and consumed, but that is probably science fiction. Until then I'll happily study whatever guidelines you can produce. The southern orientation is favourable but the north eastern location cannot compete with the south coast.

Tks

pete-20-11

Not sure what system you have, but mine has a web portal I can login to that allows me to see generation, import, export, consumption etc - both live and historic.

It works out the consumption by monitoring the grid (import/export), itself (e.g. battery charge and discharge), solar generation and then does the maths to work out the consumption from all of that data. 

If you don't have that, you should at least have a generation meter to view what you are generating and a grid meter to view the import and export. Albeit not as good as a web portal! 

Telegraph_Sam

I don't think what I have -  the standard Octopus web site - is as sophisticated as your web portal. Though I hesitate in case there are goodies hidden away somewhere that I am not aware of. There are historic consumption data but not export values and not "live".
I have a generation meter that seems to fit your description.

pete-20-11

I'm talking about a web portal provided by the solar & battery manufacturer. 

Telegraph_Sam

I don't have a battery and I'd be surprised if I could find anything from the solar supplier after 13 years ..

pete-20-11

Yeah older solar, especially if installed on the cheap (e.g. as part of a new build estate on every house) is less likely to have such data / web portal type stuff available. Some might have had Bluetooth dongles for remote access etc. but again, would most likely just show generation rather than be able to compute household usage.