[Sticky] Solar Performance

Today, for the first time in 2021, our air source heat pump was off all day from 10:00 and will only probably only come later this evening. The spike at 16:00 was the pump kicking in to reheat hot water after showers we had after an epic gardening session. That means that our reasonably good day of solar production meant that we actually exported electricity today after the solar iBoost heated our DHW. More sunshine and warm weather please.

I'm exactly the opposite Mars. At this time of year with a nice day like today I run the heat pump from 10:00ish till 15:00 when the solar drops below 1.5 kW. Heating the slab and this keeps the house warm all night. If it gets close to freezing by morning I'll run it for an hour or so about 5am just to take the chill off the air upstairs.

The heat pump is more efficient in the daytime temperatures so besides using the sun to run it, it gives out more heat for less electricity.

I have used 3.6kW in the last 24 hrs, done 2 washes, cooked the evening meal in the oven and even managed to put a couple of kWh into the car at 5a. The batteries stayed mostly fully charged all day and now are at 71% they'll have discharged fully by about 3am ready to charge from about 08:00 tomorrow again.

Ive had a good day so far, my solar panels say on the enphase that I produced 22.1kWh but on my inverter it says 19.2kWh yeald. I filled my 4.8kWH battery 12:30. I have imported 2.8 and exported 14.3kWh which is annoying as I dont get any export fee as no smart meter yet ! so far this month March I have produced 166.6kWh via solar 🙂 I will most likely add a second pair of batteries to it for a total of 9.6kWh in total. 

Here's a couple more from yesterday.. today is a a lot cloudier so I'm running the HP  for an hour, letting the solar charge the batteries for a couple, then another hour  or do with the HP and then charge the batteries for tonight, depending on how much production we get.Thats the plan anyway.

Attached is yesterdays report from Octopus as well as a monthly report from Octopus watch. That gives you an idea of what can be achieved by load shifting wih batteries.

@boblochinver Yep, I had that last year. Only 4.4kWh of batteries and no smart meter and exporting more than I could use. It's frustrating. What I would like is to install a micro aerogenerator.. not he huge things on a pole which are classed as micro nowadays, but  a foot long tubular self regulating one on top of the garage, just for when its windy at night and in the winter to keep the batteries topped up. When it's not windy down South and Agile prices don't reflect the wind strength up here.

@chris-in-kemnay i was thinking about a small wind generator especially where i live (right on the coast). Not sure about potential noise or if there is planning permission issues ? Hopefully i get my smart meter at some point, was thinking can you actually pay for a smart meter to be installed quicker ? Eg have a third party install a smart meter that works with all the energy providers rather than wait for them to get round to actually installing in your area which could be ages for me up in the far north of Scotland

Just keep pestering octopus. Call them or email them..its the only way  to get them.to install one quicker.. I had 3 responses within 2 weeks..no sorry it'll be ages.. no sorry.. and click on this link to book an appointment. 

I imagine the small vertical one ibwas thinking if would work in your location for probably 340 days a year ..I'm pretty sure you'll be as windy as Shetland and the completely calm days are few and far between? If you used a small and quiet enough one I reckon you could get away without planning especially if its building mounted and doesn't protrude too much above roofline.

Yeah they just kept saying click this link and keep checking but they then say as your registered your interest then why would i need to keep checking ? Isn’t that the purpose of registering interest to be notified when it there are slots for fitting available ? I’ll pester them on a weekly basis but would be good to just pay for quicker install by third party (I’d do it myself but not sure where i could buy a smart meter and probably wouldn’t be allowed as they are meant to be tamper proof etc)  

what type of wind generator do you think would be suitable ? Do you have a link to a suggestion ? 

Leading edge us the one i was looking at ..but it'll be a few years away for me as I have to get the kitchen extension sorted first.

Its quiet. Doesn't take up a lot of room  and if I remember correctly doesn't matter if it overspeeds..but itvwas a while ago since I last looked..they've probably improved it since then

To utilise your excess solar production, have you considered electric storage radiators, charged from your solar and then used to support or replace your ASHP overnight.

@derek-m That's an interesting idea Derek. Unfortunately most of my excess is in the summer when the car and batteries have all been charged and when the solar thermal has heated the water. so I don't need any more heat. I had thought of renting out my charger, but you can't really do that only on  sunny days, can you?

Has anyone used Open Energy Monitor to keep an eye on electrical power use? Our setup isn't straightforward (incoming supply to one distribution board, Solar PV to another that isn't easily linked to) so off the shelf PV monitoring probably won't work...

@ken, welcome to the forums. No, I haven't even heard of Open Energy Monitor, but I do like new products and will do some reading tonight.

@editor Hi Mars, Happy reading 😀  There is a lot!

I was thinking of putting an emonPi on the panel where the solar is (as thats where my networking kit lives too) and adding an emonTX to the main panel to measure consumption and monitor water pump usage (and anything else I want to investigate)  🤣