[Factotum]

It's been sunny up here  - we've produced 194.38 kWh in February.

Sue

[cloddopper]

Ammanford  South Wales  ( Near the west end of the M4

119.91 units from 02 Feb 14.00 ish to 28 Feb at darkness  off a westerly facing aspect which has surprised me ..


  Perhaps we have some reflected light from our whining " You can't have PV solar without our permission , I'm going to complain " neighbours light covered walls & permanently closed light coloured window binds .

Now I find that nearly as amusing as their outside flood lights coming on every time I take the dog out for a pee at night ..
It's saved me a fortune in electricity and by me not having to buy bulbs and floodlights myself  .

[Greenerlife]

151 units for February!  it must have been sunny whilst it rained!

[Dan]

147 here for Feb.

[Small Farmer]

131 units in Feb near Luton

[cloddopper]

I like this sunny weather ..just had a peek as it early morning and dark we've clocked up  another 100.21 units in the first 11 days of March .
Bring it on Mr Sun  ..... keep your hat off please.

[Sudanpan]

We've just had 6kw panels put on our east west barn roof - 12 panels each side. We have a 4kw inverter (up from the 3.67kw) and in the last 3 days we have generated 48kw (apparently!) and it hasn't even been particularly sunny!
We are very much looking forward to seeing how the panels impact on our electric bill as well as what we mght receive on the FIT scheme - however we are with British Gas and our installer has basically said the BG are notorious in prevaricating and delaying things. We are just hoping that they don't try and make us lose the current FIT as opposed to saying we have to have the new (lower) tariff.

[regen]

Your installer should give you a document which will allow you to ring British Gas and register your system on the date of installation.  Always follow this up with a confirming letter and the date of registation will be the date you are paid from regardless of how long BG prevaricate.  You do not have to have your system with your existing supplier.

If you have 6kw of panels then you will get the 4 to 10 kw band tariff for fits which is lower than the less than 4kw band and i would question why they have only installed a 4kw inverter as the panels may produce more than that at times. - when the sun shines in april or may check your output at midday and if the inverter flatlines at 4kw for several hours then you could question the installer. Did the installer get G59 permission from your DNO to install a 4kw inverter or have they set it to the 3.68 (16 amps) permissable under a G83.
48kwh over 3 days in late march is quite doable from 6kw panels.

Regen

[Sudanpan]

Regen - thanks for your comments.
We got the MCS installation certificate and all the other paperwork we needed for the registration process with BG - they (ZLC Energy) were very helpful in all the sorting stuff out. When I submitted the appropriate forms to BG I got an automated reply informing us that they (BG) could take up to 28 days to process the forms. I do understand that the date of eligibility should be the date of installation - but BG have some 'small print' where they basically say if anything is wrong on the form then they won't process it until all is correct and that might affect the eligibility date.
As for our panels - we went for the 6kw panels with a 4kw inverter (up from the 3.68 capped one) because when we applied to our DNO (Western Power) they would not allow a 6kw inverter onto our network without upgrading and we weren't going to pay for the upgrade. WP said they would allow a 4kw input. We knew about the lower tariff rate, but on the sums it still made sense to go with the 6kw array.
We are at the stage of watching the inverter panel like a hawk )

[regen]

Sounds as if you are well on top of the job!
WPD are getting quite strict these days- I tried for an extra 1.5kw above my existing 3.68kw and they wanted about 10 grand to do the update which would kill the project.  Have you fitted an imersun or similar device to send all excess to your hot water tank if fitted?

Regen

[Sudanpan]

Sounds as if you are well on top of the job!
WPD are getting quite strict these days- I tried for an extra 1.5kw above my existing 3.68kw and they wanted about 10 grand to do the update which would kill the project.  Have you fitted an imersun or similar device to send all excess to your hot water tank if fitted?

Regen

We haven't gone for an imersun mainly because we are already overrun with hot water on sunny days because we have thermal solar panels on the house roof. However we do want to look onto some method of harnessing the power more efficiently for our benefit - OH is  sparks so he is putting his thinkin gcap on. At the moment it is relying on us just turning on the washing machine/pumping water up to the polytunnel tanks at the top of the field from our underground rainwater collecting tank at the bottom of the field.


We are having a bit of an issue with the PV array at the moment though - it seems to be tripping our barn electric supply so we are trying to work out what is causing it.

[regen]

Immersun can also be used to feed a storage heater but again the problem is that you produce most when you need it least.

By using a thermal store I can utilise the excess from the immersun (about 2000kwh) on all but a few days each year as it simply supplements the wood burner and /or oil boiler and helps to reduce the number of days I have to use them. However as a retro fit, particularly as you have thermal panels it is unlikely to be cost effective.  Battery storage is probably the way forward but at the moment it is not viable either.

Regen

[Dan]

308 for March here. Did you break 500 Factotum? 

[Greenerlife]

286 for March here 

[Factotum]

Did you break 500 Factotum?

I wish...

We did 368, not bad as our target production for March is 286.