Solar Panels

[leadman]

I wonder where that is? What kind of lunatic runs a power station like that?

I took the photo from a paper/presentation from Africa talking about all the projects that were being installed but not being serviced or maintained. The lawn around the panels was constantly mowed, but no one was taught about how the panels worked and needed to be looked after.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Simply amazing that the basics are just missed entirely. Surely someone had picked up on the fact they were getting no output!!

 

[leadman]

Simply amazing that the basics are just missed entirely. Surely someone had picked up on the fact they were getting no output!!

I believe it was being fed into a grid. Other stories were about oversized batteries trying to be charged by small solar panels. Batteries just sulphated up and died.

 

[cove]

Sometimes you have to wait for an idiot to start talking.
Solar can be pretty easy.
We are close to yes on a 100kW system in Adelaide and we may do two.
One landlord has been difficult and I think he may fit in the idiot class and score an A+ .

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Mine is 30kW on a $0.50 FiT. BLD panels (Chinese and are going well) with Solar Max (Swiss) 10kW 3 phase inverters x 3, which are also going well. Commissioned 27/7/2013.

Only trouble I have is my new extension is given quite a lot of morning shade now, so our output has dropped off by about 1/3 until the extension is completed and I can relocated the panels to the new roof.

 

[Quickstatus]

@swanning_it ,

What’s FiT

Better to have >1 inverter generally ?

 

[Deleted member 29185]

FiT = Feed in tariff. I entered the contract back when the premium $0.44 FiT was on offer (with retailers offering up to $0.52) and was available for up to 30kW. That has changed and is no longer available to new installations.

10kW was the larger made in 3 phase by Solar Max as I recall. Either that or they were cheaper than a single 30kW unit. I guess the benefit is that if one fails, the others will hopefully still be working. I had one of mine fail just months old but they gave me a complete new one and I have not had an issue since. I particularly wanted Solar Max because of their history and Swiss precision so I must say I was none too happy when one failed, but it seems that was just a one off and unlucky for me to get it as they do have pretty good reliability and a 20 year history to boot, but their parent company apparently went belly up in 2014! I've been meaning to follow up on that, but haven't needed to so far and do believe they were bought out and back and running again.

As for the micro inverters, I did consider that option however two things stopped me. First, electronics can fail and the micro inverters didn't have much history so it may have been an expensive mistake if 150 or so inverters (which were also more expensive) started to fail en-masse. Secondly, each micro inverter mounts under the panels, so if just one or two fail in the middle of the bank, it'd be a real pain to get to them to replace. For me, it could mean disassembling maybe 50 odd panels, which doesn't interest me that much, however if no failures, or they're set up so they're easy to replace like in a ground mount installation, the logic behind micro inverters is sound.

 

[Quickstatus]

Lucky you
My FiT is 12.5c ex GST
I think > 1 inverter is good because each inverter usually can have 1-2 strings (groups of panels).
EG 2 inverters can them have 4 strings. So can divide an array into 4 groups

Apprently microinverters are not that reliable according to our local Solar supplier

 

[Quickstatus]

Simply amazing that the basics are just missed entirely. Surely someone had picked up on the fact they were getting no output!!

Charlatans are drawn like flies to where the money is. Renewables are no exception

 

[Deleted member 29185]

I think > 1 inverter is good because each inverter usually can have 1-2 strings (groups of panels).
EG 2 inverters can them have 4 strings. So can divide an array into 4 groups

Yes that's true and pretty important if you have differing aspects and shading. Although I haven't done it yet, when I remount my panels, I'll be in a position to try overclocking them somewhat and I'd love to change my bell curve to a square wave!

 

[Quickstatus]

Yes that's true and pretty important if you have differing aspects and shading. Although I haven't done it yet, when I remount my panels, I'll be in a position to try overclocking them somewhat and I'd love to change my bell curve to a square wave!

I have always wondered to what extent an inverter can support an array which on paper has a greater capacity that the inverter can support especially in cases with different orientations. As one aspect wanes the other aspect picks up.

I want the solar to give me electricity between 1400-2200 hrs

 

[cove]

Wait a while for battery technology to become more affordable quickstatus. It will happen if you believe the battery makers.

 

[Quickstatus]

Wait a while for battery technology to become more affordable quickstatus. It will happen if you believe the battery makers.

Peak tariff net is 45c/kWh after discounts
Solar array = 12c/kWh (10year amortisation)

Powerwall etc Will have to come under 33c per warranted kWh to break even. (33+12)

Currently it’s about 45c and plus 12.5c/kWh for solar (over 10 years) means cost of generation and load shifting is more than peak tariffs

 

[cove]

Yes it will be a while to get down to those numbers. It will be exciting when it gets there.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

I just did my meter reads and updated my spreadsheet (which I hadn't done in 3 years) and the figures for me (Gold Coast, 12 degrees azimuth from true north with 33 degrees altitude) are:
Daily kWh/kW installed for today = 4.67kWh
Daily kWh/kW installed avg for 1748 days (almost 5 years) = 4.5kWh
Our kWh usage for the last 24h (also pretty typical according to the spreadsheet) is 27.54kWh

I was pretty happy, as the figures were better than I expected with our new and temporary shading issues.

