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Yearly PV Generation Thread
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13-11-2021 4:32pm#1
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Location: North West of Ireland
System: 3.9 kWp South facing
2021: 3451 kWh Generated
Peak day production: 24/04/2021: 26.4 kWh (perfect curve)
Estimated yearly generated consumed (2021): 1440 kWh if a units €0.20, yearly saving approx €288 per year.
Estimated yearly exported to the grid for free: 2011 kWh .
EV purchased this year so hopefully will be able to capture some of that excess solar been exported, help with the payback period on the system. If I could capture the same amount I consume in the house at 1440 kWh with the Zappi on eco plus mode I would be happy.
Could half the payback time on the system after the charge point cost is recouped.
Thoughts on the Year of production
I have concerns about the solar production on hot sunny days such as 21/07/2021. Hot and sunny not a cloud in the sky however lots of dips due to some challenge with the inverter, panels or grid due to the power or heat. I can imagine if the solar generation was constant my production would be higher this year. I will be watching the inverter this year on those sunny days to see if any errors show on the inverter or check if it could be due to voltage rise on the grid causing it to cut out and throttle.
Seems like others experienced these drops too from reading the daily pv production thread.
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Interesting. Do you have temperature telemetry for the inverter? e.g.
Just wondering if your inverter is in the attic and it's getting too warm and then going into "idle mode" or something. Although that wouldn't really explain the "spikes" down. it would tend to be limited more for duration. Still it does seem to happen more in the afternoon from your chart above
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Well, I've had the panels for a full year, now.
They were installed in late March 2021.
The 11.5Kw system generated approximately 14.5MwH over the course of 12 months. At about (it varies, but it's a good average) 12c/KwH, that's $1,750 I didn't have to pay the utility. However, payments on the installation for the year came to about $1,800, so for now, at current rates, it's a wash.
Yes, I'm still in Texas.
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Like a good few others, I passed the yearly installation anniversary there recently (Oct 27th to be exact), but since I only report on full months - it's only now that I have the full 12.
Installation is 5.3Kwp of panels split 1.5Kwp East & 3.8Kwp West (exactly 90/270 by the way), coupled to a GivEnergy 5.4Kw inverter and 8.2Kwhr battery. In sunny Dublin 16 - LOL. Here's the data.
Some thoughts/observations.
With the mining, I'm in a semi unique position that I can scale my load up/down to virtually consume all the units I produce, so for most of the year until late July (when I installed an additional 2.3Kwp on the shed), you can see I exported virtually nothing <10 units month. From August on, the shed added to the generation that meant I was exporting a little more. The above grid doesn't include the shed generated, except indirectly the amount exported from the house as the shed helped cover the house load, so the stats reflect that in the original installation being able to export more as the house loading "reduced" meaning my original installation had more units to divert to the battery/export.
Payback timeline for me (excluding any crypto coins mined) would be 7 years as I paid €8500. If I include the crypto, it's 3.5 years as I mined €1,300 in the 12 months. Mining however with the Ethereum migration to "proof of stake" has meant it's not as profitable as it was. (About 1/5th the value) So that won't continue. But I view my payback timeline as 7 years. You could argue that if I wasn't mining then I'd be using less, so my payback is longer - but then again, I don't count FIT in any of the above (still haven't gotten paid from SSE - and probably wont), so one sort of balances the other. Different people will have different formulas, some including depreciation, or "loss of opportunity costs" on that €8500, and that's fine - and would come out with a longer/short timeline. Rock on. My formula/thinking is 7 years.
For those of you looking at what "real world" yields are, you can note that Mar (421 Units) -> Oct (233 Units), the system produces a very healthy and useful amount of power. Nov (99Kwhr), Dec (58Kwhr), Jan (103Kwhr), Feb (162Kwhr)....while it's something, with an average production of 3-4Kwhr/day it's not going to be doing much - that said, it's a few quid off the bills. The battery here was saving me about €30/month - although I had an issue with my battery for Nov+Dec which was replaced, so that's why it was lower above. Jan was the first "correct" month for battery. The savings of €193 a year with the battery is only the savings generated from grid in at night time. You also have the battery for storing solar energy and using at day rate. So the real savings with a battery for me is about €350-400/year
Technical performance:
Some observations.
Many of us will know this already, but with the poor "slant angle" the East/west split has, it does pretty poorly in winter. You can see that the highest output, even on a sunny day in December was 1409watts off 5.3Kwp. So approx 26% of the max rated power. Conversely in summer I've seen the inverter handle regular spikes to 5600watts, which is the realistic max I would expect. That's not to say E/W is bad, it's not - and if you have this as your roof in some respects it's actually the best (debatable) as you get a much longer power curve during the day, rather than a huge spike at noon which sometimes is difficult to manage all the power. For example, with a lower (but longer) generation curve, you can put on the washing for 2 hrs and then the dryer after it. With all the power coming quickly in about noon with a South facing array, it's harder to manage that. Battery of course helps, but if you are producing 5Kw and the battery can only charge at 2.5Kw.....you can see the problem! FIT has changed the landscape a little since I got my installation put in, so what wasn't completely a good strategy before has now become viable, and vice versa.
