Solar PV - is it worth it?

CuriousDonkey · 25-02-2018 6:35pm #1

I’m looked into option of getting a Solar PV system for installation onto my house, and I’m trying to determine if it’s a wise spend. It would be great to get some feedback from anyone that has had a system installed.

The house is in the north east, SW facing with nothing obstructing sunlight to the roof. The house being a 70’s era semi-D concrete house, currently heated by oil-fired central heating.

I’ve been recommended a 4kw setup with inverter and diverter (for heating water). Average electric units used per-year are about 7k units.

I’m on the fence on whether solar is a good move right now. I like the idea of reducing our carbon footprint, and reducing our energy costs, (with young kids as they get older our energy use will increase), hence thinking solar might balance out additional demand.

I do like the idea of the Sunamp heat battery technology running along with PVs, but I’ve no idea how feasible that is.

Would it be better to invest the money you’d spend (on PV) towards replacing the oil fired central heating with an ‘air-to-water’ heat pump (like the daiken Altherma high temperature system)? I’m know there’s talk of grants in the future.

As I don’t know anyone with real-world figures of what sort of benefit they’ve derived from having a solar PV installed into an older house. For example, if you had a 4 kw PV system, what sort of equivalent in units (KWhr?) could it generate? Granted it’s very much a ‘how long is a piece of string’ question.
Would it be expected that the diverter could sufficiently heat water whilst having wife and kids at home during summer months?

The more I dig into the subject, it seems to be that many people would be ‘exporting’ their generated power back to the grid for free..given FiT isn’t available anymore. With so many new houses being built with PVs, there must be quite a lot of surplus supply about? Does Eirgrid / ESB networks limit the number of houses with PVs to prevent general supply issues?

26-02-2018 8:47pm

Solar PV is uneconomical in Ireland at current electricity costs, I pay 17 C day and 7.4 cent per Kwh night. No way solar PV is worth it.

If a FIT existed then I would consider it but that's not likely for years.

The Greatest Issue I have with Solar PV is the fact you have to divert a substantial amount to heating water you don't need and that's a complete waste. This is where you need the grid but without a FIT it makes it non viable. The Grid becomes your unlimited storage battery, sell to the grid and buy back when needed, the perfect solution and it could work but our grid is overwhelmed with commercial wind farms.

A storage battery is too expensive and brings other problems , you haven't a hope to charge it fully in Winter and in Summer it will be charged too often and you'll still have to divert excess electricity or give it to the grid for free.

Only in countries where there isn't such a large difference in Summer and winter daylight hours and countries that get a predictable amount of sunshine can you predict more accurately the size of the array and battery.

One of the greatest way to reduce your carbon footprint and the greatest saving you'll make is to change to electric car, since doing this I'll never go back. savings over Diesel and maintenance is significant + electrics are so good to drive and getting into a warm car before you set off this time of the year is particularly great, no more scraping ice or waiting 10 minutes or more for heat, no more fogged up windows until the heater blows warm air etc.

Electric cars can use any renewable energy on the grid and at peak production can be 65% of our total mix on the grid, 65% is the limit of renewable energy the grid can take, the rest gets exported or turbines get switched off + the more cars charging at night means a lot more wind energy can be used as energy demand significantly drops.

Petrol and diesel has to be extracted from the ground, shipped to refineries and refined into petrol and diesel which consumes a lot of energy itself then it's burned in an internal combustion engine at only about 25-30% efficiency.

Of course petrol and diesel cars emit far worse emissions than carbon, Co2 is a harmless Gas and the VW emissions scandal has made a lot of people including Governments finally realise the great mistake of promoting lower emitting Co2 cars as some kind of greener transport.

As for heat pumps, forget it, unless you got a very efficient house to begin with you're talking a lot of money to insulate and make it air tight and possibly install of a heat recovery system also.

In actual fact, the best thing you can do is insulate the bejesus out of the house and rely on as little energy as possible and get an EV.

One of the greatest things I did was to block up the open fire chimney with a chimney balloon I got in the local hardware store, the heat loss and draughts caused by chimneys is enormous.

26-02-2018 8:48pm

By the way 7,000 units of electricity is a lot per year ?

CuriousDonkey · 27-02-2018 8:51am

[Deleted User] wrote: »

By the way 7,000 units of electricity is a lot per year ?

