Hi Nigel. Another excellent report. You gather so much data! One thing I have noticed is that with my off-grid system I very quickly got a handle on how much I produce, how much I use and where it all goes. I no longer keep reams of data because I now know exactly what I can control and what is beyond my control and, I don't have the grid connection as an added "complication", for the want of a better word. The only data I really keep track of these days, is the information I can get from my Victron equipment. While I use Home Assistant to control my loads, I don't gather any data from it and I've got to the point where I don't care where the energy is being used, as long as I have enough to go around (which I do.) I held off publishing my monthly figures because today (9/10/2024) marks exactly one year since I cut-over to my off-grid system, so I can post my annual figures. A quick recap: I am in Northampton, Western Australia, latitude 28S. We get lots of Sun, even in Winter. My system is 15.1 kW of panels in four arrays, three of which face due North and one faces East. None are shaded. I have one Victron 250/85 MPPT per array. I have 3 x 5KVA Victron Phoenix inverters connected in single-phase parallel. I have 10 x Pylontech US3000C batteries and will be adding 4 US5000B batteries by the end of the month. I have a Victron EV charging station which is connected single-phase and can output 7.36kW. My constant (base) load when home is 660W. I have a resistive element (3.6 kW) hot water service and three air conditioning units, with another being installed at the end of the month. I have an evaporative air cooler but we will be decommissioning it when the new air con. gets installed. I do not have a backup power source of any kind. For the Year: I was away from home for seven weeks, during which time my load was just 300W I produced 10974 kWh of energy I consumed 9874 kWh of energy with the difference being the round-trip losses of the MPPTs, Inverters and batteries. Of my consumption, 6551 kWh was directly from solar and 3323 kWh was from the batteries when the Sun was down. The EV charger consumed 2240 kWh of energy. The EV has cost us just over 150 of your quid to do 22,000km (13,664 miles) for one year. The state of health of my batteries has dropped from 100% to 99% (ticked over just two days ago) in one year. The deepest depth of discharge of the batteries for the year was 50% (on four occasions.) My average state of charge of the batteries was 90% There was zero system downtime and no loss of power at any time. There were just three days for the whole year, where the battery state of charge was not 100% by the end of the day (95% each time.) I now run an air conditioner 24/7 to keep my power equipment at an optimal 25C, for longevity. So, an outstanding year which gave us the confidence to remove our only remaining gas appliance (a 4-burner cook-top) and replace it with an induction cook-top. We no longer "burn stuff". Cheers Russ
Russ envious of several things here. The winter sun allowing you to go off grid and the totally victron system. It really is great even if a bit complex at times . How you manage without tracking data on a spreadsheet remains a mystery to me🤭😉
Im off-grid in Saskatchewan. And like you I no longer burn stuff. But the secret up here? Is to have 3-4x the generation capacity so you can produce enough to fill the batteries in the worst possible conditions. I have a small house and our electrical loads are not that bad. But in order to make sure that the 30kwh of batteries does not enter a death spiral in the winter solstice and need the generator to charge them? I put 32kw of solar on ground mounts in place. Even on the crappiest of days I have enough to run the house and charge the batteries. And every time that the batteries are full? Im filling up my thermal energy storage with the excess. Its not hard to justify a crap ton of solar, when you can use it to replace a $500/month heating oil bill.
🌞Very clear explanation & data Presentation! After 30 years in PV biz, biggest challenge is education... understanding current Energy usage, how to manage loads to match/ use solar production with energy storage, & how savings are equal to Positive cash flow from day 1🌻 Solar is Ultimate 🗽
Improving storage is key by now though, especially for those who had their system designed for exporting as export tariffs creep below night tariffs on plenty places.
