Hi I have just had solar fitted and waiting to get my certificate to allow me to save and give energy back to grid. However, was my battery doesn't seem to be charging much and was wondering if I should charge from grid during the night. I realise it's winter and the sun is low but, I thought I would get better charge. Thanks
Hi
Your installer should have provided you with paperwork showing the likely generation for every month of the year. This takes into account which way your system faces, shading, roof angle etc. Also, not sure where you are but in my neck of the woods it has rained almost every day - therefore very little generation. Get yourself a dual tariff with cheap night time power and charge it up then.
you won't charge much from solar right now, unless its bright sun where you are! I'm generating naff all to run the house let alone charge the battery...
Setup a timed charge in the early hours which is usually the cheapest timeframe (check your tariff). Depending on battery size you might want to charge it 3-4 hours.
This December is the worst for solar generation I have seen over the past 3 years, and a friend for over 10, so fret not.
wilfleek that's good to know, its my first December and was wondering if this is normal! or maybe new normal!
Even if you don't have cheap overnight power, charging gently (at low power) can prevent the battery getting too cold. (Depending where it's installed, if course.)
From my SolarEdge panels for Dec
2020 34kWhr
2021 35kWhr
2022 45kWhr
2023 25kWhr so far
This year has been the lowest solar for me in 10 years with December being particularly low.
September was the best Sept I have on record but just seems to have been a cloudy year.
pvoutput.org is a free community site where people can publish their daily results, allowing you to compare your performance with those nearby.
DD Just wish they would add more gear for easier integration, I couldn't figure it out either automatically or manually and if I have to type in everything by hand its not really worth it.
Jellybaby yes, they do seem to have a mechanism for letting them import directly from a service such as givenergy, such you would just have to tell then inverter ud and give them an access key, but there wasn't much documentation on how to write such a thing.
Happy to share a standalone python script that uploads at the end of each day - I run with cron on an rpi - but think something similar is also built into batpred or givtcp or one of those.
Woody88 if you do want a smart tariff, and possibly if you to be able to export, you'll be wanting a smartmeter, if you don't already have one.