Johnny82 Posted January 30, 2023 Posted January 30, 2023 2 hours ago, -cK- said: Clearly you have not yet had a bad weather day 😅, but yes on good days we sit on so much potential capacity. If the cities had any good sense they would invest in battery farms where all of the excess power from each solar setup could get stored and then redistributed to the grid during loadshedding. They get the power for "free" or at a reduced purchase price as to what eskom charge them and sell it to the people at their normal rate. How does that not make sense and profit? Bad weather days 🥴 last year in June and July my monthly production from solar went from 450-550kWh in Jan/Feb to 270kWh mostly due to winter time where the sun rises later and the sun angle to the panels are not ideal. I only got about 60-70% of peak capability in the middle of the day, some days the batteries never got any extra charge as the solar production never exceeded the demand. Some days the batteries got full for about an hour only, other days only up to 70% somewhere during the day. For interest sake, this is my system's production from last year - red line is total consumption, blue indicates how much was generated by the solar panels.
LazyTrailRider Posted January 30, 2023 Posted January 30, 2023 24 minutes ago, Johnny82 said: Bad weather days 🥴 last year in June and July my monthly production from solar went from 450-550kWh in Jan/Feb to 270kWh mostly due to winter time where the sun rises later and the sun angle to the panels are not ideal. I only got about 60-70% of peak capability in the middle of the day, some days the batteries never got any extra charge as the solar production never exceeded the demand. Some days the batteries got full for about an hour only, other days only up to 70% somewhere during the day. For interest sake, this is my system's production from last year - red line is total consumption, blue indicates how much was generated by the solar panels. Where exactly are you based? Geography plays a *huge* role in production figures.
Johnny82 Posted January 30, 2023 Posted January 30, 2023 3 minutes ago, LazyTrailRider said: Where exactly are you based? Geography plays a *huge* role in production figures. Absolutely. I am in Parow close to Tygerberg High School and I know our place is not ideally located with Tygerberg koppie blocking early morning sun (in winter the panels only really start producing around 11am) and I also don't have enough roof space facing the right way, so not all my panels are ideally placed. I know more is possible with my setup, but I have to live with what is possible. Last year approx 45% of my total usage was self generated and the power does not go off during load shedding, so the boss and the kids are happy and not complaining that the internet and the PC went off any more 😆
Pure Savage Posted January 30, 2023 Posted January 30, 2023 1 hour ago, ChrisF said:  They are running diesel and gas generators non-stop at the moment.  no need for large battery back up systems. Reduce the generator output in sync with the available PV and ramp up the generators when the pv reduces. Every home that can supply a few kW.h per day saves a few liters of diesel/gas ...... Agreed, if they gave away the 2 way meters, thats 200l of diesel, how long does that last running those big generators for pumps? mazambaan and ChrisF 2
Pure Savage Posted January 30, 2023 Posted January 30, 2023 43 minutes ago, Johnny82 said: Bad weather days 🥴 last year in June and July my monthly production from solar went from 450-550kWh in Jan/Feb to 270kWh mostly due to winter time where the sun rises later and the sun angle to the panels are not ideal. I only got about 60-70% of peak capability in the middle of the day, some days the batteries never got any extra charge as the solar production never exceeded the demand. Some days the batteries got full for about an hour only, other days only up to 70% somewhere during the day. For interest sake, this is my system's production from last year - red line is total consumption, blue indicates how much was generated by the solar panels. Saw an article where they state its around a 50-65% drop in winter. My trees in the garden may get a pruning. Hoping as our consumption is lower should hopefully get by in winter, will be interesting.
dave303e Posted January 30, 2023 Posted January 30, 2023 20 minutes ago, Johnny82 said: Absolutely. I am in Parow close to Tygerberg High School and I know our place is not ideally located with Tygerberg koppie blocking early morning sun (in winter the panels only really start producing around 11am) and I also don't have enough roof space facing the right way, so not all my panels are ideally placed. I know more is possible with my setup, but I have to live with what is possible. Last year approx 45% of my total usage was self generated and the power does not go off during load shedding, so the boss and the kids are happy and not complaining that the internet and the PC went off any more 😆 I just hope like hell someone is kicking architects when they don't adjust rooflines for solar optimization...
