Wednesday 8 January 2014

PV installed

Our solar PV system took three full days to install, a bit longer than originally planned, because of some foul weather: wind, hail, rain, but finally some sun.

the “Sunny Boy” DC to AC inverters installed in the attic
The inverters have a Bluetooth interface, and we have downloaded the software that lets us monitor our total generation.  It produces charts, and data at 5 minute intervals in csv format.

Downstairs we have more devices to play with.  There’s the offical meter (to let the electricity company know how much we have generated), the Big Red Button to turn off the system, a small black box monitoring total electrical usage, and a box to send any excess generation into the immersion heater.

gizmos
The other end of the total usage monitor displays how much electricity we are using from the grid:

we’re using over a kW, and we’re not doing anything! (4W of that is the box itself.)
And it displays how much electricity we are generating:

0W being generated: well, it is night time!

We did generate some electricity today, though.  The data downloaded from the inverter shows when this generation occurred, from system switch on around 14:50, until sunset:

no generation after sunset!

Tomorrow will be our first full day of generation.  Hopefully we will get more than a little blip on the chart.  But the weather forecast?  Cloudy, of course!

tomorrow: cloudy, with a hint of sun just before sunset

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