April 2010

[StBarnabas]

Well April has started well in Northumberland. a 60 degree tank and the best day yet for the StBC PV array - 16kWh so far and still generating 350W so may get to 17kWh. A good start for the first day of FITs my reading this morning was 1053 kWh so still on target for 2500kWh per year.
Sean   

[Iain]

Hi
On target as well. Today started off very well but ended in rain. Still had 9.5 kwh
Iain

[desperate]

April the first eh??  what a joke

Desp

[Alan]

Previously before Ofgem / Fits form filling I used to use all the power available before it got to the grid inverter. Feeding into water / under floor heating system.

Today was the first day of all the power going to the grid inverter / generated meter / export meter.

Conditions. wind from South but blustery and changeable.

Used a 6 K.W. triac controller feeding two 3 K.W. immersion heaters in both Megaflows. Proportional control on a 0 to 5 volt system.
System losses work out at 1 watt per amp.

Generated    16.4 K.W.
Imported    1
Export       1.7

420 ltrs water at 61 Deg C and no heat required for under floor system.

Tomorrow back to giving it away unless I have thirty baths over night.

Regards

Alan

[Alan]

600 ltr’s  at 92 Deg C

Now need plan B,C,D.

Regards

Alan

[langstroth2]

Day 10 today of a run of continuous days of boiler free HW  , admittedly the first 5 days were helped by us not being in the house, came back to a nice 'n hot 80C tank.

Not quite boiler-off time yet though due to still needing some central heating in the cool evenings.

[zeus]

Not quite boiler-off time yet though due to still needing some central heating in the cool evenings.

Hi

Last Fire here was 6/4 ... heating went off on 20/3 as it had only cut in a couple of times in the previous week or so ... this time of year solar gain is all that is needed here .... unless we get two or three cloudy days in a row ..... (don't you just love the combination of insulation & insolation)

Cheers ....   
 

[langstroth2]

Average cylinder temps:
Start: 26.9
End: 69.1

42.1C rise. Some dishwasher draw off mid day.

One of the best days I've had for over-all temp rise.

[Dan]

I had switched off my central heating last year in mid march, this year has been a lot colder in the fact we are still heating the house at least once a week, and still not enough sun to heat water for use every day.

But saying that I have had many days where at the EOD the temperature at the bottom of a 172L tank was over 60C

East/west 2*(20@47).



 
   

[Hugo]

I'm getting plenty of solar heat, haven't turned on the boiler for ? ages.
Yesterday  just after lunch temperature of my 186 litre cylinder fed by 30 X 47mm tubes was 74C, I then ran a bath for use later in the day.
At the end of the day the cylinder was at 74C top, and 64 bottom, well pleased.

[dhaslam]

System is fairly well balanced at present (60 X 47mm tubes 250 litre cylinder and 850 litre buffer tank).   Most days the heat dump activates in the afternoon  transferring heat to the buffer tank.  The heat is used in the morning for underfloor heating and to top up the other cylinder.      It needs the heat pump for  a few hours to  make up for dull days.    Average output is 17.2kwh per day  which is just above the average DHW requirement.    Minimum night temperatures have been between 0 and 5C all month.

[brackwell]

Hugo,

I have 30x47mm Navitron on a south facing roof but on the face of it i am not getting as high a hot water temp as you are getting and wondered if we might figure out why.

My solar feeds into a dedicated prefeeder solar tank of 160L . Solar coil is in the bottom third and low pressure cold water enters at the bottom and leaves at the top.  Is this the same as yours?  Do you use reflectors? Is yours Navitron ?

Ken

[Hugo]

Ken My system is like yours as such, my pipe runs are very short as the solar cylinder is in the roof space under the panel.
I also have 15mm pipe which is very well insulated with 25mm solar pipe lagging, over this I have wrapped twin foil bubble wrap.
The cylinder is also well insulated 75mm foam, plus 200 mm of Knauff Space Blanket.
Yes I do have reflectors on my panel, also the same lagging as in the roof.
All my system is Navitron, the only thing I changed is on the order I stipulated triple insulated cylinder from Newark and the lagging I swapped for 25mm.
Also I am on the south coast in Hove, that can also make a difference.
Must say I have been well pleased my system.

[dhaslam]

An average of 15.7 Kwh. Way above the previous highest daily average of 12.9 last June and 12.2 last month.     Not bad for an intermittent energy source.

[rt29781]

A sunnier month than March in SW France.  About 400 kWh from the PV so 1200 kWh ish from the solar thermal.  The pool is at 30C so that is great....