Thanks for the feedback!

And your right 7k units is heavy, hence the look down the PV route. with two small kids the washing machine , dryer, dishwasher etc has been going non-stop over the winter months.
I’ve switched out the lights to LEDs, from MR16’s (at 50w a pop they were hungry yokes)
Replacing the dryer and dishwasher with A+ rated units would help with energy consumption, the other appliances have been done.

So boosting the insulation & focusing on drafts, maybe upgrading the OFCH to a high-efficiency boiler might be a better investment.

Heroditas · 27-02-2018 10:45am

CuriousDonkey wrote: »

Deleted User wrote: »

By the way 7,000 units of electricity is a lot per year ?

Thanks for the feedback!

And your right 7k units is heavy, hence the look down the PV route. with two small kids the washing machine , dryer, dishwasher etc has been going non-stop over the winter months.
I’ve switched out the lights to LEDs, from MR16’s (at 50w a pop they were hungry yokes)
Replacing the dryer and dishwasher with A+ rated units would help with energy consumption, the other appliances have been done.

So boosting the insulation & focusing on drafts, maybe upgrading the OFCH to a high-efficiency boiler might be a better investment.

You'd also get a good return if you got a day/night meter and switched your dishwasher, washing macine and dryer etc to night usage!

27-02-2018 7:06pm

CuriousDonkey wrote: »

Thanks for the feedback!

And your right 7k units is heavy, hence the look down the PV route. with two small kids the washing machine , dryer, dishwasher etc has been going non-stop over the winter months.
I’ve switched out the lights to LEDs, from MR16’s (at 50w a pop they were hungry yokes)
Replacing the dryer and dishwasher with A+ rated units would help with energy consumption, the other appliances have been done.

So boosting the insulation & focusing on drafts, maybe upgrading the OFCH to a high-efficiency boiler might be a better investment.

I'd never have installed down lights all over the house, we have some in the conservatory but rarely use that in winter and if we do it's mainly a freestanding light with energy saver bulb of some sort. Each room is the same no nasty halogens.

7K Kwh is just mental really. Time for a dual tariff meter. If you can manage to use the dishwasher and washing machine at night it would be a good start, most modern machines have a delay timer.

Night rate starts at 11PM - 8am Winter and Midnight to 9 am Summer.

It can be tricky to manage the clothes dryer, usually the washing machine does the wash at night and throw into the dryer during the day.

We recently had to get a new Dryer and got a Bosch Heat Pump Dryer and it's fantastic, My Partner and my Mother gave it lots of praise particularly my Mother. It uses a lot less electricity but takes longer to dry. But "the clothes come out lovely" :-)

You need to install an energy monitor, one that the sensor clips on the the ESB wiring in your meter box. They're a great way of monitoring and finding the energy eaters.

Electric showers are notorious energy consumers and a lot of people don't realise that they're wasting all the hot water heated by the central heating system. Replacing with pumped only showers will make a big difference, in Summer you can use the immersion on night rate to heat the water. Pumped showers are also far nicer.

Perhaps your a "drink a glass of water and put the glass in the dishwasher immediately" kind of family ? If I'm home all day I use the one cup and glass, rinse them out after use. Less dishes mean less times the dishwasher has to run.

We're in the house nearly a year and probably got the new meter about a 3 weeks to a month after and this is our meter reading since last March.

Total = 681 Kwh

Total Day = 3125 Kwh

Total Night = 3685 kwh

So as you can see we use significant energy at night saving a lot of money !

This is also to drive an electric car ! I have work charging so with the old car I used to charge at work and at home so half my Commute was free, this time I have a larger battery and charge less at home.

I also work shift so for 7 Night shifts a month I have to charge the car at peak rates but as I say with the new car I charge less at home now.

So anyway my point being that you need to seriously look at your energy consumption because there's no need to throw money at Solar PV when you can possibly greatly reduce your energy requirements and also use a lot during the night.

Again, with solar PV you won't be able to use the energy at the time you need most of the time and will have to divert it, diverting it is just another term for throw it away because diverting means sending energy somewhere you really don't need.

Until a FIT is introduced in Ireland solar PV really makes no sense.

BobEmmet · 02-06-2018 7:31pm

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Solar PV is uneconomical in Ireland at current electricity costs, I pay 17 C day and 7.4 cent per Kwh night. No way solar PV is worth it.