Im off grid in Saskatchewan. ENE of Regina about 220km. I had 3 different quotes from "Experts". None of them would have kept me going during the winter solstice on cloudy days. And I know that because I had solar on my old house for about 5 years before. I ended up working with a reputable retailer and buying 3 pallets of solar, 30kwh batteries the inverter and charge controllers etc. They designed the system, and even provided me with full schematics. I built the ground mounts, buried the conduits to code etc. Then hired an electrician with some experience with solar, and more importantly a van full of wire. For what they wanted to charge me for a 12kw system out here in the boonies? I built 3x as much. I can go a week of crappy weather during the winter solstice, because no matter what I still have usable power coming in and Im able to top up the batteries. The only time the generator has run other than periodic testing? I was too sick to get out of bed and clean the panels off after a snow storm. You think I am crazy right? Wrong. Retired power engineer. Every time that the batteries are full during the year? I have an 8000W heat dump that kicks in that is heating 5m of sand in a tank I buried in the back yard. Its on a smart load that shuts down if the battery depletes to 96% SOC. That insulated sand battery is replacing a $500/month heating oil bill all winter long. As well as an endless supply of hot water. The tank is at 580C right now. And the hydronic heat has been on for about 3 weeks now. Last year in February before the days got longer and I was able to start putting energy back into the tank? It was still just under 200C.
And yes I turn half of the solar system off for 4 months a year. It gets covered up with silage tarp to protect it. Next year the other half will be covered.
Hiya, thanks for posting your data/experience. We’ve just completed our 1st year of solar (6.3kw bifacial tree shading, 10kwh battery) seemingly in one of the worst periods hearing other solar reports. However, delighted with Heatable kit/system/service, in Feb also removed gas & installed Octopus ASHP (£2.5k) which has been brilliant. Paired with solar pv, our annual bill is just under £500, feed in around £300 so £200 annual bill so far. PS we also charge our EV! Only negative is sun worship of solar app (guilty pleasure) & house is 24/7 comfortable 20/21 degrees & quickly used to it & won’t change it. Never need to be cool/cold again - except others houses! & it’s so cheap/efficient so why not. Same reason all roadtrips like 5k around Norway/Europe done in Tesla, plus so easy & relaxing, love all of it!
I know the feeling Nigel. I thought Sep would be good, but in the end it was 3rd best out of the last 4 years. 14% less than last year, but 5% better than in 2022. I too am turning on the heat. But I am using my split system with solar, so it costs me oh so little!! Greetings from the suburbs of Cologne!
Will be net zero for the year. All electric house with an ASHP. Since 1st March have been paying £1 per month direct debit and are currently £574 in credit. Biggest bill last winter (January) was £99 so will have more than enough credit to cover this winter's bills.
Days are getting longer here in Adelaide, South Australia. September is the first month of Spring. Generated 457kwh from the north facing 6.3kw house system and generated 732kwh from the 6.5kw east/west shed system. Total generation is 1.1 mwh from both systems.
Do you guys suffer from SAD at down down there or are winters generally brighter than here in the UK ? Winter can be miserable here, with Spring a welcome joyous season
Ok compare time. Generation 945kwh (data directly from 3 solis inverters) import 733.7kwh export 966.03kwh. 3 arrays, largest 8 kw solis inverter 8x 300w + 11x 400w panels 6.8kw total East facing. 5kw solis inverter 14x 330w panels 4.62kw West facing. 3kw solis inverter 5x 415w + 5x425w 4.2kw North South split. Dual GivEnergy AC3’s with a 8.2 and 9.5kw battery pack. Daikin ASHP. 2 EV's my son has a Corsa E and I have a Volvo XC40 recharge twin. Last month my son used 61.1kwh I used 279.2kwh. I do have a small amount of day time grid use, due to my battery system reaction time and sometimes pulling more than my 6kw battery inverter can handle so my average price per kwh is 7.66p so last month my Octopus bill (not including standing charge) £56.30 grid use, £144.90 export credit. £88.60 credit for the month. Still in full export mode, not turned the heating on yet the house is hovering 20 - 22c I have mine set to come on at 19.5c. Upgrades, thought I was done but following a chat with GivEnergy and my installer i should be adding another AC3 and 9.5kw battery. Looks like i can add one to my garage some 16m cable run away from my current GivEnergy kit! Also my Ripple investment is due to start generating too.
