PV system efficiency

Arklow10

I had a 3.4 kw/hr PV installation installed about a month ago. I am not sure it is delivering what it should. I do not have a automatic system for logging the rate of electricity generated, but would like one, any suggestions for such a meter/display?

Today I logged on the hour the electricity generated manually. The system throughout the day registered 1.62kw. Nice bright day with blue skies around often.
I would have thought it would have hit close to its 3.4 kw/hr generating capacity today?

thank you

Any series DIN rail kWh counter would do.

Not sure what you mean by 3.4kWh PV, they're rated in peak power not daily energy.

Not the optimal time of year for photon harvesting either.

Gumbo

My 3kw system today powered the base load, short uses of a cement mixer to an extent but I still have enough surplus to heat my 200L cylinder to max temp.

Based in D11, south facing roof

I was producing 50% rated at lunchtime today now that you mention it and my main array is at 15° off horizontal.

Arklow10

Thank you.
I thought 3.4kw/hr of my system was the peak power rating?
My issue is I was checking the actual load generated throughout a relatively sunny day for October, and it stayed static at 1.62kw/hr rate. Would you expect this to be closer to its rating of 3.4kw/hr when sunny?
Or am I not talking in the correct language?

Gumbo

Arklow10 wrote: »

Thank you.
I thought 3.4kw/hr of my system was the peak power rating?
My issue is I was checking the actual load generated throughout a relatively sunny day for October, and it stayed static at 1.62kw/hr rate. Would you expect this to be closer to its rating of 3.4kw/hr when sunny?
Or am I not talking in the correct language?

My 3kw systems generates 3.4kwh max from my spot checks on really sunny days. I’ve no way of monitoring it long term either, I just go by the display on the invertor.

My immersion divertor on the other hand, that does tell me what I’ve diverted to the immersion and what I’ve given back to the grid.

rolion

Lads,what kind of inverter you have if no monitoring installed !?
I understood ONLY ABB and Solis are approved for Irish grid ! ! !

rolion

kceire wrote: »

My 3kw system today powered the base load, short uses of a cement mixer to an extent but I still have enough surplus to heat my 200L cylinder to max temp.

Based in D11, south facing roof

Can I ask you to "prove" it, please !?
My fcuking 5KW power installed barely made it over 2Kwh so far... same,in Dublin.

Gumbo

No problem. I’ll grab a photo next time.
I’ve no reason to lie as I came straight on here to make sure it was ok that t was producing more than the 3kw.

Gumbo

rolion wrote: »

Lads,what kind of inverter you have if no monitoring installed !?
I understood ONLY ABB and Solis are approved for Irish grid ! ! !

I have a Tranenergy unit. Installer took my MPRN to register it with ESB.

rolion

kceire wrote: »

I have a Tranenergy unit. Installer took my MPRN to register it with ESB.

Thanks.
Don't wanna stir the pot... but no monitoring despite having wifi and ethernet built-in !?

Looks like your inverter is too... HERE .
The below are for my ABB inverter.

TomOnBoard

rolion wrote: »

Can I ask you to "prove" it, please !?
My fcuking 5KW power installed barely made it over 2Kwh so far... same,in Dublin.

Is it possible with a domestic system to get this kind of PV output detail tied into measurements of actual consumption from a) the Inverter and b) the Grid so that the homeowner can see how efficiently s/he is spreading actual usage across the peak PV hours thereby avoiding both using the grid as far as possible and dumping to it?

rolion

TomOnBoard wrote: »

Is it possible with a domestic system to get this kind of PV output detail tied into measurements of actual consumption from a) the Inverter and b) the Grid so that the homeowner can see how efficiently s/he is spreading actual usage across the peak PV hours thereby avoiding both using the grid as far as possible and dumping to it?

Well,yes and no ... as you rely on physics (cables contact) to get you the numbers !
The last and most definitive result is the one from the supplier,upon which you are been charged for the service / consumption.

I have those graphs from the inverter web based dashboard plus a second one provided by OWL ( HERE ),screenshot below.
I have another one supplied by Energenie ( HERE )that monitors consumption at the socket level ,for imersion and the overall house wide.

Both are approximate,not perfect but gives you an overviwew of the performance,generation and consumption. As both are not update in realtime you cannot really see instant results (ABB - once every 15 minute, OWL - once very 10 seconds).But all doing somehow the job.

