[Surferdude]

Agree beerman.
 We took the opportunity to connect our air con to "off peak". I've been monitoring our useage there and even on these hot days with the air on from mid morning it's only costing us between $4 and $6 a week. Which is more than offset by the rebate on normal power useage. 
As the bills show.

[beerman]

I tried to do that, but because my hot water is on the night tariff, I couldn't do it.

When I get solar hot water all that will change.

[Surferdude]

I tried to do that, but because my hot water is on the night tariff, I couldn't do it.

When I get solar hot water all that will change.

They put a new relay thingy in the fuse box. The whole set up was already there with a remote switch for the electric hot water system. There was room for 2 more similar relays. Each is controlled remotely. And they fitted a second relay.
So now I have one for the Solar Hot Water booster (which was just transferred from the old electric HWS). And a separate one for the aircon which cost me $40 to hook up while they were doing all the other bits.

[Dazzler]

Guess what (I don't think I told you guys this yet) ..

Looks like our Growatt Inverter has died.. Possibly as long as two weeks ago (without me realising) I rang them a couple of days ago but the guy is away until 7th Jan (will replace it then) 

[rustynutz]

Bugger...

[Dazzler]

The old guy who runs the company tried to tell me I would still be getting some benefit even if the inverter wasn't working (How dumb does he think I am) 

I have been monitoring the smart meter and we are paying for every bit of power we are using while it is out of action 

The installer was very pleasant and apologetic . we will be his first job next Monday when he returns from holidays  (I tried various resets without success... )

On the positive side our gates are getting connected up next tuesday 

[Phil №❶]

What info is the inverter displaying. What resets have you performed.

[Dazzler]

What info is the inverter displaying. What resets have you performed.

That is the problem .. Nothing is coming up on the display and the red/green LED does't appear to be illuminated either...

When I first noticed it I switched it (and the main circuit) off for a few minutes without success. When I contacted them they said the same for about half an hour .. But still nothing 

Glad I have 5 years warranty anyway.. (I know the dearer ones sometimes have 10 years but you pay for that)

[Surferdude]

I was talking to a guy out in the surf today who's had a couple of "fuses" fail on his panels.
I didn't know they had them He says his are visible near the panels on the roof. Anyway, he's got the same problem Dazz. No one on call over the break. At least the rest of his panels are generating.
I can't find any evidence of fuses or trip switches on or near my panels so I'm guessing different brands go about the technology differently.
Phil, do you have any info on this?

[Aussie Keith]

I looked into this while the rebates were in effect but failed to act at the time. We use on average about 26kWh per day after taking the obvious step of reducing consumption with efficient appliances and lighting. There's a base load of about .4kWh 24/7 or about 4.8 kWh that's outside the hours of solar generation. That suggests a 2.5kW system should cover about 60-70 percent of the power requirements with a bit left over. I'll be getting a 5kW inverter to allow for additional capacity if needed at some point. I'm not overly concerned about rebates or credits.

I also looked into evacuated tube hot water systems preferring the Apricus approach on cost/performance. http://www.apricus.com.au/products/introduction

Hot water is not a big expense at our house so its not a priority.

Timing is not decided as yet, but if the price of energy continues to increase it might be sooner rather than later.

[Surferdude]

^^^

26kwh/day seems a lot Keith but I guess it depends on the size of your household. We have friends at Samford who put up a 3kw system and are happy to have reduced their bill by about a third. But they have a massive house, ducted air and a pool.
As you'll see from early in this thread, our hot water was almost half of our bill so we put up a Solarhart HWS as well. All's good in the costs/credit department here now.

[Phil №❶]

@surferdude

No mention of fuses at all, either in the supplied booklet or by any technician or sales agent. I remember havein a good look when  they were installed and it took about 2 minutes to connect them all together. There are on boxes either above or below the roof and very hard to see their wiring back to the inverter.

In the time we've had them, the inverter has faulted twice, with an appropriate red led fault indicator. One was a grid problem which lasted about an hour, the other was unexplained. I simply shut it down and restarted and all was well. The grid one was starting to concern me, but it rectified itself after 1 hour and hasn't faulted since, I assume it was AGL's problem. Fortunately, I can see our inverter as we get into out cars and I always check to see that the led is green.

@ keith_h

I looked at those solar HW collectors, they appear great and are still working in winter in cloudy conditions due the the vacuum inside them. Great concept. However, I couldn't find a HWS that used those and DIDN'T use a circulation pump as well, so I opted fro the standard type collector, filled with glycol for frost protection & the tank on the roof using thermo syphon for circulation. We bought a larger capacity one but in winter, it's not really hot enough for me. This is because, being solar, the electric boost does not heat all the water, it assumes the sun will heat some too, which often doesn't happen.

[Surferdude]

What brand inverter do you have Phil?

[Phil №❶]

We only purchased a small system 1.5 kw. The inverter is an Orion 2.2 kw. It;s a hot day her in full sun and we're generating a measly 1.2 kw. There is a significant loss due to heat I'm afraid. 

