Solar Performance Spreadsheet - Analysis and data sharing

garo

This is sweet. The current google sheet has a bunch of graphs and all but I am sure that is coming when you get more time. Also Forum is misspelt on the left side menu.

harderthanf

Thanks, I have fixed up the spelling!

Yes, graphs are on the way. They are a bit of a pain when trying to make them look OK on mobile devices but no problem on bigger screens!

ECO_Mental

We have come along way lads than a simple google sheet and just posting on boards....this is snazzy stuff harderthanf , are you sure you know what you have let yourself in for now 😋

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118596488#Comment_118596488

I have been involved (no background in programming etc just working with the devs) in building a database and mobile app in work over the last few years and I know these things can grow legs when people say what if we do this and what if we do that, so I think for your own sanity if we try and keep it as simple as possible for you.

One thing though if we could have a tool to download the community yearly data and the installation data into an excel file. That way the users can do their own detailed analysis to contrast and compare their own systems

Also and I know this is going to get complicated (so tell me the f**k off).... but if possible when inputting system details if we could have the facility to add strings, as a lot of the users have multiple PV strings with one east and one west with different capacities etc. How this is displayed or downloaded might be difficult but if at all possible I think it would be very useful.

Excellent work

ECO_Mental

Actually you can copy and paste the tables into excel easy so no need to write a tool or script to do this.👍️

THE ALM

Great work indeed so thank you very much for putting the time and effort in, registration submitted.

harderthanf

Hey - I am adding a chart or two to the site. Would be good get last years data entered, if you have any. If you don't mind, I can manually move last years data from the Google sheets. Just let me know.

Also, would be good to get the word out a bit, the more users we have the better - and more useful - the data becomes.

garo

Feel free to move any of my data though I am going to create an account and populate myself now.

idc

Uploaded all my stats! Is probably only time i'll be top of the leader board 😃 before all you lads with 8+ kWp South facing arrays move to the top !!

harderthanf

I just noticed some of the activation emails are not being accepted by Hotmail. I am looking into this but in the meantime, if you have registerd and don't received the activation email, just PM me and I will activate the account.

AndyBoBandy

What I love about this whole exercise is the fact we can see the big collective number of what we are generating..

In 2021 110MW was generated

January 2021: 2.04MW

January 2022: 3.86MW

I'm in the power generation industry, where the currency is in the hundreds of MegaWatts, and to see the numbers approaching those levels is fantastic... and that's only from a couple of users from Boards.. Imagine if the whole country had solar PV installed?, houses, schools, buildings etc.....

You know that €200 electricity credit we're all about to get? I don't need it (and I suspect a lot of you don't really need it too), but I'll take it, of course I will, but that's only a very short term fix to what will ultimately be a long drawn out problem... How about instead of giving 10 households €200, they give 1 household a 2kW solar PV system? Whether it's pensioners, or social housing or whatever, just get more PV out there which will untimely reduce carbon emissions, and thus lead to reduced dependance on imported fossil fuel.. Every school in the country should have at least 50kWp installed, and become huge power generators, especially in summer when they are lying dormant.. long term it means increased funding for schools from FIT....

We all know it because we've seen the light, but jesus the government should be pushing to get PV on every inch of every roof in the land!!!

harderthanf

Just a small update:

I've added some download options now for the date [Excel, CSV, PDF] which might make it easier in the future for grabbing stats.

Also, added some charts to the bottom of the pages.

I am still dipping in and out, making small changes, but please let me know if there is anything that could be useful.

https://www.pvstats.eu

tails_naf

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118692716#Comment_118692716

Fair play, I'm well impressed with what you've put together! Out of curiosity, what is the site built on - and is it costing much to run?

harderthanf

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118693845#Comment_118693845

I have the site running on a virtual instance on Linode. At the moment I've a sign up credit so no cost for a year or so. I don't think it'll be too expensive afterwards though.

mp3guy

I added my details. There's a bug when you click someone's profile, it shows the pre and post install BER to be the same value.

harderthanf

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118696617#Comment_118696617

Thanks. I've fixed that up now.

John.G

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118401366#Comment_118401366

The kwh/kwp table is very interesting and it will be very interesting to see if it changes much from year to year. I have a modest Solar thermal install and I have monitored its output vs the solar radiation which I get from "yesterdays weather" in met eireann over the past 11 years and its remarkably how consistent the solar radiation and the solar output is, they both only vary by ~ 5% from year to year, the solar radiation (Roches Point, Cork) is 1050kwh/m2/annum. (+/- 5%).

The average kwh/kwp of the first 10 in the above table is 77.7 kwh/kwp/month = 932.4 kwh/kwp/annum. If one assumes a average solar radiation of 1050kwh/m2/annum then this will give the following PV panel efficiencies.

5M2/kwp, 932.4/(5*1050)/100 = 17.76%

5.5M2/kwp, 932.4/(5.5*1050)/100 = 16.15%

6M2/kwp, 932.4/(6.0*1050)/100 = 14.80%

6.5M2/kwp, 932.4/(6.5*1050)/100 = 13.66%

Do any other locations give info like this?

http://tramoreweathercam.com/weather/trends.htm

bullit_dodger

Hmmm, not sure you can logically deduce much from that. The problem is that your not taking orientation of the installations into consideration. For example, someone might have a 6Kwp south facing, and that would easily beat someone elses 10Kwp split in a E/W configuration, especially at this time of year.

Is the E/W orientation then performing sub-optimally, or the panels poor? No, but naturally you can't easily factor that in.

I like where your going though. That's kinda cool.

John.G

It would be nice if one had something like the Tramore location's live data as one can/could then monitor the "instant"panel efficiency at different solar inputs, whatever the panels orientation.