Don’t forget the ratings on the panels are based on standard test conditions , so if they produce more the conditions are better than the test conditions , biggest factor is normally the temp of the panels
Well, in his case they produce less than the peak simply because they're not optimally oriented for peak full-day energy generation. Some are for more/peak generation during sunrise or sunset.
Only had solar since July and already want to expand the system 😅 Maybe it's because I got in the second half of the year so keep seeing it drop down each month 🤔 September figures on my N/E/S 8 kWp array was only 502kWh, big drop from the 852 in Aug. I'm guessing this is due to the 5 North panels not being able to contribute as much but even so, still glad to have them up there.
Think you've understood the generation well, id definitely think the north will reduce faster for next few months . Have to not get too down on reducing numbers just focus on the bigger picture over the year the impact is huge
It’s good that you data shows the massive variability in solar output, particularly how poor the output is on winter and it should be a warning to everyone that solar is not a viable solution without a grid connection and that solar on the grid is equally as bad.
@@EVPuzzle , no the grid struggles in winter as there are many still windless days when load remains high and thus will be exacerbated by the poor efficiency of heatpumps in colder weather. So we can be thankful for gas turbines, nuclear and interconnectors to Europe.
You have an impressive installation in your house for energie generation along with an abundance of sensors collecting lots of data. Do you also have power numbers in kW of the various setups on panels, converter and the average produced power of each setup? You showed the pike wattage, but that is only generated during a small portion of the day. What I am interested in is what a certain Wp of a setup on East, South or West would result in over a period of 24 hours on a bright sunny day and on clowded rainy days. I looked on the internet at several setups, but am still missing the relation between Wp and generated kWh per day, so not the pike wattage.
Long term average of south facing , 1kwp generates 1mwh over a year is a decent average guestimate Shade and less perfect orientation may be less There are some good online tools for calculating kWhs gained from various setups , some use your exact house from Google maps and can go figure specific panels etc .
Switched to winter mode (charge my 30 kwh to 100% overnight and run the heat pump 24/7... Took 3 days to get the house cosy, at this time of the year I turn all my solar into heat and enjoy it... I export nothing... Run everything extra on 7p/kWh.. cheap enough for me.
Not a large place, a small a2a heat pump. Running at less than 1kw input with a single indoor unit downstairs. If it starts to labour >1200w input, it calls my gas heating for support.
Nigel - what tariff are you on now? Did you swap tariffs this year for summer & winter? You mentioned IOG, I thought the export payment for that was Octopus Fixed Lite?
Battery might be easier to gain as not impacting infrastructure of the house . Garden solar on sheds etc work well as do portable batteries for local use
Hi, wanted to ask a question about adding more solar panels, is this something that you have to notify the DNO about, or anybody ?.. or can you just go ahead and add them to the existing system and thats it ?, I have 6.25KW panels on the SW roof, and would like to put some additional panels on the NE roof, our limit with the DNO is 6.4KW, but could easily add another 6.25KW of panels and we have an 8KW Victron. Thinking to upgrade batteries from 18 to 36KW too
Some will say yes you need to ask them others say if you're not changing the inverter , adding more mppt you don't have to? I can't tell you your DNOs rules and requirements I'm afraid
hmmm my my 921 kWh of production doesn’t seem too bad. I’m in Gloucestershire with a mainly east-west configuration. I self-consumed 35% of production and my consumption of 1.2 MWh was split 27% self-consumption and 73% from the grid for my all-electric house above 6C when gas kicks in. It’s 3-phase with no batteries.
good to see the up front investment is paying off, I expect you have invested quite a lot of money up front to get to this position. I was working out the other day whether to just invest £17k in a bond etc and use the returns to subsidise my bills and still have the capital to pass on or use, but it’s not very eco I suppose, I need to make a decision soon.
My 7kW array in Cambridgeshire has generated 474kWh in the month of September. As an aside I run my hot water at 65 degrees. Most use (e.g. showers) is blended, so the hotter it is the longer it'll last in effect. It's a well insulated system and excess solar via Eddi keeps it at temperature. Likely bacteria at lower temperatures are also a consideration.
