Gauteng Who is not using grid....

[frans400]

Would appreciate if other member can post charts of there solar production from centurion from 28 November.

[gimme_power]

Here you go. Washing day here and no solar, so we used a lot of grid to get by

[Chris Louw]

@gimme_power  Go on pension and then move washing to a sunshine day.

[gimme_power]

17 hours ago, Chris Louw said:

@gimme_power  Go on pension and then move washing to a sunshine day.

Haha, yes you are right, but I am 10 years out so will have to stick with a helper for now   On a normal summer day I have no problem at all.  I am doubling my battery capacity with a diy battery build over the holiday so that will leave max 5% of days where I need any grid at all.  Not days like above though.

Edited November 29, 2023 by gimme_power

[Chris Louw]

It really  makes a lot of difference if you home al the time. This is why we can run offgrid.

[madness_za]

Great solar today, running almost close to max of my panels

[Bobster.]

1 hour ago, madness_za said:

Great solar today, running almost close to max of my panels

Gauteng is a big place then.

I'll do OK today. My system hit 98% SOC at 12:00 - just in time for the heat pump to kick in. On a good day it's charged by 10:45. The heat pump set the SOC back about 3% because load > solar. But the system should get time to recharge if it stays sunny. 

So OK, but I'm not breaking any records.

[system32]

12:40pm 30/11/2023 - PV doing well despite some clouds

[Bobster.]

My system today. PV (blue trace) has been variable, but probably will suffice.  ("Suffice" for me is battery fully charged by 16:00)

[Greglsh]

17 hours ago, gimme_power said:

Haha, yes you are right, but I am 10 years out so will have to stick with a helper for now   On a normal summer day I have no problem at all.  I am doubling my battery capacity with a diy battery build over the holiday so that will leave max 5% of days where I need any grid at all.  Not days like above though.

Hi @gimme_power what DIY battery you going for, what battery do you currently run, is it also a DIY. I am looking at the Apexium 280Ah diy kit myself.

[TaliaB]

Gauteng after this heat wave we are in for a good few poor solar production days, even maybe past the 15th Dec. Post some production graphs from around the country and see which province comes out tops

Edited December 5, 2023 by TaliaB
Added sentence

[Bobster.]

11 minutes ago, TaliaB said:

Gauteng after this heat wave we are in for a good few poor solar production days, even maybe past the 15th Dec.

Yes. It's not looking too rosey. Large numbers of Vaalies at the seaside will ease the traffic and make it easier to get restaurant bookings, but won't help our PV.

Though I seem to recall that December/January is not the best time for PV in Gauteng.

Edited December 5, 2023 by Bobster.

[Kalahari Meerkat]

29 minutes ago, TaliaB said:

which province comes out tops

There can only be one - Noordkaap, hands down...

[TaliaB]

37 minutes ago, Kalahari Meerkat said:

There can only be one - Noordkaap, hands down...

I agree NC has the highest solar irradiance, but just watch out for the de-rating factor of your 50°plus temps

[Jacques Ester]

48 minutes ago, TaliaB said:

I agree NC has the highest solar irradiance, but just watch out for the de-rating factor of your 50°plus temps

From Sunday we have had some clouds that helps with the heat but not good for solar production. Yesterday 18:00 is was still 42º

[Scorp007]

3 hours ago, TaliaB said:

Gauteng after this heat wave we are in for a good few poor solar production days, even maybe past the 15th Dec. Post some production graphs from around the country and see which province comes out tops

I only look a week ahead as longer range guess work can be way out. 

For now I see Sunday and Monday as the worst for the week. Glad that Sunday could be overcast the whole day. Give us a break from the heat.

[Kalahari Meerkat]

Ok, the last couple of days... the extension lead to the neighbour is no more... temperatures up to somewhat high numbers in the shade, but not enough battery capacity and not enough load during the day... 4.7kWp panels doing not much most of the time and it due to lack of load, got the pump running during sunshine... that adds 600W of so to the load, but really, maybe need to mow the lawn daily or something like that

[Antonio de Sa]

20 minutes ago, Kalahari Meerkat said:

Ok, the last couple of days... the extension lead to the neighbour is no more... temperatures up to somewhat high numbers in the shade, but not enough battery capacity and not enough load during the day... 4.7kWp panels doing not much most of the time and it due to lack of load, got the pump running during sunshine... that adds 600W of so to the load, but really, maybe need to mow the lawn daily or something like that

Northen free state. My last seven days, used a bit of grid power. Max PV 4.75 KW out of 4,7 Kw panels

Edited December 5, 2023 by Antonio de Sa

[Bobster.]

20 minutes ago, Kalahari Meerkat said:

maybe need to mow the lawn daily or something like that

Use the mower as a fan.

I'm here all week.

