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Davo99
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Joined: 03/06/2019
Location: Australia
Posts: 1578

Posted: 09:16pm 02 Oct 2019

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I have been playing around with Solar setups for about 2 years now enjoying erecting, Fiddling, testing and learning as I go.

I haven't changed my panel setup in some months after installing a temporary ground mount system with spare panels to try and make all the winter power I could.

The Daily KWH total has come up fast over the last month or so with the longer daylight hours and brighter skies.
I recently put in a 32A 3 Phase circuit to dedicate to the solar inverters on the back of the house and intend to do the same up the shed but finishing her whom must be obeyed's new mega Kitchen ( even by the installers description) has to come first.

I moved some inverters round the weekend to better match the daily outputs and also where I was getting a bit of voltage rise to put an older inverter there with a Higher cut off.
The new arrangement has been working well and this morning I noted the high angle of the sun and the fact that 2/3 of my ground array was still at a very definite winter angle. I dropped the panels down somewhat, probably not enough as flat is about the best from now till feb but better than they were before.

This evening doing my too much time on my hands daily checks, I saw I made a new personal high for generation of 78.4 KWH for the day.
That beat Mondays record of 74.2 KWH a day.

I am expecting to do even better in the next few days as the weather is supposed to be warmer which will mean more radiation and clear skies.
Atm I am running 12.5 KW of inverters on 23? KW ( I forget what I have got now) of panels.

I noticed at one point on Monday, around 11am, all 3 of my inverters were maxed out. I checked a number of times today when I was working outside and didn't see any of them come near that which I thought a bit strange but Monday also had a bit of cloud though the day.

If the weather goes as predicted over the weekend, I may just be able to crack the 80 KWH day mark. I am hoping to get a 5 Kw inverter to replace a 3.6 I have now which should give me a bit more generation from the 9 kw of panels on that array.

One thing I'll try and look at doing before I take away the ground mount unit but I could do it with single panels I spose, is to put some Cream coloured Colourbond sheets at the bottom of them to see if they reflect more light onto the panels and an increase in output can be detected. I notice when it's lying on the ground in the sun the colourbond is blinding and can be seen reflecting the light into a garden shed nearby.

Like everything else solar, the cost of Improving efficiency is more than just adding more panels in the existing " Inefficient" setup but as I have these colourbond sheets not currently doing anything, would be good to see what sort of an effect they have.

See how I go with hitting the 80 KWH mark. If I don't make it by Sunday, I might just grab another 2.5 KW of panels and put them on the lawn and hook them in so I know I'll get there. :0)

Warpspeed
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Joined: 09/08/2007
Location: Australia
Posts: 4406

Posted: 11:23pm 02 Oct 2019

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Yup, we have just passed the Spring equinox so the rate of improvement from day to day is at its maximum right now.

You can try a colourbond reflector, and it may work, but in mid summer its possibly going to throw more heat into the panels which might be counterproductive.

Cheers, �Tony.

Davo99
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Joined: 03/06/2019
Location: Australia
Posts: 1578

Posted: 06:09am 03 Oct 2019

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Yes, that is a point but then again, I hadn't even thought about summer. I more had in mind trying to amplify the lower winter radiation. Summer I make more power than I know what to do with. The over kill on everything is to try and get the winter generation to something reasonable and combat the drop off.

Seems funny the summer equinox is in December and then it's all down hill from there.
When I first set my panels up I was thinking the best way to do the racking to get them to the correct angle on the shed roof which is only 13 and 5o. I then came across a solar radiation/ output prediction site and realised that the best angle from oct to Feb here was flat. Bonus!
Gave me 4 months longer to think how I was going to set the panels up. In the mean time I put them on the shed roof at the angle it was. With more research and Number crunching I discovered the difference between the summer and winter angle generation wasn't all that much anyway and being concerned about the winds we get here, I decided to leave them at the shed angle. A decision I have not regretted.

Once I get everything up on the roof I'll see what I have left over and might just weld up some racking to do an extra ground mount to try and make a bit more power over winter. It's bit of you know what into the wind scenario and quite inefficient but I'm a bit obsessed with all this solar Makarky now and it gives me something to do and moreso something to think about.

noneyabussiness
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Joined: 31/07/2017
Location: Australia
Posts: 512

Posted: 08:46am 03 Oct 2019

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Guess you were successful uping the voltage tolerance on those aurora inverters of yours ??

I think it works !!