bleedToWin Posted January 30, 2023 Posted January 30, 2023 (edited) If the city gave the feedback infrastructure for free and only paid for your monthly units that exceeds 100 monthly everyone would sign up and happily contribute even those that won't ever see a cent. They could greatly reduce their offering per unit over 100 and people would still do it. Edited January 30, 2023 by bleedToWin ChrisF 1
Frosty Posted January 30, 2023 Posted January 30, 2023 3 hours ago, Johnny82 said: Absolutely. I am in Parow close to Tygerberg High School and I know our place is not ideally located with Tygerberg koppie blocking early morning sun (in winter the panels only really start producing around 11am) and I also don't have enough roof space facing the right way, so not all my panels are ideally placed. I know more is possible with my setup, but I have to live with what is possible. Last year approx 45% of my total usage was self generated and the power does not go off during load shedding, so the boss and the kids are happy and not complaining that the internet and the PC went off any more 😆 When you say they aren’t ideally placed, are they facing more than one direction?Â
mazambaan Posted January 31, 2023 Posted January 31, 2023 12 hours ago, bleedToWin said: If the city gave the feedback infrastructure for free and only paid for your monthly units that exceeds 100 monthly everyone would sign up and happily contribute even those that won't ever see a cent. They could greatly reduce their offering per unit over 100 and people would still do it. It seems a no brainer to me but there is obviously a technical element to it which is not easily explained to politicians. My guess is that this concept of many domestic users feeding in requires a bit of load factoring, grid modelling etc and I doubt whether CoCT has the capacity to do this themselves and such specialists are not exactly thick on the ground IMHO (experience from 10 years ago). Now I'm guessing they would have to go to tender for these services and who is going to draw up the brief? Domestic input has been a bit of an issue in parts of Hawaii (Musk's boet I believe) and one can imagine domestic input waning as domestic power requirements climb in the late afternoon. Too timid by CoCT I think.
Johnny82 Posted January 31, 2023 Posted January 31, 2023 12 hours ago, Frosty said: When you say they aren’t ideally placed, are they facing more than one direction? Jip, the house is built NW to SW to have a nice view of our mountain, with the result that there is only a little bit of roof space facing north-ish. So we had to put the one string on the one section of roof facing slightly NW, and the second string facing more east as it was the only space available. Frosty 1
Johnny82 Posted January 31, 2023 Posted January 31, 2023 15 hours ago, dave303e said: I just hope like hell someone is kicking architects when they don't adjust rooflines for solar optimization... Haha, 40-50 years ago when our place was built there was no need for considerations for solar installations...
Frosty Posted January 31, 2023 Posted January 31, 2023 Just now, Johnny82 said: Jip, the house is built NW to SW to have a nice view of our mountain, with the result that there is only a little bit of roof space facing north-ish. So we had to put the one string on the one section of roof facing slightly NW, and the second string facing more east as it was the only space available. That’s similar to my place; running NW to SE. I also have it split on two sides. But that’s because I have a solar geyser and the pool heating equipment on the NE facing roof.
Schnavel Posted January 31, 2023 Posted January 31, 2023 My house was built in the early 1900's and it's almost as though they built it with solar in mind! Roof faces almost due north and the pitch is almost perfect for the latitude required to get optimal solar. Hairy 1
The Ouzo Posted January 31, 2023 Posted January 31, 2023 9 minutes ago, Schnavel said: My house was built in the early 1900's and it's almost as though they built it with solar in mind! Roof faces almost due north and the pitch is almost perfect for the latitude required to get optimal solar. Due north, in the southern hemisphere, has always been the optimum direction for winter warmth in homes. My parents property face a few deg NE, when the house was going to be built my dad insisted they angle it exactly north, hence is sits slightly skew on the property. This was more than 50 years ago. Hairy and lechatnoir 2
Hairy Posted January 31, 2023 Posted January 31, 2023 15 hours ago, dave303e said: I just hope like hell someone is kicking architects when they don't adjust rooflines for solar optimization... Might I suggest you also then ensure that you buy a property large enough to be able to orientate your house optimally to allow for the ideal placement of the house ...... splat, ChrisF and Pure Savage 1 2
Hairy Posted January 31, 2023 Posted January 31, 2023 15 minutes ago, Schnavel said: My house was built in the early 1900's and it's almost as though they built it with solar in mind! Roof faces almost due north and the pitch is almost perfect for the latitude required to get optimal solar. If the site permits, North facing is always how you want to build a house in SA. TheoG 1
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