If a FIT existed then I would consider it but that's not likely for years.

The Greatest Issue I have with Solar PV is the fact you have to divert a substantial amount to heating water you don't need and that's a complete waste. This is where you need the grid but without a FIT it makes it non viable. The Grid becomes your unlimited storage battery, sell to the grid and buy back when needed, the perfect solution and it could work but our grid is overwhelmed with commercial wind farms.

A storage battery is too expensive and brings other problems , you haven't a hope to charge it fully in Winter and in Summer it will be charged too often and you'll still have to divert excess electricity or give it to the grid for free.

Only in countries where there isn't such a large difference in Summer and winter daylight hours and countries that get a predictable amount of sunshine can you predict more accurately the size of the array and battery.

One of the greatest way to reduce your carbon footprint and the greatest saving you'll make is to change to electric car, since doing this I'll never go back. savings over Diesel and maintenance is significant + electrics are so good to drive and getting into a warm car before you set off this time of the year is particularly great, no more scraping ice or waiting 10 minutes or more for heat, no more fogged up windows until the heater blows warm air etc.

Electric cars can use any renewable energy on the grid and at peak production can be 65% of our total mix on the grid, 65% is the limit of renewable energy the grid can take, the rest gets exported or turbines get switched off + the more cars charging at night means a lot more wind energy can be used as energy demand significantly drops.

Petrol and diesel has to be extracted from the ground, shipped to refineries and refined into petrol and diesel which consumes a lot of energy itself then it's burned in an internal combustion engine at only about 25-30% efficiency.

Of course petrol and diesel cars emit far worse emissions than carbon, Co2 is a harmless Gas and the VW emissions scandal has made a lot of people including Governments finally realise the great mistake of promoting lower emitting Co2 cars as some kind of greener transport.

As for heat pumps, forget it, unless you got a very efficient house to begin with you're talking a lot of money to insulate and make it air tight and possibly install of a heat recovery system also.

In actual fact, the best thing you can do is insulate the bejesus out of the house and rely on as little energy as possible and get an EV.

One of the greatest things I did was to block up the open fire chimney with a chimney balloon I got in the local hardware store, the heat loss and draughts caused by chimneys is enormous.

Thanks. I had a quote of €11k for 4kw solar PV with storage battery. I'll pass.

Astonishing that no pressure.is being put on Denis Naughten etc to introduce feed in tarrifs for solar PV. This would no doubt increase the uptake. Very frustrating for those willing to make the effort.

02-06-2018 9:11pm

11K for a 4 KwP system is a bit high alright but it does have a battery, did they give you the size of the battery in Kwh ?

Did they give you a price without the battery ?

Unfortunately I don't think battery storage would work well in Ireland due to the short daylight hours in Winter and the very long daylight hours in Summer, in other words , you'd struggle to fill the battery in Winter and would generate far too much to store in Summer.

The only real solution is a feed-in-tariff , the Grid then becomes your unlimited storage battery but without the FIT it won't work. Sell the excess and buy it back when you need it.

Priority will always be given to the big commercial companies in Ireland which is a shame because eventually they will start installing solar farms and it will require a lot of land but there's a lot of rooftops that can be used first.

Capt'n Midnight · 04-06-2018 11:39am

If a lot of the energy is used for heating water for dishwasher and washing machine then look at more efficient machines or lower temps.

Some will take feed from central heating, but beware they may only do it on high temp washes.

Using PV to heat water is more expensive than doing it directly.

Max out the insulation it's a 70's house, if you haven't already done so.

unkel · 05-06-2018 12:18am

BobEmmet wrote: »

Astonishing that no pressure.is being put on Denis Naughten etc to introduce feed in tarrifs for solar PV. This would no doubt increase the uptake. Very frustrating for those willing to make the effort.

Indeed. Drive around anywhere in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands these days and many, many houses are plastered with PV panels.

Our solar power is at least as good as those countries (well it is anywhere in the East of the country), we should be plastering our houses with PV too. It's not that expensive to do it, but it makes no financial sense unless we get a reasonable feed in tariff

Welcome to boards, by the way, BobEmmet

JB_Dublin · 05-06-2018 11:42am

Hi,
I'm thinking of building an app which could allow you to make money from solar PV in Ireland. I'm interested in talking to anyone with existing solar installations or someone thinking about solar pv.

unkel · 06-06-2018 1:54am

Nice thoughts, JB_Dublin and welcome to boards

But how do you think you could get money to a solar PV owner?

the_syco · 06-06-2018 2:20am

BobEmmet wrote: »

Thanks. I had a quote of €11k for 4kw solar PV with storage battery. I'll pass.

