Balcony solar PV

[Joeboy]

Its a little bit political

The wife wants to ensure that the roof option is investigated first, if that means we cant get panels or its simply not economically viable compared to generating upwards of 2-3KW via the fence idea, then she'll let me play, uping the pergola panel sizes and get some 500-600ish w's panels on the fence/new build.

Alas, if this is how it has to go then then so be it.

Ah, I know this story. It takes them a wee while to see the benefits of change. Once they do, let them own it and run it, win, win, win.

[Joeboy]

I did just call Bimble in relation to the bundle they have for sale with a view of whether they might sell and support the microinverters on their own.

I expressed an interest in potentially getting more of these possibly for family members etc and that I'm sure once people found out about them that more people might wish to get hold of them and whether they might begin to import them and offer support (docs etc) going forwards, also whether the Hoymiles unit might be sold separately.

They chatted to one of their engineers who suggested that its a bit of an experiment at this time, there is currently no plans to offer the Microinverter on its own right now, although mine was the 2nd call they had today regarding this. They were going to keep an eye on the calls/interest and it might be something they consider in future should the demand be there.

Obviously more demand hopefully means reduced costs and more local support, fingers crossed as this could be something more folks could benefit from that were perhaps reluctant to go down the importing route, especially with the delays that I saw.

So, for me its not so much how much PV I generate to charge my batteries it how little power I get from the grid.

I think I'm heading over to Europe late May/early June 24 in the van. If there's a demand for it I'd pick up a few Hoymiles units while in Germany.

[Tay]

I think I'm heading over to Europe late May/early June 24 in the van. If there's a demand for it I'd pick up a few Hoymiles units while in Germany.

I'll bear that in mind

I've very happy with this unit, its just miles (excuse the pun) ahead of the Chinese copies. So much so that my data gathering plug in the wall also has a timer built in, so I'm able to on around 9am and powered off around 6pm.

Since today was pretty different conditions to yesterday I wanted to see how it faired with a bit of sun so I have one panel on the Bluetti and 1 on the microinverter..

Nice to see my single panel doing over 0.6 kW with the limited hours of daylight it had today.
At one point I check it from the pub and saw it at 195w. I'm pretty happy with that.





Given the average energy usage in my house with zero occupancy fluctuates around between 175-400w, the higher value being when Fridge or freezer compressors kick in or when they both do, the grid utilisation looked pretty good.

I've not got full access to the Hoymiles webby for stats yet, everything is based on my kit and how much grid " i'm not using".

I might have fed the grid several times too. I'll leave this split setup for a bit until I get full access to the Hoymiles site for proper stats.

So far, I'm very very haoppy with this kit.

[richbee]

Mostly attracted by the bright lights but also the pass through and extended info I've bought one of these to monitor generation on the Enphase system.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B095LY ... prod_image



Cost to date
£100 3 x 215W output Enphase microinverter
£100 3 x 170W Sharp poly panels
£24 1 x energy meter
£0 rails & fixings (homemade)

Total cost £224.

Looks like you can get a similar smart version with app for not much more too
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0C996HTS5/ ... RhaWw&th=1

[Joeboy]

Mostly attracted by the bright lights but also the pass through and extended info I've bought one of these to monitor generation on the Enphase system.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B095LY ... prod_image



Cost to date
£100 3 x 215W output Enphase microinverter
£100 3 x 170W Sharp poly panels
£24 1 x energy meter
£0 rails & fixings (homemade)

Total cost £224.

Looks like you can get a similar smart version with app for not much more too
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0C996HTS5/ ... RhaWw&th=1

Good to know. I went happily dumb to control my checking.
I left just before we crossed over to 2kWh generated on Enphase. A lot of trees to come down to fully free this wee system.



No1's Hoymiles is now over 60kWh generation in a shoulder month.

[richbee]

Good to know. I went happily dumb to control my checking.

Haha, so I'm not the only one who checks the PV output an unhealthy number of times per day

[Joeboy]

Good to know. I went happily dumb to control my checking.

Haha, so I'm not the only one who checks the PV output an unhealthy number of times per day

Completely out of control! By setting the Enphase as dumb I have a little walk to Christmas surprise every day. Hoping 2kWh generation has doubled for our return.

[AGT]

A bit of tidying up on my summer house electrics,

Cheap Chinese inverter in enclosure below.

[Tay]

Good to know. I went happily dumb to control my checking.

Haha, so I'm not the only one who checks the PV output an unhealthy number of times per day

After todays truly rubbish weather the novelty is waning for me already. Although to be fair to the system, I only managed to get the installer part of the hoymiles kit working properly. And I'm not 100% how I did it.
But, my meager two panels connected to the Hoymiles HMS-800 unit are officially generating power into the Hoymiles cloud platform. Shame it didnt pick up this weeks energy but a tad optomistic to expect it to backdate the data.





I even get to add a ridiculously outdated Google Sat image to my account. This image was taken when my son was around 10-11 with his new trampolene in the back garden. He was 25 this year !!!

[Tay]

Good to know. I went happily dumb to control my checking.

Haha, so I'm not the only one who checks the PV output an unhealthy number of times per day

Completely out of control! By setting the Enphase as dumb I have a little walk to Christmas surprise every day. Hoping 2kWh generation has doubled for our return.

Luckily I can still see my Hoymiles output at the socket since the cloud didnt back date. !!!

Ah, 2.4KW I can rest easy after the atrocious figures we'll see today.