anyone else's generation exceeding standard test condition rated power? my 335w (STC) panels are outputting ~10% more today when the sun pops out.. a Spring thing I expect, strong direct sunshine, cool & windy >> cool panels >> efficiency factor increase.
not complaining, great to see it maxed at times.
Not today but a couple of days ago I was getting higher generation than my inverter was rated for. 8.1kW into a 6kW inverter from an 8.2kWp array. I suspect it's direct sun into cold air without cloud cover.
Something similar for me too yesterday. I was getting DC current values of 5.97kW from our 5.6kWp array. This was translating to 5.64kw being generated as AC power through our 5kW rated inverter.
must have been the dullest morning in months.. was generating about 400 watts till about an hour ago.. and then it jumped to 4.5kwh!
that's normal, cool panels love sunbursts, come hot July/August your efficiency will drop as high temps lead to panel voltage drop
Yeah, last August when we had a week of amazing weather my peak production was down 10% on my installed kW. 6.1kWp installed and for that week I only got to 5.5kW at most.
That's why last March was legend, full sun days and not hot
If you check the specifications for your panel it will provide the Thermal Specifications for %/K for current/voltage and power. With AlphaESS their german subsiduary provides an excel file to check the max voltage/current is acceptable for the system based on the STC and the %/K values of the panels in use. For German market they use -20C as lowest temperature for these calculations. Based on those calcuations at -20 C could be the difference between installing 12 or 13 panels on one MPPT. (luckily in Ireland not likely to see -20C)
Crazy day today, it started so brutal and dark then all of sudden BOOM!
Battery got nuked too, 11kwh in less than 2 hours 🤣
probably will get to near 12kw today. not bad with no sun till 1pm.
OK, so the temp coefficient %/K values are negative with increasing temp but equally it applies in chillier temps, so it's reasonably linear? With the chilly wind today (gusts up to 45km/h) sweeping under the cells, maybe they were significantly under the STC temp of 25°C, but enough for a 10% output boost?
Down about 200kwh from March 22
Planning to get PV soon….on a sunny day can you fully charge the car or is about 20% and you would have to charge for a few days in a row to reach 100%…..
For me on the very best day of the year I would get close to fully charging my car. But I think it would be extremely rare. Currently 8kW of panels and a 58kWh ID3.
That is of course if I could leave the car at home all day.
How big an install are you planning and what kWh is the car battery?
Depends on how good a day and how many panels you have, and how big is your car battery is.
For my car, a Kia Niro 7kwh is about 10%
Last summer on 8.4kwp the highest daily I got was above 50kwh.
When I am getting around 15kwh or higher from the solar, with only access going to the car, it charges about 5%-10% daily. I mainly do short trips in my ID4 so it usually stays topped up at 80%
So 1kwh i.e. "1 unit" equates to roughly 5Km of driving. So if you charge your car battery with 10Kwhr during the day, that will equate to 50km or so of range that you can drive it. People with large number of panels (say 7Kwp and above) could see 50kWhr/day being produced. After taking away your house load (typically ~15kwhr/day).....you could see yourself adding 150-180Km of range to a car on a very sunny day in June. You naturally won't get that on a cold dark day in December, but large number of panels + EV = winner.
Usual caveats apply i.e. some cars will get slightly more/less than 1kwh=5km, smaller number of panels will reduce the production figures, but to answer your question a fully all electric car could see 40-50% going into it with a big system on a sunny day.
what im finding is its probably better for me to charge the car between 2 and 4 am at 12 cents kwh with ei and export excess at 24 cents.. its a small window so there may be days i top up if i have a lot of excess solar..
Very true mate. Same deal also with EDDI's now, cheaper to heat the hot water tank at 5am at cheap rate then export the energy that the EDDI would have diverted into the tank later on in the day as you'll get a higher rate for that electricity
Still many of us are still on "deemed export" so we get paid the same for exporting nothing or everything. In this case it's advantageous to try and store what we can to avoid importing a day unit. That will eventually end, but for now....
Thanks for explaining….well worth getting the panels and is it wise to get battery storage too?
Hopefully it will be delayed.
I export basically nothing, yet I get paid the deemed export now
Oh I'm the same. But if it comes in I'll pivot and set up my system to export more. More investment etc.
The battery storage question is a good one. As opposed to "as many panels as you can fit", there's no real clear cut answer on if people should get a battery. I'm a huge proponent of batteries in general, always have been, but with FIT (Feed-in-tarrif) where you get paid for units of electricity that you export to the grid that is surplus to your house, along with the fact that you have an EV already to soak up most/all of your surplus, the return on investment for a house storage battery is questionable.
The answer is very dependant on a lot of factors such as your consumption profile (how much you use, when in the day, the tariff your on, the rates, etc) and it will be specific to every household. In general though I think most homes could do well with a 5Kwhr battery, but that is more of a grand generalization than a recommendation that it will save you money. It may not.
A battery though does allow you to charge at night time rates and then use that during the day to avoid paying "day rate" electricity, and it improves the efficiency of your overall solar production/self-consumption, but it's not a "given" that it'll save you money.
I think it's fair to say the very high FIT (versus expectations) threw off the maths on battery viability, but day rates have gone crazy and slow to come back down to earth now wholesale rates have dropped.
I have not done the math recently but would safely say an off the shelf battery (along with the extra expense of a hybrid inverter) is not worth it.
A DIY battery is a different matter where you can easily get double/treble the capacity versus off the shelf spend, but you need to be confident to go for this as 99.99% of electricians will not touch if anything goes array, there is also the non-financial learnings made which drives a lot of us.
22kWh generated today... and 37% self consumption 🤣 the car was in and out so didn't get to plug in, although power was there. Tomorrow looks like a good one though so will try catch some.
11kwh today and yeah not much used either.. 43%.
Got connected last Friday 🙂. 4.4 KW system, south facing, Galway west.
Flying start over the weekend 17 & 18kw. This weeks been pretty murky so far, but still got 7 & 9kw, and today will be similar.
Have a 5KW battery, but still needs to be connected. Some issue with the wiring of the Comms cable to the inverter it seems.
Quick question. Anyone using/recommend a WiFi Electric Heater?
My thinking being to have it in our living room where we spent most of our time relaxing in the evenings. If there's decent solar during the day I can turn it on remotely. Might reduce or delay the need to turn on central heating and/or the fuel stove.
Anyone done something similar and can recommend a heater? There are tons on the market but reviews are hit and miss.
surely a wifi socket would be an easier route?
yeah, I'd be of the same opinion. Just need to ensure that your heater left in the "on" position will heat when the power comes back on. Many units, you have to press a button or so to kick it into action, which sort of defeats the WIFI socket. :-(
Yeah that's an option. Although I was ideally looking for something where I could remotely control the heat output from somewhere between 500w - 2000w depending on the solar excess, room temp, outside temp etc. With a WiFi socket, while I could turn it on remotely I think I'd still have to be physically there change the output on the heater.
