Daily pv production

championc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119459483#Comment_119459483

@graememk has this done and working

Niceday20

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119459483#Comment_119459483

Just ordered these from Amazon myself. Have has the TP-Link Kasa HS105 for a while, but gather they have been replaced by these, but becoming in short supply as Curry's, Harvey Norman and Argos have been out of them for a while.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B082DYJF52/ref=pe_27063361_485629781_TE_item

Gerry

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119460097#Comment_119460097

yup I'm good for smart plugs, but the immersion needs a switch and to be 16amp.

Jonathan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119460342#Comment_119460342

I'd say your best bet is to get a DIN rail enclosure, a regular contactor and make it smart with something like a DIN mount Shelly.

DrPhilG

Another 40+ day today, 40.5kWh to be precise.

silver_sky

26.4kWh generated today with 3.8kWh exported. I went out earlier and took a bus so the car so it could stay and finish charging. 😅

Interesting note is that I've been pulling the radiation data from the Met Eireann API the past few days. My forecast for today based on it was exact - 26.4kWh. Now I just need to figure out how to get this into homeassistant as it's currently in excel. I'm not looking hourly, just overall.

slave1

As smooth as a NE SW array gets, two kinks due to chimney shading, 37.1

Bif

A thing of beauty?

bullit_dodger

A thing of beauty indeed. Also I can't remember where we had 3-4 days of charts so similar.

as in consistently blue skies.

SD_DRACULA

42 is the answer to everything yet again 😅

paulbok

Almost a perfect curve for the first time, fog in the morning causing the squiggle, had expected that to affect it more. 44kWh on the nose, for the first time as well.

Stuck a fan under the inverter around lunchtime, dropped the temp around 20 degrees after half an hour, have ordered one of those PS cooling fans someone linked a few pages back, a little more elegant than a desk fan sitting on a lump of timber to angle it up. It didn't seem to affect the curve. inverter maxed at 5.8kw (6kwh), guess the high temps on the panels are impacting, it hit over 6kw in March when it was cooler.

3kw into the Eddi today, and 19kw exported.

graememk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119460342#Comment_119460342

I have this for the immersion, rated at 20 amps

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Switch-Smart-Boiler-Wall-Touch/dp/B09P88YF2W

Its a tuya rebrand so works with the tuya app or smart things app

THE ALM

Like everybody (hopefully) these days it was another great day with 51.8kWh and about 46kWh used, always an export to the grid no matter what.

These short summer days mean the battery if just about covering the night/early morning consumption, maybe 45mins-1hr where the night rate is covering the load before generating enough.

paulbok

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119462463#Comment_119462463

I've never set the battery to charge at night, but will be in a few months.*

Is your/any system clever enough to be able to set a rule such as;

If battery <30% and night rate time = true, then charge battery with 1kwh (or whatever is needed to see you to decent production)

* 🙄 just remembered I've the old backwards spinning meter, so just one daily rate, and never needed to charge the battery from the grid. But will still get a handle on it for when I have to change the meter.

idc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119462919#Comment_119462919

Depends on the system, one I have i just set time period and battery percentage and can be done from web/phone app, so often i look a forecast in morning before night rate ends and decide if i need to top battery up more for the day.

championc

There are three scenarios to plan for

1. Discharge overnight if plenty in store and decent following day (should be pretty much for everyone from when clocks spring forward until fall back)

2. Don't Discharge overnight but don't Charge either, so you resume using your solar generated power for daytime the following day

3. Charge overnight to a variable level, dependent on the following days weather.

It may be that this level of logic for items 2 & 3, while done via automation really, is only really worth doing if you have at least a 10kW battery

connesha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119462919#Comment_119462919

There are quite a few people on here doing night-time charging based on battery state and forecasts. See the Automation thread, and also there is a weather/solar forecasting thread a few pages back.

