Bad month for solar generation

[N80SSM]

That beats our best ever day in June. We've got 16 panels.

You must have a massive system! (like Everest)

Nope 16 panels too, Dundee is Scotland's sunny city so maybe that helps

 

[Everest]

That beats our best ever day in June.

Obviously the longer daylight hours in June help production, but low temperatures will increase production too.

<nerdy bit>
PV panels typically have a negative temp coefficient of around -0.25% to -0.3% Volts per degree C, with their rated output based on cell temperature of 25C. So in high summer cell temps (in UK) are likely to be 40 to 50C, whereas this time of the year they will be much lower. So, for example, if the panels are 25 degrees cooler you'd get about 7.5% greater power. Which is why peak production time of the year is commonly end April / early May.
</nerdy bit>

Maybe it is very cold in Dundee right now

 

[N80SSM]

Obviously the longer daylight hours in June help production, but low temperatures will increase production too.

<nerdy bit>
PV panels typically have a negative temp coefficient of around -0.25% to -0.3% Volts per degree C, with their rated output based on cell temperature of 25C. So in high summer cell temps (in UK) are likely to be 40 to 50C, whereas this time of the year they will be much lower. So, for example, if the panels are 25 degrees cooler you'd get about 7.5% greater power. Which is why peak production time of the year is commonly end April / early May.
</nerdy bit>

Maybe it is very cold in Dundee right now

It has been but around 3-10°C certainly benefiting from the earlier sun rises my battery was fully depleted by around 9am few weeks ago but now it's sitting around 90% and full again in no time.

 

[Bam Bam]

Nope 16 panels too, Dundee is Scotland's sunny city so maybe that helps

I've heard that about the East Coast of Scotland.

Are all your panels South facing, then?

Ours are half East and half West.

That means a much bigger difference between Summer and Spring/Autumn and then to Winter (where there is virtually none).

 

[N80SSM]

I've heard that about the East Coast of Scotland.

Are all your panels South facing, then?

Ours are half East and half West.

That means a much bigger difference between Summer and Spring/Autumn and then to Winter (where there is virtually none).

Yes all 16 south facing so get full sun from first thing until around 4:30pm currently, hopefully get a bit longer a sun gets higher through summer

 

[Everest]

We're generating just over 10kW right now. Batteries are full, car is at 90% and I've done two loads of washing already .

Your figure is impressive, even at those temperatures - are they the larger 550W panels? Guess you must be generating over 6kW during the peak of the day to harvest 42kWh a day at this time of year.

 

[N80SSM]

Your figure is impressive, even at those temperatures - are they the larger 550W panels. Guess you must be generating over 6kW during the peak of the day to harvest 42kWh a day at this time of year.

This is the equipment, currently producing just under 6kW as I type.

 

[Everest]

We have some (well, quite a few) Longi's too - they seem good panels.

 

[Rolfe]

I'm doing well this month too.

 

[Everest]

Today's looking rather good... PV was generating 11.8kW, house battery charging at 2.8kW, car charging at 3.9kW, dishwasher running, immersion heating on full power. Better find some washing to put on soon

 

[N80SSM]

Pretty please with mine too, almost cost neutral and that's with a heat pump and 2 ev's so no other fuel bills.

 

[Rolfe]

That's amazing. I'm making money here, but I only have one car, and the heating is dirty old kerosene. No way will I ever make enough to cover the oil bills!

 

[N80SSM]

That's amazing. I'm making money here, but I only have one car, and the heating is dirty old kerosene. No way will I ever make enough to cover the oil bills!

I used to have oil up until last September was costing £90 a month although I was often in credit. I'm definitely going to save up a fair bit of credit through export to cover the heatpump over winter.

 

[GaryMG4]

Car's almost full so I'll top up tomorrow, washing done, dishwasher done, running dishwasher sanitise and I've still only managed to use 20% of what we've generated today. The last couple of months have generated a total of 950kWh from our 4kW array so happy with that.
Re kerosene, last year the FiT payments were about the same as the total spend on oil for heating and hot water at around £920.

 

[Bam Bam]

Finally in credit for April after March this year I actually had to pay money (six quid or something)!

(Last Summer's credit ran out during February this year).

Looks like it will be about £20 credit from April, so not loads. Maybe I should consider going back to Intelligent Flux export as we were last year.

Was expecting to do more miles on the car this year compared to last but perhaps it is still worth being on Flux.

 

[JohnV6]

457 kWh month to date & 220 exported. This despite the inverter needing to returned to stop it cutting out.

 

[Bam Bam]

oh to add some detail to my comments above:
700 kWh so far in April with a few hours of sunshine left (currently getting 2.36kW)

We've used 398kWh, but dinner tonight will no doubt push us over 400.

Today so far 28kwh generated and 4kwh used! Over £3 up for the day and the battery is full and ready to discharge.

 

[Rolfe]

I've been discharging the battery to 30% around dawn so that it has room to collect the solar generation that would otherwise be clipped by my 5 kw export limit. I've finally worked out how to do it with minimal hassle, and on a day that's reasonably sunny I can collect 30-40% into the battery. Managed over 60% one day early in the month when there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Then I just export it again in the evening as usual.

 

[Everest]

best day so far... we made hay whilst the sun shone; generated just over 80kWh today, put 11.8kWh into the house battery and consumed a further 54.8kWh including filling the EV with half a tank of electrons

Thanks to a sunny April, we've generated just over 1.7MWh this month

 

[Rolfe]

I'm losing track of people here. Are you guys off-grid, without an export tariff?

This is me today, total generation 45.6 kwh and still doing over 300 watts at nearly 8 o'clock.

I exported 37.56 kwh, used 2.26 kwh to power the house, and scooped 3 kwh into the battery now I've figured out how to do that rather than let it clip when it exceeds my export limit.

I also exported 6.43 kwh around dawn, to get the battery low enough to take the generation that would otherwise have been clipped, and I expect to export another 3 kwh or so that will be left in the battery at the end of the day.