Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
Hi all! We have been experiencing an issue on site where threads have been missing the latest postings. The platform host Vanilla are working on this issue. A workaround that has been used by some is to navigate back from 1 to 10+ pages to re-sync the thread and this will then show the latest posts. Thanks, Mike.
Hi there,
There is an issue with role permissions that is being worked on at the moment.
If you are having trouble with access or permissions on regional forums please post here to get access: https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058365403/you-do-not-have-permission-for-that#latest

Solar Performance Spreadsheet - Analysis and data sharing

135

Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,874 ✭✭✭garo


    This is sweet. The current google sheet has a bunch of graphs and all but I am sure that is coming when you get more time. Also Forum is misspelt on the left side menu.



  • Registered Users Posts: 195 ✭✭harderthanf


    Thanks, I have fixed up the spelling!

    Yes, graphs are on the way. They are a bit of a pain when trying to make them look OK on mobile devices but no problem on bigger screens!



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,500 ✭✭✭ECO_Mental


    We have come along way lads than a simple google sheet and just posting on boards....this is snazzy stuff harderthanf , are you sure you know what you have let yourself in for now 😋

    I have been involved (no background in programming etc just working with the devs) in building a database and mobile app in work over the last few years and I know these things can grow legs when people say what if we do this and what if we do that, so I think for your own sanity if we try and keep it as simple as possible for you.

    One thing though if we could have a tool to download the community yearly data and the installation data into an excel file. That way the users can do their own detailed analysis to contrast and compare their own systems

    Also and I know this is going to get complicated (so tell me the f**k off).... but if possible when inputting system details if we could have the facility to add strings, as a lot of the users have multiple PV strings with one east and one west with different capacities etc. How this is displayed or downloaded might be difficult but if at all possible I think it would be very useful.

    Excellent work

    6.1kWp south facing, South of Cork City



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,500 ✭✭✭ECO_Mental


    Actually you can copy and paste the tables into excel easy so no need to write a tool or script to do this.👍️

    6.1kWp south facing, South of Cork City



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,621 ✭✭✭THE ALM


    Great work indeed so thank you very much for putting the time and effort in, registration submitted.



  • Registered Users Posts: 195 ✭✭harderthanf


    Hey - I am adding a chart or two to the site. Would be good get last years data entered, if you have any. If you don't mind, I can manually move last years data from the Google sheets. Just let me know.

    Also, would be good to get the word out a bit, the more users we have the better - and more useful - the data becomes.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,874 ✭✭✭garo


    Feel free to move any of my data though I am going to create an account and populate myself now.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 579 ✭✭✭idc


    Uploaded all my stats! Is probably only time i'll be top of the leader board 😃 before all you lads with 8+ kWp South facing arrays move to the top !!



  • Registered Users Posts: 195 ✭✭harderthanf


    I just noticed some of the activation emails are not being accepted by Hotmail. I am looking into this but in the meantime, if you have registerd and don't received the activation email, just PM me and I will activate the account.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,721 ✭✭✭✭AndyBoBandy


    What I love about this whole exercise is the fact we can see the big collective number of what we are generating..

    In 2021 110MW was generated

    January 2021: 2.04MW

    January 2022: 3.86MW


    I'm in the power generation industry, where the currency is in the hundreds of MegaWatts, and to see the numbers approaching those levels is fantastic... and that's only from a couple of users from Boards.. Imagine if the whole country had solar PV installed?, houses, schools, buildings etc.....

    You know that €200 electricity credit we're all about to get? I don't need it (and I suspect a lot of you don't really need it too), but I'll take it, of course I will, but that's only a very short term fix to what will ultimately be a long drawn out problem... How about instead of giving 10 households €200, they give 1 household a 2kW solar PV system? Whether it's pensioners, or social housing or whatever, just get more PV out there which will untimely reduce carbon emissions, and thus lead to reduced dependance on imported fossil fuel.. Every school in the country should have at least 50kWp installed, and become huge power generators, especially in summer when they are lying dormant.. long term it means increased funding for schools from FIT....

    We all know it because we've seen the light, but jesus the government should be pushing to get PV on every inch of every roof in the land!!!



  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users Posts: 195 ✭✭harderthanf


    Just a small update:

    I've added some download options now for the date [Excel, CSV, PDF] which might make it easier in the future for grabbing stats.

    Also, added some charts to the bottom of the pages.

    I am still dipping in and out, making small changes, but please let me know if there is anything that could be useful.




