Solar panels , would you ?

[Mudball]

Does your roof face south?
Mine faces east and west so not ideal although I've read they will still work

It’s more south-east than south. So bright start to the day and then will progressively slow down. We have an a small east facing section that could do well in the evening. But the cost of additional 2-4 panels was too high. If we added more panels, it would be a different array, inverter et al.. so staying with the current setup.

Solar panels don’t need direct sunlight, they need light to function. Direct is good but not the end of the world if you don’t get it

 

[Mudball]

So nearly the first full day of production.. we managed a 3.3kwh generation. I think we consumed most of it. Battery is only about 10%.

I have now idea if 3.3 in the middle of winter is a good thing or bad..

 

[larmen]

We did 2.7 today on 8 panels, about 25 degrees offset to the east fro south.

Bad day, it is what it is. More annoying is that the battery didn’t take over 260 in the cold today, hardly charged at night. Going to have to use grid now on ‘high’ tariffs, 41p.

 

[bobmac]

We did 2.7 today on 8 panels, about 25 degrees offset to the east fro south.

Bad day, it is what it is. More annoying is that the battery didn’t take over 260 in the cold today, hardly charged at night. Going to have to use grid now on ‘high’ tariffs, 41p.

Can't you charge your battery from the grid overnight when it's cheaper?

 

[Mudball]

We did 2.7 today on 8 panels, about 25 degrees offset to the east fro south.

Bad day, it is what it is. More annoying is that the battery didn’t take over 260 in the cold today, hardly charged at night. Going to have to use grid now on ‘high’ tariffs, 41p.

That is better than mine … 3.3 off 16 panels ..

 

[larmen]

Can't you charge your battery from the grid overnight when it's cheaper?

It is set to charge from 2 to 5, but at tonight’s temperatures it only pulled in 260 W per hour. Was gone before breakfast.
Solar did top up a little but also not much. We run grid power since half past 4. Not using much right now, just trickling through..

A few days ago when it was freezing we charged at 560W but it was a good solar day and we got the battery filled up during that.

 

[Mudball]

It is set to charge from 2 to 5, but at tonight’s temperatures it only pulled in 260 W per hour. Was gone before breakfast.
Solar did top up a little but also not much. We run grid power since half past 4. Not using much right now, just trickling through..

A few days ago when it was freezing we charged at 560W but it was a good solar day and we got the battery filled up during that.

What tariff are you on. Currently my battery is <10%. I don’t think it gets much from the grid yet. I don’t have an mcs either. What apps/websites do you use to understand solar.

Also I realised we consumer 30kw while we produce 3Kw.. and that does not include charging the EV

 

[larmen]

We are on Octopus Flux. No EV. I don’t think my moped/scooter would count, I should ask them. It has a green number plate, just like a car has.

3 hours cheap tariffs from 2 to 5 for 17p
3 hours expensive tariffs from 16 to 19 for 41p
Rest of day 29p, same as Flexible Octopus would be all day around.

I use solcast to see what’s coming up in the next 3 days, but also look at weather forecast.


30 kWh seems a lot, we use 8 to 10 these days.

 

[Mudball]

today looks like a bumper day.. it says it generated 6.3kwh. It is too good to be true. I assume it includes the 3Kwh that the battery topped up last night. 3.3Kwh is normally what it achieves. That calculation makes sense.
But plenty of times during the day, i saw the flow happening from the battery to house/grid. I am not fully convinced by the data i see on their monitoring dashboard.

 

[PJ87]

today looks like a bumper day.. it says it generated 6.3kwh. It is too good to be true. I assume it includes the 3Kwh that the battery topped up last night. 3.3Kwh is normally what it achieves. That calculation makes sense.
But plenty of times during the day, i saw the flow happening from the battery to house/grid. I am not fully convinced by the data i see on their monitoring dashboard.

View attachment 51556

I dunno my system produced 5kw today , how big is your array

 

[larmen]

We did 5.5, I think we are smaller than both of you. (8 panels, SSE)

 

[PJ87]

We did 5.5, I think we are smaller than both of you. (8 panels, SSE)

Mines a 4.5kw system 12 panels

 

[Mudball]

We did 5.5, I think we are smaller than both of you. (8 panels, SSE)

I dunno my system produced 5kw today , how big is your array

So it must have been a California day... 16 panels 6.8Kwh .. so pretty much at full tilt then. though the battery did not go beyond 60% of capacity

 

[PJ87]

So it must have been a California day... 16 panels 6.8Kwh .. so pretty much at full tilt then. though the battery did not go beyond 60% of capacity

Well wait until you see what a summer produces. What was the start % and capacity

 

[Mudball]

Well wait until you see what a summer produces. What was the start % and capacity

My battery is 6.9k... it charged to 60% on the night rate.. then went all the way down to 20 and charged back to 60!!. I have set the max night input from Grid to be at 80% in order to provide some headroom for the solar to top up. I currently dont have a feed in tarrif, so i have to wait for a full export Once i get the MCS and switch to Flux, i plan to top up the battery every night

 

[larmen]

At what speed do you charge? We set the limit to 50A on the inverter and it takes the 5kW battery from 15% to full in about 2 1/2 hours.

 

[Mudball]

At what speed do you charge? We set the limit to 50A on the inverter and it takes the 5kW battery from 15% to full in about 2 1/2 hours.

i have no idea... last night it took 3 hrs to charge it from the grid to 3Kwh.. so guessing 1 K/h..... i havent messed around with the inverter settings yet... want to first upgrade my home fuse to 100A... (happening in 10 days). Otherwise i am going to be EV & battery charging at the same time and i dont want to go hunting in the dark

I must say, i m enjoying the Solar more than I am enjoying the faffing about with the EV so far. Steep learning experinece

 

[Mudball]

Today I generated 7.1Kwh!!!
only irritation is that it keeps sending it to grid rather than use it at home.. I had filled up the battery to 100% from grid, it is 6pm and there 77% left.

 

[PJ87]

Today I generated 7.1Kwh!!!
only irritation is that it keeps sending it to grid rather than use it at home.. I had filled up the battery to 100% from grid, it is 6pm and there 77% left.

I generated 6kw today , however it filled my battery

My battery was 100% at 04:30

When I left home at 09:30 it had got down to 80%

It's now 18:30 basically and it's 83%

 

[Mudball]

I generated 6kw today , however it filled my battery

My battery was 100% at 04:30

When I left home at 09:30 it had got down to 80%

It's now 18:30 basically and it's 83%

mine has hardly moved..



so i m going to push the envelop and do a round of washing & tumble drying tonight. I am also going to start charging the car outside of happy hours.