Renewables: "talking 'bout my generation"

seagull09 wrote: »

Strange day today, looks very bright out there but output is lower than yesterday for same time of day (allowing for 1 hour later clocks movement).

Strange here too ! Output peaked (3kw) at (alleged) 12:00 (i.e. an hour and a bit before noon), dipped half a kw but is back to 12:00 reading now (just before 2pm BST). Pretty sure that was high level broken cloud around (proper) noon but wasn't actually staring upwards at the time. Extrapolating curve I might have got to 3.3kw given clearer skies.

Notice your 600 litre rainwater storage mentioned in signature. Rainfall less reliable in E Midlands - I need 4.4 cu metres to ensure I can keep flushing lavatories through several rain free weeks. Never run out since I upgraded from 2.4 cu m though I have been quite close a couple of times.

Well it's been a fantastic week in cider country: 108.7kWh in the last 7 days. Only 45kWh needed to beat PVGIS by 25% with 5days to go and a great forecast for the next few days. The haze this weekend has constrained the output compared to our new record last Monday, but can't complain as the clouds have been few and far between.

Kernel_Sanders wrote: »

Same experience for me. Despite beating Tuesday's previous record by nearly 3 kWh, I was struggling to exceed 3000W at lunchtime. However, sustained low voltage meant that I was able to have my immersion heater on up to a half hour after my optimum orientation, which is now 14.45, so I did that for free whilst generating only 2900 - 3000W for that period.
So, could the problem have been ozone?

I believe hazy sunshine is just caused by very thin high cloud. Ozone blocks UV light, but I don't believe that part of the spectrum is captured by PV.

Today the blue sky looks much bluer in cider country and our output is already around the 2kW level, which is much closer to our previous record day at this time of day (ignoring British Shorts Time).

seagull09 wrote: »

O/T: Thanks for the reply EricMears regarding your rainwater system - presumably you have to keep the loft rainwater supply to WC completely separate from mains water, do you have a diverter valve for if you run out of rainwater?

Still O/T - but "we've started so we should finish" (else we'll get a string of PMs asking for details ).

The WCs are supplied from the loft tanks - as used to be the norm in the 'good old days'. Anyone who has ever needed to use a lavatory during a water mains maintenance day will share my anathema at the modern trend of using a mains feed for WCs ! :eek:

The tanks have a perfectly ordinary ballcock arrangement for filling with mains water - except that the in-line isolation valve is almost always turned off. An additional feed to the tank from pump in basement has a level alarm to alert operator to switch off pump.

Another near-record day in Cider Country, with a 20.8kWh generation recorded today. :cool:

Monday last week remains our record and had a slightly higher performance curve at each stage of the day, despite the sky being just as clear as I recall (in fact there were some lunchtime clouds at lunch time last week too). My theory is that the wind last week was cooling the panels more to help them generate power more optimally.

I've started calculating a 7d,14d & 30d rolling average on my spreadsheet. The 7day is currently running at 15.5kWh and 14 day got into double figures yesterday for the first time, while the 30day rolling average hit double figures on Friday. According to PVGIS, our estimated average generation in March should be 7.86kWh/day, and should peak at 12.6kWh/day in June.

We've already exceeded PVGIS estimate for March by 14% (with 5 days to spare) and only need 26kWh more to beat it by 25%. Considering the rubbish week we had here two weeks ago, I'm pretty chuffed the monthly performance is still looking so good.