Daily pv production

13 kWh so far today from my 2.4kwp south facing array in Kildare. Clouds have rolled in now though and the peak has passed so the record of 15kWh might be safe for now.

Such a beautiful start then the clouds rolled in. Interesting to see the impact of the drop in temperature with production jumping by 1.2kw with the few breaks in the cloud above the max in the clear sky and hot panels.

In my opinion it’s silly to not get a bigger inverter in this situation. The difference in price between what you have now and the next step up would be negligible in the overall cost of the system. Usually jumping up by 1 kWh will cost 100-150 euro extra. That’s my opinion on it; why wouldn’t you spend that extra to get the most out of your panels.

it’s an odd inverter capacity. They are usually in whole numbers. What manufacturer is this?

60 degrees internal temperature at 3pm.

It was a new install. He said it was his first day of production after the install.

As does my record of 36Kwh. Managed only 34Kwh for a finish - and I have 3x extra panels (1.2Kwp) more today than when I set that record.

38.4 today vs record of 38.5, so close but clouds came in at 4!

I see comment re hot inverter above - what temp should it be aiming to run at?

Same here.. Mine's sitting at 62C at the moment charging the battery all morning.. being trying to use up power with Dishwasher, Immersion and Washing machine so I don't start clipping, but I'll be at 100% before noon. Will see what the temps are like after the battery is full and the clipping kicks in

Now that clipping has set in, back down to 59 C. Fairly warm in the attic, so I'd say that's it's operating temperature now. Also, starting to cloud over here in Cavan 😏

Just on the temps. I'd encourage you to check the data sheet for your specific inverter, but most of them have an operating range of -20C to +60C (or there abouts). That's the ambient air temp outside of the inverter. Internally inside the inverter you might get to 70-75C, but generally (generally!) electronics are good for 80C without issue. It does depend a little of course which is why you should check your datasheet.

Also, most of them with delimit themselves from what I read once the temps start to get too hot.

Would that be what is happening here. One is an over voltage, but the rest of the dips there is no alarm for.

Inverter says operating temp it 55C.

Not a cloud in the sky all day. Perfect curve yesterday. Got this kind of thing the odd day last year too.

Hi, you're right, it's a 2.5kWp inverter Solis (producing 2.71kWp). On the day, they saw that 2 extra panels would fit so I went with that. At the time, it never occurred to me about bumping up the inverter.

How many panels do you have and what capacity are they? I’m guessing you have 8 x 420W panels?

Im wondering now is the clipping in your graph due to the output of the panels being reduced as they are hot; or as a limitation of the inverter.

it’s not a perfectly flat line; so I think it could be the panel output rather than the inverter. Do you have a graph from today?

But the inverter is outputting more than it’s max; which prob isn’t ideal.

The price jump between the 3kwh and 5kWh solid hybrid is just 208 euro fyi… I know this isn’t what your looking for but just to give an indication.

But in reality, how often do you see clipping, and how much is being clipped.

So if you lose 2kWh per day x about 30 days per year, a bigger inverter might be under utilized, and the larger inverter could have cost you a few 100's