[Aussie Keith]

@surferdude 26kWh is a lot per day but we have comms gear and ac running 24/7. I am unable to cut it back any further unfortunately.

@Phil, tks for the info about the pump, I'll need to take a closer look.

[Surferdude]

We only purchased a small system 1.5 kw. The inverter is an Orion 2.2 kw. It;s a hot day her in full sun and we're generating a measly 1.2 kw. There is a significant loss due to heat I'm afraid. 

Yeah. The heat loss thing puzzles me. I originally thought the advice about it was saying that above 25° the actual output dropped off. But our system continues to generate more power, albeit at a lesser rate. (if that makes sense).
To put it into figures, at 25° on a fully sunny day the system might generate 12kwh at a given time of year. If the temp gets up around 30° the system doesn't generate less than that, rather it'll go up to around 14 kwhr.

[beerman]

I thought it was the efficiency of the system. Ie it might be producing 14 kw/h but if it was cooler it might be 16?

[Dazzler]

Interesting you should mention a grid issue Phil, because our System Supplier has already tried to blame Aurora Energy for a spike which probably caused our problem..

I reckon he sold cars or real estate in a previous life 

[Phil №❶]

I tell you, our inverter in shade was pretty hot today and that causes inefficiency too. It'll fry tomorrow @ 42 Deg C forecast here.

I've seen the system goto 1650 on a cold day when the sun shines through cloud briefly, so it's definitely heat related. Our size @ 1.5 was never designed to be a major contributor, so I'm still happy.

At least it's still working 

[ElleB]

HI Solar Dudes,
  I have not had time to contribute to the solar discussion... but being on holidays read the posts of late.
   I have a 5 KW system, checked it out today, as the outside temp was 38.6    ...so I was interested.

The running temp was as recorded by the inverter date display...65.6 degrees !!!

I need to find a spare $100 to get the hardware / software to pull the date from the inverter to the computer, then I will have a years worth of records on tap.. and could see if there was any significant correlation between the ambient temp, the panel temp and the output..

 keep up the chatter,     cheers
 Tony

[Dazzler]

Interesting Tony .. Look forward to catching up 

[Phil №❶]

@ElleB,

Some info for you,

http://greenliving.nationalgeographic.com/effects-temperature-solar-panel-power-production-20500.html

 

[Surferdude]

I thought it was the efficiency of the system. Ie it might be producing 14 kw/h but if it was cooler it might be 16?

No no beerman. If you re-read my post above yours, I'm comparing apples with apples. I'm saying the increase in power as the temp increases UP TO 25 appears consistent, but the increase falls away (but still increases at a lower rate) as the temp climbs above that.
If the temp is 25 at 9am and the system is generating at a figure which would see a daily output of 12kwhrs, then later in the day when the temp climbs up to say 30, the projected output has increased to maybe 14 whereas if it wasn't heat affected it might be 16 kwhrs.
So, less efficient, yes. But not to a negative figure.
At least with my system, for which I'm greatful.
Incidentally the guy over the road has 26 panels and had them installed about a year before we did. He gets a pretty big rebate but his winter output versus his summer one is relatively quite a bit less than ours.
Not sure why, but again, I'm not complaining.

My head hurts.

[Dazzler]

Well the Solar Power Installer came back as promised today (while I was at work) and said the 2 KW inverter had died (and was discontinued)

So... They replaced it with a 5KW one at no charge and this one comes with a CD of Inverter Monitoring Software ??

I have only just got home from going out for Tea (Dinner) and visiting Trish's family so haven't had a chance to suss out the manual yet .. Hopefully I can monitor it wirelessly on our laptops.

Our direct neighbours (that we bought our block from) have just put 25 panels (5KW system) on the big shed adjacent to their house and another house about half way up our road has 25 panels on their House and another 25 on their garage .. Now that is getting a bit carried away (I would call that a power station) 

[Phil №❶]

 

[Shambles]

(I would call that a power station) 

I would call that CERN

[Dazzler]

I hadn't heard of CERN (but just googed it) 

[Dazzler]

Now that we have a 5KW inverter, which is working well so far (generating about 12Kwh* per day from our 10 x 190w panels) I thought I would investigate the price of additional panels.

I found these on Ebay 190w for $190 each (Delivered) we would like another 10 panels which would give us a 3.8 Kw system and cover all our power needs over the summer and the majority of them in the winter..

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/320964112412?_trksid=p5197.c0.m619#ht_3277wt_1165

So I figured $1900 for the panels + say $500 to install them including cable, racks etc...

I rang the guy that supplied our 10 panel system + inverter installed for $3100 and he quoted $2750 for 10 more panels installed.. But I screwed him down to $2500 

So... they are on their way 

Edit * 14KWh today 

[Phil №❶]

How did you manage that, I thought Trish didn't like the look of panels on the roof 

[Doggie 1]

Good stuff Dazz.
I want to do this when we decide whether we are staying here or moving.
Our power bills are terrible.