I was thinking about getting a portable largest type battery with portable or foldable solar panels ,not sure what size I would need or what is the biggest foldable panel , just wanted to see if I could reduce the bill even a little, don’t have the money for a big installation but I would like to do something, so many options out there but I don’t know what’s good bad or indifferent, any suggestions please , thanks , take care .
Buy one of mine , I'll let them go half price to anyone here Eg Bluetti AC 240 latest battery Brand wise and model wise there's lots of options like 💦 water proofing , handle design, weight, input output socket types xt60/xt90 , AC charging type , internal charger , external charger then there's all the specs. More battery capacity usually =more power output and faster charging Solar inputs , one, two ,more power in usually with bigger battery Solar panel wise , I'd suggest watching the video I did on portable panels, sometimes multiple smaller panels can be better than single larger ones. I have multiple 200w , 1 x 350w and a 2 x 400w panels
@@EVPuzzle I didn’t know you had some for sale , which episode do I need to watch so I could see the portable battery you’re talking about, are you also selling the folding panels, hate to ask how much = so I have to be brave so how much , I live in Devon and gave up driving four years back so the delivery would probably cost a lot , but I would like to watch the episode or episodes with the battery in mind and the panels also , thanks , take care .
@@EVPuzzle I watched your videos regarding the Bluetooth battery and the video on the portable folding solar panels , you certainly are a detailed intelligent soul , very impressive with your communication skills ,
Hi there, I would suggest having a look for a couple of standard rooftop panels from ITS Technologies. They’re so cheap and will produce so much more than a folding panel. You can get really cheap ground mounting frames on Temu.
@@Crazydiamond_1974 I don’t want panel on the roof , I have a large garden so plenty of room there , just wanted to buy a portable battery with a few portable panels to see if it would be a good buy and help out with the ever increasing electric bills , one thing is for certain electric bills will never go down , so in the long run putting some money into the solar in a small way would help in the long run , obviously have to live a little longer = it might happen.
Have you looked at importing at 7 p kilowatt at night and exporting it at 15 p a kilowatt and making use of your batteries . My 9.6 kW system I imported 965 kW and exported 648 kW which still gave me a profit. I use my electric car a lot this month I use my 21 kW batteries to their potential
Hi very interesting videos. Just wondering what you use to monitor specific circuit consumption. Do you have multiple smart circuit breakers or current clamps? I'd love to see the usage across different circuits but I'm concerned that if I buy some tuya devices like our temp sensors the data won't be exportable. Oh and yes we yielded 926kw for September, but we also consumed 966kw. (8.7kw array, solax inv and 11.6kw batts and Ev charger , driving 1400m a month, agile incoming, fixed out going). I'm a nerd 🤓
Hi Nigel. Another excellent report. You gather so much data! One thing I have noticed is that with my off-grid system I very quickly got a handle on how much I produce, how much I use and where it all goes. I no longer keep reams of data because I now know exactly what I can control and what is beyond my control and, I don't have the grid connection as an added "complication", for the want of a better word. The only data I really keep track of these days, is the information I can get from my Victron equipment.
While I use Home Assistant to control my loads, I don't gather any data from it and I've got to the point where I don't care where the energy is being used, as long as I have enough to go around (which I do.)
I held off publishing my monthly figures because today (9/10/2024) marks exactly one year since I cut-over to my off-grid system, so I can post my annual figures.
A quick recap:
I am in Northampton, Western Australia, latitude 28S. We get lots of Sun, even in Winter.
My system is 15.1 kW of panels in four arrays, three of which face due North and one faces East. None are shaded. I have one Victron 250/85 MPPT per array. I have 3 x 5KVA Victron Phoenix inverters connected in single-phase parallel. I have 10 x Pylontech US3000C batteries and will be adding 4 US5000B batteries by the end of the month. I have a Victron EV charging station which is connected single-phase and can output 7.36kW. My constant (base) load when home is 660W. I have a resistive element (3.6 kW) hot water service and three air conditioning units, with another being installed at the end of the month. I have an evaporative air cooler but we will be decommissioning it when the new air con. gets installed. I do not have a backup power source of any kind.
