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Solar Performance Spreadsheet - Analysis and data sharing

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Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 2,181 ✭✭✭SD_DRACULA


    On paper it N looks less appealing:

    Just adding more kwh when it is not needed and not enough when it is needed.



  • Registered Users Posts: 6,335 ✭✭✭SouthWesterly


    Light bulb moment! Turn off the export that solves my problem 😁😁



  • Registered Users Posts: 6,335 ✭✭✭SouthWesterly




  • Registered Users Posts: 2,181 ✭✭✭SD_DRACULA


    The almighty excel 😂 pumped with data from Solis and the usual places that give the estimations.



  • Registered Users Posts: 41 wayguk


    I am trying to guesstimate an average generated kWh per day in Dublin for a south facing roof. I currently run a 1.25kw (I think: 5 panels of 250W, but could be 300w aka 1.5kw) system, and from what I can see I get an average of 1.3MWh per year, or 3.5 KWh per day.

    If I were to upgrade to a 5kW system, I am curious to get peoples thoughts on average kWh per day.

    Would it be reasonable to estimate 14kWh per day for a 5kW system?

    I have a south facing 3 story roof at 35 degree pitch, with no shadow from trees or buildings etc.

    I am trying to size an appropriate system that aligns to my annual usage expectations which are approx 5500 kWh per annum.



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  • Registered Users Posts: 2,730 ✭✭✭yankinlk





  • Registered Users Posts: 2,363 ✭✭✭bullit_dodger



    There are a couple of similar sites, but the one yankinlk posted is the one I use. One thing to be aware of, is don't really look at the overall (yearly) production, but size your system in accordance to what it's producing in (say) March or Sept/October if you can. The reality is that virtually everyone has more than they need in May/June, but it's the transient months of late feb/early march and Sept/oct that you want to try and see what your production matches your consumption.



  • Registered Users Posts: 210 ✭✭millb


    yes I hope somebody does............ I had to go 3 pages to find it



  • Moderators, Education Moderators, Home & Garden Moderators Posts: 8,064 Mod ✭✭✭✭Jonathan


    All linked in the key threads thread, which is stickied.



  • Registered Users Posts: 824 ✭✭✭HotSwap


    Hi All. Happy to share here:

    Name: HotSwap

    Capacity (Kwp): 11.2

    Battery Capacity (Kwhr): 0

    Cost (Before Grant): €11250

    Grant: None

    Cost After Grant: €11250

    Cost/KWp: €1004.46

    Orientation: South West

    Roof Slope (degrees): Flat Roof (Panels @ 10° tilt angle)

    Location: South Dublin

    Installed: May 2022

    Comment: We sourced and installed everything and paid a qualified electrician to commission. All included in the price. Mounting system is the ValkPro+ L10 South system.

    Pre-PV BER: None

    Post-PV BER: None

    Inverter: Huawei SUN2000L 10KTL-M1 

    Panels: Trina Solar Vertex 400W (TSM-400 DE09.08)

    Installer: None

    Meter in Use: Day / Night

    Provider / Package: Energia


    Data so far (Only full months):

    July 2022: 1395.62 kWh

    Aug 2022: 1447.55 kWh

    Sept 2022: 794.30 kWh


    I requested to the google doc. I will input my data going forward.



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  • Registered Users Posts: 861 ✭✭✭tails_naf


    I'm seeing something I cannot explain on my bills -

    In summer my solar covers almost 100% of usage, with most days I'm buying 4Kwh, usually between the hours of 12 and 6am, with the rest supplied by solar directly, or the battery. As I have a day-night meter, I'd expect almost 0 day units, and mostly night units.

    However looking at the bills:

    Date, #Days, Day meter reading, Night meter reading, Type, and delay day, delta night:

    This says from Jun21 to 11 Oct, both actual readings, I used 215 day units and 804 night units, that's an average of 2 day units a day. While not huge, its a lot more than expected. My solis app for the same period (approx June, July, Aug, Sept) has 75+59+46+202 = 382 units total, which mostly matches the estimate 4kwh consumed a day, and almost exclusively at night.

    You may be wondering where the night meter readings come into this - the issue there is I have an EV, but that circuit is not covered by the solis CT clamp, but it covers everything else. I only every charge the electric car at night, so its 100% sure that is not consuming any day units - though it does muddy the waters that the solis data does not see the EV consumption.

    So any thoughts as to why the day units are much higher than I'd expect? Does Solis accurately log the consumption?



  • Registered Users Posts: 824 ✭✭✭HotSwap


    Can you take all the daily values from the solis app and add them up for the exact same date range that is covered by the bill. Maybe solis is doing something funky with the aggreration to monthly?



  • Registered Users Posts: 861 ✭✭✭tails_naf


    Yeah I'm tempted.. I wonder if I coukd do something with the grafana stats I'm logging to break the solis nunbers out by day vs night.



  • Moderators Posts: 12,353 ✭✭✭✭Black_Knight


    How do I get edit access? Just got solar installed



  • Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators Posts: 14,786 Mod ✭✭✭✭AndyBoBandy


    send @bullit_dodger a PM asking for access, giving him/her your Google email address. You need to be logged into Google also to edit the sheet.



