MrTWales

No it doesn't, in the same way that my TV isn't too big.

Yes but this seems damn good to someone who is exporting loads each day right now for nothing! Plus, my battery is 9.6kWh so I can set it to charge in the cheap period.

Flux seems almost too good to be true to me, and I'm trying to get on it. I just hope that "forced discharge" in my inverter setting means what I think it does! (ie that the battery is used even if there is solar, so any generation gets exported during the peak times).

Thanks, I am! I booked it though Shell via the app in seconds.

I'm still happy with the values though, for one set of panels on a room that didn't exist when I moved in.

Damn, I do hope that my inverter app isn't dodgy! Cardiff isn't much like south Spain to be fair. These are 10 degree sloped with the brackets + 2 for the roof, and no shading at this time of year. I usually get a peak of just over 4kW for a bit, but decent values for a lot of the day due to the relative flatness. This is what I got yesterday. EDIT - mystery over, I have 12 panels and not 8!

I have JA 410W panels also I like pointlessly showing charts, so here is what I have so far (install on 25 Oct 2022) for my 8 panels on a flat roof. May/June 2023 look a bit freaky and way more than most years but I'm hoping that splitting into two series will help a little bit in the winter months, even though now the sun is high enough that there is virtually no shading.

Blah, scrub the above. Octopus have just told me this: - I can't even get on a waiting list for a smart meter until I'm an Octopus customer, - The wait time is likely around 6-8 weeks for a smart meter intall. - Any SMETS2 (?) smart meter should be OK, so I may be better off getting one installed by my current supplier - If I have a smart meter then I'd start on a non-smart tarrif, but could change to a smart one with a ~ two week timeframe - There may not actually be a delay to get on the FLUX tarrif, so it could be just the two weeks after signing with Octopus. So the best plan it seems is to see how long it will take to get a smart meter from my local supplier and then call Octopus back when I have this installed.

Nice. They just replied to me and said this, so it looks like a way forward. "In regards to your query, you can definitely get a smart meter installed before joining Octopus Energy. You can request a smart meter installation by filling out our online form or by giving us a call. Once the smart meter is installed, you can then choose from our range of tariffs, including the Flux tariff. Please note that the Flux tariff is currently only available to customers with a smart meter, so you would need to wait until your smart meter is installed before joining the waiting list for Flux."

Good idea. What tarrif are you switch to? Are you looking for Flux too eventually? It looks like referal links mean sharing £100. I think my sister is with them but otherwise perhaps I can agree something with someone here.

That sounds better! I can't think why this order made sense to me, maybe it was just Shell texting me every 5 mins to fit a smart meter so it seemed like I could get it sorted very quickly and then I may have more options with the Octopus tarrifs I can get on before (hopefully) moving to Flux.

Currently I'm with Shell (following Green Planet falling over) and Octopus Flux looks great. I don't have a smart meter and need my meter box to be re-arranged first as there isn't enough space. I'm thinking that the way to go is: - get the meter box sorted (I have a quote now) - get a smart meter installed by Shell - switch to an Octopus tarrif that's available - join the waiting list for flux (as an existing Octopus customer) and hope for the best. Is this all I can do? Thanks!

I'm probaby the least expert person here but my understanding is as per what you say, but I did think that any array like that would be set up as two series ideally and all inverters seem to have two inputs. I guess if there is another direction also (ie three sets of panels) then this would explain it?

It was a subcontractor who lives a fair away away - overall he was great and split the 12 panel array into two series and it didn't cost me anything extra, and we said he's discuss the immersion issue and he'd read up on it etc (as he hadn't fitted this brand before). I'll Whatsapp him later!

I can tell you that the water is effing hot when it comes out of the tap!

Thanks very much! Re re the CT clamp test, I may need to put loads of things on as the battery would be used before the grid (though I guess there would be a tiny draw first)? To be honest, it's pretty clear from the manual and labels that it was the wrong way around. Even I can tell where the meter is and there is an arrow pointing towards that. It seems to be working as it should as far perhaps as the excess in concerned, but I'm still not sure about the over ride. This chart shows me flipping the clamp at around 11am.