For the Year:
I was away from home for seven weeks, during which time my load was just 300W
I produced 10974 kWh of energy
I consumed 9874 kWh of energy with the difference being the round-trip losses of the MPPTs, Inverters and batteries.
Of my consumption, 6551 kWh was directly from solar and 3323 kWh was from the batteries when the Sun was down.
The EV charger consumed 2240 kWh of energy. The EV has cost us just over 150 of your quid to do 22,000km (13,664 miles) for one year.
The state of health of my batteries has dropped from 100% to 99% (ticked over just two days ago) in one year.
The deepest depth of discharge of the batteries for the year was 50% (on four occasions.)
My average state of charge of the batteries was 90%
There was zero system downtime and no loss of power at any time.
There were just three days for the whole year, where the battery state of charge was not 100% by the end of the day (95% each time.)
I now run an air conditioner 24/7 to keep my power equipment at an optimal 25C, for longevity.
So, an outstanding year which gave us the confidence to remove our only remaining gas appliance (a 4-burner cook-top) and replace it with an induction cook-top. We no longer "burn stuff".
Cheers
Russ
Russ envious of several things here. The winter sun allowing you to go off grid and the totally victron system. It really is great even if a bit complex at times .
How you manage without tracking data on a spreadsheet remains a mystery to me🤭😉
Im off-grid in Saskatchewan. And like you I no longer burn stuff. But the secret up here? Is to have 3-4x the generation capacity so you can produce enough to fill the batteries in the worst possible conditions. I have a small house and our electrical loads are not that bad. But in order to make sure that the 30kwh of batteries does not enter a death spiral in the winter solstice and need the generator to charge them? I put 32kw of solar on ground mounts in place. Even on the crappiest of days I have enough to run the house and charge the batteries. And every time that the batteries are full? Im filling up my thermal energy storage with the excess. Its not hard to justify a crap ton of solar, when you can use it to replace a $500/month heating oil bill.
🌞Very clear explanation & data Presentation! After 30 years in PV biz, biggest challenge is education... understanding current Energy usage, how to manage loads to match/ use solar production with energy storage, & how savings are equal to Positive cash flow from day 1🌻 Solar is Ultimate 🗽
Improving storage is key by now though, especially for those who had their system designed for exporting as export tariffs creep below night tariffs on plenty places.
Im off grid in Saskatchewan. ENE of Regina about 220km. I had 3 different quotes from "Experts". None of them would have kept me going during the winter solstice on cloudy days. And I know that because I had solar on my old house for about 5 years before. I ended up working with a reputable retailer and buying 3 pallets of solar, 30kwh batteries the inverter and charge controllers etc. They designed the system, and even provided me with full schematics. I built the ground mounts, buried the conduits to code etc. Then hired an electrician with some experience with solar, and more importantly a van full of wire. For what they wanted to charge me for a 12kw system out here in the boonies? I built 3x as much. I can go a week of crappy weather during the winter solstice, because no matter what I still have usable power coming in and Im able to top up the batteries. The only time the generator has run other than periodic testing? I was too sick to get out of bed and clean the panels off after a snow storm. You think I am crazy right? Wrong. Retired power engineer. Every time that the batteries are full during the year? I have an 8000W heat dump that kicks in that is heating 5m of sand in a tank I buried in the back yard. Its on a smart load that shuts down if the battery depletes to 96% SOC. That insulated sand battery is replacing a $500/month heating oil bill all winter long. As well as an endless supply of hot water. The tank is at 580C right now. And the hydronic heat has been on for about 3 weeks now. Last year in February before the days got longer and I was able to start putting energy back into the tank? It was still just under 200C.
And yes I turn half of the solar system off for 4 months a year. It gets covered up with silage tarp to protect it. Next year the other half will be covered.