Does that quote include any grants? Or are there still grants for this?

unkel · 06-06-2018 1:13pm

There are no grants for solar PV

There is a grant for solar thermal (heating of your hot water)

JB_Dublin · 06-06-2018 7:22pm

Thanks Unkel,
I don't want to poison the thread by talking commercials, however, I want to trial a system that scoops up the solar spill, aggregates it and sell it as a virtual generator. If anyone is interested in hearing more/trialling it please PM me. I am trying to gauge demand. This will not make anyone millionaires however it might reduce the solar payback to a couple of years.

Jim

Heroditas · 06-06-2018 8:43pm

JB_Dublin wrote: »

Thanks Unkel,
I don't want to poison the thread by talking commercials, however, I want to trial a system that scoops up the solar spill, aggregates it and sell it as a virtual generator. If anyone is interested in hearing more/trialling it please PM me. I am trying to gauge demand. This will not make anyone millionaires however it might reduce the solar payback to a couple of years.

Jim

Have you engaged with the regulator and the likes of ESB Networks regarding this?
Edit: or more to the point, an energy supply company?

unkel · 06-06-2018 11:10pm

Interesting concept, tell us more!

To me the future of the grid is clear. There will be a lot more renewable energy (mainly solar PV and wind) and there will be storage on the grid (for when there is overproduction) in the form of batteries, ideally using EVs that are connected to the grid and can be used for "mining" electricity at premium peak times. But also other grid attached batteries as they become cheaper

JB_Dublin · 07-06-2018 7:05pm

I agree with your proposition. Have you read the Chris Goodall book - the switch? It lays out a similar future.
Unfortunately Ireland as a nation is way, way behind the likes of Sweden, it's even been accused of "delaying" eu legislation that helps this future to become a reality.
Feed in tariffs are on their way out in the uk and the rest of europe, I think we need to find other ways of making solar "stand on it's own two legs".

JB_Dublin · 07-06-2018 7:06pm

Yes (to all)

H.E. Pennypacker · 07-06-2018 8:54pm

PV prices may be about to come down substantially:

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2018/06/05/bnef-expects-34-fall-in-pv-module-prices-in-2018/

ted1 · 14-06-2018 8:53pm

JB_Dublin wrote: »

Hi,
I'm thinking of building an app which could allow you to make money from solar PV in Ireland. I'm interested in talking to anyone with existing solar installations or someone thinking about solar pv.

Block chain ? https://www.siemens.com/innovation/en/home/pictures-of-the-future/energy-and-efficiency/smart-grids-and-energy-storage-microgrid-in-brooklyn.html

Or aggregating a group of people to sell on the ISEM. That can be pricey unless you have a couole of MW

ted1 · 14-06-2018 8:55pm

unkel wrote: »

Interesting concept, tell us more!

To me the future of the grid is clear. There will be a lot more renewable energy (mainly solar PV and wind) and there will be storage on the grid (for when there is overproduction) in the form of batteries, ideally using EVs that are connected to the grid and can be used for "mining" electricity at premium peak times. But also other grid attached batteries as they become cheaper

Are you still using your illegal non grid compliant invertor?

BobEmmet · 14-06-2018 9:00pm

the_syco wrote: »

Does that quote include any grants? Or are there still grants for this?

No grants included but they've requoted about €5k without the battery.

BobEmmet · 14-06-2018 9:11pm

JB_Dublin wrote: »

Thanks Unkel,
I don't want to poison the thread by talking commercials, however, I want to trial a system that scoops up the solar spill, aggregates it and sell it as a virtual generator. If anyone is interested in hearing more/trialling it please PM me. I am trying to gauge demand. This will not make anyone millionaires however it might reduce the solar payback to a couple of years.

Jim

I won't be having solar PV installed unless the payback term is reduced by FIT or something like you suggest (not that I understand the technicalities!)

14-06-2018 9:12pm

Without a FIT forget solar PV.

