Our Solar Install @Home
Our current usage compared to last week
How the UK is doing.
| Home. | ||
Our Solar Install @Home |
||
Our current usage compared to last week |
How the UK is doing. |
|
Well, after looking at them for some years Rob has finally bitten the bullet and has decided that we should look at Solar PV.
After showing Sarah that the goverment are doing a Feed-in-tarrif starting on the 1st of April paying 41.3P per kWh that we produce we started the ball rolling.
We had a few people round to give us quotes..
Solar Fusion
EvoEnergy
and a few over the phone / email.
We decided on EvoEnergy as they were very very knowledgeable about the products and were not your average sales men. They did not try to sell the product but more talk to you about the product and let you decide if you want or don't want it.
We have opted for Hybrid panels as these should give us a higher output for the small space we have on the roof (We have a three aspect roof, Semi detached). these panels are 215 Watt panels the normal ones are 180 Watt. This comes at a higher price but these panels work better in cloudy conditions as well so we should generate more over the course of a year than the 180 versions. Time will tell but other people with the same type panels seem to be getting good results as well.
We should get between 8 to 10 panels on the roof, this will be decided on the day. We cannot have 9 as this would be too many volts for the inverter to cope with and could not be split into strings of panels. it would have to be 8 or 10, 8 in a single string or 10 in two strings of 5.
-----------------------------
Saturday before
Scafolders arrive and set up.. Not much to tell. Very quick.
Done by Crest Access Scaffolding. Forgot the ladder, how do they get up there without it!-----------------------------
Day of install (Monday 29th March)
The sparkie arrived first and set about looking at the consumer unit making sure all is safe. 0830
The others arrive with the kit. 0900
After looking around and deciding on placement of the inverter they got on with working out how many would fit on the roof. We were hoping for 10, although possible with the sq meters available on the roof because its 3 aspects it was only possible for 8 to be installed making a 1.72kWp system. (1408kWh a year) Boo we really wanted 10 but it was just not possible.
They installed the fixings on the roof and then started to put panels on as the cableing was done from the panels to the inverter. 1200
After a bit of a wait for a breaker to be delivered (stupid delivery people) the system was in action around 1500. Although we have to get our earthing sorted as currently we dont have an adaquate earth supply to get it signed off correctly this is being sorted on the 13/04/2010 (PME for those interested.) The earthing is safe under old regs but not so under the new ones and this is to be counted as new so an upgrade has to be done.
sparkie left around 1800 after failing to get an earth stake in the ground. Fair play for trying as much as he did. It was a metre copper clad spike that had to be driven into the ground and had to be fairly close to the consumer unit.
Single Solar pannel
|
8 Installed.
|
Inverter installed in garage. |
Hand meter shows output currently and for the day and last 31 days. |
Pannels on the roof.
|
|
| Day 1 | Well the first day we generated a whole 110watts of energy.. It was only around 20 mins of running though. After trying to get an earth stake in the ground and failing. |
| Day 2 | We have angered the sun god. Its raining and snow is forcasted ITS NEARLY APRIL FFS anyway we managed 2.1kW. |
| Day 3 | Better no snow down south 4.6kW, It was raining on an off. Did see 1.72kWh as a peek output. Inverter cut back the power as its only rated to 1.7kWh this should only be an issue on sunny days, See notes below. |
| Day 4 | Started good but got hazy on and off around 1. Still we managed todo 7.1kWh. |
| Day 5 | 4.3kWh |
| Day 6 | 3.1kWh |
| Day 7 | 8.8 kWh Best day so far! |
Week 1
In the first week we generated 36.6kWh we have had some great days and some not so good ones.. Highs of 8.8kW and 7.1kWh but lows of 3.1kW and 3.4kW.
Average for week. 5.2kW a day.
Current recoup from government £15.12 for the the 1st week.
Week 2
We have seen highs of 10.9kW and 9.5kW but lows of 5.4 kW. Over all a very good week.
Average for week. 8.1kW a day.
Total for the week 56.5 kWh
Current recoup from government £23.33 for the the 2nd week.
We have also seen our import of electricity drop from 8-9kW a day to 6kW this is probably less as I was home the first week so its squewing the data slightly.
Total from government = £41.63
Total from exporting = £1.53
Total from saving importing = £0.44 a day (biased on us using the same as before eg 9kW a day)
Week 3
Excelent week this week. Sunny all week.. No longer collecting daily stats from the meter will be taking it off the sunnyboy.
Average for week. 10.3kW a day.
Total for the week 72.2 kWh
Current recoup from government £29.82 for the the 3rd week.
Week 4
We were away for 5 days this week but it looks like it was a fairly average week.
Average for week. 6.1kW a day.
Total for the week 42.5 kWh
Current recoup from government £17.55 for the the 4th week.
Notes
Although our panels should produce 1.72kW the inverter is only rated to 1.55kW. This should only be an issue in sunny days but whilst having the larger inverter would have given us a better peak output eg higher than 1.72kW (theoretical max of panels), it would be less efficient during the less sunny days as the efficiency of converting DC to AC is not so good at lower output. We would have had to have the higher spec inverter if we had 10 Panels.
We were also lucky as our electricty supplier also changed our meter for an import / export one as well so we will get the full amout of what we export.
You can email me here 
.jpg)
