Solar panels - no clue at all

ASA201

And would 19kWh be an expected change in that period given what folks know from this thread?

Reed_Richards

I've forgotten what I know from this thread.  19 kWh (presumably) over what time period with what peak capacity of solar panels facing which way and situated where?

Heedtheadvice

As Reed indicates not enough info about your system to to give a really meaningful answer.

As an indication for November so far from South facing 4kWp ( total) panels in the grim cloudy weather my average has been less than 2kWh per day ( I.e. 2 units per day).

Martyn1981

ASA201 said:

And would 19kWh be an expected change in that period given what folks know from this thread?

Hi, going back to the PVGIS guesstimate I did, it suggests ~75kWh for Oct and ~37kWh for Nov. That's the whole of each month, and you'd expect it to be heavily weighted towards the start (not end) of the months, especially with west facing panels. But .... this Nov had possibly the worst start in 10+ yrs, and Oct wasn't great.

Always hard to judge a system on any given month, but almost impossible this last month. So it looks a bit low for the last month, when you might (on paper) have normally expected say 30kWh from late Oct and 20kWh from early Nov, but things are definitely not normal.

The guesstimate for Dec is 17kWh, so perhaps take a reading at month start and end, and let us know. Hopefully we will have numbers from others (ideally north/Scotland) to see how their Dec has gone, to get a rough comparison, and gut feeling about your system.

ASA201

@Reed_Richards @Heedtheadvice 19kWh (presumably) over a period of 28 days (14/10 - 12739 reading > 11/11 - 12758 reading), with panels that have net capacity of 2.0 (estimated annual generation on install says 1768kW), facing due west, or marginally south west, in the central area of “Falkirk”

@Martyn1981 thanks - I'll take a read at start and end of December and see what it shows. 

ASA201

@Martyn1981 reading taken today of 12769 - will see what it says in a months time.   

I don’t think it’s looking particularly great though.   When we moved in on 14/10 the read was 12739 so this would mean in the last 6ish weeks it’s only generated 30…. 

Appreciate the comments around October and November not being great but isn’t this ridiculously low? 

Netexporter

My 4.25kW array has produced 120kWh since it was installed on 5th November. Facing roughly SW at 25 degree pitch in "sunny" Mid Wales, for comparison.

Netexporter

ASA201 said:

@Martyn1981 reading taken today of 12769 - will see what it says in a months time.   

I don’t think it’s looking particularly great though.   When we moved in on 14/10 the read was 12739 so this would mean in the last 6ish weeks it’s only generated 30…. 

Appreciate the comments around October and November not being great but isn’t this ridiculously low? 

A quick skim through the thread suggests you are taking the readings from the smart meter. That will only show what you are exporting, not the total generated (which will include your self-consumption). There should be a generation meter that will show the total produced. It might be similar to a non-smart electronic meter but it could be a tiny little thing that replaces a circuit breaker in your consumer unit.

ASA201

Hey @Netexporter no those reading aren’t coming from the smart meter they are coming from the separate generation meter. 

paul991

It  maybe worth going to the inverter and taking the readings from there. Total generation and each string separately