Solar Panels

[Alex321]

March and April have been amazing, best output for each since my install. 1100 Kwh over the 2 months.

Yes, March was *just* the best of the 4 we have had, April is already the best, with today still to go.

993kWh in March, 1.3MWh in April, plus today.

Previous best was 2022, with 985kWh for March, 1.26MWh for April.

 

[chris-suffolk]

Yes, March was *just* the best of the 4 we have had, April is already the best, with today still to go.

993kWh in March, 1.3MWh in April, plus today.

Previous best was 2022, with 985kWh for March, 1.26MWh for April.

Wow, what's your total system rated to? That's basically double my output

My previous best was 2014 for March and 2020 for Apr

 

[Pinno718]

Smart meter installation for solar; May 15th.
Installed on the 11th Feb. To say i'm not happy is an understatement and I gave them a heap of abuse via email. Funny how after that, I got a booking confirmation 2 days later.
They gave me the booking telephone number previous to that and the people on the other end had 'no record' of a booking having been made even though my 'status report' indicated it had been booked.

Meh.

Only upside is that my leccy bill for this month is £30.42.

 

[Alex321]

Wow, what's your total system rated to? That's basically double my output

My previous best was 2014 for March and 2020 for Apr

10.14 Kw - we have the whole of the rear roof, including the garage covered - 26 panels altogether.

We only had iit instralled February 2022, so don't have any older figures.

 

[Tenkaykev]

With Solar arrays the latest thinking is " fill your roof " and it can be economical to add panels to north facing roofs too. Of course it's the luck of the draw as to what the DNO allocates as permitted export. Our export limit is set at 7.25kWh and we have a 5.25kW array so can export some of the battery concurrently with the solar output.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

We are filling up the batteries by lunch every day at the moment andthen feeding into the grdi

Only 7 panels due to a weirds shaped roof

problem is that the "Smart" meter has decided to stop talking to EDF
well - I strongly suspect EDF's system has been "upgraded" and will no longer talking to our meter
they SAY the meter is SMETS1 and they are going to upgrade it to SMETS2

which is weird as when it started working with EDF I did some checking and found that it was upgradable and could operate as either 1 or 2

no idea how long in the future the swap will be but I will rpobably have to end up going outside and reading it manually for the rest of teh year or so

which is a pain

 

[MrGrumpy]

No willy waving going on here as some on here have more panels than me but over 700kWh this month , it’s been the sunniest month for a long time up here . That’s a record for me since having panels installed .

 

[Alex321]

No willy waving going on here as some on here have more panels than me but over 700kWh this month , it’s been the sunniest month for a long time up here . That’s a record for me since having panels installed .

We have 40 months of records, with Feb, Mar, Apr, May having 4 years each, the other months having 3.

This is the 5th best month so far (1.37MWh), with 2 days to go.

May 2023 (1.53MWh) was better, as were June 2022 (1.40) and 2023 (1.47), and Aug 2022 (1.38).

The odds are with tomorrow and Saturday, it will beat June and August 2022. The best two Mays have been better than any July.

 

[CXRAndy]

Inverters ?
in the original proposal for 15 panels at 450w (6.75 kw) it specified a 3680w inverter,
View attachment 766922

I have now suggested 20 panels (20 * 450 = 9 kw) and he has said I will need a bigger inverter a 6000w one

why in both cases is the inverter capacity less than the possible output ?

and would an inverters lifespan likely to be longer if it was working no where near its capacity

The inverter is usually slightly below the peak solar input as the inverter is normally capable of accepting peak power over 100% for short periods.

 

[Jenkins]

No willy waving going on here as some on here have more panels than me but over 700kWh this month , it’s been the sunniest month for a long time up here . That’s a record for me since having panels installed .

560 kWh generated of which 425 kWh exported in April
540 kWh generated of which 415 kWh exported so far in May
Quite impressed for my east facing setup with a theoretical 4500kWh maximum production.

 

[jowwy]

octopus export is 15p/kwh...... it only goes up and down if your on agile export.

 

[Alex321]

octopus export is 15p/kwh...... it only goes up and down if your on agile export.

Actually there is another tariff which does go up and down - the Flux tariff, though not by the half hour. That is one (low) rate between 02:00 and 05:00, another (high) rate from 16:00-19:00, and a third (middle) rate the rest of the time.

 

[Jenkins]

Actually there is another tariff which does go up and down - the Flux tariff, though not by the half hour. That is one (low) rate between 02:00 and 05:00, another (high) rate from 16:00-19:00, and a third (middle) rate the rest of the time.

That's the one I'm on, with the import rates varying at the same times as well. I've been experimenting this month with letting the panels charge the battery during the day and exporting any surplus and then empting the battery down to 40% (20% reserve and 20% to run the house) at the high export rate time which is around 6 kWh earning about £1.80 from a full battery.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

Personally I can;t do anything like that since EDF decided to stop talking to my "smart meter"

it is weird
firstly everyone said it was SMETS1 and couldn;t be talked to

then EDF said the same

then it magically started working with them and they said it was upgradable and they had upgraded it to full SMETS2 over the air

worked with 3rd party companies and everything (Hugo was one can;t remember the other) which, I think, means it was operating as full SMETS2

now apparently it is SMETS1

I want it properly sorted out somehow so I have a full choice when the current contract expires ina few months

I can feel a proper complaint coming on!

 

[dicko]

Just supplied E.on Next with a huge FIT meter reading thanks to all this sunny weather, now looking forward to a healthy FIT payment.