Hiya, thanks for posting your data/experience. We’ve just completed our 1st year of solar (6.3kw bifacial tree shading, 10kwh battery) seemingly in one of the worst periods hearing other solar reports. However, delighted with Heatable kit/system/service, in Feb also removed gas & installed Octopus ASHP (£2.5k) which has been brilliant. Paired with solar pv, our annual bill is just under £500, feed in around £300 so £200 annual bill so far. PS we also charge our EV! Only negative is sun worship of solar app (guilty pleasure) & house is 24/7 comfortable 20/21 degrees & quickly used to it & won’t change it. Never need to be cool/cold again - except others houses! & it’s so cheap/efficient so why not. Same reason all roadtrips like 5k around Norway/Europe done in Tesla, plus so easy & relaxing, love all of it!
Brilliant journey and results , great time hear from people like yourself proving how successful going electric can be
I know the feeling Nigel. I thought Sep would be good, but in the end it was 3rd best out of the last 4 years. 14% less than last year, but 5% better than in 2022. I too am turning on the heat. But I am using my split system with solar, so it costs me oh so little!! Greetings from the suburbs of Cologne!
Will be net zero for the year. All electric house with an ASHP. Since 1st March have been paying £1 per month direct debit and are currently £574 in credit. Biggest bill last winter (January) was £99 so will have more than enough credit to cover this winter's bills.
Very similar , let's hope the good news spreads and more follow suit
Luckily you have a fossil fuel backed grid connection for all those cloudy winter days!
What supplier/tariff are you using with no standing charges?
@@andyxox4168 fossil fuels are on the way out , coals gone , gas next
@@G6EJD Standing charges covered by the credit received due to exporting the surplus solar since last March
Days are getting longer here in Adelaide, South Australia. September is the first month of Spring.
Generated 457kwh from the north facing 6.3kw house system and generated 732kwh from the 6.5kw east/west shed system.
Total generation is 1.1 mwh from both systems.
Do you guys suffer from SAD at down down there or are winters generally brighter than here in the UK ? Winter can be miserable here, with Spring a welcome joyous season
Added a nissan leaf to the fleet and will be using via the solar inverter as a battery bank.
Can you tell us more about this? Made video or something. Very interesting
Ok compare time. Generation 945kwh (data directly from 3 solis inverters) import 733.7kwh export 966.03kwh. 3 arrays, largest 8 kw solis inverter 8x 300w + 11x 400w panels 6.8kw total East facing. 5kw solis inverter 14x 330w panels 4.62kw West facing. 3kw solis inverter 5x 415w + 5x425w 4.2kw North South split. Dual GivEnergy AC3’s with a 8.2 and 9.5kw battery pack. Daikin ASHP. 2 EV's my son has a Corsa E and I have a Volvo XC40 recharge twin. Last month my son used 61.1kwh I used 279.2kwh. I do have a small amount of day time grid use, due to my battery system reaction time and sometimes pulling more than my 6kw battery inverter can handle so my average price per kwh is 7.66p so last month my Octopus bill (not including standing charge) £56.30 grid use, £144.90 export credit. £88.60 credit for the month.
Still in full export mode, not turned the heating on yet the house is hovering 20 - 22c I have mine set to come on at 19.5c.
Upgrades, thought I was done but following a chat with GivEnergy and my installer i should be adding another AC3 and 9.5kw battery. Looks like i can add one to my garage some 16m cable run away from my current GivEnergy kit! Also my Ripple investment is due to start generating too.
How much are you exporting from the batteries on average ?
Around 7kwh a day in september. Up to 60% daily
Don’t forget the ratings on the panels are based on standard test conditions , so if they produce more the conditions are better than the test conditions , biggest factor is normally the temp of the panels
Yep this is why I mention it , normally think they only see less than spec , sometimes it's a nice surprise
Well, in his case they produce less than the peak simply because they're not optimally oriented for peak full-day energy generation. Some are for more/peak generation during sunrise or sunset.
Only had solar since July and already want to expand the system 😅 Maybe it's because I got in the second half of the year so keep seeing it drop down each month 🤔
September figures on my N/E/S 8 kWp array was only 502kWh, big drop from the 852 in Aug. I'm guessing this is due to the 5 North panels not being able to contribute as much but even so, still glad to have them up there.
