Another Aberdeenshire solar PV

[Billy]

No worries nor could I (sort out the piccies and text that is).

Nice, I did think that you had posted in the wrong bit when I saw the water filled trench (leat), where is that water wheel?

Billy.

 

[Fintray]

Billy

I stay in a house called North Bog so the name probably says it all 

[linesrg]

Billy,

Congratulations from someone living out between Clatt & Leslie. Must meet one day.

Regards

Richard

[Fintray]

Richard

I've admired your solar tracker install and seeing your near location I would be very interested in meeting.

Ian

[mikey9]

Great to see someone elses output from a similar part of the sky (Northern Scotland)

Looks like you have approx 25 - 30% more output and higher peaks than we do over in Muir Of Ord - from a system 20% bigger - so pretty much what I would expect.

Very neat install - and Garage

[Fintray]

Mikey9

I see Muir of Ord and Fintray aren't too dissimilar in latitude so should be comparable, probably just the cloud cover making the difference 
The "garage" would suggest it has car/s in it, it has one which has been lingering there slowly decomposing for the past 20+ years (future project!).
Mainly built to give me more workshop space for waste cooking oil fuelled Lister genny, wood burning boiler (to be cobbled together from old oil boiler, gas boiler and other bits and pieces).
N.B. all future projects which I will attempt if I live long enough 

Ian

[AidyB]

I am more impressed with building a roof than installing the PV, but that's a mighty fine looking array nonetheless.

[Fintray]

AidyB

I'm usually of the "how difficult can it be" type of person so the roof was researched for timber grades and sizing and the 1st truss was made and assembled in the garden. At this point the wife didn't believe it was big enough to span the garage, thankfully it fitted. The actual erection of the trusses took some time to figure out how to do it single handed!
Anyway once the trusses were up I got a couple of joiners to sheet the roof with 40 sheets of 18mm OSB as I was worried about leaving the roof partially sheeted in strong winds.
Finally the slates were fitted and all the time I was working out how much weight was being supported by the trusses (about 1 ton of OSB plus 8 ton of slates along with nearly .5 ton panels and framing) and worrying it would stay up. So far so good!!!!!

[Outtasight]

Nice one.  Especially rebuilding the garage.

One day I'll get round to rebuilding mine.  Not that it's leaky, mind... Just that you can see the sky between the top of the prefab concrete walls and the dubious "ceramic" corrugated roofing because the wooden barge boards have all rotted away.  Luckily its some galvanised steel that holds the roof up.

[Fintray]

Well exactly one year on from the install and I'm happy to say the system has produced 3500 kWh against 2908 kWh that was forecast in the estimate. 

Hope it carries on for many years!

[russ_fae_fyvie]

Very nice !

How did you get the readouts from the PV ?

Is it something that the SB does ?

We've got a SB1700 and although we take readings manually, would be really interested to see whot you do to get the readout like that ?

www.russquinlan.co.uk

[biff]

well done fintray,
               i am fumbling about with my own attempt at an array which will max about 1kw,i intend to errect it on scaffolding and then when it is working stick a pair of wheels and a central axel to track the sun.however it already weighs the weight of 5 lengths of scaffold pole(which is considerable) and has a footprint of 10 x 14ft approx.the panels only take up 8 ft by 7 ft but i am loath to cut my scaffold further and the extra size might accomadate further panels at a later date.
 being off grid means i can use an immersion heater as a dumpload in 120dc.i guess we wont know how good or bad this will be untill i get it set up and running.meanwhile i will use the framework as it is and when i get time perhaps next year,i will fix the wheels and turntable,plus hoist motor and counter weights and voila,,! tracker.
    your roof is impressive and the array is well fixed and secure so you should not have any hassle when the storms blow.
                                                 biff

[Fintray]

Russ and Biff

Sorry for not replying earlier as I only discovered your posts today! 

Russ the graphs were produced from the data from the Sunny Boy exported into Excel.

Biff hopefully your progress on your tracker will be progressing and it will be good to see the pictures.

[russ_fae_fyvie]

Fintray, I'm as bad as you, I've just read your reply !!

So how do you get the readings from the SB into Excel ??

Didn't know there was any sort of interface ?

ta

[Fintray]

Russ

THe Sunny Boy comes with a cable that plugs into a USB port and exports the files as an Excel spreadsheet;
if you need any further info please send me a PM as I have just seen your question and hopefully I won't miss it this time