Solar Panels

[NM]

Mine is 13 degrees east of north. Yesterday was a nice sunny SE QLD autumn day. 6.6kW of panels, 5kW inverter.

 

[Pushka]

Ours isn't smooth either.

 

[kookaburra75]

Ours is a bit over the place, not surprising given it's nearly winter in Canberra. 8kW of panels, mainly north facing. SUn 12 May it was raining, Monday 13 May was mainly sunny.

 

[RAM]

Ours is a bit over the place, not surprising given it's nearly winter in Canberra. 8kW of panels, mainly north facing. SUn 12 May it was raining, Monday 13 May was mainly sunny.
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Your profile looks very similar - very short sharp ramp and much longer decline. Ramp nearly 3 hours and decline over 6 hours.

Post automatically merged: May 15, 2024

Ours isn't smooth either.
View attachment 384862

Not quite identical but a similar short very sharp ramp with a much longer decline - certainly not symetrical like Ausgrid are claiming.

 

[RAM]

Mine is 13 degrees east of north. Yesterday was a nice sunny SE QLD autumn day. 6.6kW of panels, 5kW inverter.

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..and you're sure you don't work for Ausgrid?

Not quite identical to Ausgrid but much closer than our profile (or the others posted so far).

If not too personal, what drove your loads yesterday? A/C or ev charging? If ev charging was it through a standard power outlet?

 

[NM]

..and you're sure you don't work for Ausgrid?

Not quite identical to Ausgrid but much closer than our profile (or the others posted so far).

If not too personal, what drove your loads yesterday? A/C or ev charging? If ev charging was it through a standard power outlet?

The burst around 10am is hot water system. My home automation system monitors solar generation and when it reaches 4kW (or at 10:30am if cloudy) it turns on the HW system. When the power to the HW system drops to zero, it turns on the pool pump/chlorinator. The second, smaller peak around 1pm was cooking lunch (some steaks on electric induction cooktop). The rest is just normal transience. No AC running yesterday - its Autumn in Brisvages!

And no, I do not work for Ausgrid or any other energy related business.

The more rapid decline at the end of the day is likely due to my panel orientation being slightly east of north, as well as being a little further north (Brisbane) where twilight tends to be shorter than for people living further south,

 

[lovestotravel]

The burst around 10am is hot water system.

I'm glad someone else has this as well!

We changed from Gas to an electric element hot water system, 2 x 4.8kw (410 litres) Bottom element during off-peak generally and top element for 100 litres at anytime.

I requested my electrician to install a timer to use the bottom element when I Program it, sadly our Solar isn't that smart... So I set the timer for 10:30am to 3pm for heating

My electrician and even plumber had never heard of my request before, but it was done.

Gas bill is pretty much $0 except for the gas cooktop

Hot water is amazing, and we go through 3 baths and 2 showers before it starts to run out, but the top element kicks in.

Sorry, enough about hot water but using Solar to heat the water during the day has worked out great, with a net 5KW system and on sunnier days, free hot water down in Melbourne

During Winter the solar maxes out at about 3.7kw during the day so a few KW are used for hot water on those days.

 

[Quickstatus]

I requested my electrician to install a timer to use the bottom element when I Program it

Go automatic by using a Solar diverter such as CatchPower or Myenergi Eddi

 

[RAM]

The burst around 10am is hot water system. My home automation system monitors solar generation and when it reaches 4kW (or at 10:30am if cloudy) it turns on the HW system. When the power to the HW system drops to zero, it turns on the pool pump/chlorinator. The second, smaller peak around 1pm was cooking lunch (some steaks on electric induction cooktop). The rest is just normal transience. No AC running yesterday - its Autumn in Brisvages!

And no, I do not work for Ausgrid or any other energy related business.

The more rapid decline at the end of the day is likely due to my panel orientation being slightly east of north, as well as being a little further north (Brisbane) where twilight tends to be shorted than for people living further south,

Is your pool pump variable or single speed? Surprised it is such a large load.

A very large & deep pool I know of, runs a variable speed pool pump (1.45hp engine that the supplier calls 1 hp) for 8 hours to turn the pool more than once and it runs at 380Ws.

Well so much for memory, just checked to make sure & it was called a 3 hp engine but is closer to 4. Pool capacity around 95,000 litres, turns 1.8 times a day.

They over-sized the pump & filter when they came across some tech info that running double the engine capacity for the same throughput uses 1/8th the power. Strictly speaking 1/(ratio of power capacity)^3. He figured that by also spending another $100 or so for a larger filter that the PSI required would be that much lower.

I was somewhat sceptical (under-statement) until I saw it operating. Crystal clear water and PSI at 7.

BTW: Twilight in Sydney currently seems to be no more than 40 minutes (Winter solstice on June 22nd for everyone in Southern Hemisphere) so I suppose no major surprise but our panels will have turned off long before then. As of 4.18pm we're at 61 Ws per kW installed. I expect they'll have turned off before 4.25, actually 4.36 it turned out to be.

Edited: Corrected poor memory on engine capacity & turns

 

[Quickstatus]

larger filter

Interesting.
The physics makes sense.

How much bigger over standard?

 

[RAM]

Interesting.
The physics makes sense.

How much bigger over standard?

About 25% or so I think - max size they could fit in the under pool deck equipment space was how it was chosen.

 

[exceladdict]

AusGrid is changing the pricing for Grid access re solar exports

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I had to double check that it's not April 1. This can't be serious, in a world where we are trying to encourage alternative energy generation, we are discouraging exports during the peak export period?

Surely the answer is capturing that energy for use during the peak use periods, not penalising households?

 

[Quickstatus]

1. This can't be serious

It is
- mentioned Here 3.6, 4.0, 6

It's mentioned in Ausgrid documents to AEMO for the 2024-2029 regulatory period.

 

[Quickstatus]

t energy for use during the peak use periods

Which they are endeavoring to do. Unfortunately household solar does not do that. The 2 peak periods correspond to 0600 and 1800hrs which is when the sun don't shine.

Basically, the system needs batteries to time shift to these 2 periods. It will be interesting to see what the retailers come up with.

 

[Cynicor]

About 25% or so I think - max size they could fit in the under pool deck equipment space was how it was chosen.

Unshaded coastal north facing generation in WA- perfectly symmetrical

 

[exceladdict]

Which they are endeavoring to do. Unfortunately household solar does not do that. The 2 peak periods correspond to 0600 and 1800hrs which is when the sun don't shine.

Basically, the system needs batteries to time shift to these 2 periods. It will be interesting to see what the retailers come up with.

It probably feels straight out of an episode of utopia, but I have pondered some sort of east/central/west power connection for surplus solar generation. East coast would to a small extent support west coast AM, but more importantly west coast afternoon could support east coast major evening demand.

But if the numbers added up I figure it would have already been done.

 

[moa999]

AusGrid is changing the pricing for Grid access re solar exports

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.

 

[Quickstatus]

200/kWh limits a month are very low

Yes I export 10x that amount /month. At least my system should be fully amortised come June 2025.

Hopefully Tesla Powerwall 3 comes out that can retrofit an existing solar system

 

[Quickstatus]

east/central/west power connection

Perth is 2hrs behind Sydney.
Needs somewhere like India which is about 5hrs behind

 

[NM]

Is your pool pump variable or single speed? Surprised it is such a large load.

A very large & deep pool I know of, runs a variable speed pool pump (1.45hp engine that the supplier calls 1 hp) for 8 hours to turn the pool more than once and it runs at 380Ws.

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.