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Solar PV Hints, Tips & Troubleshooting

DrPhilG

Well I've reached the point of driving everyone nuts on the PV quotes thread, and since I now have my system installed and running my endless questions no longer belong there.

So I figured I'd ask here, and also provide a home for others in the same boat, with general questions and advice on managing post-install.

My first question (of many) is how do people best manage their production in order to reduce grid export? Despite being overcast and miserable a fair bit of the day, I've produced 24kWh so far today, but ended up exporting 11.

Not too bad when we're home, as the wife did a few loads of washing and drying, put on the dishwasher etc.

But we're both at work tomorrow so other than a timed or remotely activated washer/dryer run we would end up exporting a lot more.

Extra battery capacity or a water diverter would help, but they don't tend to justify their costs in the long term.

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Deagol

drdidlittle wrote: »

https://heatingpartswarehouse.co.uk/product/willis-external-immersion-heater/?gclid=CjwKCAjwtdeFBhBAEiwAKOIy5-NOAq-Q4EeLPcf2ZJyE7_f0fyFNunn-mqg7uMr7Yz9uD-qZxgUnFxoCe54QAvD_BwE

Inline water heater. Quicker than immersion for small qty of water

Ah! Had one in my last house though it didn’t work. It made a loud bang and tripped the main ELCB anytime someone flicked it on. Never knew itwas called that.

DermoMIO

Can anybody here recommend a company/person for solar panel service ? (Here or PM if against forum rules) Visited the mother there the other day who informs me hers haven’t been working for the past x months. The company who installed them is gone bust as are the builders of the house so she has no one to get onto about them. Thanks in advance

MAULBROOK

DermoMIO wrote: »

Can anybody here recommend a company/person for solar panel service ? (Here or PM if against forum rules) Visited the mother there the other day who informs me hers haven’t been working for the past x months. The company who installed them is gone bust as are the builders of the house so she has no one to get onto about them. Thanks in advance

Has the house been fitted with a new smart meter in the last few months. If so they have not re fitted the CT clamp. Happened to a friend of mine. Refitted and all good.

championc

Either that or the inverter MCB has tripped

There's no moving parts to service, so in 99% of cases, it only needs the equivalent of a Ctrl-Alt-Del

E30M3

DermoMIO wrote: »

Can anybody here recommend a company/person for solar panel service ? (Here or PM if against forum rules) Visited the mother there the other day who informs me hers haven’t been working for the past x months. The company who installed them is gone bust as are the builders of the house so she has no one to get onto about them. Thanks in advance

Is it Solar PV or Solar Thermal?

PV - Generates Electricity

Thermal - Water Heating only

DermoMIO

Thanks for all 3 replies above. I do not know if it’s a PV or Panel. Just she copped her electricity bills were way up from same time last year. The box in the attic connected to them she has rebooted but still says some sort of error. I haven’t looked at it myself in a long time.

If I get the chance over next few days I’ll go have another look, see if I can see the equivalent to a ctrl alt delete or take some photos. Thanks again for replies it’s much appreciated.

Edit: no smart meter installed no

championc

Post while you are there and we might get you sorted there and then. For electricity, it's certainly Solar PV. Does she have battery storage ?

social butterfly 2020

I got panels installed today. I've noticed a few of the roof tiles have popped up around an inch or so due to the brackets. Should I be worried?

championc

social butterfly 2020 wrote: »

I got panels installed today. I've noticed a few of the roof tiles have popped up around an inch or so due to the brackets. Should I be worried?

Doesn't sound right. I would expect that an installer would use an angle grinder to cut a slot in the underside of the tile under which the bracket protrudes, thereby allowing the tile to sit perfectly flat once again.

slave1

social butterfly 2020 wrote: »

I got panels installed today. I've noticed a few of the roof tiles have popped up around an inch or so due to the brackets. Should I be worried?