15-06-2018 8:22am

ted1 wrote: »

Are you still using your illegal non grid compliant invertor?

It's
A: not illegal (not insurable)
B: grid compliant (G83/2)

gally74 · 17-06-2018 9:09am

Will this have an effect

https://www.euractiv.com/section/energy/news/eu-strikes-deal-on-32-renewable-energy-target-and-palm-oil-ban-after-all-night-session/

The lack of a fit and red tape is holding Ireland back

freddyuk · 17-06-2018 9:59am

H.E. Pennypacker wrote: »

PV prices may be about to come down substantially:

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2018/06/05/bnef-expects-34-fall-in-pv-module-prices-in-2018/

This is irrelevant while the EU has a minimum price control in place limiting any reduction in imported solar module EU prices from China or anywhere else if they feel inclined.

Heroditas · 17-06-2018 10:38am

gally74 wrote: »

Will this have an effect

https://www.euractiv.com/section/energy/news/eu-strikes-deal-on-32-renewable-energy-target-and-palm-oil-ban-after-all-night-session/

The lack of a fit and red tape is holding Ireland back

Won't make a blind bit of difference unless some sort of FIT is introduced. Ireland intends meeting future renewable targets via large scale wind and also through some large scale solar.

Gumbo · 17-06-2018 1:08pm

JB_Dublin wrote: »

Hi,
I'm thinking of building an app which could allow you to make money from solar PV in Ireland. I'm interested in talking to anyone with existing solar installations or someone thinking about solar pv.

PM me please
Interested in what options you have
Currently have a 3kw system that I give back to the grid on a daily basis.

rolion · 18-06-2018 11:15pm

kceire wrote: »

PM me please
Interested in what options you have
Currently have a 3kw system that I give back to the grid on a daily basis.

Why PM me !?
Let's hear it here now what kind of app can make PV more viable ...

19-06-2018 12:18pm

The app probably connects to some monitoring thing that can divert power or rather dump it, dumping is a waste which makes Solar PV non viable for now until a FIT is available.

Caillte · 19-06-2018 4:01pm

FIT is never going to be a thing in ireland really is it? Did I read that the UK will stop offering it soon.

19-06-2018 6:02pm

Well to be honest the capacity is not there for micro generation at peak wind production, at peak wind we can't supply more than 65% to the grid at present. However when the wind does not blow you're talking 3-5% maybe 10% on a calm day, probably some generation in coastal areas.

This is the major flaw in the thinking because it's often thought Ireland is no good for solar pv which is not true, the more solar pv we have the more we can send to the grid when there is little to no wind but the Government have no brains, so we're left with a huge imbalance in the grid.

unkel · 22-07-2018 10:28pm

JB_Dublin wrote: »

Hi,
I'm thinking of building an app which could allow you to make money from solar PV in Ireland. I'm interested in talking to anyone with existing solar installations or someone thinking about solar pv.

Not a peep out of JB_Dublin since. Which doesn't surprise any of us

unkel · 22-07-2018 10:32pm

Did this all on my own last Thursday afternoon. Even without any subsidy and without any feed in tariff, I felt it was the right thing to do. And it will pay for itself in reasonable time if you buy the parts at reasonable prices and do a DIY install.

H.E. Pennypacker · 22-07-2018 10:38pm

unkel wrote: »

Did this all on my own last Thursday afternoon. Even without any subsidy and without any feed in tariff, I felt it was the right thing to do. And it will pay for itself in reasonable time if you buy the parts at reasonable prices and do a DIY install.

Are they 330w panels? It'll be interesting to see how you get on. Rolion said in another thread that PV arrays below 2.5kw are disappointing because small amounts of power cause the system (inverter?) to switch on and off too much. Maybe we'll need to wait for winter but it will be very interesting to see how your system fares in terms of output consistency given that a lot of installations would be six or seven panels and therefore below Rolion's threshold

unkel · 22-07-2018 10:56pm

They are 300W mono panels (south facing). I also have 3 * 250W cheap poly panels (west facing) on my shed, the lot in series, so 1650W in total. I use an old second hand inverter, so for sure my setup won't win any prices for efficiency. But to give you an idea, I generated 6kWh today and it was overcast here until about 2PM with some clouds but mostly sun after. I did have a look when the sun was out in full at about 2:30PM for a few minutes and the max reading on the inverter was 1550W

JB_Dublin · 24-07-2018 7:21am

unkel wrote: »

Not a peep out of JB_Dublin since. Which doesn't surprise any of us

Apologies - I hope to surprise you all soon !
There is a possibility of a solar pv grant next month !

