Solar PV Hints, Tips & Troubleshooting

Bet it will light up with 5

Was 300 inc vat for the 4 port, 1.6kW microinverter in Kellighers - about 6 months ago. Need a separate device to get data.

I got 10 year old 250w panels and rails and put them on my folks shed a few months ago. They are working fine. Gives them a few kWh a day. Every little helps!

Got microinverter from Germany also, took about a week from memory. Also used blinkyparts for the Opendtu.

Do you mean landscape?

Doh - yes of course.

You might be able to affix directly to the concrete posts, they do have rebar in them though.

Guys, question for you.

Below is plot of consumption, it looks like at certain times of the day (mainly when the house load is very low say 100- 200watts) that the time period either side actually shows zero load which can't be true.

Now if I look back across the last few days since install on some days that period of "flat line" has lasted for upto 1 hour.

I called it out to the installers and they opened a TT with Solis who investigated and said that is normal because load is very low.

Not sure that this is 100% correct as I have some other Tuya switches that can measure as small as a couple of watts consumption?

Just wondered if anyone else has seen this behaviour, or could it be a dodgy ct or even the position of ct?

If I look at the ESBN HDF file on that too I see zero load at times but that would be related to the sensitivity of the Smart meter I guess?

Thanks

I had posted in the quotes thread but prob not the right place. This thread maybe feels better as I'm after some tips. I have a few questions that others may have already covered in their own systems that would be good to get some insight into.

1. Solar Tubes - I have solar tubes but they are hit and miss with Hot water only really produced in the summer. And we have to oil heat the water every day to get it hot enough for the missus (we have no electric showers). Can an Eddi be combined with the tubes to run the emersion from the top of the tank and let the tubes heat from the bottom? Or is it one or the other?
2. Battery - I'm home all day and have an EV. The current thinking is that a battery would be unnecessary / too long a payback and I'd be better off plugging the car in once I've dropped the kids off to school on a sunny day.
3. Garage and house install - I won't get many panels on the roof of the house. But I do have a Steel frame shed that is 6mx4m. Has anyone else mounted on a shed & house? If spitting the system across two buildings, how are they connected? I do have a duct running from the steel shed to a pump house. The pump house has a small secondary fuse box. And that is connected to the main fuse box via duct. I'm assuming it is just a wire from the panels but it needs to get to the invertor. Where that ends up I'm not sure. Likely the attic as I have a nice block wall right beside the attic access door.

Thanks for the reply.

1. I'm not sure the emersion even works 😪. But that solves that as in I can have both. Thanks. 😁
2. I'm on a fixed Flogas rate at the moment. 30c a unit. But due to a change in August anyway so will look at more suitable offers for night charging. I have the smart meter but not the smart plan. But again I think that answers my question and that no battery is the best move.
3. The shed is a "farm shed". Steel tech style metal roof and walls but not waterproof, wind and rain can get in so I'd be hesitant about putting it all out there if inside was better. But it has a very solid steel frame so not worried about load from panels. I'd say you would get 10-12 panels on it as it is 6m long and 4m wide.
   1. The house roof is awkwardly shaped. Long story short there are 3 pockets that could fit a 2-3 panels but the main area I think they would fit the most in one spot is the 5m long x 4/5 wide east/west roof section. Again 10ish could fit I'd say.

I'm getting a quote later this week. So I guess the advice is load up on as many panels as will fit, skip the battery, and add the Eddi…..if the emersion is working 😂

Edit: The emersion is working 😄. So that's a plus. I switched it on for an hour and watched the temp. Slowly but surely it went up. Only by about 5 degrees after an hour. I had a look and it's not actually a top down insert but rather a side insert about 3/4 of the way down a 300-liter tank. So has a lot of work to do. And likely limescale is not helping as we are in a very hard water area with our own well.

Oh nice, that's good to know. There is lots of room in the shed.

The shed roof is directly east / west. Same as the roof. In fact the ridge of the roof and shed run in a line. So all the east facing panels would be facing the same way. Same with the west.

I see Energia are advertising they have 550w panels. 10-12 of those would be a decent level of production. Not sure how they are cost wise for the install.

Just received 2 x quotes

Option 1

18 x Jinko 435 Bifacal

Solis 5KW Hybrid Invertor

Solis quote 2 x WECO Batteries 10.6KW €11000

Option 2

18 x Jinko 435 Bifacal

Huawei 5KW Hybrid Invertor

Huawei Quote 2 x 5KW Batteries with BMS €12500

Adding additonal Battery costs
Weco = €1800
Huawei = €2400

Eddi Option €650

what if any is the advantage of going with Huawei over Solis ??

You will get more feedback in the solar quotes thread.

Maybe update post to include or exclude grant. 2100 can make or break a quote.

You might need to check that the supply cable out to the shed it suitable for the load from the panels. May have been just a basic one suitable for lights and a couple of sockets

Ffs, this just shows no dc testing was done. At least you're sorted now.

Updates to the MyEnergi and SolisCloud apps this morning and I'm not sure if there's an issue with one or other of them.

Wife has the washing machine on and SolisCloud showing a heavy enough load but MyEnergi has continued to show the home as being idle or much less than what SolisCloud is reporting. Even at that it takes a while to update the app to show usage across the home, Zappi and grid (was even showing grid drawdown at one point when there was none).

Activity then just drops off the app and it shows nothing happening at all across anything.

SolisCloud is giving me better figures than MyEnergi, albeit every few minutes.

So I'm wondering if there's a configuration issue with the Zappi/Hub. There's a Harvi in the mains electrical box so what should I expect to see in the MyEnergi app? My percentage figure remains 0 in the Green Leaf and when clicking through into the Leaf I never get green consumed gen figures, just Consumption(imported from Grid) and Generation figures.

The House consumption only shows consumption history when taken from the grid, doesn't show consumption when on solar/battery so I must be short a CT on the solar side?

I took a look around over the weekend, seems like there's just the one Harvi at the smart metre. I fairness, I suppose, when the EV charger installer came the electrician setting up the inverter was still working on it so he wasn't hanging around for the day until he finished.

Installation was by the same company as part of the same package. Solar team spilled over a bit into the next day when the EV guys arrived so they weren't two separate installs by two different companies, so I'd expect a compete set up.