The production verses the PGVIS results are pretty good. Generally, I beat it by about 15%, with last March being the obvious outlier. (It really was a great month for solar)
Overall thoughts
Pretty happy with the installation. Battery works well for me. I'd buy one again, but it really does depend on your consumption. I've somewhat of a unique ecosystem with the mining and using that for heating is another benefit that I'm not burning fossil fuel (natural gas). Still haven't turned on the heating yet and it's Nov 1st first as I write this - but while the mining allows me to heat from electricity, it's not powerful enough to heat during a right "beast from the east" cold snap. So I'll have to fire up the boiler eventually. :-(
What would I have done differently?
Not much. I am adding 3x panels to the roof shortly, but it wasn't possible to do this originally as I would have violated the 50cm gaps that the SEAI guys want to see or they will deny the grant. With it being my dime, I can drop that down to 30cm and get 3 more panels up there.
Panels panels panels are the key (mostly). You can actually have too many panels, but it's hard. Real hard - to have too many. Max your roof is the single biggest piece of advice anyone can give you, that and stay away from the gougers in the market place.
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Just passed the 1st year of install at end of Nov. so have put together a few details.
8.16kW in South Roscommon 200° and about a 35° tilt, doubled battery in Sept. to 9.6kWh
Monthly totals are:-
We are with Energia for the last couple of years firstly on a fixed rate then changing to day/night when we got an EV in July '21 and subsequently changed to there EV plan at beginning of August:-
As well as the above covering any car charging we have spent €101.82 at public chargers in the last twelve months and average about 17000km's annually. Looking at the car alone has provided considerable savings.
We also currently have oil heating using about 1000ltrs/yr and are currently looking to change to a heat pump.
Very happy with how things are performing and glad we got the panels when we did. Will look at adding more down the line as a diy project, current inverter is maxed out as is.
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2.5kW due south array in Dublin 12.
Annual production up slightly from previous year. Still on deemed export but have my FIT rate setup on the app, if was receiving even FIT rate for all produced electricity (not using any), our FIT payment is over double our cost for SAAS.
SAAS has been actively making us money since FIT introduced if not before
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First full calendar year and produced 7,010 kWh on my 6.1kWp system just south of Cork City
Best Month was August at 925 kWh
Best Day was 28th May at 44.5 kWh
Rough estimate my PV system saved me €940 in PV generated used at day rate. About 43% should be more next year as I only got my EV in July..
I got FIT off Electric Ireland of €320. If I had a smart meter I should have got around €815 from February to December (all before Tax!!)
Out performed most months from the PVGIS estimate apart from JUNE of all months! that month was a disaster.
My aims for next year is to obviously increase my self usage but with the FIT at €21c Im not too concerned. The EV should help matters as I only got it Mid July last year so missed the best of the years production. Plan is to get a smart meter installed ASAP but struggling as I am down the priority list for EI as I have a day/nigh meter already.
6.1kWp south facing, South of Cork City
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I can't argue that too badly for the 11.5kW system, making just under 2/3 of my power. Only Feb and March generated more than I used, but there was enough overlap that the currently-under-construction-pool pumps should still be within generation capacity so I'm not wasting any generation. (The primary goal is cost minimization, not power independence or environmental responsibility. Thus any excess production per month is a waste of install dollars)
You'll note the massive bumps of usage in the summer. We had a hot one. The aircon units are twenty years old and highly inefficient, but at over $10,000 apiece to replace, there's no economic sense in replacing them until they truly break. (Which, given they already have had holes in the piping sealed probably will be within the next year or two). The cost of electricity saved doesn't equal the cost to replace.
The power company bumped its prices this year, by about 20%. As I had to net import only one third of my power for the year, to a large extent I was immune to 2/3 of the rate hike. However, the payment plan expenditure for the solar install was still 40% more than the dollars saved on the electricity not purchased from the power company, so this is definitely still a long-term issue. Eventually the company will raise its rates sufficient to close the gap, or in about 28 years (unless I pay off faster) the panels will be paid off and it's free electricity and the money gap starts to close.
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Very different strategies between the two years. Bigger (not large) battery and a good cheap rate meant purchase shifting and water heating in 2023. Self consumption was also kicked to the side in favour of maximizing FIT payments.
🌞4.55 kWp, azimuth 136°, slope 24°, 5kW, 🛢️10.9kWh, Roscommon
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About 6 months into this Solar PV journey, so here's my 2023 half-year stats.
System Details:
- Panels: 2.1 kW
- Orientation: South
- Battery: 6 kWh
Stats:
- Generated: 649 kWh
- Exported: 225 kWh
- Imported from Grid: 373 kWh
Best Month: September (159 kWh)
Worst Month: no surprise ... December (46 kWh)
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still delighted with the perf of the system
🌦️ 6.7kwp, 45°, SSW, mid-Galway 🌦️
"Since I no longer expect anything from mankind except madness, meanness, and mendacity; egotism, cowardice, and self-delusion, I have stopped being a misanthrope." Irving Layton
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