ECO_Mental

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118692716#Comment_118692716

@harderthanf you have done a mighty job here with the website, fantastic stuff and thanks for all the work you have put into it. As far as I can see it have pretty much everything we would need..

Just inputted my Feb'22 numbers a health 367kWh for my 6.1 kWp system. Really ramping up now

cuores

There seems to be a small error in the spreadsheet in the 2022 kwh generated per kwp section. - there is no formula in the cells in line 91 from feb onwards, all the lines below this have resulting errors as the formula is inconsistent and not calculating correctly.

Jonathan

Suggestion for the spreadsheet/pvstats... Create a new sheet to allow people to enter their estimated figures from PVGIS-SARAH. This would only need to be one once, and it would allow newbies to confirm that it is relatively accurate vs actual production.

Thoughts?

bullit_dodger

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118710744#Comment_118710744

I see the issue. I think someone inserted a row or two, and then because the "ISNUMBER" is referencing the wrong cells, even though that user has data it's referencing another users (empty) cell and then it doesn't work out the figure.

I could chase through the history to see who screwed it up, but its just easier for me to fix it. Hang on....

harderthanf

Bit of an needless update to the PVStats. When each user is created a random colour is generated and stored in each user's profile. You can now change this (My Profile) colour to your own colour. It's a bit of a silly change really but it will help you reconise your own colour and bring some uniformity across the charts.

I've also removed the "EV Stats" placeholder. While I like the idea of adding EVStats I am not sure what details would be useful to be honest!

Will be doing some more housekeeping over the week (I hope).

Spread the word!

https://www.pvstats.eu

Zzippy

Lads

I'm not an excel expert so I don't want to go messing with formulae, but the formula in the second table (Monthly System Performance, kWh per kWp) is incorrect for a large part of the January column - the Jan column from row 99 down (jethrothe2nd) is referring to the wrong cells in the table above (Basic Monthly PV Production). e.g. Jan formula for row 99 is =IF(ISNUMBER(C39),C39/$B99,"") while Feb and subsequent columns are correct =IF(ISNUMBER(D38),D38/$B99,"").

bullit_dodger

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118788132#Comment_118788132

Good spot Zippy. I fixed this a few comments back, but looks like I only repaired the damage for Feb onwards as you found. I'll sort it for the other months now.

Zzippy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118789165#Comment_118789165

Sound. I hadn't read back through the thread! ☺️

AndyBoBandy

March numbers are going to be fairly epic.....

I'm currently on 255kWh and reckon I should get close enough to 400 for the month should this good weather keep up!

DrPhilG

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118824546#Comment_118824546

My average for the month so far is about 15.5kWh.

Last year it was below 11kWh.

At 190kw today. 13 kW for the day

irishchris

Already at 646kwh for the month. March has been insane this year for generation

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118826327#Comment_118826327

That's just showing off Chris🤣

irishchris

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118827037#Comment_118827037

lol my numbers aren't a patch on @mp3guy generation though 😃

ECO_Mental

Yeah with the predicted week ahead its going to finish out monster month for everyone...Im at 472 kWh for my 6.1 system. Could go over 600 I'd say looking at the forecast

idc

How do i update the PVStats data for this month? I can't seem to find the correct link where i can edit my monthly stats!!!

ECO_Mental

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118862752#Comment_118862752

I thought I was going crazy myself.....I cant find it either

harderthanf

Sorry people. I obviously removed a link when changing some stuff a few weeks back. The "My PV Data" link should be back now, on the left hand side link. You can add/change your monthly stats now.

Let me know if there is anything else you notice.

Just done mine. Gone from 106 in Feb to 289 in March. Beats last September.

raytaxi

Mine done as well 234.5 for March, almost equal to August 1kW more. Well bet September 162.5 almost 50% more, think next doors tree may have been the cause no leafs on it yet.

AndyBoBandy

Only 11 users data in so far for March and already up to 5.5MW

Boardsies saving the planet!!!!

Come on, get your data in...

THE ALM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118863719#Comment_118863719

Anyway to reset the password or just re-register, can't think of mine for the life of me.

cuores

699.7kWh in March. Absolutely gutted I didnt get another .3 to make 700!

mp3guy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118865654#Comment_118865654

Wouldn't worry, every link in the measurement chain has a few % error margin.

harderthanf

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118864737#Comment_118864737

The passwords are stored encrypted so I've no way of telling you what yours is. I've just landed back home after being away for a couple of weeks so I'll take a look in a bit and get something in place to reset.

harderthanf

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118864737#Comment_118864737

Sorry for the delay, a bit of jet lag! There is now a password reset function on the login page. Just put in the email address you used to register and you should get a reset link to that email.

Let me know if you have any trouble.

THE ALM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118873797#Comment_118873797

Much appreciated, thank you.

SD_DRACULA

If there is someone with full North facing panels pls put in your generation values, looking for real life values and couldn't find anyone with a true North string in the spreadsheet.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118875055#Comment_118875055

Can't imagine you'll find anyone.. Been known to be wrong occasionally though 😁

SD_DRACULA

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118875778#Comment_118875778

Reason I ask is that I put down my estimated values for my current S setup and my actuals and I have consistently blown past them so it's got me thinking about N, after all it should be 50% as much as S.

Though the financials don't add up as I'd need an extra inverter.

Maybe if that 0% vat rate on renewables ever comes in...

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118877465#Comment_118877465

I think you have it wrong. The sun never shines from the North.

If you're currently have a 6kw inverter how would another inverted work with the 6kw export limit?

SD_DRACULA

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118878399#Comment_118878399

I know where the sun shines 🤣

This is to get real life Irish numbers, estimated numbers I have enough.

Easy, just turn off export on the second inverter or set the hybrid to not export past 6kwh, many people have done it.