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Daily pv production

DeclanD54

So i thought ide start a thread on what people are getting from there pv.

Today has been my best day 08/08/20 made 22kwh
Only up and running since start of July.

I have a 4.4kw system.:P facing south east

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DeclanD54

davpower wrote: »

My grant claim has changed to paid today. Rang them as I haven't been paid but I'm in the next payment run.

Nice one. Did you just log in and it stated paid?
Or did you get an email?
I still haven't heard anything its just over a month now eeeeek

KCross

DrPhilG wrote: »

Working on improving that though. Dishwasher is now on the WiFi switch that the immersion used to be. The Eddi is working well. Tumble dryer is smart enabled for remote activation.

And I have cunning plans for the future of my battery storage...

How does the dishwasher and dryer work in reality though?

If you cut them off mid cycle and then fire them up again do they continue from where they were?

Also, not sure whether that would even make sense for a dryer as it would lose the heat it had built up before you cut it off. Just not convinced those appliances are suitable for on/off switching to suit PV unless there is some new tech built in there?

DrPhilG

KCross wrote: »

How does the dishwasher and dryer work in reality though?

If you cut them off mid cycle and then fire them up again do they continue from where they were?

Also, not sure whether that would even make sense for a dryer as it would lose the heat it had built up before you cut it off. Just not convinced those appliances are suitable for on/off switching to suit PV unless there is some new tech built in there?

The dishwasher remembers it's settings, so I load it in the morning, turn it on but leave the WiFi switch off.

If the sun is good and production high, I knock it on remotely. If its a crap day, I don't. But once it's on, it stays on.

The dryer has an app so again I load it in the morning, and turn it on later on when there is plenty of sun. It's a heat pump dryer mind you so only uses about 3-400w for a cycle. There is no mid cycle off/on happening with either of them.

DrPhilG

For example, I'm on the way to Belfast now. Battery is at 62% and generation around 2kw.

So I knocked on the dishwasher. It'll use the current production and a bit of the battery, then by the time I get home at 5 the battery will likely have filled up again

If I waited til I got home I'd have exported a fair bit by 5 and then would be depleting the battery to do the dishes.

KCross

Ok, so you need to be sure there is enough excess on the day. If clouds roll in you are in trouble?

That’s kinda my point. It’s not automated like the Zappi/EV where it’s all automated. Appliances are hard to manage with Solar, particularly as the year rolls on and you have less excess and cloudier skies.

DrPhilG

If clouds roll in then it will use what's in the battery, and when the clouds roll on the battery recharges. No trouble!

KCross

DrPhilG wrote: »

If clouds roll in then it will use what's in the battery, and when the clouds roll on the battery recharges. No trouble!

Right, but that’s still depleting the battery for later tonight. Excess is what you want to use not the battery.

It’s all good if there is loads of excess and the battery is full but let’s see how it works as the autumn progresses.

davpower

DeclanD54 wrote: »

Nice one. Did you just log in and it stated paid?
Or did you get an email?
I still haven't heard anything its just over a month now eeeeek

Just logged in and status had changed, didn't receive any email. Money in account today took about 8 weeks .

DeclanD54

And you said you had a Seai inspector out?
Good to hear you got it,ide say its a weight of the shoulders

davpower

DeclanD54 wrote: »

And you said you had a Seai inspector out?
Good to hear you got it,ide say its a weight of the shoulders

yeah he was out about 4 weeks ago. Glad to have the money alright!

DrPhilG

KCross wrote: »

Right, but that’s still depleting the battery for later tonight. Excess is what you want to use not the battery.

It’s all good if there is loads of excess and the battery is full but let’s see how it works as the autumn progresses.

As Autumn progresses I won't use the remote access items. I only do so on strong days when I know that the battery will fill up again. I think you're over complicating things.

KCross

DrPhilG wrote: »

As Autumn progresses I won't use the remote access items. I only do so on strong days when I know that the battery will fill up again. I think you're over complicating things.

Just setting realistic expectations Phil!

Having a high % of self consumption is the goal but if you are pulling from your battery to run the dishwasher you would be as well off to just run it on night rate. It’s important people understand the numbers.

unkel

DrPhilG wrote: »

Did anyone recommend that? I thought the general concensus was that 4kwp was plenty!