[Kalahari Meerkat]

10 minutes ago, Bobster. said:

Use the mower as a fan.

and end up looking green by all the grass cuttings being thrown your way

Need to really look at putting in an inverter aircon or two, into the house, that could consume some energy and maybe prevent this:

Quote

Date: 2023-12-05T13:44:09, Temperature: 31.6°C, Humidity: 39.7%
Date: 2023-12-05T13:45:09, Temperature: 31.6°C, Humidity: 39.8%
Date: 2023-12-05T13:46:10, Temperature: 31.6°C, Humidity: 39.7%
Date: 2023-12-05T13:47:10, Temperature: 31.6°C, Humidity: 39.8%
Date: 2023-12-05T13:48:10, Temperature: 31.7°C, Humidity: 39.8%
Date: 2023-12-05T13:49:11, Temperature: 31.7°C, Humidity: 39.9%
Date: 2023-12-05T13:50:11, Temperature: 31.6°C, Humidity: 39.9%
Date: 2023-12-05T13:51:12, Temperature: 31.7°C, Humidity: 39.9%
Date: 2023-12-05T13:52:12, Temperature: 31.7°C, Humidity: 40.1%
Date: 2023-12-05T13:53:12, Temperature: 31.7°C, Humidity: 40.3%
Date: 2023-12-05T13:54:13, Temperature: 31.7°C, Humidity: 40.3%
Date: 2023-12-05T13:55:13, Temperature: 31.7°C, Humidity: 40.3%

from being the case in this room... probably nearly the coolest room in the house... south and slightly west facing... around 210 degrees, I think...

[Kalahari Meerkat]

14 minutes ago, Antonio de Sa said:

Max PV 4.75 KW out of 4,7 Kw panels

good stuff, here... can't show the graph, but lets see...

PV1 = 9 X 280Wp = 2520Wp
PV2 = 8 X 280Wp = 2240Wp
so PVpotential = 4760, nearly the same as yours anyway, seeing a 4969W peak on the 2nd of Dec at 12:13:59, the 2nd highest peak of 4832W, yesterday at 11:07:38, some cloud edges, I guess, helping, but it wasn't totally cloudy, at least, today, pretty much clear skies all the way... and battery full by 12:19:06, today...

[gimme_power]

On 2023/11/30 at 4:39 PM, Greglsh said:

Hi @gimme_power what DIY battery you going for, what battery do you currently run, is it also a DIY. I am looking at the Apexium 280Ah diy kit myself.

I bought 32 of those SVolt 184Ah cells earlier in the year. So need to get them assembled. I currently have 3 Averge 48100S packs

 

[Bobster.]

18 hours ago, Kalahari Meerkat said:

and end up looking green by all the grass cuttings being thrown your way

Need to really look at putting in an inverter aircon or two, into the house, that could consume some energy and maybe prevent this:

Seriously, the amount of power that my property uses has gone down since I got solar.

There are two consequences of this
1) The system shuts down at night. I presume this is triggered by total demand dropping below a certain level. So I use grid power every day, and most of it is in the small hours when the house could easily be running off of battery. Which is annoying.
2) The payback calculation gets worse and worse. When I switched to PV we were averaging 13 to 14 kWh a day. Now it's 10 to 11. So how much am I saving on the meter? (This may help me if there's a prolonged power outage, because the battery will last longer). 

I started running ALL my external lights at night. But they're all LED and draw next to nothing. So I need to invent or install some load that will keep the system feeling wanted at 2 or 4 in the morning.
 

[Bobster.]

Just now, Bobster. said:

Seriously, the amount of power that my property uses has gone down since I got solar.

There are two consequences of this
1) The system shuts down at night. I presume this is triggered by total demand dropping below a certain level. So I use grid power every day, and most of it is in the small hours when the house could easily be running off of battery. Which is annoying.
2) The payback calculation gets worse and worse. When I switched to PV we were averaging 13 to 14 kWh a day. Now it's 10 to 11. So how much am I saving on the meter? (This may help me if there's a prolonged power outage, because the battery will last longer). 

I started running ALL my external lights at night. But they're all LED and draw next to nothing. So I need to invent or install some load that will keep the system feeling wanted at 2 or 4 in the morning.
 

The combination of these two factors means that the total demand and what I use from PV has dropped, but what I draw from the grid has stayed pretty constant, and so grid power consumed as a % of power consumed by the house is rising. This makes me grumpy.

[Scorp007]

42 minutes ago, Bobster. said:

The combination of these two factors means that the total demand and what I use from PV has dropped, but what I draw from the grid has stayed pretty constant, and so grid power consumed as a % of power consumed by the house is rising. This makes me grumpy.

We all act differently. Having power at all times and using only 10 kWh a day should not make you grumpy or the % going in the wrong direction

Now that my total power use is 300 vs 1200 kWh 10 years ago I don't mind using grid if I have when needed. Just switching things on is easier than putting in a lot of effort to save a unit or 2.

We have about the same load profile but I don't cycle. Also some time slots of LS I don't even switch to inverter.