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Wondering if anyone knows of an Australian site where you can input the variables of your system and location and get indicative performance indicators, does such a site exist?
thanks to all,
very shady weekend here, what a bummer as it was the 1st weekend to watch the numbers go round on the new systemSmile - be happy - life is too short
neil0mac Senior Member Joined: 26/12/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 210
Posted: 10:20pm 23 May 2010
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Well, at least you have a idea of what a worst case scenario looks like? Only, ever upwards from here on?
Downwind Guru Joined: 09/09/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2333
Posted: 03:37am 24 May 2010
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Thats good old Murphy for you, now you just need a windmill and there be no wind for days too.
Pete.Sometimes it just works
KarlJ Guru Joined: 19/05/2008 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1178
Posted: 01:41pm 25 May 2010
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LOL windturbine up and nothing for a month is typical....Luck favours the well prepared
Thanks for all the comments.
Can anyone help with my question?
Wondering if anyone knows of an Australian site where you can input the variables of your system and location and get indicative performance indicators, does such a site exist?
Even with the inclement weather we are producing power!
I have looked at PV Watts - not so useful.
I have the SMA design tool - very nice with every panel known to man, string configurations, cable run and loss calculations etc etc but only useful if you have a SMA inverter and with no seasonal information, only a yearly average.
thanks, enjoy the new day!
Smile - be happy - life is too short
VK4AYQ Guru Joined: 02/12/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2539
Posted: 07:00am 26 May 2010
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Hi Chookie
I have never seen a site like that, the ones that do have a bit of info are usually focused on their own products, I have found that even the advertised output of systems is exaggerated by 20%, so it seems that you get what you can measure from your own system as exposure and location is seldom ideal for max output.
Pete and Gordon are doing a logger for system appraisal and that's the best way to go.
"Pete and Gordon are doing a logger for system appraisal and that's the best way to go."
Sounds great, any comment from Pete or Gordon?
I am hoping to ascertain if my new, supposedly highly efficient panels are thus!!Edited by chookie 2010-05-27Smile - be happy - life is too short
Downwind Guru Joined: 09/09/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2333
Posted: 01:00pm 26 May 2010
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Hi Chookie,
Yes we are in the process of developing a logging system that will allow all the data to be recorded to a computer and the software to to view it with.
At present the electronics are not taliored for solar and more to windmill use, but no reason it could not be made to suit solar, and it is the intention for the next stage.
I am some what reluctant to discuss this further on forum at this stage, due to the recent out bursts of forum members.
Should you be interested than PM me and i will discuss what it is you require to want to do and what will be needed to acheive data logging for your system.
Pete. Sometimes it just works
GWatPE Senior Member Joined: 01/09/2006 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2127
Posted: 02:35pm 26 May 2010
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Hi Chookie,
monitoring solar system performance will require an accurate incident solar energy measurement at the same location. I have this measurement on my DAVIS weather station, but don't know if others offer something similar.
Unless you have the actual incident radiation, then you can't compare.
Gordon.
PS: you probably don't need to log a system for this.
I am still working on my analyzer software, with a fully reworked menu and point and click operation. The up to 16 channels, with full user configuration, and user programmable setting of decoding parameters, combined with many presets, and storing of personal preferences is taking a bit of time to write from scratch. I won't say much more as I don't want to be accused of teasing.
become more energy aware
VK4AYQ Guru Joined: 02/12/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2539
You could put your location and system configuration into a copy of pvsyst and it'll give you a pretty reasonable benchmark for the output your system "should" be producing from month to month.
http://www.pvsyst.com/5.2/index.php
You can then compare your real figures against it's estimate.
As you only need to generate a benchmark once (assuming you're not changing the system regularly) the demo version should do the job well enough (it does for me... though I'm glad I have no shading 'cos I got confused tryign to work out how that part worked :-) )
Thanks for the tip
i didn't know of this site
downloaded the program and they have my panels listed but not the inverter
which is a bit of a bugger!Smile - be happy - life is too short
VK4AYQ Guru Joined: 02/12/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2539
Posted: 07:22am 01 Jun 2010
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Hi Chookie
Have a look in the inverter destruction book as they generally have a percent efficiency rating, if nothing there work on 85 percent for a modified wave and 90 for a sine wave type as a rule of thumb.
if there's a similar inverter in the list you can select it and click the "open" icon to the right where you can tweak the details to match your real one. (what is the inverter by the way?)
Notice. New forum software under development. It's going to miss a few functions and look a bit ugly for a while, but I'm working on it full time now as the old forum was too unstable. Couple days, all good. If you notice any issues, please contact me.
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