Solar Panels

[Flying mermaid]

Yes we have been told that by our installers. Our gutter/roof people are usually quite amenable to doing a few extras (they cleaned our roof windows last time), so I think we will get the solar panels cleaned every time we do the gutters.

I am not sure what our payback time will be - the quote estimated about 9 years, but the exercise of installing solar panels, also led us to stop being lazy and do the rounds of the energy providers to get a better deal. We now have a 30% discount on electricity as well as 25% on gas and a 12.5c feed in tariff. It is going to mean a huge saving for us - many thousands, which I intend offsetting against the panels as we wouldn’t have done it otherwise.

We also plan to go through the exercise annually.....

 

[amaroo]

Welcome to the solar club. Are you with PVoutput?

 

[Flying mermaid]

Welcome to the solar club. Are you with PVoutput?

No? The SolarEdge inverter comes with access to a website where you can monitor your generation usage etc. comes with lots of pretty graphs. You can have a look at each panel and see what it is generating. It keeps a hisory as well - daily weekly monthly and yearly. You only have access to your usage though, so can’t compare with others.

When we were in San Francisco over Christmas we were able to log in and monitor the chaos Dr FM was causing, by running the air conditioner flat chat 24/7.

 

[Flying mermaid]

These are some of the screens we get

 

[amaroo]

You can upload your numbers to PVoutput and compare your system with others in the area, and systems all over the world... there are around 30,000 systems.

 

[Flying mermaid]

You can upload your numbers to PVoutput and compare your system with others in the area, and systems all over the world... there are around 30,000 systems.

View attachment 116544

Thanks - I will pass that onto Mr FM - sounds like the sort of thing he would like to play with.

 

[samh004]

Are you with PVoutput?

I use them, just got my system back up and running after having my DC Isolators replaced by AGL.

What I really need is a way to import my data from AGL into PVOutput automatically though, as currently I have to do it manually each day.

 

[amaroo]

I use them, just got my system back up and running after having my DC Isolators replaced by AGL.

What I really need is a way to import my data from AGL into PVOutput automatically though, as currently I have to do it manually each day.

Google "Felix Solar PV Log" ... works like a dream. IIRC doesn't work with apple.

 

[jb747]

My system is on PVoutput. For those wondering, you don't have to manually upload any data. Basically you authorise their access to your data (in my case, at the Enphase site), and it becomes automatic.

We've just arranged for our installer to add 9 more panels to the system. That will take us up to 8.6 kw. The system has already nuked our summer bills (less than 10% of last year). The aim of the extra panels is to provide enough electricity in winter to do the same there. We won't achieve that much reduction, but it still should be substantial. As we're on 3 phase, we still have plenty of headroom.

The system will end up at 6 facing east, 13 north, and 11 west.

 

[leadman]

i have two arrays so its a bit hard to monitor as indicated above, but i run an Xcel spreadsheet and I do a few calculations with it; projected bill, payback period, etc, etc,. My spreadsheet logic is simple; what you use based on the retail price + the back to grid value + property service charge etc.

Its currently showing that i will have it "paid off" on the 17th May 2022, just on 6.8 years for a 10kw system, but every price increase is showing a shortening of that date by months.

I've looked at it often as pre-paying the electricity bill a few years, but gaining on the price increases which are inevitable.

 

[cove]

Over at our main office we just received a monthly bill of $5.23 including GST. Lucky we claw back the GST. The credit card fee was included so not too good for frequent flying.

 

[VPS]

I've had my system for about 6 years and think it's probably already paid for itself. Does anyone know if you can connect older ones to the system where you can check them on the web?

 

[samh004]

I've had my system for about 6 years and think it's probably already paid for itself. Does anyone know if you can connect older ones to the system where you can check them on the web?

I would imagine it depends what historical data you have access to. If the inverter doesn't store 6 years worth you could just look at 12 months of bills to get an average yearly feed-in and multiply.

 

[VPS]

I would imagine it depends what historical data you have access to. If the inverter doesn't store 6 years worth you could just look at 12 months of bills to get an average yearly feed-in and multiply.

Thanks I was looking more at going forward to keep an eye on production

 

[Quickstatus]

What’s the % degradation in electricity production for a westerly panel compared with northerly panel?

 

[equus]

What’s the % degradation in electricity production for a westerly panel compared with northerly panel?

How long is a piece of string?

Depends on where you are located, the time of year, but also then angle the panel is installed at. If it is flat, then nothing at all.

 

[darktiger]

The checkout did a great segment on Solar Panels this week. Well worth a watch.

 

[Flying mermaid]

What’s the % degradation in electricity production for a westerly panel compared with northerly panel?

well a little bit of info on this, but I agree with the how long is a piece of string.

We have 40panels installed - 20 facing pretty much east and 20 west. A friend has put on 38 panels facing north. Our roof is probably much steeper than his. We probably have more shade from trees. Otherwise the panels are identical and both have two inverters, he is getting roughly 30% more than us at the moment, although in summer the difference was around 10%.

One thing that is interesting though (sort of obvious), is we start generating earlier than him and continue later, so that helps mitigate, given we use up all the electricy that is generated in the morning and late afternoon.

 

[jb747]

My array is split, E, N, and W. This was done intentionally, even though there were a couple of options. The array produces power earlier and later. It produces less peak power than a fully northern array, but the overall area under the line is similar.

An additional consideration is that there is a proposal for the feed in tariff in Victoria to be adjusted to vary with time of day. The peak feed in will be after 3pm, so maximum westerly exposure will be valuable...if this system comes in.

 

[Quickstatus]

My roof can support 15kW of panels but it’s orientation is NE
There is a small SE and NW component

Tilt frames are available to orientate panels N but due to spacing requirements from shadowing will limit array to 8kW.

Turpentine tree grove to W shadows the NW roof after 1400hrs or earlier between Apr-Sep

I wonder how much the NE array will generate after 1400hrs in summer and winter as the most expensive electricity @54c/kWh is between 1400-2000 hrs