Solar Performance Spreadsheet - Analysis and data sharing

bullit_dodger · 30-12-2021 6:34pm #1

So as promised, here is the link to the google docs spreadsheet which will hopefully serve as a good way in sharing our monthly production details.

Boards.ie - Solar Capacity and production analysis - Google Sheets

Some guidelines.

Avoid putting in partial month data (unless it's the current one). What I mean is if your installation was setup July 17th, then leave July blank as your first month as it makes it difficult to compare across installations as they aren't like-for-like. One exception is that you can include what you have done so far in the current month, if you want to - as long as you update the month when it's complete with the final figure.
The spreadsheet isn't "my" spreadsheet, or anyone elses. It's owned by the community and as such the success or failure will be the engagement that the community has with with it.
If someone genuinely feels that there is something which could be improved, then don't be shy and feel free to improve things for the betterment of the community - but at the same time, be cognizant that not everyone may see things as you do. E.g. highlighting cells in your favorite florescent colors might not be to everyone's taste!
There are a couple of "Spare Users" rows in there. These can be used by replacing "Spare user" with "<Your name>". If there are no "Spare Users" rows left, then we'll have to add a few rows. If you know how to do this in Excel, Google sheets is the same, so feel free. Don't forget the charts may need updating to include the data-source(s). If you are stuck and unsure what to do, I can do this or ECO_Mental if you want to PM one of us? Happy to help.

Aside: Just want to give a shout out also to ECO_Mental who was one of the main drivers of the charting and filtering in the spreadsheets. Sure, I setup the original spreadsheet and it might be my name posting this message now, but in reality a large proportion of the work here was done by him and that kudos should acknowledged.

yankinlk · 30-12-2021 9:33pm

Can we pin this to the top of forum or do we need to reply here now and again?

A few things I was thinking we could include.... installer? Some added in comments, but maybe a formal column.

How about chosen meter, 24 hour, smart or night day.

Could we include column for provider and package? Might be helpful to see what people pick

ECO_Mental · 31-12-2021 12:01pm

Thanks Buillit👍️

The more I look at this document the more useful I think this resource can be for people to contrast and compare their systems. In particular the first section where it has all the details of everyone's systems

What I think though is for people should to do their own analysis on this data by downloading the google sheet to excel and then you can manipulate and interrogate the data without the risk of messing things up by mistake.

This google sheet is only the data repository for people so they can copy the data out. Everybody wants to compare to systems similar to theirs such as geographical location aspect etc etc. and is very bespoke to everyone.

Here is a quick graph I did in excel where I took systems about 0.5 kWp either side of my 6.1 system.

I am sure over the next few weeks people will be posting some interesting graphs based on other metrics such as the difference in performance due to orientation. (might have a bit of work putting the orientation data into a structure that can be analyzed though...🤔😁)

SouthWesterly · 31-12-2021 11:45pm

It would be worth putting in the installer. Its off the forum so we can list want details we want.

bullit_dodger · 01-01-2022 12:37am

LOL - I did think of that when I was doing my initial draft. I left it out. To be clear, I don't see this as "my" spreadsheet, so if the general feeling is to include it then we can. I left it out as I didn't want to be seen as endorsing any company over another. There certainly are some good reasons to include the installer, but didn't want to present someone with an advertisement opportunity. (Setup fake account, great quote etc..... since we don't validate anything......I left the field out in case it would get abused. But again, this is just my own opinion. One of many here.

SouthWesterly · 01-01-2022 1:12am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118398573#Comment_118398573

The thing with wildly fantastic quotes. They will stand out as being outliers.

It's not an endorsement of anyone just a statement of fact. "Day to night pv" * installed my system.

*may or may not be a real company 😂

DrPhilG · 01-01-2022 10:20am

Personally I think that the overwhelming message on all the relevant pages here is, regardless of who does your quote, post the details for all to review.

That's why I don't see an issue posting supplier info.

I've widely recommended the EnnisKillen Boys. I don't work for them and I don't have any vested interest in them getting business. But even if I was, would it matter? People are going to post details of their quotes anyway and others here will dissect them. If the quotes don't hold up to scrutiny then they won't get the business regardless of my recommendation.

Anyway, this has been done to death in the stickied thread and since the Mods apparently no longer cover here it's a moot point.

Good work on the spreadsheet!

ECO_Mental · 01-01-2022 5:24pm

Lots of data coming in..

Again did some early analysis of the data and as we are still waiting to get a lot of Decembers numbers in this can/will change... but as you can see championc's system seems to be the best performing system on most months based on kWh produced per kWp installed . Denismc also has a few good months.

There are a number of systems that have been installed only this year that seem to perform quite good towards the end of the year including my own. The table below the graph highlights the best performing system for that month.

graememk · 01-01-2022 6:41pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118401366#Comment_118401366

The kw per kwp is a useful statistic.