  • Registered Users Posts: 861 ✭✭✭tails_naf


    Fair play, I'm well impressed with what you've put together! Out of curiosity, what is the site built on - and is it costing much to run?



  • Registered Users Posts: 195 ✭✭harderthanf


    I have the site running on a virtual instance on Linode. At the moment I've a sign up credit so no cost for a year or so. I don't think it'll be too expensive afterwards though.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,971 ✭✭✭mp3guy


    I added my details. There's a bug when you click someone's profile, it shows the pre and post install BER to be the same value.



  • Registered Users Posts: 195 ✭✭harderthanf




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,551 ✭✭✭John.G


    The kwh/kwp table is very interesting and it will be very interesting to see if it changes much from year to year. I have a modest Solar thermal install and I have monitored its output vs the solar radiation which I get from "yesterdays weather" in met eireann over the past 11 years and its remarkably how consistent the solar radiation and the solar output is, they both only vary by ~ 5% from year to year, the solar radiation (Roches Point, Cork) is 1050kwh/m2/annum. (+/- 5%).

    The average kwh/kwp of the first 10 in the above table is 77.7 kwh/kwp/month = 932.4 kwh/kwp/annum. If one assumes a average solar radiation of 1050kwh/m2/annum then this will give the following PV panel efficiencies.

    5M2/kwp, 932.4/(5*1050)/100 = 17.76%

    5.5M2/kwp, 932.4/(5.5*1050)/100 = 16.15%

    6M2/kwp, 932.4/(6.0*1050)/100 = 14.80%

    6.5M2/kwp, 932.4/(6.5*1050)/100 = 13.66%


    Do any other locations give info like this?

    http://tramoreweathercam.com/weather/trends.htm



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,565 ✭✭✭bullit_dodger


    Hmmm, not sure you can logically deduce much from that. The problem is that your not taking orientation of the installations into consideration. For example, someone might have a 6Kwp south facing, and that would easily beat someone elses 10Kwp split in a E/W configuration, especially at this time of year.

    Is the E/W orientation then performing sub-optimally, or the panels poor? No, but naturally you can't easily factor that in.

    I like where your going though. That's kinda cool.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,551 ✭✭✭John.G


    It would be nice if one had something like the Tramore location's live data as one can/could then monitor the "instant"panel efficiency at different solar inputs, whatever the panels orientation.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,500 ✭✭✭ECO_Mental


    @harderthanf you have done a mighty job here with the website, fantastic stuff and thanks for all the work you have put into it. As far as I can see it have pretty much everything we would need..

    Just inputted my Feb'22 numbers a health 367kWh for my 6.1 kWp system. Really ramping up now

    6.1kWp south facing, South of Cork City



  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users Posts: 17 cuores


    There seems to be a small error in the spreadsheet in the 2022 kwh generated per kwp section. - there is no formula in the cells in line 91 from feb onwards, all the lines below this have resulting errors as the formula is inconsistent and not calculating correctly.



  • Moderators, Education Moderators, Home & Garden Moderators Posts: 8,214 Mod ✭✭✭✭Jonathan


    Suggestion for the spreadsheet/pvstats... Create a new sheet to allow people to enter their estimated figures from PVGIS-SARAH. This would only need to be one once, and it would allow newbies to confirm that it is relatively accurate vs actual production.

    Thoughts?



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,565 ✭✭✭bullit_dodger


    I see the issue. I think someone inserted a row or two, and then because the "ISNUMBER" is referencing the wrong cells, even though that user has data it's referencing another users (empty) cell and then it doesn't work out the figure.

    I could chase through the history to see who screwed it up, but its just easier for me to fix it. Hang on....



  • Registered Users Posts: 195 ✭✭harderthanf


    Bit of an needless update to the PVStats. When each user is created a random colour is generated and stored in each user's profile. You can now change this (My Profile) colour to your own colour. It's a bit of a silly change really but it will help you reconise your own colour and bring some uniformity across the charts.

    I've also removed the "EV Stats" placeholder. While I like the idea of adding EVStats I am not sure what details would be useful to be honest!

    Will be doing some more housekeeping over the week (I hope).

    Spread the word!

    https://www.pvstats.eu



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,166 ✭✭✭✭Zzippy


    Lads

    I'm not an excel expert so I don't want to go messing with formulae, but the formula in the second table (Monthly System Performance, kWh per kWp) is incorrect for a large part of the January column - the Jan column from row 99 down (jethrothe2nd) is referring to the wrong cells in the table above (Basic Monthly PV Production). e.g. Jan formula for row 99 is =IF(ISNUMBER(C39),C39/$B99,"") while Feb and subsequent columns are correct =IF(ISNUMBER(D38),D38/$B99,"").



