Solar Panels

[NM]

Those ~200/kWh limits a month are very low. Plenty of people even with 5kW systems would go over that.

Will be interesting how that translates into retail pricing.

Yep, my 5kW inverter, with lots of day-time self-consumption, managed 331kWh feed-in for the month of April. Earned me about a dollar a day at 10c/kWh.

 

[RAM]

Unshaded coastal north facing generation in WA- perfectly symmetrical

Are these for a day or longer period & averaged?

 

[RAM]

Its actually two pumps and the chlorinator. One pump for the main filter and pool circulation and one for the pool solar hearing that pumps to the heating tubes on the second story roof. They are not variable speed. The heating pump does cycle on/off as needed. Normally this time of year the heating is in "Winter Mode" where it only comes on for about 5 mins each day, just to keep the pipes and pump "wet". But our son is hosting a party here soon and has asked that the pool be available to use, so I have not put it into winter mode yet - it will be way too cold for me to get in! Water temp yesterday was 27 degrees, and three degrees below my entry point .

Main pump and chlorinator pulls around 4 Amps (apprx 1kW) and solar pump around 3 Amps. So together they are a little under 2kW when operating. I'll check the actual figures when they start up today. Its overcast here at the moment, so generation has not reached 4kW so hot water is unlikely to trigger from that today and will activate at 10:30am, so pool pumps likely around 11:30am at the conclusion of hot water heating requirement.

Also we have recently laid some new turf, so the rainwater tank pump has also been running in the afternoon keeping that soaked.

Well worth doing some investigation into variable speed pumps in advance of needing to replace your single speed pumps.

The issue with single speed efficiency is that they're running at 100% the entire time they're on, so energy efficiency is very poor. For my friend's pump/filter spend, he calculated the power savings meant the extra cost was covered by less than 2 years power savings. IIRC the daily draw previously was around 24 kWhs vs around 3 kWhs now.

But chances are (like with our inverter) your pumps will last longer than expected. Damn quality!

 

[Cynicor]

Are these for a day or longer period & averaged?

Single day each. All my curves are like that- might be a WA thing. No idea

 

[Quickstatus]

But chances are (like with our inverter) your pumps will last longer than expected. Damn quality!

My variable rpm pump died and so I went back to dumb pump. I'll investigate out sizing the filter. I run my pool on 100% anyway with chlorine and acid dosing roller pumls. If out sizing the filter reduces the pressure then the flow should increase and I should be able to shorten the pump time.

Though in the wider context it's hardly going to reduce my grid export in light of Ausgrid

 

[RAM]

My variable rpm pump died and so I went back to dumb pump. I'll investigate out sizing the filter. I run my pool on 100% anyway with chlorine and acid dosing roller pumls. If out sizing the filter reduces the pressure then the flow should increase and I should be able to shorten the pump time.

Though in the wider context it's hardly going to reduce my grid export in light of Ausgrid

Not just oversizing the filter but also oversizing the variable speed pool pump. The lower, on the range of possible rpm, it runs then the lower power draw. Running for 8 hours will use less total energy than running the same total throughput for 6 hours (for example).

In one my earlier posts I showed the formula for determining the relative power usage for the same throughput based on differing hp engines.

One aspect that I'd forgotten being told is that running a pool vacuum at the same time (from a pool skimmer box if enough available) also serves to improve the outcome (lower throughput needed) as the constant movement of the pool vacuum's hose ensures the chemicals in the pool are being 'stirred' vs settling.

 

[Quickstatus]

Not just oversizing the filter

That is true but with my grid export of 25,000kWh /year net of current pool pumps, making such additional changes is not going to make a difference

 

[kookaburra75]

Your profile looks very similar - very short sharp ramp and much longer decline. Ramp nearly 3 hours and decline over 6 hours.
Not quite identical but a similar short very sharp ramp with a much longer decline - certainly not symetrical like Ausgrid are claiming.

I suspect the quick ramp up in the morning, and the tailing off in the afternoon has a something to do with the placement of our panels. In the Google Maps shot of our place, you can see the main bank of panels facing east, and the other main sets north facing. There a few on the south edge to make up the numbers, but they still get a lot of sunlight on them, not as direct as the others.

There's also the large claret ash in the backyard which does overshadow some of the panels in mid afternoon - not an issue in winter though.