Impressed so far! 120kWh this (long) weekend.

[Benjseb]

So we had our 9kWp system commissioned on Friday, after it being on the roof of our holiday let for 3 months (but no mains supply!)

 

Turned on Friday lunchtime and so far we’ve generated 120kWh. Not bad for one weekend! It’s been a mix of sun and clouds too. 
 

Heated up the DHW tank to 50c three times over now so the ASHP has been doing very little. 
 

We have this on 3 phase. Ive spoken to the installer and we’ve decided the Apollo Gem diverters aren’t ideal. As they are only single phase, it was pushing “excess” energy into the DHW tank, even when we were importing on another phase. 
 

So switching for a MyEnergi Eddi which will measure the net export across 3 phases. 
 

Now to play the game where we try and work out what appliances we can use below the current generation!

 

Our OWL monitor has gone a bit crazy. Presumably as it can’t tell the difference between import/export so I have no way of telling what we’re exporting aside from watching the meter flash. But seems the Eddie has a decent app so can use that. 

[Benjseb]

[ProDave]

It has certainly been good solar PV weather.

 

I chose to have my shower this afternoon rather than the evening, because the immersion heater had maxed out and it's thermostat had switched off at 69 degrees, so electricity was being exported. So I had to draw some hot water off to rectify that situation.

[Jeremy Harris]

This Spring has been amazing.  Last year our FiT cheque for the January to March quarter was £92, this year our FiT cheque for the same period was £274.  I think it's probably been the best first quarter we've seen in the 6 years our system's been running, and we're now up to about 36 MWh total generation.  The house has consumed about 19 MWh in that time (not including charging my car).

[Benjseb]

I was hoping it was going to be like this every year ?

 

It seems we have a decent location without any shade. We will see what happens once the trees get leaves but I’m impressed we’re getting power generated between about 630 and 830

 

I’m going to try and wire up our Eddi to the ASHP smartGrid import, so we’ll be able to fire up the heat pump automatically when we get say 3kW+ export. Saying that, although it will be a more efficient use of the power, once the DHW tank is full it’s full I guess. 
 

With it being a bit chilly in the evenings still I’ve set the heat pump to come I’m on about 4pm to top up the room temps a degree or two while there’s still generation 

 

 

[Benjseb]

Only issue we have at the moment is our immersion stat keeps clicking off at about 50c. It’s turned up full and only installed last October. Not sure if there’s a pocket of hot water due to the big coil which is causing it to turn off, or the stat is bust. 

[ProDave]

15 minutes ago, Benjseb said:

Only issue we have at the moment is our immersion stat keeps clicking off at about 50c. It’s turned up full and only installed last October. Not sure if there’s a pocket of hot water due to the big coil which is causing it to turn off, or the stat is bust. 

I found the thermostat on mine at max was way too low.

 

"Don't do this at home"  I filed off the "pip" that limited the travel of the adjusting screw, and slowly turned it up further than it was supposed to go and have presently arrived at it switching off at 69 degrees (as measured by the ASHP's temperature probe).  I might just try a little more see if I can get it to 75.

 

I would have simply swapped the thermostat for another, had I been able to find any published range of adjustment.

[Benjseb]

Ah, may see if that’s an easy tweak on ours. If not I’ve seen a replacement star on eBay for £15. Seems you can swap without emptying tank. 

[PeterW]

11 hours ago, ProDave said:

I would have simply swapped the thermostat for another, had I been able to find any published range of adjustment.

Backer thermostats go to 65c and come as both non cutout and dual cutout versions. 
 

https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/IHST11slashC.html

There is no reason to store water at 75c and you’re into the territory of making it unsafe to work on any tank or pipe work as that is hot enough to cause a burn. Also worth bearing in mind that ordinary polyethylene pipe

insulation starts to degrade when it is kept above 80c for long periods of time. 

[Benjseb]

Well we’ve just hit 1MWh about 3-4 weeks into the solar being turned on

 

Not bad going, been a cracking few weeks!

 

Now we just need a meter that bills us suitably and we’ll be all set.