Solar PV Hints, Tips & Troubleshooting

championc wrote: »

You've somewhat lost me @daughy

If you are looking at East and West only, then all you need is a 2 MPPT inverter - each string will connect into the inverter separately. Your losses in winter from a bit of shade late in the day will never pay for the cost of adding optimizers.

But then you mention the shed. So are you planning on installing on it too ? If so, you may well be worth considering a second separate inverter

Well I already have 2 strings on 1 inverter,
An East and south facing array, 5 panels each.
I'm limited by space on the south array, its met its limit, the east array has the other 5 panels, the new 5 panels would be on a flat roof of a shed but would get the west facing sun, not much of a tilt, only a flat roof, but constantly gets sun. Connected the east facing array to the new 5 panel array on top of the shed, and added 5 Optimisers to the east array, as soon as the sun leaves the east array at approx half 2 in the day, wouldn't the 5 panels on the shed activate or be activated without any interference from the shaded east array, as that's the purpose of Optimisers?

See my dilemma is, in order to have a South, East and West array on my dual inverter, I would need to have 5 Optimisers on the east array so the west array doesn't get dragged down by the shading at approx 2pm.. Not sure I'm explaining it properly.. I just read on previous posts not to have different orientations on 1 string, if I just put 5 panels on the shed I'll have to buy another inverter and hire electrician to wire it up to the main board, plus more dc circuit breakers

unkel wrote: »

Oh I see, 5E, 5S and 5W is the plan?

I think I saw some triple input string inverter somewhere, but I'm not entirely sure even if they exist if that would be a viable solution. Someone more knowledgeable might clear that up

I appreciate your reply unkel, as much as that would be an ideal setup, I am nearly sure 1 string South, 1 string East and West with Optimisers in between should do it. Can't see why not as Optimisers keep the flow going while any other panel is shaded.

Do you get much output from the east ? I'm assuming your Wests are unhindered all day but your East are only able to work for what - 5 hours ??.

Personally, I'd fit your East and optimizers and go all in on south and west. If you insist keeping the East, I'd go East on one and South + West on the other, with maybe your optimizers on the south if it will be shaded at all

championc wrote: »

Do you get much output from the east ? I'm assuming your Wests are unhindered all day but your East are only able to work for what - 5 hours ??.

Personally, I'd fit your East and optimizers and go all in on south and west. If you insist keeping the East, I'd go East on one and South + West on the other, with maybe your optimizers on the south if it will be shaded at all

The output from the east is poor, I can only put it down to the install happening at the middle of August, and winter coming.
I'm guessing when the sprimg/summer roles around the sun will rise at let's say 5am,so it will hit the east with alot more exposure.
Itl actually save on cabling as the shed has the inverter in it and the west panels will have a short run to the inverter.
Tnx guys, I appreciate your help as usual

@daughy

Right, how many hours a day COULD sunshine hit your West location ? I'm assuming that you have nothing to block them at any part of the day. So why would you keep panels in the East which will only get a half days output ?

I would be more inclined to have east on it's own string and then South + West on another, and have no optimizers

Looking for help setting up monitoring. Have solar panels installed through electric Ireland. Hadn't broadband when installed, contractor left gateway and 2 smart plugs and was meant to an app at time. The gateway is sercomm multiple rf. Can attach to laptop and mobile but not sure what ip address I need, google brings up manual with one that doesn't work. Also previously when I contacted electric ireland support they said they didn't have an app in use

Any help welcome. Thanks.

graememk wrote: »

Post some pictures of what you have so we might know what your dealing with.

Tried on 1st, trying again

Just a quick Google of that gateway is, that is uses zigbee and Z-wave, there for smart home appliances like heating controls, lights, other things.
I don't see how this gateway monitors the solar unless it comes with zigbee or Zwave enabled grid monitoring hardware for your main circuit board.
Underneath the gateway should be a printed ip address?
If not you can attach it to your pc via USB if it has that option and open cmd on your pc and get a list of ip addresses connected.
If the USB isn't available you will have to connect the gateway through ethernet to your router and get a list of ip addresses on your network?

Ipconfig will give you a list of ip addresses on your network, the fastest way to find the gateways is to type Ipconfig in cmd, get the list of ip addresses, take a note of them, then connect the gateway with the ethernet and type Ipconfig again and see the new ip address that shows up. That will be your gateway,
When you have that open Google and in the search bar up top, type that ip address to log I to the router, the manual should have given you the up address to log in to anyway?

This is a quick tutorial on finding the ip address

https://youtu.be/CRmhFFLJ654

Hope this helps, anyone else with networking skills can chime in here to help, there should be a portal also to monitor your solar? Check with the manual. They might not have an app yet but they should have an Internet portal

Pic deleted thanks, didn't get connected, might yet again. There is a check meter thing on fuse board which blinks red when generating so have some idea what's happening anyway

irishchris wrote: »

Got mine installed just over a week ago. Had some good days weather to test since and just wondering what the max wattage from 2.88kw panels should be with losses etc. Only looking for rough figure here as know it is impossible to give exact. Getting steady 2.1kw most days with sometimes reaching 2.3kw. would this be the maximum as just wondering if my 2.5kw inverter is throttling that or not?

