Solar for Beginners [ask your questions here]

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Feeding fat seagulls. Well that's daft altogether.

Don’t beat yourself up.
My install brought an end to the 4 weeks of continuous blue skies and sunshine, and replaced it with blanket clouds!

Got my email yesterday confirming my NC6.
But when I login to the Network site, I still don’t see anything if the generation I’ve exported in the last few weeks.
Is there something I’m doing wrong, as I’m sure I read somewhere that your smart meter registers your exports from day one.

I have a shelly EM and the CT from the inverter measuring the import/export of house power.
Comparing them with the ESB Networks data there is always a small mismatch
Each day there is a between 0.1 - 0.5 Khw extra consumption on the ESB side than what my shelly/inverter is reporting and 0.2 -0.7Kwh less on ESB side for the export.

Seems that this smart meter likes to measure electricity in ESB advantage, more on the import side and less on the export.

Did anyone else noticed this behaviour. If it was my shelly EM measuring more/less the esb meter should show extra or less for both import and export.

Right, here's one for the learned.

My export data started showing up on the Networks page on Thursday.
Thursday - 11.6kWh
Friday - 7.4kWh

I force discharge my battery every night before my cheap rate. When I check my app as to what I've discharged, the figures are…
Thursday - 10.09kWh
Friday - 7.42kWh

Those figures aren't a million miles away from the Networks figures.

What are a million miles away are my solar exports.
Thursday - 4.5kWh
Friday - 28.76kWh

Probably a daft question, but is it possible that my solar isn't being exported? It's going to the battery/house only? Or what other sort of explanation could there be?

Thanks, it certainly does help.
I’ll answer all your questions in a bit, but panic averted with my original question. The Networks monitor obviously took the weekend off, ‘cause everything is up to date today!

Planning to do DIY install. SemiD in North Dublin built in the 50s.
Before looking into the actual electrical side , I need some guidance on the roof .

The SEAI guidance says that contractors need to assess the roof and in doubt you need an engineer / need fix.
I wonder has any installer ever called out any concern? And fixes were needed? How bad does it have to be?

My roof has support purlin across the rafters. And that purlin is bowing with a few cracks , the southern one more than the one on the northern roof.
But almost all roofs in the neighbourhood are sagging to some degree and none of their installers seem to have complained. Some members here also had pics uploaded showing the dip in the middle.
But because I want to DIY , I’d need some reassurance that it’s not going to collapse on me….
If anyone has any recommendations for a structural engineer in the Dublin area who does those site surveys please DM me. I’ve tried cold calling engineers and they didn’t want to know (too small of a job).

Im wondering do I have a problem in my system. Newly installed. Im getting an absolute peak of 4.6kw generation from a 5.7kva system on a perfect solar day like today and yesterday. its an east/west configuration. i would expect a higher generation with the sun directly above on a nice sunny day like today. i have limited experience as its a new install.

true. But forgot to add that the 70 year old felt is kaput and patched on so many occasions, so plan is to get it refelted anyway ( solar or not). And tiles checked.

Anyone use anchors for ground mount systems ?( see attached Pic) . I’m trying to see if ground mounts would have any chance against another storm Eowyn if it ever happened again

Last question . I queried on previous posts what should the trench depth be and all said 600 mm. My site inspection rep commented as it’s low voltage DC it’s not covered/ regulated . I’m still going with 600mm unless I get caught with rock or other pipes . Is this correct ?