This is what I love about my solar. 27.54kWh a day would make the die hard eco warriors shriek, but we've taken the attitude that we need to be:
a) fully electric for everything (and IMHO induction cooking is far better than gas and heat pump hot water on night rate is also better than gas)
b) not suffer due to energy costs
c) not buy dino-poop fuel generated electricity
d) plan for a zero footprint post FiT bonus.

We have a very enjoyable lifestyle where we don't count every kWh. I just bought 2x 3.2kW radiant heaters for our deck to make winter enjoyable out there. I'm actually surprised how well they work (not to swelter, just to take the chill off the air) and even though I'd normally caution people about the cost of these types of heaters to run, I don't mind as we generate far more electricity than we use. The heaters only get used at night, so we're buying at a lower rate than what they pay us during the day to export. A win, win for us.

Into the future, I really want to have an electric car or two. Tesla maybe, but we'll have plenty of power to avoid fuel costs. We also have water tanks to make us reasonably self sufficient for water, and I really don't mind paying the water connection levy as we still use the sewerage infrastructure and in case we do run short of water, we can just switch over to mains water.

 

[Quickstatus]

You have the benefit of latitude 28deg at Gold Coast with less seasonality - warmer in winter

Sydney has more seasonality at 33deg

Unfortunately we have bottle gas no town gas. Have changed to induction cooking as well as it’s better. Only issue is that it’s a 3 phase unit
Bottle gas for water heating.
There is probably a economic benefit of going back to electric hot water storage powered by solar (instead of exporting to grid), and keep the instantaneous gas water heater as backup

 

[Deleted member 29185]

You have the benefit of latitude 28deg at Gold Coast with less seasonality - warmer in winter. Sydney has more seasonality at 33deg

True, but who am I to complain!

Funny you mention that, as I had a previous solar system of a 1kW (6 original German Conergy panels and an SMA inverter) so a really good quality system, but at the start of the solar revolution and way too small.

I decided to take the panels to PNG and set up 3 x charging stations (2 panels on each) in some villages I know as they have no power and to charge their phones is often a once a month affair when the truck comes to buy their fruit and veges and it has a charging station, which they charge K5 per phone charge!!

My biggest worry is due to their latitude, the panels should be nearly flat, meaning all kinds of grot will accumulate on them and the chances of a regular clean is remote, at best! I'm thinking I'll set them up utilising an altitude pivoting on the north-south axis (so one facing east and one facing west). Otherwise I'll be in strife as I can't face them down to either the north or the south without losing a lot in the opposite season (if that makes sense)!

 

[cove]

California may make it compulsory for new homes up to three stories to have solar panels from 2020. It is being discussed for legislation to be passed into law.

 

[jb747]

I use HomeKit as I'm an iOS person. So we have a hub connected to the router and I can control the lights (Hue) from another country if I like, I can also see when the garage door has been opened/closed (Merlin). We plan to get a NEST smoke alarm soon and expand to smart locks too, but don't see the point in having a smart kettle or internet connected fridge. I turn off the TV when I am not watching it, and it is new (last year) so not too harmful on the power bills. Our A/C isn't IoT but I have been investigating a Sensible or Tado for the future... though I'm keen on HomeKit support usually. We also have a Sonos One and look forward to Amazon Alexa coming online for more functionality soon.

I've got something like 60 Hue lights in my place. Over 4 years, the failure rate has been around 20%. Generally they still work as lights, but either lose the ability to change colour or intensity, or just become dumb globes.

My garage door was controllable, using a Wemo Maker, but the door opener died (B&D...less than 4 years). Replacement doesn't allow external control. I may switch to a Merlin, as I've had them in the past, and was happy with them over a long period.

Nest...I used the mark one version when we built. After about two years, they started giving false alarms, which ultimately could not be cancelled. The only way to silence them was to bin them. The last of the originals starting falsing just the other day, and I've replaced it with the latest version. But the main house now uses standard dumb alarms.

I was going to go for a smart lock, but in the end, a standard Trilock was more appealing.

Cameras/door bells...anything that does not use local networking, but which goes back to the USA will be uselessly slow.

 

[NM]

Finally have the solar system operational (a few days ago). 20 x Sunpower E-Series 327W panels, all north aspect (9 degrees east of north) on 22.5 degree roof tilt and 5kW Fronius Primo inverter with SmartMeter. Quoted estimate for generation for May daily average was 25kWh. By 2pm today we had achieved 29.7kWh generation with just over 20kWh exported. Today is a perfect solar generation day in paradise, but very happy with result so far. Yesterday was 29.15kWh generation for the day with 18.53kWh exported. Will be interesting to see how using the air-conditioner impacts things in summer.

Signed up for 17c/kWh FIT and 5% discount on the regular 24.51c/kWh usage tariff (making it 23.285c/kWh to purchase back from the grid. In today's market, 6.285c/kWh difference between FIT and consumption tariff is the best I could find.

The orientation (9 degrees east of north) means production ramps up fairly quickly in the morning, but starts to drop off by 3pm. I would have prefers 9 degrees west of north, but re-orientating the house was not feasible .