Its hard to say in these conditions, the weather has been pretty awful the last 2 weeks, but your inverter should have data logging your activity, if not keep an eye on the voltage and amperage to the inverter.
Depending on your array setup, east, west, south, your not doing to bad getting 2.3kw from a 2.8kw array, you will see a significant difference when the good weather rolls in.
My own inverter has losses when going from dc to ac can be 100 watts at times. Today looks good for solar, check your volts going to the inverter to make sure there all working.
The amount of panels you have times to volts.
If you have a 2.8kw array, let's say each panel. Is 280 watts, that's 10 panels, if the open circuit voltage is 40 volts, that's 10x40=400 volts
That's just an estimate, your panels might be different in voltage, under load they might be hitting 300 to 350 volts.

irishchris wrote: »

Got mine installed just over a week ago. Had some good days weather to test since and just wondering what the max wattage from 2.88kw panels should be with losses etc. Only looking for rough figure here as know it is impossible to give exact. Getting steady 2.1kw most days with sometimes reaching 2.3kw. would this be the maximum as just wondering if my 2.5kw inverter is throttling that or not?

2.3 from 2.9 could actually be considered good. It's down to the angle of your roof slope vs the height of the sun in the sky. So this best figure at your solar noon will decrease gradually as the sun gets lower and lower each day.

It's a pity you didn't get a larger inverter, only from the point of view that you could, in years to come, swap your existing panels with ones of higher output. Based on hitting 2.3 too at this time of year, it sounds like you have a reasonably steep roof angle and therefore could exceed 2.5 output easily in May to July. I'm surprised your installer made such a tight call since there would be feck all different in price between a 2.5 and even 3.5 inverter

MAULBROOK wrote: »

I have been thinking about charging the battery at night on the cheep rate to have it full for use during the day.
Was only planning to do this during the bad winter months.
I have a Solis 5kw wit a 7 kw BYD battery.
My thinking is have it full for the morning and if its a good day the the water will heat via the Iboost.

Any thoughts would be welcome, good or bad.

Cheers

Not a bad idea if you actually plan to use the water. Charge it to whatever level, on a poorish day, would get you through to midnight. So you might go to 80% this month. You then have a gap which you can fill and, if you set charging from 00:00 to 09:00, you'll have saved on the amount needed to get back up to 80% the following evening. So arriving at midnight with 20% remaining means then only a topup of 60%.

What you don't want to be doing is discharging night rate bought power during the following nights night rate period, since that will actually cost you money (due to losses in conversation).

So it's important that anyone with batteries ensures that you really do not discharge battery stored power during night rate hours, if you want to maximize your savings

irishchris wrote: »

It's about 40-45 degree slope with all panels facing south west-West. It's a shame the installer wouldn't agree to larger inverter alright but only installed this one which takes up to 3kw max wattage.

Plan in longer term is to self install a South facing ground mounted 3kw system with separate inverter in order to take advantage of earlier pv power as mine doesn't start producing properly until around 12pm

So he'll cover the warranty if it blows !!! Sounds like he had a spare inverter he needed to shift

I personally would send an email to the inverter manufacturer to strong arm your installer to put in at least a 3.0. at 40 deg slope, you'll be rife for absolute max gains of production in June and July

Honestly if I was going to go down the battery charging overnight on the night rate I would prefer at least the tesla power wall size, 13kwh.
Or more if I could.

Or 16, 200 amp hour agms.
48 volt 800 amp hour config
48x800= 38400 watt hours, minus 50% = 19200 watt hours available.
You may get 16, 200 amp agms for 3.5k euro.
Your looking at approx 60kg for one of these batteries though.

Or 8 agms.
48 volt 400 amp.hour config
48x400=19200 watt hours, minus 50% = 9600 watt hours available.
Maybe get them for 1.5k,Not sure how much for the install and grant.
Do you need an energy rating of a C to get a battery grant? I'm not sure.
For a DIY job I can do this but if I could get a grant I would definitely look into it.

graememk wrote: »

Usually
Higher standing charge & slightly higher day rate.

Do you know your annual usage currently?

I think the tipping point for a day night meter is 30% of your units to be night.


So putting some loads to run overnight can tip the balance in your favour, ie Dishwasher.

No, no idea of our consumption. Different property, different circumstances from twelve months ago. Myself and my wife both working from home now. PV will hopefully cover most of our daytime consumption on a good day. Stagger washes, etc.

Evening consumption consists of dinner, one evening shower, maybe dishwasher, TV, lighting and pellet stove.

We bought the house early this year, gutted it. All min A rated appliance, installed cavity and attic insulation, replaced inefficient oil boiler with new one, triple glazed front and back door, just approved for solar PV grant. Flexible with when we do washes. The payback on 14 panels with battery was long and out of our budget. Going with 8 panels 2.5kW system, no battery. If night saver would complement this system and help reduce cost I would be interested in exploring it further.