In my own case, it uses the 2am to 5am window (I'm on the Bord Gais EV plan) to charge the battery at night if necessary, with the goal of avoiding grid usage at all other times of the day. It runs automatically before 2am, and does 2 primary checks:

1) IF Current SOC + Solar Forecast is less than Daily Usage, then charge battery to make up the difference

2) IF Current SOC is not enough to get through to morning generation time, then charge the battery enough to get to morning generation. (and if morning generation time is after breakfast time, i.e. not summer, add a buffer here to cover breakfast usage too)

The amount the battery is charged is variable: it depends on how much is needed to satisfy the above conditions

interestingly, it can result in a 0A charge for the 3 hours, especially for condition 2, which means the grid is being used in the EV plan time only. Consider if the SOC is pretty low at 1:45AM. It won't last until morning generation (e.g. 6:30am these days). Sometimes setting 0A charge for the 3 hours will be enough to "pause" battery discharge so that there is then enough left from 5am to 6:30am.

While a basic rule like IF <30% Then charge 1kwh will cover a lot of days in certain months of the year, the fringe months (Spring/Autumn) have the potential drive you mad as each day can be very different, and you'll have wanted to have put in more or less on different days, even if savings-wise it may not amount to much...

THE ALM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119462919#Comment_119462919

Not charging at night currently. The stored energy in seeing us through the night with a window of about 7-8am needing us to use the night rate.

Come the shorter days I'll start tweaking it. Waiting on batteries arriving so I'll up the storage to 10-15kWh and start load shifting.

tnegun

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119461174#Comment_119461174

I stuck a fan under mine today too to see if it had any impact on production. The inverter stayed in the mid to high 40's(Was 60s yesterday) but the output is the same so it's safe to assume it's the panel temp causing the reduced output. After this week I'm struggling to use it all now anyway! There's nothing left to be washed and the hot tank is at capacity. My Eddi went over 900kwh too since last October so it's playing a blinder.

Jonathan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119464084#Comment_119464084

Too many people get Eddi's fitted to unsuitable cylinders though and only ending up with the top of the tank hot! You need to go on a Willis PR campaign. 😂

DC999

Finally broke the 25kwh mark yesterday (by a 0.1kwh). Big for our low usage house and EV.

But feel like the little kid here with my 'big' number :)

Installer back next week as it can squeeze some more. More output = faster payback. But they did nothing until I flagged some output is underperforming by looking at stats. And got a steer on the troubleshooting thread too. Not delighted with them on that but they will sort it.

So worth other newbies, like me, to assume it's not fully tuned when setup and look to squeeze more output from same setup. Validate that before making the final payment as then you lose their interest.

4.9 kwp E (largest), S (smallest), W (medium) - that's all roof fits. Dublin

idc

4.65 kWp SE/SW split north Dublin last four days each day has been between 27.1 and 27.9 kWh. Little to no export with Eddi and EV 😀

Just to highlight to anyone new to this, for these last 4 days my max generation has been about 3.5 kW but going back to a more mixed day say the 5th August my max generation was 4.79 kW. this show difference between when panels are constantly hot all day vs cooler during cloudy spell and then hit with full sun

allinthehead

I've had my little diy setup going now for the last ten days. 3.2kwp SE and .8 NW. Only had 2.4kwp up and running for the first 5 days. Generated 186kwh and exported 132kwh 😮. Highest day was 26.6, 23kwh a day for the last 4. No plans on getting a battery for the moment, I think I'll see how the CEG works out. Total cost including building the pergola was about 3k so I'm hoping payback will be about 5 years.

tnegun

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119464186#Comment_119464186

I might try to stockpile them! The installers are pretty clueless I had to explain to the electricians how it was supposed to work even the Solar Co weren't clued in on it. If you have a single top entry immersion you're going to struggle with it end of.

slave1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119462463#Comment_119462463

Has your EV arrived, high consumption tells me yes!

slave1

Almost identical to yesterday, 25 to car, remainder to house load/water

yankinlk

Really enjoying the first year and learning loads from this forum. Every day this week blue skies, but as each day gets hotter - the overall output drops slightly. I dont think we have seen a cloud in 5 days. I guess it could be shorter evenings - but the theory is panel heat i guess.

slave1

It is 100% panel heat, they are hopping which will result in lower voltage which will result in less PV generation

DrPhilG

38.4 today, today had a few whispy clouds but the temperature was ferocious. My wife is a sun worshipper but even she had to come inside as it was too hot.

Hot day in the attic too, inverter peaked at about 50°. God knows how hot it would have gone without the fan.

Notice the bump at the end when the fan went off at 9pm.

Bakka

519 kWH so far this month. Long may the sun shine.