Our solar (4.38kW PV & 8.2kW battery) was installed late November last year and I fully did not expect to see this but after today's "wall-to-wall" sunshine, we generated what equates to a typical full day of electricity (8kWh)! I'm guessing there are quite a few other solar owners here who have been very pleased with today too š
We generated 3.8kWh today - our best since install in December. However we had a big tree that kills production for a couple of hour before lunch - and then some other trees dapple the panels progressively after about 2pm.
It will get better as the sun gets higher. (I Hope!)
But we still pulled in over 17kWh today from the grid - but have done 5 loads of washing at least today........
12.2kWh today, which I am delighted with from 12 panels. Give or take a degree I am dead on south facing and have no shading.
4 of the last 8 days have resulted in almost perfect curve on my PV. Currently that equates to 8kW from my 4kW array. The other days were <1 kW :-(
The intersting thing to me is that the 8kW resulted in 3kW of charging, so not only reduced demand during the day but also managed to go longer before requiring the grid. One day was only 1hr away from overnight recharge in Go Faster. Still importing lots but mainly at night with as much load shifting as possible. Peak to offpeak is about 1:5 at worst so my average Ā£/unit is now regularly < Ā£0.08 ( a few days <Ā£0.06, my offpeak rate is 0.055 )
I am very happy with that, considering its only January
Felt somewhat fortunate with our 18kw PV output today until I noticed we'd had the car on charge overnight that brought in 30+... oh well.
On the plus side we crossed 6MW PV today 13 months in. Pretty pleased with that.
13kw from a 6kw array with shading from my neighbours roof still causing a headache at this time of year.
That's over 10% of Decembers entire generation!
Yesterday my 3.2kw array generated 3.58kWh putting 26% into my 8.2kw battery. Happy with that. By the time my Go Faster kicked in at 2030 I still had 31% left
I had Solar edge fitted at the same time in November & I am seeing the difference in output compared to the last few years (10 yrs old)
But it made me think about the summer! My battery at these rates will be full by 12-1pm. During the day when home how do i charge my car and avoid export whilst not running the battery down? My Zappi can be set many ways but I always manage to send power to the grid pre battery & Solar edge install.
I am thinking - plug in the e Niro granny charger in, set it at a lower 6a & that'll trickle into the EV and draw a minimum from the battery leaving me enough for the evening. Thoughts??
Will be getting my geek on in April :-)
11.4kw from my 7.02kw 22 panels ā¹ļø East West split. So tempted to get the last 2.4kw installed!! Just not sure I should spend anymore yet!
3.8kWh from my 6 south facing (395w) panels. Badly affected by shading. The west string is doing little at the moment.
Iām am looking forward to higher sun days š¤£
Can't edit my message above for some reason. But just checked with google earth for more accurate numbers on direction of my panels. 4.62kw at 285 degree West, 2.4kw 105 degree East. So WHEN i do add the other 2.4kw to the East it should see a nice boost to generation.
Fascinating reading everyone's different set-ups and scenarios with direction, shade, location, panel capacity etc. I'd love to have access to the GivEnergy DB with all the data!
chris_p One of my first posts on here was suggesting to list and document equipment. Having a signature field would be great! I found it really useful when choosing what kit I wanted.
THALL Completely agree, that and DMs are highest on my wish list for the forums.
chris_p I used to be able to track the GE communities PV output by using the data presented on the old portal login page & some simple maths (given the interval between the MWh generated updates was fairly consistent you could get a rough idea) but unfortunately this no longer works as it now seems to update at random which given the old portal is on life support I doubt will be fixed.
I did ask GE if there would be some fairly high level page of total PV/battery available now - but I suspect the data is valuable so there wasn't the appetite for it. (Which is fair enough given they are already doing quite a lot community wise anyway.)
8.9kWh from (10 years old) 4kw panels yesterday, a really clear day. Just a tad frustrating my GivEnergy system is offline awaiting a fix. However most of the solar surplus went into the hot water tank, so I did capture most of what wasn't being used anyway.
10.7kWh from (12.5 years old) 3.52kW panels yesterday and that was not the best so far this year (I had 12.7kWh on Wednesday 12th January). Just goes to show the benefit of a South facing roof in Dorset with zero shading. Since I installed the solar panels in August 2009 they have generated a total of 48.6MWh, of which 40.4MWh have been exported to the grid!!! Been waiting all this time for battery technology to reach the point where it is cost effective to store some of the export for my own use. š
Woodstock Great stats there! So are you about to take the plunge?
