Maximising our summer solar consumption...

Solar Photovoltaic (PV)

Last Post by Marzipan71 2 years ago

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Marzipan71

(@marzipan71)

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Joined: 3 years ago

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Topic starter 22/05/2023 11:09 am

Hi – Following our house renovation in 2020, our grid supply here in Italy was upgraded from a 6kW single phase line to 18kW comprised of three separate 6kW lines to the house – our bills say its a three phase supply, but really its three separate single phase lines. There is no way to have more than 6kw delivered via a single line here in Italy (I believe). Our ASHP, air to air splits, and pool pump are on one line; the kitchen is on one line (electric oven, dishwasher, etc); and everything else is on the remaining line. There is a single consumer unit, a single smart meter, and we receive one bill.

We have a 6.6kWp PV setup which produces plenty of solar in summer (1MWh in July and August) and a decent amount in winter (0.5MWh in Feb). Our solar/ inverter I’ve been informed can only be connected to one of the three lines, so we have it ‘feeding’ the line with the ASHP/ splits/ pool pump - ASHP in winter, splits (for AC) and pool pump in summer. This means in winter we consume most of what we produce – 80 to 90% – but in summer that figure drops to around 30%.

In summer when the heat pump is not providing space heating, it would be really nice to be able to utilise more of our solar production during the day but due to the way we are configured, we are limited to the devices just on that one line. Our electrician is able to add devices to the line fed by the solar at the consumer unit, but ideally I don’t want to have to call him out at the start and end of every summer. So as a non-electrician, I’m wondering if there’s any piece of kit or procedure which would allow us to use more of our summer months’ solar?

I know batteries might be an obvious suggestion from a consumption perspective but my specific issue right now is our three line set up. A solar diverter on the line with the heat pump for DHW might also be an obvious place to start, but what I’m thinking is there may be some easy way to move or switch some of our electrical devices onto the line fed by the solar, or shift some of the solar (some kind of load balancing?) onto the other lines to power those devices. I’m not an electrician and fairly ignorant of what happens downstream from the solar panels so apologies for my ignorance here. I feel I’m missing something simple so would very much appreciate any suggestions people might have. Thanks all!

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