Solar PV Hints, Tips & Troubleshooting

slave1

Deagol wrote: »

If it's going in the attic, would it be with the inverter? Could you use the inverter heatsink to heat an enclosure with the battery in it?

Pretty sure there is a lot of spacing required in PV setups, in any case the inverter will provide hardly any surplus heat in Winter and a lot in Summer so maybe not a good idea

ParkRunner

The amount of units that we have been using per day has dropped by about sixty percent so that should reflect in lower bills. The app is great for seeing what the high energy consuming things are around the house so that bit more consciousness can only help too. There’s a lot to be said also for having hot water readily available from solar with a young family.

drdidlittle

Question came up in the monthly data channel relating to Solax inverter output and was requested to move here. Anyone have any luck calculating the values from the output of the panels rather than the inverter as that's what the system provides? I looked at this a few months back but couldn't get the figures to match up with the app.

gomamochi1

Was hoping to do some ground mount on a bank south facing. What's the best angle? Thanks

air

45 degrees is close enough to optimal and makes it easier to use standard brackets etc if you're making the frames yourself.
It would be ideal for an East - West array too, you could mount the panels on either side of the same frame.
There is on one right answer though, it will depend on the orientation of the array, your demand profile and surrounding obstructions amongst other things.

graememk

gomamochi1 wrote: »

Was hoping to do some ground mount on a bank south facing. What's the best angle? Thanks

you can use https://re.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pvg_tools/en/#PVP to get the most optimal angle for max generation.

40 seems optimal for most of ireland, and as above said, 45 would be the easiest to build

slave1

If I was doing this using inistrut I'd have them adjustable angle for Summer/Winter, plenty of YouTube videos on it, if you can DIY a ground mount then you're well capable of it.

air

I'm a big fan of unistrut, but it's a pretty expensive way of making a frame.
I'd prefer to put the savings towards more panels on a simpler frame if I had the space available.
My own preference would be to go steeper on the angle for a South facing array, up to say 55 degrees.

Even if we get a FIT, it's likely to be at a level like 5c /kWh, so it makes more sense to optimise for winter when self consumption will be much higher.
Winter production will be more likely to displace units costing 15c or more.

slave1

Just two months to FIT but I think the gouging 5pm-7pm cost and no night rate will really make a lot of us to just ignore it, especially if an EV owner

air

Is it anticipated that those type of tariffs will be the only ones offering the FIT?

graememk

air wrote: »

Is it anticipated that those type of tariffs will be the only ones offering the FIT?

Yeah for fit you need a smart meter, and if you have a smart meter you can only go on the smart plan or the 24 hr one. You can't go on the traditional day night

It for sure won't be worth it in the winter.

I'll do a rough calculation on april tomorrow.

I've got all the stats I need, I think.
(I'm currently discharging my battery on night rate, - might as well get something for it instead of rocking into day rate at 70% battery. Will include that in potential "export"

Will use energia's ev plan and it's smart plan.

Will count the peak rate as day rate as there's not much in it.

DrPhilG

They can shove it then lol

slave1

Yeah, for EV owners it's highly unlikely to be worth it

slave1

Quick one for Zappi2 owners ahead of end of month stats, you know the way the EDDI shows diverted "excess" solar PV, how do you get this info from the Zappi2, i.e. just solar PV usage???

mp3guy

slave1 wrote: »

Quick one for Zappi2 owners ahead of end of month stats, you know the way the EDDI shows diverted "excess" solar PV, how do you get this info from the Zappi2, i.e. just solar PV usage???

Not sure this is available.

air

Not sure this is correct graememk, it looks like the Bord Gais say their smart plan is split into day, night and peak or day and night.
https://www.bordgaisenergy.ie/home/residential-smart-meters#smart-tariffs

For the Free Saturday or Sunday Plan:

This Time of Use Tariff is split into time bands - Day (8am to 11pm); Night (11pm to 8am), Peak (5pm to 7pm) and “free time”. Each time period has its own price for electricity meaning you can do more at the time that costs less.

graememk

air wrote: »

Not sure this is correct graememk, it looks like the Bord Gais say their smart plan is split into day, night and peak or day and night.
https://www.bordgaisenergy.ie/home/residential-smart-meters#smart-tariffs

For the Free Saturday or Sunday Plan:

This Time of Use Tariff is split into time bands - Day (8am to 11pm); Night (11pm to 8am), Peak (5pm to 7pm) and “free time”. Each time period has its own price for electricity meaning you can do more at the time that costs less.