Yes, especially if towards the bottom of the roof as birdies will exploit come nesting season

social butterfly 2020

slave1 wrote: »

Yes, especially if towards the bottom of the roof as birdies will exploit come nesting season

Would be hard pressed to get a bird under there.

social butterfly 2020

slave1 wrote: »

Yes, especially if towards the bottom of the roof as birdies will exploit come nesting season

Would be hard pressed to get a bird in there. The part that's popped up is the part where the tiles come together.

KCross

social butterfly 2020 wrote: »

I got panels installed today. I've noticed a few of the roof tiles have popped up around an inch or so due to the brackets. Should I be worried?

social butterfly 2020 wrote: »

Would be hard pressed to get a bird in there. The part that's popped up is the part where the tiles come together.

Driving rain could get up there. An inch is ALOT.

Definitely be worried. Get installer back asap.

Did they drill the tiles to install the brackets?

social butterfly 2020

KCross wrote: »

Driving rain could get up there. An inch is ALOT.

Definitely be worried. Get installer back asap.

Did they drill the tiles to install the brackets?

No idea what they did as I wasn't watching. I did hear lots of drilling however.

[Deleted User]

Get your installer back straight away.

championc

Surely the photos to the SEAI to get the grant would need these photographed. I can't see them tolerating it

DermoMIO

Hi lads. Thanks again for your earlier help. I’ve gone up and taken photos it’s a Trannergy box and the Erie it’s giving me is “relay check fail”. I’ve attached 4 photos and a quick google tells me in the worst case scenario a new “inverter box” is needed. Any help & advice is very much appreciated

social butterfly 2020

pic of what tile looks like

slave1

Pretty conclusive, give the installer the opportunity to put things right

graememk

DermoMIO wrote: »

Hi lads. Thanks again for your earlier help. I’ve gone up and taken photos it’s a Trannergy box and the Erie it’s giving me is “relay check fail”. I’ve attached 4 photos and a quick google tells me in the worst case scenario a new “inverter box” is needed. Any help & advice is very much appreciated

It's also saying utility loss. Which could indicate that it's not getting grid power.

On your fuseboard (consumer unit) where you have the solar rcbo, make sure that's not tripped. Some have to be pushed into the off position before it can be reset.

DermoMIO

graememk wrote: »

It's also saying utility loss. Which could indicate that it's not getting grid power.

On your fuseboard (consumer unit) where you have the solar rcbo, make sure that's not tripped. Some have to be pushed into the off position before it can be reset.

Thanks I’ll see what that does next time I get over. Thanks again for your help

irishchris

Struggling here to remember the site from Solis where you can input your panel voltage etc to see if compatible with their under or if have gone over in village amps etc. Thinking of adding couple panels to my ground array and my calculations say is fine but want to double check. Does anyone know of it as remember seeing somebody post it here before but can't find it in search. Cheers

SD_DRACULA

https://design.ginlong.com/

worlds goodest teecher

Question.
I had a 3.6kwh system installed in January, no battery. In that time it generated 1245kWh of electricity, I have no real idea what was used in that time as all my meter box readings were estimated and I the actual readings were higher than I expected. I am still trying to gauge what positive impact it is having.

I have so much very hot water. This could be because of the Willis heater connected to the water tank, there is no thermostat on the water tank.

Is there something I should be looking into? I had submitted meter readings and am awaiting a new bill.

MAULBROOK

worlds goodest teecher wrote: »

Question.
I had a 3.6kwh system installed in January, no battery. In that time it generated 1245kWh of electricity, I have no real idea what was used in that time as all my meter box readings were estimated and I the actual readings were higher than I expected. I am still trying to gauge what positive impact it is having.

I have so much very hot water. This could be because of the Willis heater connected to the water tank, there is no thermostat on the water tank.

Is there something I should be looking into? I had submitted meter readings and am awaiting a new bill.

Hang on you have the system in 6 months and your only putting in a correct Meter reading now.
If all the bills have been estimates then the bill wont change.
You have to keep on top of this to see the results.