Also,Tom,i was excited at the begining to check the reults, performance, numbers and so on..these days,just checkign the green lights on the inverter when in and out of the door and when i'm on "boards" arguing and competing with another greenie(s) ...

Gumbo

rolion wrote: »

Thanks.
Don't wanna stir the pot... but no monitoring despite having wifi and ethernet built-in !?

Looks like your inverter is too... HERE .
The below are for my ABB inverter.

That doesn’t look like my unit but I’ll double check the product.
The installer did say something about apps and that but he said he would send the tech guy out once I got my WiFi etc as we only moved back in so I’ll get onto him tomorrow.

There is deffo a littler aerial on it , but don’t know if that means anything.

Edit : the joys of instant messaging. Tech guy booked for next week to set up remote monitoring

TomOnBoard

rolion wrote: »

Well,yes and no ... as you rely on physics (cables contact) to get you the numbers !
The last and most definitive result is the one from the supplier,upon which you are been charged for the service / consumption.

I have those graphs from the inverter web based dashboard plus a second one provided by OWL ( HERE ),screenshot below.
I have another one supplied by Energenie ( HERE )that monitors consumption at the socket level ,for imersion and the overall house wide.

Both are approximate,not perfect but gives you an overviwew of the performance,generation and consumption. As both are not update in realtime you cannot really see instant results (ABB - once every 15 minute, OWL - once very 10 seconds).But all doing somehow the job.

Also,Tom,i was excited at the begining to check the reults, performance, numbers and so on..these days,just checkign the green lights on the inverter when in and out of the door and when i'm on "boards" arguing and competing with another greenie(s) ...

I would imagine that most people would be the same in terms of monitoring more actively in the early days, and monitoring on a less detailed level once a system settles down and usage/fit to your own circumstances becomes better understood.

I would like to be able to build a rough plan of the best times of day etc to plan appliance usage in order to minimise both grid usage and dumping. Your OWL data seems to show that your dumping to the grid is low (around 12% for the last 30 days), so you seem to be using most/all of your production. Whether you're consuming more from the grid that you'd like is not clear, as your earlier post suggests that you might not be getting as much out of the system as you'd like. Is that a fair comment, or it it performing as you'd expect ( up to 50% of maximum output yesterday).

Gumbo

1pm and my panels have heated the 200L cylinder already.
That’s on top of powering the base load.

Finglas based. Roof is south facing and I’m currently giving the grip 1.8-2.2kw for free!

Wish I had the battery now!

unkel

kceire wrote: »

Wish I had the battery now!

But you have! Just leave it on the drive on a sunny day and walk / cycle / take the bus to work :pac:

Gumbo

unkel wrote: »

But you have! Just leave it on the drive on a sunny day and walk / cycle / take the bus to work :pac:

Plugged the car in after posting that.
Was drawing 1.7kw to charge the car.

TomOnBoard

I'm a bit confused TBH. Arklow10, Sir Liamalot and Rolion seemed to be getting around 50% of their systems' possible peak energy at one point or other in the past few days, whereas kceire seems to be getting a much higher output.

I was in a semi-industrial PV installation in the Midlands yesterday and they were struggling to get 50% of peak output (although they were very happy with that, given the time of year and the amount of cloud in the sky).

I would have thought that most systems would produce a broadly similar proportion of peak output at any given time in similar levels of sunshine/cloud. Or, are some systems so inherently so much more efficient than others (assuming most systems are oriented more or less correctly) that they can achieve say 80% of peak energy at the same time as other systems struggle to achieve 50% of their rating?

On a separate but related note, Met Eireann might do well to include PV output projections (as a proportion of max possible output) in their future forecasts, similar to pollen forecasts that they do already.

Condenser

TomOnBoard wrote: »

Is it possible with a domestic system to get this kind of PV output detail tied into measurements of actual consumption from a) the Inverter and b) the Grid so that the homeowner can see how efficiently s/he is spreading actual usage across the peak PV hours thereby avoiding both using the grid as far as possible and dumping to it?

You can do this with fronius inverters. The energy manager will track your production, consumption and power discharged to the grid. You can map it over a day, month, year, whatever.