October 2022 energy performance

[Oldgreybeard]

October looks like it was slightly better than September, in terms of energy use. We've not used a single unit of peak rate electricity this month or last, the peak rate meter reading has been sat firmly at 7140 since 1st September (it was 7139 all through August, though):

October 2022.jpg (70.91 KiB) Viewed 3105 times

Not that fantastic for generation though, we've had to charge the car once or twice overnight, as generation for the month has only been 104kWh. That's not too bad for October, but is made up of a few days where we generated around 15kWh or so, one where we topped 20kWh, and lots of days where were only generated around 5kWh or thereabouts.

[MrPablo]

The solar generation has just ticked over to zero volts here, final tally for the month was 149.4kWh. Lots of overcast days and shading means I've hit 89% of PVGIS.



Off-peak import has ramped up throughout the month, but the automated forecast & top-up logic is working well to minimise excess charging.
Overall, I'm happy with performance but the 4 panels I plan to fit on the south facing wall in November will be appreciated.

[richbee]

Mine has reached 231.8kWh, which is ahead of the 200kWh estimate from the graph that some helpful soul on here posted for me - not sure if that is the same as PVGIS?
September was about right, but August & October both ahead of schedule, so I'm quite pleased with that

[MrPablo]

September was 94% of PVGIS for me, but ultimately it's still making a good dent in grid import.
I have to say, batteries to soak up the short periods of high PV generation are a game changer. I'm glad I installed all this.

[Fintray]

My results for October were:

3.87 kWp, slope 50 degrees, due south, lat 57.15

Total generation: 239.0kWh

Daily average: 7.7kWh

Generation per kWp: 61.7kWh

Daily average per kWp: 1.99kWh

PVGIS: 205kWh

%PVGIS: 116.5%

Best October since install in 2010, 20.7% above the average.

[Oldgreybeard]

September was 94% of PVGIS for me, but ultimately it's still making a good dent in grid import.
I have to say, batteries to soak up the short periods of high PV generation are a game changer. I'm glad I installed all this.

Biggest single improvement that having batteries has made for us is being able to charge the car using PV far more effectively. I'm still amazed by this, as it wasn't something I thought about when installing the battery system. This summer has been the first real test of this, as I didn't think to try it last year. The battery system acts as a buffer, so on days when there's a bit of cloud about the battery makes up for the short periods of shade and then tops back up as soon as the sun comes out again, allowing the car to carry on charging at a fairly low rate through most of the day.

Hard to be sure from the numbers so far and the degree of variability from one year to the next, but I reckon we've managed to save about a half of the cost of charging the car this year, with no detrimental impact on the house energy consumption that I can see. The buffer effect seems to be one of the less well publicised savings from fitting batteries and deserves to be more widely known about. We went from around April until September without paying to charge the car at home at all, almost entirely due to the battery system.

[marshman]

kWh/kWpk 68.06

[nowty]

In other news, more for Nowty than anyone else, it's official ... we are not living in a desert. We have had over 150mm of rain in the last 2 months (most of it in September), added to the 100mm we had in the previous 10 months, takes us over the 250mm "definition" amount for a desert

He does,

https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/are ... he-uk.html

https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2021 ... -dungeness

https://www.businessinsider.com/hauntin ... ?r=US&IR=T

http://www.british-film-locations.com/s ... Camel-1967

[marshman]

__

[nowty]

In other news, more for Nowty than anyone else, it's official ... we are not living in a desert. We have had over 150mm of rain in the last 2 months (most of it in September), added to the 100mm we had in the previous 10 months, takes us over the 250mm "definition" amount for a desert

He does,

https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/are ... he-uk.html

https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2021 ... -dungeness

https://www.businessinsider.com/hauntin ... ?r=US&IR=T

http://www.british-film-locations.com/s ... Camel-1967

Oh dear !!! you really should read all of the linked articles through to the end

"Dungeness – disappointingly – is not actually a desert. To qualify as a true desert an area must receive less than 250 millimetres of precipitation a year. Dungeness gets a fair bit more than that: the sea kale, sea holly, orchids, vetch, broom, sorrel, sage, bugloss, poppies and 600 other species of plant are proof of that. In 2015 the Met Office, officially refuted the myth of the shingle’s desert status."

At the end of The Guardian article - its in the Guardian so it must be true


The world atlas article is also out of date as Dungeness B has now closed

Don't let the truth get in the way of a good story.

As a child in the North West, I used to think Southport sand dunes were a desert.