Corner turned

[Fintray]

Great to hear you lads a wee bit further South are getting some early year solar.

Joe, you must have got some kWh in yesterday but not much chance of the same today.

17kWh yesterday yet not even 1kWh so far today

[AE-NMidlands]

We are having a run of nice sunny mornings and misty/foggy afternoons. Hard frosts, in fact the N side of the roof it is on is still white all over. The primary circuit of the solar thermal tubes is up to 33.3 deg and getting the cylinder bottom up to 25. Not much, but it's 25% of the heat needed...

[Joeboy]

Great to hear you lads a wee bit further South are getting some early year solar.

Joe, you must have got some kWh in yesterday but not much chance of the same today.

17kWh yesterday yet not even 1kWh so far today

Hi Iain,
3kWh that was it! My location is compromised with trees at this time of year and 1/2 the array is E/W. It will never be a heavy hitter. In saying that it forces me to be ingenious to make up the shortfall!

[Stinsy]

I'm smashing it again today! Bit of a misty start but 4kWh by lunchtime isn't to be sniffed at. 50kWh month-to-date. January 2021 was 40kWh for the entire month.

I'm starting to get excited about 2022 already!

That said I got all excited in April 2021, but that ended up being my best month all year!

[Moxi]

Wot lonnnnng legs you do have Stan!

My day is getting better and better, we were free of grid import by half ten and 8 meters of lovely uni-strut for my "mobile" 600wattP array has just been delivered.

I think if I design the frame right to have wheels or casters on it I should also be able to give it some variability with regards to pitch by incorporating a suitable pivot - depends what I see in terms of fittings in the catalogue and if I have to fabricate anything myself.

In your case Stan, with the fence mount option why not just put hinges on the posts at the top, fasten those to your panels or panel support frame and the for the bottom fashion yourself some stakes with a V notch on the top at various lengths so you can pull the bottom of the panel out and up and rest it in the V notch with the stake driven in the ground - that way the torsion loads on the fence are negated as the load path is transmitted via the stake to earth in the vertical axis.

A nice simple and infinitely adjustable system if you have enough wooden stakes

Moxi

[Joeboy]

I'm smashing it again today! Bit of a misty start but 4kWh by lunchtime isn't to be sniffed at. 50kWh month-to-date. January 2021 was 40kWh for the entire month.

I'm starting to get excited about 2022 already!

That said I got all excited in April 2021, but that ended up being my best month all year!

Great to hear!

[Stan]

Wot lonnnnng legs you do have Stan!

My day is getting better and better, we were free of grid import by half ten and 8 meters of lovely uni-strut for my "mobile" 600wattP array has just been delivered.

I think if I design the frame right to have wheels or casters on it I should also be able to give it some variability with regards to pitch by incorporating a suitable pivot - depends what I see in terms of fittings in the catalogue and if I have to fabricate anything myself.

In your case Stan, with the fence mount option why not just put hinges on the posts at the top, fasten those to your panels or panel support frame and the for the bottom fashion yourself some stakes with a V notch on the top at various lengths so you can pull the bottom of the panel out and up and rest it in the V notch with the stake driven in the ground - that way the torsion loads on the fence are negated as the load path is transmitted via the stake to earth in the vertical axis.

A nice simple and infinitely adjustable system if you have enough wooden stakes

Moxi

All good ideas Moxi and along the lines that I am thinking.
In Autumn I mounted 2 off JA 500Wp panels on dexion frames. However, as time went on the shadows from the shed, an electricity pole and various other things crept up and ruined output. I’ve now put them on a corrugated roof with low angle which has solved another problem; I never felt comfortable with the DC cables being on the ground and the mc4 connectors being exposed. Of course sensible conduit should solve the problem.

[nowty]

Like your wind turbine !

[Stan]

Like your wind turbine !

Thanks Nowty. The green one is just a car radiator fan on a bolt running in a plain brass bearing. The anemometer came out of a skip but has no motor so very free running in its skateboard bearings.

[Moxi]

3.85kWh yesterday- another day where we were running on our own power for significant periods through the day and now we are even getting small amounts of excess power.

I never thought in the past that we may have managed to attain this situation in January before so it does show the importance of checking the data thoroughly.

Got a toilet cistern to fix for the in-laws next door and take the nipper (4) to the tropical fish shop for two new fish as a reward for good work and behaviour, but later I will start to look at the ground mount.

Moxi