My System and any advice is always welcome

[GSHEP]

Introduction

Name George Shepherd - Location Polmont Central Scotland - Age 66 (soon) - Retired Electrician.

Panels
Bought Maplin 150w - 1
Home made panel 8 total approx 1000w

4 110ah batteries in parallel
1 modified sine wave 3.5kw - out for repair  not quite sure what happened here they both were working quite happily
1 pure sine wave 3.5kw - out for repair - had a look in side this one and two capacitors were blow and prob 2 voltage regulators

1 soladin 600 - part of system now connected to this STILL have not got that over the top pc-link so unsure what I am generating.
 4 off the panels in series for this system.


will post photos once I have found my way round this forum

Kind Regards George

[martin]

Hello and welcome - you're amongst friends!

[SteveH]

 Welcome on-board George...

[GSHEP]

Thanks for the welcome have had a look around and found a lot of interesting items some way over my head but as they say 1 millivolt at a time.
Ah its Friday evening and something more important, time for a pint.

King Regards George

[Hugo]

Welcome to you George.

[Outtasight]

Unlucky with the inverters.  Did they both blow at the same time?  What were they running?

[StBarnabas]

Hi George
also welcome to the forum. I have found it a great place and have learned lots. My main regret this year is that work pressure is high this year leaving little time.
Sean

[GSHEP]

They had been working quite happily and within a few days of each other they failed think it had something to do with that bright orange thing that appears in our Scottish skys now and again.
What I did notice was that when the regulator red light went out to protect batteries from high voltage the pure sign wave also switch off. This I had not seen before but the damage could have been already done.

They are in for repair.

Received the pc-link for soladin 600 sods law says three days of wall to wall blue / connect up and wall to wall gray but to my shock I was getting 100+v and only 1W something not quite right here will check today.

4 panels in series

I have another 4 panels in parrallel on seperate circuit which I will put in series later (Difficult to change at the moment) QUESTION Can I add these to the series circuit. I know you can in electronic resistor circuits.

Kind Regards Shep

[GSHEP]

Further

Used the old telephone cable to connect Soladin 600 (in garage) to connect to computer in upstairs room


Unit showing Mains 241  49.9 hz  --  98.5v   .1a  4w and showing as overcast which it is

4w --4w after all that work sheesh

Parallel system to batteries is 14.2v  1.2a

[GSHEP]

Sheeesh 

Decided to connect the panels on hut roof in series BOY was that fun (not) had to do this on my own but I must admit I am prity good at figuring out ways of making a two man job into one.  SO the 4 home made panels I connected up in series checked voltage and got around 65v -- Put panels back in position checked voltage in garage ZERO DRAT checked and had lost a soldered joint in one of the arrays. Will repair this when my borther in law visits.

When I had all panels connected up to the batteries 12V and inverter I was able to boil a 800w kettle a few times per day plus 12v Lights at night.

I now find I am only getting 108w from the new system

I know the 120w bought panels is not in the position it should be so the next task is to make it so.

OH!!!!! one small problem I have discovered.

If I leave the the SOLADIN program running on the computer I end up with a blue screen. 

The joys of saving the planet.

HAY but its Friday again TIME FOR A PINT

Regards SHEP

[desperate]

Gshep

You know what they say?

If at first you don't succeed ,...........bash it with a hammer.............if it still doesn;t work...........have a pint

Good luck

Desperate

[GSHEP]

Up date.

Inverters dead might have a go at repairing one as I could see items that were damaged, only cost a couple of quid for bits so worth a go.

Not to happy with my home made panels as I am only getting about 400w perday / still better than nothing I suppose and I am in Scotland

Repairing one panel that was almost destroyed by ingress of water ( learn from mistakes ).

Tried and experiment yesterday by changing from two series strings in parallel to both strings in parallel Voltage increase as expected from 50v to 110v but as the day progressed Soladin  600 triped out at 168v . Tried eleiminating panels but decided in the end just to leave as before.

My main problem I think is I have mismash sizes of panels

Got a price for 2.1kw system £12400 eeeemmmm I dont think so.

Kw/h per year 2396

and I used around 5000kw so I dont think I would be making a killing on exporting

Its 09:00 its overcast expecting rain and I am getting WAIT FOR IT  12w at 45v

Ah never mind its Friday again so looking forward to a Pint and a few wee drams

Kind Regards George

[wookey]

Not to happy with my home made panels as I am only getting about 400w perday

and I used around 5000kw

PLease be careful with units. You mean 400Wh and 5000kWh.

That's a lot by the way unless you have electric heating or a huge family or an electric car. Plenty of room for efficiency savings.

[EccentricAnomaly]

Thanks wookey, though maybe he means 400 W - it's the sort of thing you can't reliably guess when people are clearly muddled.

Got a price for 2.1kw system £12400 eeeemmmm I dont think so.

Kw/h per year 2396

2396 kWh per year from a 2.1 kW system in Scotland sounds a bit optimistic to me.  You'd normally expect around 700 to 900 hours per year of production in Britain, not in excess of 1100.  Is that price for a tracking system?

[GSHEP]

No ITS IS 400w or .4 as is indicated by SOLADIN 600
Best since installed 16 days ago was .7

AND  we used 2007/8  5075.73
                   2008/9  5621
                   2009/10 2983 since AUGUST

We are on the SATYWARM TARRIF £109 per month


Got another price  1800w system  £2600 estimated labour cost (ya right) total £8481.50
                         2760w system  £2800 estimated labour cost (ya right) total £11994.57

In my opinion these companies are not going to get many takers

Have not done math yet but recon I could install a 2300w  system for around £5000 only part I could not do is fit panels on roof. ( I could do it but at my age better not to).

I will never see the benefit of this but my daughter might.

Kind Regards George