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,565 ✭✭✭bullit_dodger


    Good spot Zippy. I fixed this a few comments back, but looks like I only repaired the damage for Feb onwards as you found. I'll sort it for the other months now.



  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,166 ✭✭✭✭Zzippy


    Sound. I hadn't read back through the thread! ☺️



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,721 ✭✭✭✭AndyBoBandy


    March numbers are going to be fairly epic.....

    I'm currently on 255kWh and reckon I should get close enough to 400 for the month should this good weather keep up!



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,452 ✭✭✭✭DrPhilG


    My average for the month so far is about 15.5kWh.


    Last year it was below 11kWh.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,922 ✭✭✭SouthWesterly


    At 190kw today. 13 kW for the day



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,233 ✭✭✭irishchris


    Already at 646kwh for the month. March has been insane this year for generation



  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,922 ✭✭✭SouthWesterly




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,233 ✭✭✭irishchris


    lol my numbers aren't a patch on @mp3guy generation though 😃



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,500 ✭✭✭ECO_Mental


    Yeah with the predicted week ahead its going to finish out monster month for everyone...Im at 472 kWh for my 6.1 system. Could go over 600 I'd say looking at the forecast

    6.1kWp south facing, South of Cork City



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 579 ✭✭✭idc


    How do i update the PVStats data for this month? I can't seem to find the correct link where i can edit my monthly stats!!!



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,500 ✭✭✭ECO_Mental


    I thought I was going crazy myself.....I cant find it either

    6.1kWp south facing, South of Cork City



  • Registered Users Posts: 195 ✭✭harderthanf


    Sorry people. I obviously removed a link when changing some stuff a few weeks back. The "My PV Data" link should be back now, on the left hand side link. You can add/change your monthly stats now.

    Let me know if there is anything else you notice.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,922 ✭✭✭SouthWesterly


    Just done mine. Gone from 106 in Feb to 289 in March. Beats last September.



  • Registered Users Posts: 471 ✭✭raytaxi


    Mine done as well 234.5 for March, almost equal to August 1kW more. Well bet September 162.5 almost 50% more, think next doors tree may have been the cause no leafs on it yet.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,721 ✭✭✭✭AndyBoBandy


    Only 11 users data in so far for March and already up to 5.5MW

    Boardsies saving the planet!!!!


    Come on, get your data in...



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,621 ✭✭✭THE ALM


    Anyway to reset the password or just re-register, can't think of mine for the life of me.



  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users Posts: 17 cuores


    699.7kWh in March. Absolutely gutted I didnt get another .3 to make 700!



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,971 ✭✭✭mp3guy


    Wouldn't worry, every link in the measurement chain has a few % error margin.



  • Registered Users Posts: 195 ✭✭harderthanf


    The passwords are stored encrypted so I've no way of telling you what yours is. I've just landed back home after being away for a couple of weeks so I'll take a look in a bit and get something in place to reset.



  • Registered Users Posts: 195 ✭✭harderthanf


    Sorry for the delay, a bit of jet lag! There is now a password reset function on the login page. Just put in the email address you used to register and you should get a reset link to that email.

    Let me know if you have any trouble.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,621 ✭✭✭THE ALM




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,391 ✭✭✭SD_DRACULA


    If there is someone with full North facing panels pls put in your generation values, looking for real life values and couldn't find anyone with a true North string in the spreadsheet.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,922 ✭✭✭SouthWesterly


    Can't imagine you'll find anyone.. Been known to be wrong occasionally though 😁



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,391 ✭✭✭SD_DRACULA


    Reason I ask is that I put down my estimated values for my current S setup and my actuals and I have consistently blown past them so it's got me thinking about N, after all it should be 50% as much as S.

    Though the financials don't add up as I'd need an extra inverter.

    Maybe if that 0% vat rate on renewables ever comes in...



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,922 ✭✭✭SouthWesterly


    I think you have it wrong. The sun never shines from the North.

    If you're currently have a 6kw inverter how would another inverted work with the 6kw export limit?



  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,391 ✭✭✭SD_DRACULA


    I know where the sun shines 🤣

    This is to get real life Irish numbers, estimated numbers I have enough.

    Easy, just turn off export on the second inverter or set the hybrid to not export past 6kwh, many people have done it.



Advertisement