Think you've understood the generation well, id definitely think the north will reduce faster for next few months . Have to not get too down on reducing numbers just focus on the bigger picture over the year the impact is huge
It’s good that you data shows the massive variability in solar output, particularly how poor the output is on winter and it should be a warning to everyone that solar is not a viable solution without a grid connection and that solar on the grid is equally as bad.
I wouldn't say bad it's just less output in winter . Grid has more wind in winter so it's a nice balance between solar and wind
@@EVPuzzle , no the grid struggles in winter as there are many still windless days when load remains high and thus will be exacerbated by the poor efficiency of heatpumps in colder weather. So we can be thankful for gas turbines, nuclear and interconnectors to Europe.
You have an impressive installation in your house for energie generation along with an abundance of sensors collecting lots of data.
Do you also have power numbers in kW of the various setups on panels, converter and the average produced power of each setup?
You showed the pike wattage, but that is only generated during a small portion of the day.
What I am interested in is what a certain Wp of a setup on East, South or West would result in over a period of 24 hours on a bright sunny day and on clowded rainy days.
I looked on the internet at several setups, but am still missing the relation between Wp and generated kWh per day, so not the pike wattage.
Long term average of south facing , 1kwp generates 1mwh over a year is a decent average guestimate
Shade and less perfect orientation may be less
There are some good online tools for calculating kWhs gained from various setups , some use your exact house from Google maps and can go figure specific panels etc .
Up in the NE of Scotland I managed 979kwh from my 12.3kwp solar array and 10kw inverter
That's decent and very comparable to mine at 893kwh from 11.6kwp
Switched to winter mode (charge my 30 kwh to 100% overnight and run the heat pump 24/7... Took 3 days to get the house cosy, at this time of the year I turn all my solar into heat and enjoy it... I export nothing... Run everything extra on 7p/kWh.. cheap enough for me.
Crikey 3 days !!! Is it a stately home ? Our A2A heats ours cosy in about 30 minutes or less
Not a large place, a small a2a heat pump. Running at less than 1kw input with a single indoor unit downstairs.
If it starts to labour >1200w input, it calls my gas heating for support.
Nigel - what tariff are you on now? Did you swap tariffs this year for summer & winter? You mentioned IOG, I thought the export payment for that was Octopus Fixed Lite?
No OIG abdb15p are compatible
I'm still on OIG but considering Agile and Agile export when my 15p export tariff ends in Dec
I need battery storage for my council flat solar would be nice too
But being an unemployed almost pensioner I not sure I can get either
Battery might be easier to gain as not impacting infrastructure of the house . Garden solar on sheds etc work well as do portable batteries for local use
Hi, wanted to ask a question about adding more solar panels, is this something that you have to notify the DNO about, or anybody ?.. or can you just go ahead and add them to the existing system and thats it ?, I have 6.25KW panels on the SW roof, and would like to put some additional panels on the NE roof, our limit with the DNO is 6.4KW, but could easily add another 6.25KW of panels and we have an 8KW Victron. Thinking to upgrade batteries from 18 to 36KW too
Some will say yes you need to ask them others say if you're not changing the inverter , adding more mppt you don't have to? I can't tell you your DNOs rules and requirements I'm afraid
hmmm my my 921 kWh of production doesn’t seem too bad. I’m in Gloucestershire with a mainly east-west configuration. I self-consumed 35% of production and my consumption of 1.2 MWh was split 27% self-consumption and 73% from the grid for my all-electric house above 6C when gas kicks in. It’s 3-phase with no batteries.
3 phase is great - you can export circa 3kw per phase (I cannot remember if it is 3.2 to 3.9 per phase).
@@mwnciboo ummm not sure.. but what I can tell you is my highest export rate this summer was 12.8kWh, with no apparent clipping on the graph.
good to see the up front investment is paying off, I expect you have invested quite a lot of money up front to get to this position. I was working out the other day whether to just invest £17k in a bond etc and use the returns to subsidise my bills and still have the capital to pass on or use, but it’s not very eco I suppose, I need to make a decision soon.
There's no fun , data, sense of goodness in a bond . Huge benefits beyond the financial ones
Got the Fogstar battery was great way to get good value battery. 15.5kwh only £2500
How are you able to control export and keep to the max of 16amps over multiple arrays?
