Balcony solar PV

[Joeboy]

Oct being the starting edge of them up here. Do you guys at the Southern end do well in Oct to a useable level?

This is the latest Solar PV baseline here at Nowty Towers on the South Coast which includes the upgrades this year. The shading on the rear panels really starts to bite in Oct and generation falls off the cliff from Nov to Feb.

Cheers Nowty, that's a cracking good South coast reference .

Used the centre section cut out of the desk for the two bedside cabinets for a Hoymiles mounting board. Routered edges and everything! Great to see the wee meter fire up. Although not a magnificent kW reading.



This meter doubles up as my fast access reference for momentary solar performance of the whole system. Well it will once I've calibrated my brain to it. Handy home voltage reading too. I like these meters.



Looks like we'll collect panel 41&42 on our way to Edinburgh on Friday afternoon.

"Right love, watch your dress for the wedding doesn't damage the panels" She is smashing!

[Joeboy]

Off down to Edinburgh on Friday for a 2 day wedding, picking up some 260W panels on the way through in Perth. A chance for someone out there growing a Jockanese groundmount? The guy had 39 panels for sale. He might be a good Deal for the correct project? (Space allowing).

£30 / 260W = 11.53p per W

[Joeboy]

Sourced a M215 Enphase micro to go with the spare IQ7 for the upcoming pair of panels. I think I might have got my best price here at the end of my PV installs..

260W panel £30
M215 microinverter £39 incl postage.

£69, how good is that? Quad them up to get a 1kW(ish) system and it's £276 excl ancillaries. Or and not trying to wind kia up, that's £1,104 excl cable and mounts etc for a 4kW PV system with a 3.44kW inverter limit.

I lay down the gauntlet, who has beat that price?

[Joeboy]

For anyone in Scotland looking to do a cheap PV system. This guy is a good un! Joseph from the Czech Republic. I checked both panels 35V a piece. Will fit next week.

https://www.gumtree.com/p/for-sale/260w ... 1485688316

Set battery at 50% discharge and drove away.

[drjim]

Sourced a M215 Enphase micro to go with the spare IQ7 for the upcoming pair of panels. I think I might have got my best price here at the end of my PV installs..

260W panel £30
M215 microinverter £39 incl postage.

£69, how good is that? Quad them up to get a 1kW(ish) system and it's £276 excl ancillaries. Or and not trying to wind kia up, that's £1,104 excl cable and mounts etc for a 4kW PV system with a 3.44kW inverter limit.

I lay down the gauntlet, who has beat that price?

Without cables/mounts...

5x 410w £302 City plumbing
9x250/275w £100 gumtree
Sunny roo 2kw £60 ebay
Growatt 2kw £150 ebay

I had two other 250w panels already

So £612 for the lot. The 9 panels for £100 off gumtree makes it work very well financially! The 250w panels connected to the sunnyroo have effectively paid for themselves already in terms of units generated, another 200kWh or so on that combo and the inverter is paid for too.

Currently made 1277 kWh according to the ketotek meter, which at 24p per unit on our electricity tariff is worth £300 so overall I'm half way there despite the gloomy summer.

If we actually have some sunshine in September/October the whole lot could even break even from when I started the install in March.

[Joeboy]

Sourced a M215 Enphase micro to go with the spare IQ7 for the upcoming pair of panels. I think I might have got my best price here at the end of my PV installs..

260W panel £30
M215 microinverter £39 incl postage.

£69, how good is that? Quad them up to get a 1kW(ish) system and it's £276 excl ancillaries. Or and not trying to wind kia up, that's £1,104 excl cable and mounts etc for a 4kW PV system with a 3.44kW inverter limit.

I lay down the gauntlet, who has beat that price?

Without cables/mounts...

5x 410w £302 City plumbing
9x250/275w £100 gumtree
Sunny roo 2kw £60 ebay
Growatt 2kw £150 ebay

I had two other 250w panels already

So £612 for the lot. The 9 panels for £100 off gumtree makes it work very well financially! The 250w panels connected to the sunnyroo have effectively paid for themselves already in terms of units generated, another 200kWh or so on that combo and the inverter is paid for too.

Currently made 1277 kWh according to the ketotek meter, which at 24p per unit on our electricity tariff is worth £300 so overall I'm half way there despite the gloomy summer.

If we actually have some sunshine in September/October the whole lot could even break even from when I started the install in March.

That is fantastic drjim! I think there is massive scope for multi decade capable secondhand PV generation? You have shown that brilliantly! Hopefully some more Wombles will come forward and share?

HOW did you find panels at not much more than a tenner each? Wonderful!

We had heavy cloud cover again this morning before departure but I had a smile on as the PV systems were getting a single kW into the house and stack. Doesn't seem that much or that long ago I'd be playing for a few hundred Watts on a duff day.

I'm actually looking forward to Nov. I'll get to see exactly what this 42 panel net I've spread can help with in a month where it should be as useful as a flat tire!

Hopefully by chasing it from 2 directions (reduce home demand) and the bigger net I'm hoping to shut the shoulder months down to Dec & Jan. Nowty who I basically see as a minor sun god struggles too. While that doesn't bring solace it at least gives me a best uk geographic to measure against.

[drjim]

I was looking on gumtree and found a man with 9 panels he had listed for £100, it was as easy as that. He was going to do a ground mount array at his passivhaus, but his solar mate said they were all different types and wouldn't work properly together. I think he'd wombled them from said solar mate, who was going to gather a more potent system together for not too much so he was happy to pass them on to a good cause.

I'm just sat in the garden sipping some JimGaarden home-brew and pondering the bit of my roof that has sun on it still, plus the interesting vertical gable wall that would fit a few panels. Most of my usable roof points SE, and there's a lot of it too, so any install there mandates a big battery, but a small top up microinverter on these might be fun to keep the baseload covered into the evening.

[Joeboy]

I was looking on gumtree and found a man with 9 panels he had listed for £100, it was as easy as that. He was going to do a ground mount array at his passivhaus, but his solar mate said they were all different types and wouldn't work properly together. I think he'd wombled them from said solar mate, who was going to gather a more potent system together for not too much so he was happy to pass them on to a good cause.

I'm just sat in the garden sipping some JimGaarden home-brew and pondering the bit of my roof that has sun on it still, plus the interesting vertical gable wall that would fit a few panels. Most of my usable roof points SE, and there's a lot of it too, so any install there mandates a big battery, but a small top up microinverter on these might be fun to keep the baseload covered into the evening.

You seem well settled for the evening. Getting down to the less advantageous orientations and angles is very much the place for smaller panels & microinverters. I personally would hang a panel off a birdbox if I could. Mostly for the Winter narrative, when its down to Watts single figure per panel.

[Joeboy]

Top of a tram. Thought of you guys. Might want to see it.




A lovely day out & wedding.

[Joeboy]

Last 1/2 kW of panels going up today.

Sig updated.

A co-incidence, If I add in Turkey and Bongo panels we are at 20kW PV.

15.7kW homes PV & 4.3kW Derril Water.