Second system extension extension.

[Joeboy]

These upgrade fuses and holders are big old bits of kit.Fully overcast day with zero PV. Perfect day to fit them!

[nowty]

These upgrade fuses and holders are big old bits of kit.Fully overcast day with zero PV. Perfect day to fit them!

Yes, those are the puppies I use, but I add a bit of extra copper here and there.

[Joeboy]

That's it back up and running, a mighty combined 305W incoming! Liking the extra copper Nowty.

[Moxi]

Ahhh, you mean like my temporary winter panels.

They are installed end of Sept to early March when the decking areas no good for anything else.
Just one word of warning if your going to add a 4th parallel string. CHECK, DOUBLE CHECK and CHECK again that you have the polarity correct before you connect them as once you go past 3 parallel strings, you can easily destroy the diodes in the added string if you accidently connect it up incorrectly. If you use branch connectors, not much chance of getting it wrong but if your adding wiring via junction boxes its possible to get it wrong.

I wanted a add a few more temporary ones at the front of the house as its more sunny but it did not pass the SWMBO test.

PS - As Stinsy says, no point to Tigos if your adding a parallel string.

Nowty

Are all those panels temporary or are the ones along the fence retained throughout and do you connect them all via MC4's or other means ?

Moxi

[nowty]

Nowty

Are all those panels temporary or are the ones along the fence retained throughout and do you connect them all via MC4's or other means ?

Moxi

Thats quite an old picture as the solitary black one against the back fence and the solitary one in landscape were temporary, but are now permanent side by side as in the picture I showed in the other thread.
https://camelot-forum.co.uk/phpBB3/view ... 8047#p8014

The three and the five are permanent too, the three upright 60 degree angle faces SSE and catches the early sun rise in spring and autumn when the sun is lower. The five are 45 degree faces SW and max out mid afternoon.

The four on the decking area are my temporary winter ones. In deepest mid winter Dec/Jan they do next to nothing but Oct/Nov and Feb/March they do alright. Those four panels were surplus panels I was keeping as spares for my main roof system but seemed a waste not to actually use them.

From April to Sept there is generally too much power , so the decking area is then used "as a decking area".

I also have some on my NE facing roof which catch the rising summer sun.

I have some ESE on my Kitchen extension which only work in the morning before being shaded.

My main 4kW system is on my SSW facing roof which works most of the time but best in the afternoon.

I have some on my lower SSW porch roof, does the same as the main system but shades more.

Some on my almost flat Shed roof which outperforms everything in cloudy conditions and is the best all-rounder between Apr to Aug.

I have an 80 degree SW one on the facade of my car port which does very well when the sun is setting in late autumn to early spring.

And a final one 80 degrees ESE on a wall which supplements the kitchen extension ones so early generation.

So, I have a very long flat peak of generation, typically 10,000 kWh a year with less than 1,500 kWh exported.

With regards connections, there is a mixture, MC3, MC4, RADOX, some even soldered with heat shrink over the joints. Junction boxes a plenty, several SWA's under the lawn and a few Tigo's here and there.

[Joeboy]

Tipped over into double figures for PV gen. 10.25kWh on 20.02.22.
That is an earliest in year and an overall PB. We don't normally begin to feel back in control until March. Cheers Nowty, the game continues!

I would love to be able to push our effective PV shoulder months back to 3 months out of 12. At the moment we are 4 months out of 12. It will very interesting to see what this full year brings and any further finessing to push the hours back rather than days or months as its becoming difficult to grab chunks of improvement anymore. .

We are currently pruning trees to tweak. Wt1 is going to change the game completely but I don't want to lose sight of this particular game. I remember when it was almost 5 out of 12 as shoulder months.

[Moxi]

Morning JB,

Nice figures for yesterday, slightly less good here 819Wmin as we were gripped by storm Franklin and never really emerged from the twilight all day, wind picked up to a sustained 60 mph with thundering long gusts of 80mph throughout the night and even had me out at 2 am to investigate a mysterious crash and sound of breaking glass - nothing to be seen even yet ??

from 3 am till 6am the were periods where the house was vibrating as the wind slammed into the west facing wall head on. When I first bought the cottage years ago this sort of thing terrified me but these days I tend to wake momentarily acknowledge it and then drop off till the next event.

The simple rationale for that being that the cottage has stood through countless more of these events than I have and its still standing.

High winds till 2pm but only 40 to 50 mph which is much more the norm, the mobile panels are still where I parked them last Thursday intact and undisturbed which is remarkable. I think in future I would take them around the lee of the cottage's East wall before hand as the winds never abated enough to lose off the caster break's and move it before the wind swung from WnW, where it was in the lee of the South wall of the cottage, to W and WsW where it was fully exposed to to the wind at ninety degrees to the panels and frame, lesson learnt and a lucky reprieve.

Moxi

[Joeboy]

Hunker down Moxi, run the WS full tilt! It's the idea of random flying debris taking me out the game that freaks me out.

[Fintray]

It's the idea of random flying debris taking me out the game that freaks me out.

A bit like this you mean:
Three people were killed on roads in England, two more died in Germany and two people have died in Belgium, including a man hit on the head by a solar panel blown off a building in Ghent.

From the BBC yesterday.

[Joeboy]

It's the idea of random flying debris taking me out the game that freaks me out.

A bit like this you mean:
Three people were killed on roads in England, two more died in Germany and two people have died in Belgium, including a man hit on the head by a solar panel blown off a building in Ghent.

From the BBC yesterday.

Oh, what a sad time for the families