Could you elaborate a bit or re word, not sure what you're asking max 16a solar ?
@@EVPuzzle sure, if you are exporting isn’t that limited to 16amp or 3.68 kw with the G98 requirements?
@@frasandsband I'm not on G98, I have G99 approval so can export everything spare from all arrays
@@EVPuzzle ah okay that makes sense thanks
My 7kW array in Cambridgeshire has generated 474kWh in the month of September.
As an aside I run my hot water at 65 degrees. Most use (e.g. showers) is blended, so the hotter it is the longer it'll last in effect. It's a well insulated system and excess solar via Eddi keeps it at temperature. Likely bacteria at lower temperatures are also a consideration.
Higher temp and a mixing valve is a good idea but 50c is scalding already so works for us
I was thinking about getting a portable largest type battery with portable or foldable solar panels ,not sure what size I would need or what is the biggest foldable panel , just wanted to see if I could reduce the bill even a little, don’t have the money for a big installation but I would like to do something, so many options out there but I don’t know what’s good bad or indifferent, any suggestions please , thanks , take care .
Buy one of mine , I'll let them go half price to anyone here
Eg Bluetti AC 240 latest battery
Brand wise and model wise there's lots of options like 💦 water proofing , handle design, weight, input output socket types xt60/xt90 , AC charging type , internal charger , external charger then there's all the specs.
More battery capacity usually =more power output and faster charging
Solar inputs , one, two ,more power in usually with bigger battery
Solar panel wise , I'd suggest watching the video I did on portable panels, sometimes multiple smaller panels can be better than single larger ones. I have multiple 200w , 1 x 350w and a 2 x 400w panels
@@EVPuzzle I didn’t know you had some for sale , which episode do I need to watch so I could see the portable battery you’re talking about, are you also selling the folding panels, hate to ask how much = so I have to be brave so how much , I live in Devon and gave up driving four years back so the delivery would probably cost a lot , but I would like to watch the episode or episodes with the battery in mind and the panels also , thanks , take care .
@@EVPuzzle I watched your videos regarding the Bluetooth battery and the video on the portable folding solar panels , you certainly are a detailed intelligent soul , very impressive with your communication skills ,
Hi there, I would suggest having a look for a couple of standard rooftop panels from ITS Technologies. They’re so cheap and will produce so much more than a folding panel. You can get really cheap ground mounting frames on Temu.
@@Crazydiamond_1974 I don’t want panel on the roof , I have a large garden so plenty of room there , just wanted to buy a portable battery with a few portable panels to see if it would be a good buy and help out with the ever increasing electric bills , one thing is for certain electric bills will never go down , so in the long run putting some money into the solar in a small way would help in the long run , obviously have to live a little longer = it might happen.
Have you looked at importing at 7 p kilowatt at night and exporting it at 15 p a kilowatt and making use of your batteries . My 9.6 kW system I imported 965 kW and exported 648 kW which still gave me a profit. I use my electric car a lot this month I use my 21 kW batteries to their potential
You must've missed that , yes I've been exploring export from the batteries exporting up to 20kwhs a night
Why import at night when you have so much storage that you can fill during the day?
Because you get 15p for export and pay only 7p at cheap night rate for import. Plus this also helps to balance the grid
What Peter said below 👇
Where are you in the country?
Norfolk
Hi very interesting videos.
Just wondering what you use to monitor specific circuit consumption. Do you have multiple smart circuit breakers or current clamps? I'd love to see the usage across different circuits but I'm concerned that if I buy some tuya devices like our temp sensors the data won't be exportable.
Oh and yes we yielded 926kw for September, but we also consumed 966kw.
(8.7kw array, solax inv and 11.6kw batts and Ev charger , driving 1400m a month, agile incoming, fixed out going).
I'm a nerd 🤓
Shelly power monitors with CT and kasa smart plugs kp115
From one nerd to another
I'll give them a search, thankyou
hell yeah brother. lets print tax free cash via the sun
Money not spent on energy is money in my pocket