DrPhilG

KCross wrote: »

Just setting realistic expectations Phil!

Having a high % of self consumption is the goal but if you are pulling from your battery to run the dishwasher you would be as well off to just run it on night rate. It’s important people understand the numbers.

On a day where its bright and sunny and generation is a steady 2kw all day, I can afford to stick the dishwasher on safe in the knowledge that in the unlikely event that the battery gets drained a little while there is cloud cover, it will be filled up again once it passes.

If it's anything less than a proper good day, then I won't be running them at all.

DrPhilG

unkel wrote: »

Actually something tells me that unkle guy recommended stacks of panels.

I owe him everything!

DrPhilG

Looks like August is going to go out with a bang at least!

I'm generating 2.1kw at 10am.

DeclanD54

Im generating 3.22 right now. Some clouds about

Mickeroo

2.31kw at the mo here (3.7kwp system).

garo

KCross wrote: »

Just setting realistic expectations Phil!

Having a high % of self consumption is the goal but if you are pulling from your battery to run the dishwasher you would be as well off to just run it on night rate. It’s important people understand the numbers.

It's a bit less clear cut than that. As Phil is discovering - and I have discovered during the summer of WFH - it's more of an art than a science. You kick off the appliance looking at the sun and just when it needs to heat up the water 20 mins later the feckin clouds roll in. But that's life.

Most of the time, days like today when you get "cloudy spells" it's ok to use a bit of the battery - note that even in cloudy conditions right now my 4.8kW system is producing 1kW. So a dishwasher using 2200 will only use a bit over half from the battery. And there is enough time in the afternoon for the battery to be replenished fully. So it'll still be cheaper to switch on the dishwasher now rather than at night rate. Trust me, I've done the sums.

KCross

garo wrote: »

It's a bit less clear cut than that. As Phil is discovering - and I have discovered during the summer of WFH - it's more of an art than a science. You kick off the appliance looking at the sun and just when it needs to heat up the water 20 mins later the feckin clouds roll in. But that's life.

Most of the time, days like today when you get "cloudy spells" it's ok to use a bit of the battery - note that even in cloudy conditions right now my 4.8kW system is producing 1kW. So a dishwasher using 2200 will only use a bit over half from the battery. And there is enough time in the afternoon for the battery to be replenished fully. So it'll still be cheaper to switch on the dishwasher now rather than at night rate. Trust me, I've done the sums.

Your first paragraph is exactly my point.

Your second paragraph is fine too but it’s managing that is the thing. It requires micromanaging the system by looking at cloud cover and predicting what is likely to happen later in the evening. Fine on a cloudless day but it will obviously get progressively harder from now on.

As I said, I’m just setting realistic expectations for others reading the forum who might think that they will end up with no day rate electricity used after they put in Solar. Those kind of queries have been asked even in the last 24hrs on the forum.
TL;DR it’s not all that easy to self consume in a way that is financially beneficial and you need to be honest with yourself in how much it’s actually saving relative to night rate.

DrPhilG

KCross wrote: »

It requires micromanaging the system by looking at cloud cover and predicting what is likely to happen later in the evening. Fine on a cloudless day but it will obviously get progressively harder from now on.

I imagine it will get progressively easier from now on! Less sunshine and short days means less excess to manage.

And in the better weather, it really isn't as complicated as you're making it out to be. If it's a good day you don't have to be a genius to figure out if you're likely to be able to do a load of washing etc.

Yesterday for example, a pretty decent day but at 2pm the battery was only half full and the generation had been averaging 1kw all day. So I didn't put on any appliances, just left it to tick over. By 6pm the battery was full and then about 300w trickled into the Eddi before consumption passed generation.

If the battery had been 90% at 2pm and the average for the day was 2.5kw then I'd have stuck on the washing machine or dishwasher.

I wouldn't class that as micro managing. Before I got the Eddi, and I was checking the numbers every 20 minutes and turning the immersion on/off via WiFi switch every time, that was micro managing and was a pain in the hole.

I get that you're trying to be realistic, no sense in people coming here to make calculations on a very expensive investment and getting their head full of daft ideas, but I think you're making it harder than it needs to be.

garo

KCross wrote: »

Your first paragraph is exactly my point.

