Balcony solar PV

[ALAN/ALAN D]

Is the 150W panel there to stop the Sun boiling off the propane cylinder.
If it gets Tooo cold. the gas will stop coming out.


I have got 4 from City Plumbing working.

[Moxi]

Yeah they’re from city plumbing, even SWMBO couldn’t deny the brilliance of the price lol. The 150 w is actually to the rhs of the propane cylinders - yes it’s a big “small panel” but one day I hope to see those two propane cylinders replaced by prefabricated concrete lean to building containing a big hot water cylinder and a heat pump adjacent, maybe a solar panel for its roof ?

That one panel has made a notable difference to todays solar and I need to crack on with fixing up frames and adding more panels as quickly as I can manage.

Just off out to pop it back in the shed as it’s just propped at the moment.

Moxi

[Joeboy]

Yeah they’re from city plumbing, even SWMBO couldn’t deny the brilliance of the price lol. The 150 w is actually to the rhs of the propane cylinders - yes it’s a big “small panel” but one day I hope to see those two propane cylinders replaced by prefabricated concrete lean to building containing a big hot water cylinder and a heat pump adjacent, maybe a solar panel for its roof ?

That one panel has made a notable difference to todays solar and I need to crack on with fixing up frames and adding more panels as quickly as I can manage.

Just off out to pop it back in the shed as it’s just propped at the moment.

Moxi

Sounds great Moxi, it all matters. All the best for phase 2 of power plant extension.

[Joeboy]

I am continuing to reduce the forest height and I am gobsmacked at the steadily ramping up solar gain in the house. I have been daft to not get into these years ago!


No1's place has proved to be excellent with the Hoymiles Power plant continuing to run his background load and daylight set time panel heater. So much so that he has backed off the input charge setting for the lounge SH at his place.



The tree shading affects even his better positioned PV so there'll be more of that tree reduction action next week. The hope is to see 100kWh by Christmas. His system is the Goldilocks set up out of the four system we have operating here. Further back from the treeline. a low power user and he pays the highest rate per kWh from the grid on his dual meter on/off peak system.

He pays an average of 25.98p per kWh. Assuming (deadly) that he is using it all then he has saved £21.70 since we installed it. The whole thing excluding the dreadful Chinese micro cost ahs been £550 incl a deep delve of my PV spares collection. That's a 4.7% return already and it only went live on 8th Sept. Could knock £100 off that cost with the drop in panels if someone was doing it today... I am tempted to jump right back in and panel up the cabin but instead i'm going to wait, see how the tree shade works go and likely miss the cheap panels but that's ok.



The Enphase powerhouse is making what it can but is badly shaded and the orientation is terrible. I'd like to see it make 5kWh by month end. Paradoxically it is my favourite, must be an underdog thing.

[ALAN/ALAN D]

Hello Gents.

Has any one got a link as to where to purchase a mains plug / socket for the Hoymiles inverter.

Still trying tooo work out why I just bought a HMS-1600 inverter.

Have ordered a plug. But wont get it before end of month.

[Tay]

Assuming its the same as mine, I got a Hoymiles BC05 plug with my unit and checkign with these its seems correct...


https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=hoymiles+b ... _sb_noss_2


Both Male and female seem to be BC05's - in this photo the Inverter side is on the left and mains plug is on the right, in my mind the right hand one is the Male connector and is what you need.



As to how quickly one might arrive is anybodies guess. Betteri is the manufacturer of one of the plugs that might yield something than the slow Amazon listed one.

[Joeboy]

Hello Gents.

Has any one got a link as to where to purchase a mains plug / socket for the Hoymiles inverter.

Still trying tooo work out why I just bought a HMS-1600 inverter.

Have ordered a plug. But wont get it before end of month.

Or, https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0C6PX ... asin_title

Ww had a long lead time but it arrived in 3 days I think. HMS 1600?

[richbee]

Yeah they’re from city plumbing, even SWMBO couldn’t deny the brilliance of the price lol. The 150 w is actually to the rhs of the propane cylinders - yes it’s a big “small panel” but one day I hope to see those two propane cylinders replaced by prefabricated concrete lean to building containing a big hot water cylinder and a heat pump adjacent, maybe a solar panel for its roof ?

That one panel has made a notable difference to todays solar and I need to crack on with fixing up frames and adding more panels as quickly as I can manage.

Just off out to pop it back in the shed as it’s just propped at the moment.

Moxi

Sounds great Moxi, it all matters. All the best for phase 2 of power plant extension.

I just looked up the City Plumbing prices
I've been keeping any eye on the ITS prices, which are ridiculous - £80 inc vat now for a 400W panel, but they want big bucks for delivery ~£68 for 5 panels.
City Plumbing aren't quite as cheap, £82 inc vat - but free delivery over £50!!! Wow - will be ordering the panels over the weekend methinks

[richbee]

Assuming its the same as mine, I got a Hoymiles BC05 plug with my unit and checkign with these its seems correct...


https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=hoymiles+b ... _sb_noss_2


Both Male and female seem to be BC05's - in this photo the Inverter side is on the left and mains plug is on the right, in my mind the right hand one is the Male connector and is what you need.



As to how quickly one might arrive is anybodies guess. Betteri is the manufacturer of one of the plugs that might yield something than the slow Amazon listed one.

Possibly a daft question for the Hoymiles inverter - the HM-800 will take up to 2 panels up to 500W, but states max voltage of 60V. I was assuming that the voltage would be added between the 2 panels, and all the panels seem to have at least 30V, with max of 32-33V - so it would not be a good idea to have an over-voltage - or have I misunderstood?
I was looking at individual Enphase IQ7+ for each panel, but the Hoymiles seem like better value if they would work (and the connector prices seem more reasonable, the Enphase bits are stupidly expensive).
Also, while I am on the subject, does anyone know if the Hoymiles will commence 'dumb' output on startup with no wifi connection, similar to the Enphase?

[nowty]

Possibly a daft question for the Hoymiles inverter - the HM-800 will take up to 2 panels up to 500W, but states max voltage of 60V. I was assuming that the voltage would be added between the 2 panels, and all the panels seem to have at least 30V, with max of 32-33V - so it would not be a good idea to have an over-voltage - or have I misunderstood?

There is no such thing as a daft question, 13 years ago I knew nothing about panels and inverters.

The HM-800 will have two sets of inputs, so one panel per input. If you connect two panels in series to a single input you will kill the inverter.

By connecting one panel to each input, the panels connect in parallel so it adds up the current and not the voltage. Over voltage kills inverters stone dead and its the open circuit voltage of the panels that is important which is higher than the max power voltage which I suspect your quoting. Also its good practice to add about 5% on top of the open circuit voltage to allow for very cold temperatures as panel voltage increases with colder temperatures.