Only 1.9kWh generated yesterday š as we are on NW coast and was cloudy most of the day. However, the good news is that we still managed to go through the day on our battery and that included one load of washing š
Even though 5.4kWp of (16) panels and 8.2kWh battery was installed in December 2020, I still get a good feeling when on the days when we have generated all our energy with the sun. For those who have had their system installed this Winter, just wait for April onwards!
The main thing I would like to see is long term storage as we generated about 165% of our energy last year, but still had to import around 40% of it due to lack of sun in the shorter Autumn and Winter days. I know long term storage for domestic properties is probably quite a distance off, but if a way of storing my solar for a few weeks could be worked out I could go off grid.
Grr - lots of sun both yesterday and today, and bu**er all generated as the local grid voltage is too high, out of limits, and the panel inverter has tripped out on OVP.
mjkelly5a If you set Zappi to Eco+, and have a Green setting of 100% it will not draw from the grid outside of your scheduled hours, only charge from excess solar, as long as it exceeds 1.4kw. That is my understanding anyway!
chris_p I took the plunge last November with a single 8.2kWh battery and an AC-3.0 inverter which gave a calculated payback period (for me) of around 15 years.
Fortunately I had two good weeks of generation straight after installation which confirmed the viability of the additions. The unusually cloudy weather though December would otherwise have kept me on tenterhooks as to whether I had made the right decision. I am now trying to justify adding a second 8.2kWh battery but the payback period for that is currently longer than my life expectancy! Still, with the way energy prices are going ....
Woodstock Ah great that you've seen the potential in action.
I've calculated that without any selling back to the grid, electricity inflation at 6% (which is slightly below the 5 year average and obviously will be much higher for the next 12-18 months) or using something like an Octopus Go tariff, that we will break even at around the 9 year mark. Obviously throw in 1000kWh per annum back to the grid, higher inflation, an overnight tariff for battery charging during winter the inevitable addition of an EV... I can see breaking even potentially being at least a few years sooner.
Whilst a lot of the country has been enjoying an abundance of winter sun, the last week has seen a stubborn cloud sitting over lancashire. Thereās been spells of sunshine where Iāve seen the performance of my system slowly improve as the sun stays a little longer and swings a little higher in the sky. I had my south facing 5 kwp array and 8.2 battery installed mid December. Yesterday I generated 4.4 kWh but today has been better, finally the sun managed to shine through a thin veil of cloud and I generated 8.8 kWh.
Best day since installation was 5th jan where we had unobstructed sunshine all day, generating 12 kWh. If that wasnāt exciting enough, I saw the system so what I had hoped when I decided to install. The total grid draw for the day was 400wh. Canāt wait for spring and summer when I can drop the overnight charge and let the sun do the rest!
c_squared If the weather in Lancashire is anything like Cumbria was last year you will have a great time in April. I had lot's of over 30kWh days from my 5.4kWp solar. April was my best month and generated over 25% of the total consumption for the year - pity I couldn't store it all!
I've also enjoyed benefit of sunshine this month - located Inchture in Perthshire. I have a 16 X 380w panels on a southfacing roof; 16xEnphase microinverters with Enlighten controller; a 8.2kWh Givenergy battery with AC coupled inverter installed in late October last year.
Sunday16th system online 08:40 peak generation 3150w at noon total 14.4kWh.
Monday 17th peak 3260w at noon 15kWh.
Battery was 100% charged by 3pm on Sunday by when the sun was setting. Battery was down to 28% when generation started on Monday and was 100% by 12:42 when my Solar iBoost started diverting surplus power to the electric immersion heater, total 3.98kWh "saved".
This performance was good to see as at my previous home even further north on Culloden Moor I didn't have a battery system (not available / viable when PV installed) the Solar iBoost was great it provided the domestic hot water 8ish months of the year. I also got about Ā£450 FIT payments.
It am impressed by this system performance as my view has been that in Scotland you can write off PV November through till end February. Not so with this system and I'm looking forward to lengthening days and stronger sunlight.
We're located in the Midlands and have an East / West split system, totalling 6.5kWp and sadly, we only got 5.4kWh yesterday. Today, even though it was more cloudy we got 5.6kWh.
This time of year the sun's too low to get the best out of the system, but I'm very much looking forward to the summer to see what it brings (solar was only installed around late October).
ChrisRowe This is exactly what myenergi told me to do when I explained my home system. Though I wont be able to test this until September! š
ChrisRowe Yep that is right. Here is a MyEnergi response too me when I 1st had mine fitted.