24-07-2018 9:36am

A grant is worthless if there's nowhere to send the excess.

As I keep saying, though falling on deaf ears is the fact that dumping energy is a waste because it's energy you otherwise wouldn't use but could send to the grid and buy back when you need it.

For instance, you're not home during the day and generate 12 Kwh worth of energy and you consume 6, plug in electric car and have to buy 12 Kwh worth of energy, if you sent to the grid you'd only have to buy 6 Kwh worth of energy and not 12.

See the madness ?

What will a grant do ? it will cause the installation of solar PV to rocket so it means nothing, better putting it into charge points for electric cars to be honest.

24-07-2018 9:43am

You'd probably be better off putting this to better insulation and/or replacing windows and doors, even blocking up the chimney can save tonnes of energy because it's not sucking heat out of the house and creating draughts.

I would be interested perhaps in a 1-2 Kw/p system to see how it goes, this way I'd be ensuring as little goes to the grid as possible. But even so, if I'm generating 1 Kw worth of energy and the house is ticking over at 200-400 watts, then I've to dump the guts of 600-800 watts of energy.

I use the dryer a lot with 2 small Children, but it's a heat pump and consumes a measly 500 watts worth of energy give or take and this is used a lot during the day as the washing machine washed at off peak so it would be good to get some of this done on solar.

+ I work shift and having the i3 saves me charging at home most of the time and if I've to charge up a bit in winter it's still far less electricity used than with the Leaf because I charge up at work.

However, what would interest me the most is if I have a 60+ Kwh EV and charge at work then I've tonnes of potential free energy in this EV that I would love to harness so I'd love to see the ESB offer V2G systems.

I could wash clothes, heat water, dry clothes , cook food all for free with the work electricity, the leccy bill is somewhere around 2 Million a month anyway so this wouldn't even be noticed !

alejandro1977 · 24-07-2018 2:08pm

if you had the option of getting a 50% grant (SEAI Retrofit) for the PV panels would it make it worthwhile?

24-07-2018 3:42pm

alejandro1977 wrote: »

if you had the option of getting a 50% grant (SEAI Retrofit) for the PV panels would it make it worthwhile?

I seriously doubt you'll get anywhere near 50% once the installers cash in on the Grant, regardless of grant I doubt you'd get near 50%.

24-07-2018 3:56pm

You'd have to add up your yearly electricity costs, to see if it's worth while but you won't know what you generate V what you're able to use.

Electricity is a bit too cheap and solar PV is a bit too expensive regardless to be dumping excess energy or especially giving it to the ESB for free, I simply would never do this.

rolion · 24-07-2018 5:07pm

One other factor to take in consideration beside the installed power is the constant / normal generating power of those panels,instant power over time now:
During a good day,a 5Kw installed base PVs could give a nice constant hourly 3KWh power that can be used around the house to draw all and most appliances,one by one.
During a normal day,it may give spikes of 4KW but a minimum of 800KWh so that there is a minimum draw line.
During a bad day,you could have 500Wh generated as the lower limit.

ALL above instant constant available generated PV power over time line ...and ... combined with a good living habit and consumption syncronised with generation.
It doesnt require a huge amount of time or to changes in lifestyle ... just more and appropiate common sense.

Kind of pointless to say i have generated 32KWh today if i havent used most of it at that time and paid 8Kwh in the evening from the grid...while giving for fcuikng free 25KWh... isnt !??

24-07-2018 5:12pm

The problem is most or a significant amount of people can't be there all day to make sure energy is used efficiently from the PV array.

Diverting energy to the hot water tank and running it down the sink to use all the solar rather than give it to the ESB is really rather pointless and defeats the purpose.

Best energy and money saved is to change to EV.

rolion · 24-07-2018 5:42pm

Deleted User wrote: »

The problem is most or a significant amount of people can't be there all day to make sure energy is used efficiently from the PV array.
Best energy and money saved is to change to EV.

Correct... going to tell my boss that i'm getting a EV and will need to work only night shifts so that i can charge the car @home !

