Renewable energy and sustainability discussions
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I have a decent skite of cash coming back to us in March. Looks like I'm not going to get an increase to further invest in Ripple so could maybe fire up another bank of storage. Especially if the price is right.Lincs Robert wrote: ↑Thu Dec 07, 2023 6:40 pmHa ha, have been collecting Pylons since 2019 - but the BIG upgrades were inspired from here going back a year or so
No real details as such. I used Derily in China. Colin Deng for the first two orders and Fiona Wu for this one. The actual purchase was done via Alibaba who give ESCROW arrangements and also payment via credit card/Paypal. Construction was basically copied from the trailblazers on hereJoeboy wrote: ↑Thu Dec 07, 2023 6:55 pmI have a decent skite of cash coming back to us in March. Looks like I'm not going to get an increase to further invest in Ripple so could maybe fire up another bank of storage. Especially if the price is right.Lincs Robert wrote: ↑Thu Dec 07, 2023 6:40 pmHa ha, have been collecting Pylons since 2019 - but the BIG upgrades were inspired from here going back a year or so
Rob, any pm details on.purchase route much appreciated.
Sometimes the shipping is fast and sometimes notLincs Robert wrote: ↑Wed Dec 06, 2023 2:31 pm Ok, so today’s the day that I’ve been advised by China that my recent order for 15 x 230Ah cells will arrive in the UK. My previous two orders “by land train” took 60 days, so I was surprised when the ETA on this shipment was about 30 days.
Bring it on
Any plans for more solar PV to help fill those batts in the sunnier months ?
Might have
. Actually yes, but it’s bitter/sweet really as I have lots of lovely south facing roof space available that I’m not allowed to use due us living in a listed property in a conservation area. I’ve had some proactive discussions with the local council about what I’d be allowed/not allowed to do & what enforcement they might make if I were to “proceed anyway”. So, what I’ll be doing is to expand & upgrade on my north facing roof. This is essentially hidden from view & they aren’t really bothered what I do if I’m discreet. Last year as an experiment I put up 10 x 250 watt second hand panels just to see how things would work and was gobsmacked with the results as I got 50% of the production from a reference south facing panel. So next year I’ll hopefully be taking down these “test” panels and putting up 20 new 405 watt panels. The real eye opener was how well they performed in comparison to the south facing ones on overcast/cloudy days with lots of diverse light - very well indeed and this is exactly when you need the extra production. When the sunshines I have too much already & go into export limitation on the Solar Edge gear when the batteries are full & there’s minimal house load.It is perfectly normal for a north-facing panel to put outt c.50% of the output you'd expect if it was south-facing. With panels being so ridiculously cheap nowadays that is economically viable. The only challenge is that installers seem to be charging ridiculous prices.Lincs Robert wrote: ↑Sun Dec 10, 2023 8:36 amMight have. Actually yes, but it’s bitter/sweet really as I have lots of lovely south facing roof space available that I’m not allowed to use due us living in a listed property in a conservation area. I’ve had some proactive discussions with the local council about what I’d be allowed/not allowed to do & what enforcement they might make if I were to “proceed anyway”. So, what I’ll be doing is to expand & upgrade on my north facing roof. This is essentially hidden from view & they aren’t really bothered what I do if I’m discreet. Last year as an experiment I put up 10 x 250 watt second hand panels just to see how things would work and was gobsmacked with the results as I got 50% of the production from a reference south facing panel. So next year I’ll hopefully be taking down these “test” panels and putting up 20 new 405 watt panels. The real eye opener was how well they performed in comparison to the south facing ones on overcast/cloudy days with lots of diverse light - very well indeed and this is exactly when you need the extra production. When the sunshines I have too much already & go into export limitation on the Solar Edge gear when the batteries are full & there’s minimal house load.
I also have plans for getting an EV again at some point. We had one 3 years ago, an MG ZS EV, that was fine, but after a year changed it for a Zoe which was a total disaster and after 3 vehicles, walked away. My how time flies.
Cheers for now ……
Absolutely, got it bang on there. I’ve also now plucked up enough courage to do my own panel installs. I’m lucky in that all my roof space is ground floor, with pan-tiles and at an angle that is safe to walk onStinsy wrote: ↑Sun Dec 10, 2023 12:26 pmIt is perfectly normal for a north-facing panel to put outt c.50% of the output you'd expect if it was south-facing. With panels being so ridiculously cheap nowadays that is economically viable. The only challenge is that installers seem to be charging ridiculous prices.Lincs Robert wrote: ↑Sun Dec 10, 2023 8:36 amMight have
I also have plans for getting an EV again at some point. We had one 3 years ago, an MG ZS EV, that was fine, but after a year changed it for a Zoe which was a total disaster and after 3 vehicles, walked away. My how time flies.
Cheers for now ……
North-facing arrays are even better in reality than their "50%" suggests because they generate a significant proportion of their power in diffuse conditions (bright-overcast basically) which is when you can really use the power.
For example: imagine you have a south-facing 4kWp array. It'd be generating it's rated 4kW on a sunny day, whereas on a bright-overcast day it might be generating only 1kW. However if you have a corresponding north-facing array you'd get another 1kW...
. I’m also able to get the mounting hardware at trade price by collecting from the UK distributor and paying him cash - so a win-win. You are right about panel prices as well. You can get a 400W panel with VAT for less than £100 so it’s a no-brainer really. My trial of 10 x 250W old panels was successful, so I’ll be replacing them with 20 x 405 new panels at some point in the spring.
Just a comment on one point: Luxpower ACS 3600 (the parallel version) can be connected to the same battery stack. I currently have two connected to three Pylontech US5000's.Lincs Robert wrote: ↑Thu Dec 07, 2023 4:14 pmAt the moment I have two Lux ACS 3600 units with 5 Pylon US2000 on each and also a Chinese stack each. It’s been in a year and works well. The only minor issue is that I now have more storage than I can charge on my Octopus Go 4 hour window overnight. Two Lux units gives me a max charge rate of roughly 7kW, so that’s 28kWh that I can import overnight. Sometimes it’s actually less than that as the batteries charge rate reduces when it’s cold - it does warm during the charge cycle, but there is an occasional restriction. Each of my Chinese stacks adds another 13.4kWh gross, thus giving me a total gross capacity of 50.88kWh.
The plan is to add a third Lux unit, this will increase the charge rate to a theoretical 10.8kW, so in ideal conditions I can import 43kWh in the 4 hour window. However, the third Lux unit needs its own batteries and part of this will be met with the new Chinese stack, supplementing 4 of my existing 10 Pylons. Each of the existing Lux units will have its Pylon count reduced from 5 to 3, with the freed up 4 going to the new Lux. The capacity of the new Chinese stack is slightly less than the existing one as it will be 230Ah cells rather than the existing 280s. This means its capacity is slightly less @ 11KWh rather than the existing 13.4kWh, hence giving it the extra Pylon which neatly levels it all up. The new total gross will be just shy of 62kWh.
Hopefully that all makes sense. I know I’m on the threshold with the 3 Pylons to achieve a 3.6kW charge rate - but I’ll hopefully add some more when funds permit and I’ve seen how the system performs in practice over the coming months.
A somewhat lengthy explanation- but it is the trail of how I got to where I am now.
Cheers- Rob