I'm going to guess you haven't switched you provider in a while.

Get a thermostat on the tank otherwise your tank will go BOOM, personally I would switch off the hot water power supply till you get this sorted

worlds goodest teecher

MAULBROOK wrote: »

Hang on you have the system in 6 months and your only putting in a correct Meter reading now.
If all the bills have been estimates then the bill wont change.
You have to keep on top of this to see the results.

I'm going to guess you haven't switched you provider in a while.

Get a thermostat on the tank otherwise your tank will go BOOM, personally I would switch off the hot water power supply till you get this sorted

Provider was Iberdrola, not the easiest to add actual readings and there are a lot of other important issues that needed my time over the past few months, please don't judge. As I said I am awaiting a bill. The past bill was actual so that is why I haven't posted before this.

As I said we are not heating the immersion, the boiler is heating the water, if we need it, we don't. €300 of oil last July, probably half of that left.

The tariff was renegotiated within a couple of weeks of expiry of the previous tariff expiry.

This is house we moved into less than a year ago. And did a huge amount of work on. BER E1, now B2. Pv was installed in January and I was told it would be may before the returns would be evident.

KCross

worlds goodest teecher wrote: »

Pv was installed in January and I was told it would be may before the returns would be evident.

It’s difficult to determine returns by looking at bills and comparing to previous year. Way too many variables to be able to deduce anything.

Differences in usage, weather differences, estimated bill, different prices, lockdowns ... the list goes on.

To see your returns you look at what your Solar PV inverter says you have generated and then you need to see how much of it you exported to the grid and then you have a reasonable estimate of what it has saved you.

championc

worlds goodest teecher wrote: »

Provider was Iberdrola, not the easiest to add actual readings and there are a lot of other important issues that needed my time over the past few months, please don't judge. As I said I am awaiting a bill. The past bill was actual so that is why I haven't posted before this.

As I said we are not heating the immersion, the boiler is heating the water, if we need it, we don't. €300 of oil last July, probably half of that left.

The tariff was renegotiated within a couple of weeks of expiry of the previous tariff expiry.

This is house we moved into less than a year ago. And did a huge amount of work on. BER E1, now B2. Pv was installed in January and I was told it would be may before the returns would be evident.

Can your water heating use solar surplus only, or are you simply running it for xx hours per day ? I found a link online to one, which had a 3kw rating, so without being able to use excess only, this would well be the source of your increased unexpected increase in consumption. Your amount of potential excess will follow the size of your system.

If your willis heater is running at full normal rate, you should possibly consider an Eddi which would ONLY use Solar Excess

garo

worlds goodest teecher wrote: »

As I said we are not heating the immersion, the boiler is heating the water, if we need it, we don't. €300 of oil last July, probably half of that left.

I am a bit confused. Are you using the Willis to heat the water or the boiler? Or both? Is your boiler circuit zoned? i.e. is it possible to turn off hot water or central heating separately? I assume you don't need heating now. Then why don't you turn the boiler off fully if it is not zoned?

Does your inverter have a CT clamp to measure import/export? Does it collect those stats? Would help if you could tell us the make and model of the inverter.

worlds goodest teecher

garo wrote: »

I am a bit confused. Are you using the Willis to heat the water or the boiler? Or both? Is your boiler circuit zoned? i.e. is it possible to turn off hot water or central heating separately? I assume you don't need heating now. Then why don't you turn the boiler off fully if it is not zoned?

Does your inverter have a CT clamp to measure import/export? Does it collect those stats? Would help if you could tell us the make and model of the inverter.

I only bought this house last year, I didn't install the wills heater.

Spoke with the solar guy, a plumber and an electrician today. The solar guy said to install a single element immersion heater element. I need to prevent the kids from getting scalded. Plumber thinks it would help somewhat but will still be hot.

The Willis is connected directly to the iboost.