Flaming June

[nowty]

I added two of my winter panels via a Tigo and pointed them West for that little bit extra late on. Normally in winter they face south east but at this time of year they would overload the Tigo in an easterly direction.
Increased todays yield from yesterdays 60 kWh to todays 64 kWh.

Was that extra used or exported?

Everything was full so I had a 2kW fan heater running in the conservatory (with external door open) and the water distiller running as a dump load and I was still hitting the export limiter.

So I need not have bothered but the main reason was the experimentation. I have SSW, SSE, SW, NE (almost flat) and ESE on fixed structures, but W has been lacking until today. The temporary panels normally get packed away for summer so why not.

There will be the odd day in summer when I need that little bit of extra clean free power.

[Stinsy]

27.6kWh yesterday.

Car was charging at 6A for most of the day, got 3 loads through the washer, ran the dishwasher twice, and managed to only export 0.6kWh at the expense of using some peak-priced electric when demand outstripped what my inverter could supply.

However today is another day and looks to be a sunny one, washing is done, both cars are charged, I have no idea where to start putting the electric to use.

I seriously struggle to understand what you guys do with all that power! Sure I don’t have a DHW tank to dump it into and I know your arrays are sized for March and October rather than midsummer, but seriously, what do you do with it all?

[Joeboy]

27.6kWh yesterday.

Car was charging at 6A for most of the day, got 3 loads through the washer, ran the dishwasher twice, and managed to only export 0.6kWh at the expense of using some peak-priced electric when demand outstripped what my inverter could supply.

However today is another day and looks to be a sunny one, washing is done, both cars are charged, I have no idea where to start putting the electric to use.

I seriously struggle to understand what you guys do with all that power! Sure I don’t have a DHW tank to dump it into and I know your arrays are sized for March and October rather than midsummer, but seriously, what do you do with it all?

Big water tank, big EV battery pack, decent size home battery and living North I can easily handle a Storage heater or five on crazy days. Saves wood store depletion which i am happy about. That takes care of most of it. We can store a max of 208kWh. TBH, after writing that the rest of the use in daily life seems inconsequential.

It's a big house not in a city and we use the EV a lot. That alone swings it in favour of using most available PV power.

I also found that having the larger home battery gave me the confidence to chuck greater volumes of power about knowing that even if I get it wrong a handful of percentage points soc will get us through to the next day. Then the bigger arrays can catch something meaningful even in marginal conditions.

For example we have started today with 18% soc as we charged the loan EV yesterday and HWT at 03.00hrs.

Grey skies at the moment yet 1.4kWh coming in. No worries .

I can't emphasise enough how I think it important to fight the fight from both ends and run as low cost energy house as possible . It truly has been the missing spoke in the wheel that generates grid avoidance (truly mangled that last, cant even claim it as a genuine metaphor).

[Fintray]

27.6kWh yesterday.

Car was charging at 6A for most of the day, got 3 loads through the washer, ran the dishwasher twice, and managed to only export 0.6kWh at the expense of using some peak-priced electric when demand outstripped what my inverter could supply.

However today is another day and looks to be a sunny one, washing is done, both cars are charged, I have no idea where to start putting the electric to use.

I seriously struggle to understand what you guys do with all that power! Sure I don’t have a DHW tank to dump it into and I know your arrays are sized for March and October rather than midsummer, but seriously, what do you do with it all?

Sell it to Octopus and fill up the VB for later in the year.

[openspaceman]

Yes selling is my plan after sufficient DHW but Octopus are taking a bit of time to set it up for my daughter and I.

[Fintray]

I added two of my winter panels via a Tigo and pointed them West for that little bit extra late on. Normally in winter they face south east but at this time of year they would overload the Tigo in an easterly direction.
Increased todays yield from yesterdays 60 kWh to todays 64 kWh.

Was that extra used or exported?

Everything was full so I had a 2kW fan heater running in the conservatory (with external door open) and the water distiller running as a dump load and I was still hitting the export limiter.

So I need not have bothered but the main reason was the experimentation. I have SSW, SSE, SW, NE (almost flat) and ESE on fixed structures, but W has been lacking until today. The temporary panels normally get packed away for summer so why not.

There will be the odd day in summer when I need that little bit of extra clean free power.

Still, it's a nice place to be with having the excess, pity it wasn't possible in winter!

[marshman]

I seriously struggle to understand what you guys do with all that power! Sure I don’t have a DHW tank to dump it into and I know your arrays are sized for March and October rather than midsummer, but seriously, what do you do with it all?

As long as the import is zero I don't care what gets "given away" for someone else to use. I don't obsess with using every watt I generate, I'd rather it gets fed into the grid to add to the countries "renewable" generation, i.e. reduce demand on FF (gas) generation.

[openspaceman]

I'd rather it gets fed into the grid to add to the countries "renewable" generation, i.e. reduce demand on FF (gas) generation.

Did you see on energy numbers when they finally put the solar figures up is was 9GW for a while? More than any other single type of generation in their chart.

I wonder if they estimate our domestic imports in their equation.

[marshman]

I'd rather it gets fed into the grid to add to the countries "renewable" generation, i.e. reduce demand on FF (gas) generation.

Did you see on energy numbers when they finally ut the solar figures up is was 9GW for a while? More than any other single type of generation in their chart.

I wonder if they estimate our domestic imports in their equation.

According to Gridwatch - which also has been showing over 9GW around midday - their numbers come from Sheffield University

https://www.solar.sheffield.ac.uk/pvlive/


I think I fed Sheffield Uni PV Live data from my original FiTs system at one point. The figure is calculated/guestimated from installed capacity, historical data, weather etc. Gridwatch says that they think the numbers are overestimated due to lack of drop in demand, but given that "they" don't know about my, and I am sure many 100's of other domestic installations (no more FiT registrations and a growing number of DIY installs) , and our own self consumption I suspect the figure could be understated. Our house still consumes as much as before, but it is not seen as grid demand as I am supplying myself, that is impossible for them to measure unless they ask me for my data - or speak to Nowty (or look at his thread) to get the Camelot generation figures.

[nowty]

I believe the Sheffield numbers are generally understated as they have no info on non MCS (i.e. DIY setups), and also the official MCS info is delayed so they are always behind the curve, and also they degrade the installed capacity over time at the industry rate which is probably much higher than reality in the UK.

Anecdotal evidence on this site by members infers there is practically next to no degradation over a 10 year period.