That free day is a con, Sounds good, but hard to make it work, Always make sure the ev is practically empty on friday/sat night, and its only 100kwh's a month, thats not enough to charge my car twice. - ive put 434kwh's into the car in april alone.

And the discounted rates are brutal too.

Discounted electricity unit rates (c/kWh)

Day 16.25

Peak 19.85

Night 11.94

Thats why I picked the energia's one, I can only use the data i have and im personally on about 96% night rate anyway.

When i do up the google sheet i'll try and leave a space for the peak import.

slave1

Jeez, really looks like FIT/Smart metering is crappo, might look into a battery setup after all

air

graememk wrote: »

And the discounted rates are brutal too.

That's fair enough and I take your point, but your post earlier mentions "gouging 5pm-7pm cost and no night rate" which is clearly not the case as night rates are offered (all be they unattractive ones!).
Hopefully things will improve in due course

graememk

air wrote: »

That's fair enough and I take your point, but your post earlier mentions "gouging 5pm-7pm cost and no night rate" which is clearly not the case as night rates are offered (all be they unattractive ones!).
Hopefully things will improve in due course

I didn't say that - lol

It was the post above mine!

slave1

air

graememk wrote: »

I didn't say that - lol

It was the post above mine!

Apologies!! I scrolled down in the section under the advanced post window and must have misread!

graememk

slave1 wrote: »

Jeez, really looks like FIT/Smart metering is crappo, might look into a battery setup after all

air wrote: »

Apologies!! I scrolled down in the section under the advanced post window and must have misread!

ok i done a thing (well tidied up a spreadsheet that i used to compare electricity companies.

So far in april I've imported 13 day units, and 379 night units, I have left the peak at 0 for now. Exported - 275Kwh.

I just used energia's plans for now, didnt want to do too much hunting.

In April, for me if i was on the EV plan, It would have been about 2.50 euro cheaper than the smart plan. For a months (30 days) bill.

Link to spreadsheet : https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ywEd_z6cSx_T3vO-7xVtwZ5Nta2kPpeQYhrVahKdUqc/edit?usp=sharing

- Not as bad as i thought. - But I am an edge case, with very high night, very low day.

Anyone suggest a rough Day, Night, Peak usage numbers?

slave1

graememk wrote: »

...But I am an edge case, with very high night, very low day.

I don't think you are actually, you are a good indicator of where we are going, PV setup with EV.
I had very little EV charging this month due to a number of factors but when we were on the road commuting I was at 20,000kWh annually with 80%+ at night due to timed machines and EV commute.
That's why for EV owners we got to think carefully about the impact on night rate (I think).
End of next month and into July we should see the deals being offered.

In the meantime, keep a weekly track of day and night usage so you have a good idea is what I would advise.
I know my usage pretty well so just do it monthly now

graememk

slave1 wrote: »

In the meantime, keep a weekly track of day and night usage so you have a good idea is what I would advise.

Ive got a record going back to sept

But solar and batteries only went in Dec/Jan time

I think i should be able to pull out the "peak" useage now..

Exported 27kwhs today... generated 53.. Ive run out of barley to crush! lol

MAULBROOK

I might be late on this one but anyone with as Solis might like this.

https://www.soliscloud.com/#/homepage

Coltrane

MAULBROOK wrote: »

I might be late on this one but anyone with as Solis might like this.

https://www.soliscloud.com/#/homepage

Thanks Maulbrook, are you referring to their upgrade of their hybrid inverter? If so is it your understanding that the upgrade applies to existing inverters by way of firmware update?

I’m particularly interested in this bit: “Meanwhile, Solis increases the maximum charging and discharging power to 5kW,”

SD_DRACULA

Coltrane wrote: »

Thanks Maulbrook, are you referring to their upgrade of their hybrid inverter? If so is it your understanding that the upgrade applies to existing inverters by way of firmware update?

I’m particularly interested in this bit: “Meanwhile, Solis increases the maximum charging and discharging power to 5kW,”

That is already available on some of the 5G hybrids as far as I know.

Coltrane

SD_DRACULA wrote: »

That is already available on some of the 5G hybrids as far as I know.

Thanks. Mine is an RHI-5K-48ES running software version 28001B (model No F8).

Anyone know whether I can get a firmware upgrade that would enable 5kW charge/discharge?

candysapple

We're awaiting our install which will include a HW diverter. Our existing standard copper cylinder (with lagging jacket) has a small leak and is corroded so we were changing it anyway.
Is there significant advantage in getting a solar cylinder or would any preinsulated cylinder do the same job?