It's all very odd as the box doesn't have a model ref or anything - I think it's this one (or looks the same anyway) https://smartgreensheep.co.uk/products/nuvision-optimise-pv-wireless-immersion-control-making-use-of-excess-electricity The manual is very basic to say the least. I'm not sure sure whether "Water tank hot" ever actually says anything else. It says that now but for sure it's diverting as I can see the draw in the inverter app and the mini fan in the diverter itself was on for a while. As it's connected to the immersion heater I just assumed that I'd get "Water tank hot" showing if there was excess energy but the immersion fuse was stopping any more going in due to the max temperature being reached. The diverter has two lights on the left and the top one is flashing green, but the manual doesn't tell me what this means! The numbers I get from the diverter seem iffy but it seems to at least be working in some sense since flipping the CT clamp around. This still leaves the mystery of the over ride feature V the inverter app, as I'm not certain what happened there. Honestly, I wish I didn't bother with a diverter now!

Edit - I'm almost certain that the CT clamp was the wrong way around, so I've switched that and the inverter app now shows high consumption. The diverter still says "water hot", and the "solar heating" has gone from 0 to 2.5kWh - none of which really make sense but at least it's progress I guess.

Seems like an odd question but I'm trying to understand what is going on. I had a diverter fitted yesterday (NU Vision) and can't work out if it's doing anything! It says "Water hot" so I think it's incorrectly thinking that the immersion trigger (70 degrees) has been reached. Thought it does seem to think that something has been "saved" today, thought the "heating by solar" is zero. This part is probably just not working. But, yesterday I pressed set the override for 90 mins. The consumption in the app looked OK, with a spike of ~3kW, but then dropped back and flicked up and down a bit. This is what happends if the water really is at the required temperature but it had been a day since it was heated so this didn't seem right. But, we had four showers last night and the water was piping hot. In addition, the diverter reckoned on 4.5kWh being used (which would be 1.5 hours x 3kW) thought this could just be a mechanical calc I guess on what "should" be used rather than anything else so I'm a bit dubious about it. I was assuming that the CT clamp trigger was irrelevant in that when it's on it's like any other form of consumption when it's actually heating water, but now I'm wondering whether these things can mess up the data in the app? I assume that solar generation is always going to be accurate but I wonder about the other stuff.

I looked at the inverter label (LXP-6K Hybrid) and can't see this, but it's working well so far and it seemed to give slightly higher input at the start of the day when there wasn't much coming in and probably shade on only some of the panels.

The inverter has been telling me for months to set PV2 so it's been expecting it! In terms of the size, maybe it's an issue sometimes but the inverter in my case is probably bigger than it needs to be as parts were so hard to get the installer used this but priced on a smaller one. It seems to be working so far anyway, unlike the immersion diverter. Sigh.

Holy smokes that's a lot of solar. A generation chart from earlier this months shows that there aren't really any major shade issues at this time of year, but there are some sharper peaks in winter months at either end. I'm happy with the two series set up now, as it was zero extra cost!

Ah, so you don't need to do anything clever with inverter setting etc or to use on all panels? I guess if it's something that can be done over time, individually, it may be more viable I guess but at least I get the instant win with the two series and this wouldn't hurt even with optimisers. It's a low flat roof but I'd still be wary of fitting myself unless it was very very easy and safe!

Thanks - I kinda of thought this but knew I'd get instant confirmation (or otherwise) on this forum so just wanted to check that I wasn't missing a trick. To be honest, I didn't realise how much optimisers cost until today. It seems like the splitting into two is very quick and easy, though this is partially as there is no skafolding invoved in my case I guess.

Thanks. At this time of year with the high sun it barely makes any difference but at others I can see times when most panels are getting sun (so maybe I'd get 2kW with no shade) but it's held back by a couple being in shade. Any value placed on this is likely small as you say, but it is fecking annoying at times when I use 100% of what the panels generate. It sounds like just splitting into two lots of 6 panels may be the best option, esp as it seems like no cost against 12 lots of £60 or something like that. The subcontractor seems like he is happy to do this today without any mention of extra cost anyway!