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Solar Panel kWh calculation

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  • 05-07-2011 12:19pm
    #1
    levindriver
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2 ✭


    Hi all,

    I'm currently trying to calculate the amount of kWh's per annum produced by a particular type of evacuated tube solar panel and im just wondering if anyone on here would have any advice on how to do it. I have the formula but I cant seem to get it to work out because it just keeps coming out with crazy figures and none seem right. Is there any other way of working it out? There are certain figures required by the formula which im not sure if i have calculated correctly. Any help would be much appreciated.

    Thanks!
    Tagged:


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    #2
    Jimbo
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,379 ✭✭✭Jimbo


    You should be able to use DEAP to calculate it.
    You can download it here:
    http://www.seai.ie/Your_Building/BER/BER_Assessors/Technical/DEAP/

    When you have the software up and running, go to the 'water heating' tab, select yes for 'is there solar water heating', press the blue text to the side of that and enter the details in the pop up box. The solar water heating input is calculated in the bottom right of the pop up screen.
    You can get help with the figures in Appendix H in the DEAP manual which you can find in the main screen of the software at the left hand side.


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    #3
    levindriver
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2 ✭levindriver


    Thanks Jimbo,

    Ive tried this already and the result is coming out very low. Something like around 1400 kWh/yr?? I think this is a little too low to be honest as ive seen quotes for solar panels of a lower quality at around the 2500 kWh/yr mark.

    Is there any other way of calculating this figure?


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    #4
    caesarthechimp
    Closed Accounts Posts: 204 ✭✭caesarthechimp


    levindriver wrote: »
    Something like around 1400 kWh/yr?? I think this is a little too low to be honest as ive seen quotes for solar panels of a lower quality at around the 2500 kWh/yr mark.
    That is the difference between Deap defaults (pessimistic) and the marketing bluster (wildly optimistic). 1400kWh/yr is still €225 worth of immersion element heating.


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    #5
    Radiotower
    Registered Users Posts: 250 ✭✭Radiotower


    Hi, I'm doing a wee project on the benefits of solar thermal panels and am using DEAP to calculate kWh/year from system. I've picked a system to base it on and have the relevant information for 1m2, 2m2 and 3m2. Now I'm reccomending to install 4m2 so 1x3m2 and 1x1m2.

    The problem I have is that the heat loss coefficient for the 3m2 is 0.85W/m2K and for the 1m2 it is 1.55 - is it a matter of getting the average or is there another calculation to do?

    Thanks


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    #6
    caesarthechimp
    Closed Accounts Posts: 204 ✭✭caesarthechimp


    In similar situations (eg two DHW cylinders with different insulation types) the instruction is to use a weighted average. Deap can only cope with one input.
    So (3x0.85 + 1.55) /4 = 1.03


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