  • Registered Users Posts: 1,786 ✭✭✭DownByTheGarden


    Thats a great spreadsheet. Anyone on it with a solis inverter who charges their battery from the grid? How do you get around the generation over-reporting bug to get the correct figures to put on that spreadsheet?



  • Registered Users Posts: 31 Abromavich


    Hey great thread - have just read through the posts completely. I got my install complete on Monday. It's a 6kwp south facing system (with Solis inverter), delighted so far!

    I dont have a battery so didnt bother with the Hybrid solis inverter. On the Solis cloud app I am only able to monitor the power produced and the units generated by the system.

    I would love to monitor 4 things:

    1) Units generated by system

    2) Units self-consumed by house

    3) Units expored (FIT tariff)

    4) Units imported

    What is the most straightforward setup to do this? Wireless would amazing if possible. I realize I could have achived this if I opted for the hybrid inverter but I didnt want to pay the extra ~€700.





  • Registered Users Posts: 824 ✭✭✭HotSwap


    You need 2 CT clamps. One on the power wires between your meter and your circuit board. And another on the power cable between your inverter and your circuit board.

    I would of though the inverter would support a grid CT; maybe look in the documentation; but if it’s not possible, read on…

    You could Install an eddi hot water diverter with a harvi wireless CT clamp or a wired CT clamp or a combination of both depending on the logistics of your items.

    you will be able to divert any exported power to your hot water; and it will also give you the stats your looking for.



  • Registered Users Posts: 31 Abromavich


    Thanks Hotswap! This is the inverter (Solis-1P6K-4G):


    How can you tell if grid CT is supported?



  • Registered Users Posts: 824 ✭✭✭HotSwap


    Page 20-23 of the manual you linked. Looks like there are two different varieties of this inverter; Smart Meter connection Vs CT Connection. And it looks like the CT version is supplied with the necessary CT clamp.

    I’m not familiar with this manufacturer but maybe your installer just couldn’t have been bothered installing the CT and threw it away?

    Can you figure out which model you have? It’s not clear from the manual how to tell the difference. Maybe YouTube it?

    You would need to get another wire from the inverter to the circuit board; you already ran the power cable (madness if the installer didn’t also run a CAT6 data cable for the CT.



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  • Moderators, Home & Garden Moderators Posts: 5,641 Mod ✭✭✭✭graememk


    It's doesn't come with one, as it's just a straight inverter.

    Solis logging is every 5 minutes. Pretty poor tbh,

    A Shelly 3EM or an emonpi would work well.



  • Registered Users Posts: 31 Abromavich


    Sorry for posting in two threads!

    Cool so If I go with the Shelly is there any need to run cables or drill holes? It all works over wifi, right?



  • Registered Users Posts: 824 ✭✭✭HotSwap


    But the manual says it supports the CT for two reasons; grid export limit and data logging. Is the manual wrong?



  • Registered Users Posts: 824 ✭✭✭HotSwap


    Take a photo of the bottom of the inverter. Does it look like this:





  • Moderators, Home & Garden Moderators Posts: 5,641 Mod ✭✭✭✭graememk


    Yes it supports it but is sold separately.

    No need to drill holes, but will require getting a power (for a voltage reference) to it and opening your consumer unit. (To mount the CTs)

    Home assistant is for home automation and monitoring.

    Most people run it on a raspberry pi, you can do monitoring, pull all your different smart home stuff together in one place... Automations.. with smart plugs etc.

    It's quite user friendly but still powerful at the same time.

    I don't have any Shelly's but a few people on here do



  • Registered Users Posts: 824 ✭✭✭HotSwap


    I’d say just get (even though the manual says it’s included???) the CT clamp and connect it to the inverter. You’ll have all the data in one dashboard. And all you need is the CT clamp; which should be cheaper that the other options.

    You already have the power cable running from the inverter to the circuit board; just use this same route for the CT clamp wire.

    Again it’s a joke that the installer didn’t do this for you. Why even bother doing a job like this of your not gonna give visibility of the systems usage to the customer.



  • Moderators, Home & Garden Moderators Posts: 5,641 Mod ✭✭✭✭graememk


    Defs not included.

    Looked into getting one myself for export limiting but used other methods.

    Yep, it is cheaper, about 30 odd pound, (can't find a supplier in IE) vs 100 for the likes of the Shelly, etc.

    But your getting a vastly better monitoring system.

    Even sourcing one here is difficult.

    All the solis I've seen (3) are the 2 pin CT variant not the rj45 meter variant.



  • Registered Users Posts: 31 Abromavich




  • Registered Users Posts: 31 Abromavich


    I dont want to drill new holes though If I add a CT clamp to the inverter.  The power cable running from the inverter to the circuit board goes down the back of the house



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  • Registered Users Posts: 824 ✭✭✭HotSwap


    The hole will prob be big enough to also run the CT clamp wire it’s a tiny wire, smaller than a phone charger cable.

    If you go with the Shelly it will give you what you want also. You will need to get the version with 2 CT clamps; one for solar and one for grid.

    Let us know how you get on.



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