Your second paragraph is fine too but it’s managing that is the thing. It requires micromanaging the system by looking at cloud cover and predicting what is likely to happen later in the evening. Fine on a cloudless day but it will obviously get progressively harder from now on.

As I said, I’m just setting realistic expectations for others reading the forum who might think that they will end up with no day rate electricity used after they put in Solar. Those kind of queries have been asked even in the last 24hrs on the forum.
TL;DR it’s not all that easy to self consume in a way that is financially beneficial and you need to be honest with yourself in how much it’s actually saving relative to night rate.

But it's not as hard as you make it out to be either. Even if I did no micro-managing and let the system do its thing - as the S.O. does - you still get a lot of benefit. We are currently putting on the dishwasher twice a day. You simply cannot do both cycles on the night rate. Putting the second cycle on between 11 and 3 typically works out fine. Even if the dishwasher draws some power from the battery, in the long run it works out cheaper. Similarly on days you are doing 2 or 3 loads of washing, you won't be able to do all that on the night rate.

So I agree that the goal of zero day electricity import is an unrealistic one. I read a post here last year about someone who said their day meter hadn't budged in two months and for the life of me I cannot imagine that happening in my house. Just don't sweat it and do your best. You'll get it wrong sometimes and that's fine. But most people can manage not to run more than 1 heavy usage appliance simultaneously. You don't need to micromanage more than that unless you are mad - like Phil or me

DrPhilG

I'll just bathe in the glow of these numbers for now. And so far only 0.2kw exported.

The wife has been going nuts, 3 loads of washing done (bed clothes etc) 2 loads of drying, dishwasher.

The battery is full and the car has guzzled 3.5kWh so far.

DrPhilG

Glorious.

KCross

DrPhilG wrote: »

I get that you're trying to be realistic, no sense in people coming here to make calculations on a very expensive investment and getting their head full of daft ideas, but I think you're making it harder than it needs to be.

How am I make it harder by pointing out the realities?

You have the snake oil salesmen giving unrealistic numbers, which you experienced yourself.
You have people thinking that running the dishwasher by day is saving them 16c/kWh when in fact its only saving them half that.
And only a few hours ago you were asked if your day rate is now effectively zero.

Misconceptions and bad calculations around SolarPV are rife. I'm bringing a dose of reality to it.

Also bear in mind you have a rather large array. Lots of people wont be able to add 6kWp and would find it even harder to manage consumption the way you are, even if it does work for you.

All Im saying is that its not easy, in general, to manage self consumption by manually turning on/off appliances and you need to be honest about what that is actually saving you.... its 7c/kWh (night rate), not 16c/kWh.

As long as you report your savings on that basis then fine, but I suspect the figures you will have from your inverter wont allow you to distinguish and you will allocate 16c/kWh to your dishwasher/dryer usage?

And in the better weather, it really isn't as complicated as you're making it out to be. If it's a good day you don't have to be a genius to figure out if you're likely to be able to do a load of washing etc.

I'm good with that. I specifically said its fine on a cloudless day where you know you have loads of excess. No issue with that at all.

E30M3

DrPhilG wrote: »

I'll just bathe in the glow of these numbers for now. And so far only 0.2kw exported.

The wife has been going nuts, 3 loads of washing done (bed clothes etc) 2 loads of drying, dishwasher.

The battery is full and the car has guzzled 3.5kWh so far.

I'd say you are like a kid on Christmas Eve Phil, waiting to post your monthly stats at 12.01 on the 1st (unless you are going to post them before midnight when the sun has gone down!!)

DrPhilG

All done for the night, 24.9kWh generated and 24.4kWh used including 8kWh of that into the car.

Geeyfds53573

DrPhilG wrote: »

I'll just bathe in the glow of these numbers for now. And so far only 0.2kw exported.

The wife has been going nuts, 3 loads of washing done (bed clothes etc) 2 loads of drying, dishwasher.

The battery is full and the car has guzzled 3.5kWh so far.

Serious stats - seems you got the myenergi setup correctly?

davpower

15.1 kwh today in Cork from 3.7kw system. Total of 481kwh for August

DrPhilG

Geeyfds53573 wrote: »

Serious stats - seems you got the myenergi setup correctly?

Yup, all good