Have decided to double my Solar PV

[solarman216]

Yep not liking to pay for diesel for electric so looking for reasonably priced PV panels, need 1600 Watts total to go with the 1600 I already have, would have done this before but my existing controller is on its limit amps wise 60 @ 24v and they are rather expensive but sourced a good deal from the US so now need the PV to go with it, best so far is 8 X 200W panels @ £139 each inc delivery and vat, from company located in UK, I can get them cheaper from Germany but the carriage kills it at £39 per panel, to put my needs in perspective, today at around 1pm I was getting 40 amps charge, running the genny produces 80 amps, its not easy being green as Dick Strawbridge used to say before he bought his French Chateau, Rick

 

[jims-terrano]

I don’t blame you Rick, wish I could have more panels but since the next door neighbours built an extension that casts a nice shadow I just don’t see the point. We used to produce a reasonable amount of power especially around this time of year so. I did have plans to expand but now I wish we hadn’t paid out for the ones we have. Never mind when we come to sell the house it will be a selling point.
Not a problem you’ll ever have Rick :thumbs

 

[panelbeater]

i looked into putting solar on my house many many years ago but my roofs are not the right shape/way to make it feasable.
my electric usage is low around 25 a month less when out vanning so i feel its not worth it.
your set up means you will bennifit more so i say go for it as i and you know the more panels the better for you.

 

[solarman216]

£1120 has purchased 8 panels to give me another 1600 W, now my existing also giving 1600 W cost over £5k in 2008, win win all the way, Rick

 

[panelbeater]

shows how much they have come down,its the same for putting them on caravan roofs,so cheap now and the regulaters have got more efficient a well so you get more ams from the volts.
you cant lose rick.you might have to up your battery bank though.

 

[solarman216]

Got frame work up on Sunday and a couple of panels, lots of other work going on as well like painting the wobbly iron roof so today should of seen the hardware up and done but disaster, the last panel was resting against the scaffold hand rail and as I came up the ladder a hardly noticeable gust came up and I guess cos I was on the ladder I deflected it to the panel which in slow motion fell forward right onto the top of a pole poking up from the boards, need less to say it has gone to the graveyard, new one ordered due Thursday, try and take some pics tomorrow if I remember, Rick

 

[panelbeater]

oh dear.

 

[solarman216]

Amassing ordered replacement panel Monday 3pm arrived today, but got to go London tomorrow as purchased 5 Calor 47 empty bottles in order to take advantage of cheap propane in Eastbourne, but been told by supplier London is going to be locked down in next day or so hence got to go now, but gives me a chance to hop up to Chelmsford for a bit of fun, Rick

 

[solarman216]

Almost complete, one panel to go, Rick

 

[solarman216]

At 11 am this morning before I left for Northampton they were putting out 80 amps into the batteries only a tad lower than the generator would do, genny was running but only for the washing machines as our weekly wash load is quite high, me being a mucky pup, but the charging systems were turned off, makes a big difference to fuel consumption, so well happy with summer on it's way, Rick

 

[solarman216]

As an add on to this thread, we have just gone 6 whole months with all our power coming from the solar system, only need to run the genny for the washing machines, plus 99% of our hot water has come from the sun in fact we have been turning the boiler itself off and run the CH pump in order to extract heat from the hot water cylinder and put it into the waterbed, with the cylinder often at 80C we needed to reduce the temperature, we did get a little low on water near the end of the drought, but we got round it, Rick

 

[panelbeater]

all good then apart from the miss-hap.

 

[solarman216]

Just an update

Today I collected 4 used solar PV panels at a knock down cost of £320. as the new inverter that I got earlier in the year has the ability to accept a limited solar PV input of 1200 watts max, the new (to me) units give 1040 watts, so ideal for my situation = another 1 Kw to the 3.2Kw I already have at a very low cost, happy bunny is me, eff the power companies, Rick

 

[jims-terrano]

Your system sounds great Rick, better than filling the bank balances of the fat cats.
We have worked out that the majority of the time we are using pretty much all the lecky our panels generate but thankfully our tariff also pays us for each unit we use that we have generated. Only downside is that our feed in payment has dropped but the convenience of working from home out weighs that negative.

 

[jims-terrano]

Hi Rick, I’ve been watching a series of videos on YouTube about a bloke in Wales that installed a small hydroelectric generator fed from a small stream. He was basically generating 1kw an hour and running it through a charge controller charge a large bank of batteries. It didn’t half make me think about you as I’m sure you mentioned have a stream of some sort running through your land.

 

[solarman216]

Yes we do Jim and a few years ago I built a 10ft water wheel and over shot it by laying two 4inch plastic pipes 60 or so Mtrs up stream and creating a small dam it worked well for a couple of years, overshot during low water, overshot and undershot during heavy rain, but the water has all but disappeared over the last few years, Rick