Davo99
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Joined: 03/06/2019
Location: Australia
Posts: 1578

Posted: 11:34am 03 Oct 2019

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I did get the adapter and the program but TBH I haven't even tried yet.
Been occupied with all the fun of the Mrs New Kitchen.

The 32A circuit lowered the Voltage on the 2 house inverters and I put the aurora up the back and that seems to be quite content up there.

For some reason, the 4 KW inverter tripped the 25A breaker I have it on today. There was a lot of intermittent cloud today which I know the cloud edge effect makes things go rather screwy so I'll have to keep an eye on it. I think this is the second time this has happened on this circuit. I'm reluctant to go any larger on the breaker even though the main breaker is 32A and the cable is good for 50A as I like to keep everything under rated. Don't know why something that should be doing less than 20A is tripping a 25A breaker? If it happens again I'll swap the breaker for another of the same size.

I only made 67 Kwh today. Still good but a fair bit down on yesterday.
Hopefully the next few days will give me the 80 kwh goal.

noneyabussiness
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Joined: 31/07/2017
Location: Australia
Posts: 512

Posted: 10:03pm 03 Oct 2019

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Ive had a 20amp breaker trip with only 15amp through it, turned out it was temp buildup, where it was located it would build temp all day and trip intermittently it the arvo. Up the value to 32 and haven't had a problem since. Runs heaps cooler as well (good 10 degrees by my temp gauge).

I think it works !!

Davo99
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Joined: 03/06/2019
Location: Australia
Posts: 1578

Posted: 08:13am 04 Oct 2019

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Hmm, Interesting.
Was pretty hot here today, 33, which was warmer than the other day but today held in there. I still think it was something to do with cloud edge effect the other day.
I have seen it before. Not only does it somehow make the voltage from the panels go up, a lot, it somehow makes the AC voltage go nuts as well.

I was doing some more calculation of the correct solar panel angle right now and it's about 7 o here so I took my ground array off the posts and laid it down almost flat, just with one end raised to the sun. Lot closer now than it was before. Probably within 5o of perfect now so better than before.

Only managed 72Kwh today, little better than yesterday and maybe the panel tilt helped. supposed to have some rain tomorrow... supposed being the very key word there.
I'll gladly trade the power for the rain right now. Electricity I can make, water I can't.

I did hav a couple of 12V radiator fans blowing in a good breeze all day. I wanted to heat the house up because even if the days are warm, the nights are still cold here so ai wanted to store a bit of heat. actualy took a while, even with the amount of air that was coming in one end of the house and going out the other but it's quite cosy in here now and the clouds are rolling in and the temp as usual has fallen right off already.

Davo99
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Joined: 03/06/2019
Location: Australia
Posts: 1578

Posted: 09:49am 05 Oct 2019

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How things change in a day!

Raining and overcast all day today, made a grand total of 19.1 Kwh !

Be happy to do that again tomorrow if it would rain some more but supposed to be sunny.

Bugger!

Davo99
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Joined: 03/06/2019
Location: Australia
Posts: 1578

Posted: 07:15am 15 Oct 2019

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Finally got there today.
82.1 Kwh for the day. Might be a fraction more as the panels are still generating but they fall off pretty quick so I'll call it at that and be happy I got my goal.

Was still making 4.2 Kw at 5:30 pm which wasn't bad. See if I can make that at 7 Pm closer to summer solstice.

It will be interesting to see how I go when I mount the 3.75 Kw worth of north panels I have on the ground now up on the roof facing west. may not give the highest summer total but help the mid seasons. I think I'll be able to get at least 6KW on the roof including the current 3.75 ground mount so that may cancel out the loss for the different direction.

Davo99
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Joined: 03/06/2019
Location: Australia
Posts: 1578

Posted: 08:21am 27 Oct 2019

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Without changing anything, the Total bumped up again today.
86.6 KWh !

Getting to be some serious power. Thought I might have to fudge some more panels in to get that but there is is well exceeded just with the same setup. Solar sure does vary a lot!

Also going to have to shut down the inverters for a while now because I'm getting too far ahead. Seems like a shame to waste that power but other than heat some water for weed killing, nothing else I can do with it. Might go to see my local scrappy mate and see if he has any non leaking water heaters I can use to make a huge Urn to boil water for weed killing.

Might pack up the ground array as well. Can't see me needing that for a while.

OTOH, might be interesting to see if I can get to 90 Kwh day in a few weeks when the summer solstice gets closer.

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