"Zappi 2 MGL
So... to understand MGL you need to relate this to the charging standard for electric vehicles.Ā This sets the minimum charge current for the EV's at 6A (which equates to 1.4kW)
In ECO mode, if the surplus generation drops below this level then zappi continues to charge the car but draws the extra power needed from the grid.
In ECO+ mode, with MGL set at the default of 100%, then zappi will suspend the charge if you don't have 1.4kW spare.Ā This means that you will export some of your renewable generation to the grid, and the likelihood is that you will need to import some more power later to charge your EV battery to the required level.
MGL allows you to fine tune the behaviour in ECO+ mode
At 100% - this means that you want to charge your car battery only with local renewable generation.Ā If the spare power drops below 1.4kW then stop charge
At anything less than 100% then the threshold so stop is reduced, so atĀ
75% - charging stops if the surplus generation drops below 1kW
50% - charging stops at 700W
25% - charging stops at ~ 350W
and at 1% the car will continue charging, capturing every spare kW of local renewable generation but pulling in some power from the grid - only suspending charge of you have a prolonged period of grid import.
Between MGL and the ECO+ Start/Stop timer you can fine tune the zappi so that you charge your car with as much local generation as possible whilst minimising the number of starts and stopsĀ
Hope this helpsĀ "
Just had my system commissioned over the weekend. Also located in North Lancashire, my system is 4kw, 3.6 Hybrid Inverter and 2 x 8.2kw/hr batteries, facing 5deg off south.
Last Sunday achieved 4.6kw generated, followed by 3.2kw Monday and 7.3kw today.
I went for the larger battery capacity as we are a large electricity consumer at this time of year, 60-70kw/day not being uncommon. With overnight cheap rate charging the batteries have lasted nearly the full day. We have only imported approx 4kw of day rate electric each day so far, mostly I guess from when the inverter couldn't cope with the demand.
Looking forward to Thursday, when if the weather reports are correct we will have wall to wall sunshine all day. Must remember to leave some battery capacity for that!
Roll on spring and summer.
mjkelly5a Due to my home solar config I expect for 4 months of the year I will use the 75% MGL as my systems only produce 1.1-1.2kw this time of year. It is a nice feature to have though.
DIG What do you have that requires that kind of energy, multiple EVs?
We have a large open plan style house in the country with a ceiling heating system and no gas.
There have always been other options that would be cheaper to run but we like the system as:
DIG That sounds great! I wish we had the opportunity to start a fresh with our heating/energy set-up. Would definitely look at that as an option.
Iām another relative newbie watching my systemās data like a hawk! Panels (3.9kWp on south-facing garage roof with shading either side, so Tigo optimisers) went live the day before the winter solstice, battery (5.2kWh) on 7th Jan.
My best day of generation so far was Monday just gone with 11.4kWh. The trouble in my situation is that sunny days in winter are also cold, and we have loft-mounted PIV units which suck juice to preheat the air when the temp in the loft falls below 10 degrees. This pushes our daily consumption up from its usual 7-9 kWh range to as much as 16kWh (worst Iāve seen so far - first year in new house). However, the system still managed to charge the battery back to 100% and put a few kWh into the car as well.
I just wish Iād gone for a bigger battery! Weāve only had one (mild) day so far when itās lasted all the way to the Octopus Go period with the benefit of a couple of kWh of generation. Mostly it runs out at some point in the evening, and on a day which was both miserable and cold, it was done by lunchtime.
Mind, having said that, the 8.2kWh battery was an extra Ā£900, and for most of the year it wonāt be an issue, so payback on the extra is harder to justify.
I just had a moments inanity and started the ball rolling on the final 2.4kw for my home system. The missus is not going to be happy! But at the moment I think solar is so worth it!
THALL Nice one. I'm trying to do the same at the moment but no-one seems to want to provide a quote.
judgepd I have gotten a quote by sending photos and measurements etc. But they will still do a site survey which is booked in for 4 weeks today which was the earliest slot. I have been advised that the install will be 8 - 12 weeks after that. 4 months in total? Everyone wants this kit it seems!
Slowly pushing the bar a little higher for my best generation day with 12.7 kWh today.
My best day too. But only 4.2kWh. Still got the tree in the way and it was not wall to wall sun. And from essentially just the 6 southern facing panels. Highest I saw was about 1.9kw with another 300ish from the west facing ones.
There seem to be quite a few people who have recently had solar and battery installed and I would guess that there are a lot more who don't come onto this forum. Hopefully will give a sizeable boost to solar generation once the sun shines for longer each day.
Who knows, we may soon see times on sunny and windy days where we are 100% renewable?