3.885 installation Nr Cambridge

[Mickess]

Just found this forum.  Think I must have been sleeping as it has loads of information I spent hours trying to find.  I could have saved myself loads of time!
My system was installed at the beginning of july 2010 and so far I've been very happy with all aspects, not least the FIT return.
I have made a record of my daily production which I posted on a blog I've set up at
http://micksolar.wordpress.com/
Here's a picture of the 21 panels on my house.

21 Solar PV panels by mickess, on Flickr

[CeeBee]

Hi Mick

I think I recognise that system, in which case you're a few hundred yards from me! Look me up and check (and email/PM me if you want).

Do you fancy registering and putting monthly data on http://www.bdpv.fr/ It's great for making comparison with others nearby - so you can see if output is falling short for some reason. I see on your site that you've got plenty output data. I've had mine for a few years (unfortunately, as far as FITs are concerned - only get the pathetic low rate) so I've long-since stopped writing down daily output, though I do a real-time graph at http://www.viridis.net/rrd/combined.html, and some general waffle (which was more intended for the local Environmental Group) at http://www.viridis.net/energy/

[Mickess]

Hi CeeBee

I saw your link to the french site at http://www.bdpv.fr/ while looking through some of the posts and I will certainly give it a go. I saw that there were 3 around Cambridge and yours looks very close to me.  I wish I'd known before I had the system installed, I would have asked to come and have a look.

I am still on a learning curve and had a devil of a job getting my wife to concede that solar was benificial to everyone. However now she's seen the returns she tells everyone about it.

I intended to keep the daily record for a year to see what it produced and then go on to weekly.  I have a Sunny Boy 3800 inverter but it doesn't have bluetooth soI take my readings from the generation meter so I can keep an accurate check on what I'm being paid for.  I take a manual reading and post it daily to my spreadsheet.

Mick

[Baz]

Welcome aboard Mick.
That spreadsheet of actual output is really valuable to show the vaguaries of the British climate. You can't get data like that out of any of the estimation programs, or decent weather info in most places either for that matter. I'm sure it will be a help for people thinking of battery charging and off grid living too.
One little request is that you put the panel size, number etc on the spreadsheet so folks don't have to search around the blog for it, thus making it easy to factor for other array sizes.

Your interest calculations are interesting. Something you might give a reference to is the maintenance cost, insurance, inverter replacement cost etc, and perhaps more about the realisable value of the actual electricity generated.

You may have covered this elsewhere, I will have to read more of your blog this evening.

[Mickess]

Welcome aboard Mick.
That spreadsheet of actual output is really valuable to show the vaguaries of the British climate. You can't get data like that out of any of the estimation programs, or decent weather info in most places either for that matter. I'm sure it will be a help for people thinking of battery charging and off grid living too.
One little request is that you put the panel size, number etc on the spreadsheet so folks don't have to search around the blog for it, thus making it easy to factor for other array sizes.

Your interest calculations are interesting. Something you might give a reference to is the maintenance cost, insurance, inverter replacement cost etc, and perhaps more about the realisable value of the actual electricity generated.

You may have covered this elsewhere, I will have to read more of your blog this evening.

Thanks Baz.  I left maintenace out of my calculations believing that as I also left out any grid supplied power they would balance out. My insurance company has not increased my premium to take account of the solar panels so that isn't a problem and I figured that if the inverter needed replacement in 5 to 10 years I would deal with that if and when it arose.  I'm not too concerned as in the time my system has been running my particular inverter has  reduced in price so if that trend continues I don't see it as a major event.

[wookey]

Welcome to the Cambridge PV club. I've just been looking at the bdpv.fr comparison stats, and it does seem that installations are slowly getting better. i.e the newer they are the more normalised output they give by a few percent. So greenpark and morus (spring 2011) are about the same, and 2% better than mine (Oct 2009) which is 5% better than ceebee's (sometime in 2007?). These effects may be due to randomness and aspects of the orientation normalisation, but I suspect it's either the steady degredation of panels over time, or the the kit getting slightly better as well as cheaper (probably both).

[Mickess]

Thanks for the welcome Wookey.  If I hadn't found this forum I might never have known that Baz in the same village as me.  I now have to put my details on to the bdpv.fr site and find an easy and accurate way to get my generation figures automated. I'm sure I'll find the answer elsewhere on this forum.

[Mickess]

Sorry BAZ I meant Ceebee.  Must still be asleep.