Corner turned

[AlBargey]

I'm maybe a bit late here, but when I priced up unistrut / univolt / Brunstrut etc, it seemed cheap unless you want HDG, most of it apart from the brackets are 'pre-galvanised' which is no good for longevity outdoors. The decent hot dipped stuff was more expensive than just getting the proper aluminium Renusol rails and panel clamps designed for mounting panels.

I did find FHBrundle generally had good prices, although it looks like their single T brackets are 98p incl, but worth checking if your looking at a unistrut type order.

https://www.fhbrundle.co.uk/groups/50__ ... rt_Systems

Or just price up Renusol, I was surprised how competitive it turned out. I ended up buying some aluminium angle for the support legs and bracing to our arrays, which is also cheaper and more corrosion resistant than unistrut.

[Moxi]

They’re 270W Perlight Delta Mono Triple Black 54 Cell solar panels I got them ages ago and got it into my head they were 300W each but looking back at the order to check their details I remember getting the 270W so that they were just under the Y&H inverter limit.

Moxi

[nowty]

They’re 270W Perlight Delta Mono Triple Black 54 Cell solar panels I got them ages ago and got it into my head they were 300W each but looking back at the order to check their details I remember getting the 270W so that they were just under the Y&H inverter limit.

Moxi

I know the ones, they are shorter than standard panels, from Bimble. In fact I was going to buy a pair, as could get a steeper angle on them, but then I bought a pair of 335w black Panasonic ones as the voltages and power were better for me. Although they are black, the cell wires are not which was a bit disappointing.

[Moxi]

Yeah they’re 1480 long 990 wide - I will try and snatch a little time tomorrow to get them wired up got to refit a connection and strip the other so I can connect to the Y&H

Then I can see what sort of benefits I can expect from the south side. We get sun from around ten am at this time of year and no shade till around 1 pm when the lines pole in the field lays into the 1st position of the panels then I can move them to roughly where they are on the last photo till around 2:30 after which our tree ( nope I’m not allowed to remover it ) shades the area till 3:30 but I reckon I can manoeuvre the panels to another sunny spot to clear the shade then by 4pm I should be able to park them at the bottom of the yard facing south till the sun sets - that’s the plan anyway.

Moxi

[Moxi]

The last two days have been good here, 2.2kWh yesterday and 3kWh today, the new "micro" array is wired ready for the forecasted good days weather tomorrow so fingers crossed. I want to get some better fittings for the wiring as I have had to make do with what was to hand.

Limitations on the inverter means the panels are in parallel but thats better in terms of independence from shading.

Moxi

[ALAN/ALAN D]

Not so bad for your system with easy access to cables. I have got various panels in different systems. I have never had a panel fail. I have had lots of the connectors fail / Burn up. Luckily all Burn ups on ground mount systems. Just starting another roof system. Where all panels will be soldered connections with both cables from each panel going inside the roof to make fault finding / getting going a lot easier.
I have removed all the plugs / sockets and soldered all the connections.

[Moxi]

Well after a good couple of days comes the dreadful day - despite weather forecast for average weather we’ve actually had awful solar weather with a maximum 277Wh for the day.

Winds are back to normal for this time of year tho variable forty to fifty gusting sixty later - makes me turn my thoughts to a micro turbine again lol, one day ………. One day.

Moxi

[Moxi]

First reasonable day this week here and what a day 5.5kWh , the new ground mount weathered the winds and gusts and each day it’s getting better results and I’m finding optimum positions to move it to to get the minimum shading and best output.

A few more weeks and the sun should be high enough to get fully above the wall and hedge and alleviate much of my shading other than the tree that must not be touched !

Moxi

[Fintray]

With the cold winds and the sun being higher in the sky, yesterday was the best day of the year so far, onwards and upwards!

[Stinsy]

9.6kWh for me today. Really decent considering there was quite a bit of cloud this afternoon and my array is poorly aligned for low-angle sun…