Sure I can brute force high numbers in the summer but even with a lot of panels, low slope hurts production a lot. (And half of my panels are north east 😂)

All we need is @mp3guy to come and blow me out of the water.

mp3guy · 01-01-2022 7:39pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118401776#Comment_118401776

Done. Numbers a bit skewed as Jan-Mar I only had 9.2kWp and I only fixed my export limiting up from 3kW to 6kW in mid-August, expecting 2022 to be even better.

kabakuyu · 01-01-2022 8:11pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118401366#Comment_118401366

Is that not a typo, I thought Champions system was 3.7KWp.

graememk · 01-01-2022 8:39pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118402134#Comment_118402134

Ah that would explain it, As You have better aspects/slopes than me I had expected that you would be at least double mine.

Have thought about doubling my panels, but thinking its not worthwhile for me.

mp3guy · 01-01-2022 9:42pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118402506#Comment_118402506

I would say I'll crack 13MWh this year with the extra generation in Jan/Feb/Mar plus a higher export cap in Summer. The reality of the situation is that if you up your kWp, unless you buy more expensive battery storage which hurts your return timescale, you're going to be exporting more and also hitting the 6kW export limit as well, effectively hamstringing your total production. You can really see this happen to me in May/Jun/Jul/Aug, easily a couple MWh missed out on purely down to this (and I have an EV). Four months of the year I average > 50kWh per day, half of that will be used by my normal daily usage, 20kWh into the battery inc losses, leaving change of 5kWh, every day. There's nowhere for the energy to go, if you're driving an EV enough every day to use that up it won't be home during peak solar hours!

bullit_dodger · 01-01-2022 10:43pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118402824#Comment_118402824

Crypto mining.

mp3guy · 01-01-2022 10:45pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118403131#Comment_118403131

Doing same already, only makes sense if you already had a decent GPU before the big price hikes happened a year ago.

bullit_dodger · 01-01-2022 11:07pm

I managed to snag a two 3 series cards via the EVGA queuing system (a 3090 and a 3080Ti), and I had a 2080Ti from back in the day. Still quite profitable at €10-12 day - and relieves you of having to find a solution to the "problem" of not wanting to export.

ECO_Mental · 02-01-2022 12:41am

"All we need is @mp3guy to come and blow me out of the water."

Oh Jaysus!!!

ECO_Mental · 02-01-2022 12:47am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118402365#Comment_118402365

They have their system in as 2.7 kWp in the google sheet, dont know if a typo or not

garo · 02-01-2022 12:50am

No it's a 2.7kWp system.

yankinlk · 02-01-2022 3:37pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118393079#Comment_118393079

No one seems to be at issue with this suggestion so I added 3 columns at the end of installer details.

Installer, Meter & Provider / Package. Optional if people want to fill out or not.

I also used freeze on the first two rows to make it easier to update your own info.

kabakuyu · 02-01-2022 4:36pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118403710#Comment_118403710

I'm a little confused, in the monthly production thread going back over the summer months, champion had it listed as a 3.6khp system, I noted that because I kept a close eye on systems that were close in size to my system (2.5)like alkers, dennismc and raytaxi.Maybe champion can clarify.

DrPhilG · 03-01-2022 11:01am

@bullit_dodger I'm sure you already are doing so, but be sure to back up that data regularly to an offline master copy.

Especially now that it has been shared on the Facebook PV group. There are an awful lot of installers on that page, some open and some more discreet.

It would be in some of their best interests to nuke that data!

Jonathan · 03-01-2022 11:58am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118409467#Comment_118409467

Was wondering was someone going to share it with the group! Lots of people posting both annual generation stats and is this a good quote posts!

bullit_dodger · 03-01-2022 2:09pm

I do have a copy, although google docs does store versions for you, so you can always backtrack it a bit if necessary, and see what changes people make E.g.

I can't swear I'll take a manual copy every day, but I'll grab a snapshot the 1st week of every month or so, that way we'll have the latest monthly data in there - but the version tracking should be that avenue closed.

SouthWesterly · 03-01-2022 4:13pm

I'm not sure that we should be letting it be used on the FB group.

Why should installers have access to the data?

idc · 03-01-2022 5:21pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118410896#Comment_118410896

Whats to stop an installer being on boards and still viewing the data anyway?

bullit_dodger · 03-01-2022 5:28pm

Well anyone with the link can access the data. You, me, Eamon Ryan, installers.....once the genie is out of the bottle (i.e. the link) it's very difficult to put the genie back in without changing the link. While I don't think we specified "Don't share on bookface", I don't think whoever did that did anything wrong.

I wouldn't necessarily see a problem per say with installers having access. Sure, some disgruntled moron could delete or modify nefariously the data and that would require me to simply hit the "restore version" button to fix it - but there are morons everywhere. if it starts to happen regularly, i'll recreate it with a new link and we can lock down access - but I hope it wouldn't come to that.

fluffykre · 03-01-2022 5:37pm

I was no aware their was a facebok group anyone have a link?

yankinlk · 03-01-2022 5:54pm

I joined the FB group and tried find the link but failed. I'm not sure it's a big worry,bookface algorithm will prevent it getting popular lol

idc · 03-01-2022 6:21pm

Haha I looked in Facebook group where it was linked too, maybe it's a reply to some post hence not obvious to find!!!

SD_DRACULA · 03-01-2022 7:45pm

Can someone make this a sticky thread?

Solar Performance Spreadsheet - Analysis and data sharing

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