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So as promised, got some PV back up this weekend

I used to have a 4kW FiT system on the original whopper 45p rate thats about £5 per unit now or something ridiculous, absolutely broke me to have to sell that house and give that tariff up 3 years ago.

Since then I've been itching to get back into it. As per other posts on forum I kept my Pylontechs through the house moves and recently "upgraded" them to the DIY stack so I've plenty of storage; and now I have some PV to charge it up for free again

Without further ado:



Yes ok some of it is a bit scruffy In particular the 3 panels just thrown down on the ground still need a frame building; ran out of timber.

In this picture, S is off to the bottom left corner.

So we have:

12 * 230Wp on the cabin roof, arranged in two 6S strings; these are paralleled down the side of the cabin then run up a single pair of 4mm into a 250/60 Victron. These are basically flat. There's maybe a 3 or 4 degree inclination to the NW (cabin roof highest at front). They're mounted on timbers running front-back which are bonded to the roof with Sikaflex, then plain old zinc brackets screwed through the frames and into the timbers. So no holes into the roof. Cheap and cheerful (as is most of this project). There's about a 40mm gap front and back the entire way along for airflow; I'll probably mesh this over to stop birds getting under soon.

6 * 265Wp along the fence, arranged into two 3S strings; again paralleled behind and run up a single pair of 4mm into a 150/60 Victron. These are at about a 70 degree angle facing more or less SW; I'm hoping these are going to get most of the winter afternoon sun. Yes the 150/60 is overspecced but I'm hoping to get another 3 panels either side of those to make it 4*3S eventually. Just ran out of timber and time

6 * 265Wp on the tarp; again two 3S paralleled, into a single 4mm into a 150/35 Victron. Facing SW at about 10 degrees inclination.

So a total of 5.9kWp at varying angles and orientations Since its all DC-connected, they stop producing when the batteries are full and there's nowhere for the power to go, so through summer its unlikely I'll unleash the full potential of these; yesterday being the first full day they were all up gave me 21kWh and they were already derating as the DIY batteries were full by 5pm. Stuck the car on charge quick to keep the panels producing!

Saw a peak of about 4.5kW at 4pm as the sun hit the final bottom-right corner of the panels on the fence.

Inside:



Some wire tidying and clipping to do but it's not bad for now.

Fun times! Love this stuff

Love the enthusiasm! Congratulations!

Nice setup! Looks like it'll do well on the bright-overcast days!

None at all going on the roof of the house?

Nice.

Just watch for any flying stones or bits of grit from the lawn mower when cutting the lawn by those panels!

Charging car, hwt and a couple of storage heaters or air con unit will help you along in power use.

Stinsy wrote: ↑Mon Apr 17, 2023 12:26 pm Nice setup! Looks like it'll do well on the bright-overcast days!

None at all going on the roof of the house?

Not at the moment - I figured this was much lower hanging fruit, to get on the roof of the house would need scaffolding and probably a proper rail mounting system which all adds cost. So this was cheaper and faster for now - and its certainly producing enough:




Gonna need a bigger boat... err.. DC meter. 83A is bananas. I'm now charging my batteries faster from solar than my inverter can manage.

I actually might need to replace that cable, thats the original Pylontech cable that goes off to battery busbars. Its supposed to do 100A (the max the Pylontechs can do) but its getting pretty warm at 83A! Might be time for some 50mm...

Caesium wrote: ↑Mon Apr 17, 2023 2:01 pm

Stinsy wrote: ↑Mon Apr 17, 2023 12:26 pm Nice setup! Looks like it'll do well on the bright-overcast days!

None at all going on the roof of the house?

Not at the moment - I figured this was much lower hanging fruit, to get on the roof of the house would need scaffolding and probably a proper rail mounting system which all adds cost. So this was cheaper and faster for now - and its certainly producing enough:




Gonna need a bigger boat... err.. DC meter. 83A is bananas. I'm now charging my batteries faster from solar than my inverter can manage.

That's a great place to be! I end up using the hwt or ev as a throttle. Even then it sometimes gets away from me.

Doesn't seem too bad at the moment.



Car's fully charged, two loads of washing gone through, batteries at 94% and its only 2pm.. not sure what I'll do with al this power

It probably does mean my monthly production numbers will be pretty useless though unless I can find a way to start exporting (which probably means buying more Victron kit) as it will peak with my usage day-to-day.

I did realise that I'd have more than I needed through summer, but I figured for winter I could fit 10kWp worth and still be short, so the more the better.

If you build it they will come…………..

They being the ‘loads’,

EV, hot water boosting, storage heaters, aircon, even water distilling at nowty towers

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