You will need a past records of the system and location and a realtime representation,graphic,in "woman language" so that you can anticipate (can we !? ) and work around it... Whats the point of programming the wash machine to start at 11am if the Sun is covered by clouds and then clear sky at 1Pm !? Whats the point of charging the EV in th emorning if the generation is not there until after lunch time !?

PV generation and PV consumption is a really black art...is more that we can harvest here...a diverter is an ideal solution to answer genration vs consumption in terms of availability and avoid feeding the grid...AND...combined with "The Owl" monitoring system...perfect combination !!!

Please have a look at my system...at the nice figures and shapes of the generated power over time... the instant NOW ...
Big Q is can you figure out when to charge the EV ,to switch on the oven or the kettle...even more,to schedule any applciance to work in a PV environment at maxim efficency !??

Not really ... but PV reports with a smart intelligent and interactive diverter with two outputs combined with a OWL type dashboard...installed on the wall in the kitchen...hmmm,sounds delicious isnt !??

24-07-2018 6:43pm

rolion wrote: »

Correct... going to tell my boss that i'm getting a EV and will need to work only night shifts so that i can charge the car @home !

You will need a past records of the system and location and a realtime representation,graphic,in "woman language" so that you can anticipate (can we !? ) and work around it... Whats the point of programming the wash machine to start at 11am if the Sun is covered by clouds and then clear sky at 1Pm !? Whats the point of charging the EV in th emorning if the generation is not there until after lunch time !?

PV generation and PV consumption is a really black art...is more that we can harvest here...a diverter is an ideal solution to answer genration vs consumption in terms of availability and avoid feeding the grid...AND...combined with "The Owl" monitoring system...perfect combination !!!

Please have a look at my system...at the nice figures and shapes of the generated power over time... the instant NOW ...
Big Q is can you figure out when to charge the EV ,to switch on the oven or the kettle...even more,to schedule any applciance to work in a PV environment at maxim efficency !??

Not really ... but PV reports with a smart intelligent and interactive diverter with two outputs combined with a OWL type dashboard...installed on the wall in the kitchen...hmmm,sounds delicious isnt !??

Haha. I actually work shifts and charge the car in work !

But I was more trying to highlight the fact that if changing the car and EV suits then it offers significant savings more so than Solar PV will provide at this time.

Transferring your driving from petrol/diesel to electric offers significant savings especially when using night rate electricity.

Ireland is still a good place to install solar PV and there are so many residential roof space it would be a huge mistake if preference were given solely to commercial PV farms when they start installing, we got so much rooftops why install on land ? better use the land for forest which Ireland severely lacks, and I mean real hard wood not pine crap we plant solely for harvest.

I was recently in Germany, and all the PV I see on residential roofs is amazing.

We boast about wind energy in Ireland when in fact the last few months saw little to nothing int he form of wind energy, a perfect time of the year for solar PV but , we have little to no solar PV in Ireland because the powers that be deemed Wind was the savour of our emissions and fuel importing woes, they were wrong and always will be wrong about investing solely in Wind energy !

Today for instance, about 80% of our energy is generated by Gas, 10% from Coal and the rest, peat and hydro and the inter-connector, and 6% from Wind.

On a windy day it can generate 65% of our peak energy requirements.

Ireland desperately needs a feed-in-tariff.

JB_Dublin · 24-07-2018 7:37pm

Germany is advanced in it's solar, however it's also one of the most expensive to purchase electricity in Europe (23% of which is for the Feed in tariff) and a third of it's electricity is produced from coal.
Not sure if everyone would welcome a feed in tariff sponsored by the govt. if it's going to hit their pockets.

https://selectra.co.uk/guides/electricity-prices-europe

https://www.ft.com/content/53a17a16-1099-11e8-8cb6-b9ccc4c4dbbb

unkel · 24-07-2018 9:28pm

JB_Dublin wrote: »

There is a possibility of a solar pv grant next month !

There has been talk of "a grant is coming next month" for years now. Do you know anything we don't know?

24-07-2018 9:48pm

Indeed, electricity costs in Germany are a lot higher than here but that's because they gave insane feed-in-tariff rates which I'm not asking for at all, all I'm asking for is at least the night rate cost per Kwh exported , that's a hell of a lot cheaper than they're giving in Germany at least in Baden-Württemberg where her folks are.

Solar PV - is it worth it?

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