I can clearly see a gradual drop in my system PV generation. I definitely need at least 4 more panels.

 

11 minutes ago, Antonio de Sa said:

I can clearly see a gradual drop in my system PV generation. I definitely need at least 4 more panels.

 

Get the panels now best prices ever currently.

Similar experience my side; a sunny late-autumn day drops daily yields by around 20% compared to a similar summer day.

 

An example from mid-December compared to last week (before Joburg clouds ruined all the fun):

 

Both graphs are for our original 5kW Sunsynk inverter with 10 x 455w JA Panels; north-facing.

The drop in Grid usage ('Import' dropping from 22.7kWh to just 1.7kWh) is thanks to a second inverter that we paralleled since then (with another 10 identical panels and a second battery); as a result combined production last week was around 40 kWh per day, on average, between the two inverters. (The second inverter experiences a touch of late-afternoon shading on it's panels so it's production is a tad lower - 7th May, above, was 19kWh for that inverter). 

A third battery would put us entirely off-grid on days like this.

Summer should peak at around 55 - 60kWh between the two inverters.

But have to agree with @TaliaB: now is absolutely the time to upgrade, I talk about what we did in this thread, and the results speak for themselves - go for it!

Edited May 14, 20242 yr by JayMardern

On 2024/05/14 at 2:28 PM, Antonio de Sa said:

I can clearly see a gradual drop in my system PV generation. I definitely need at least 4 more panels.

 

You must be inland. Down at the coast it's halved already

38 minutes ago, Chris_S said:

You must be inland. Down at the coast it's halved already

Yes this time of the year there will be a disconnect between different areas. The last 2 days were close to the beginning of the month. My 8 May was very low due to my data running out and the dongle did not record the production. 

My MTD for 17 days is close to the Jan-Mar full months just because we are not having LS which affects my yield. During summer clouds and LS together can give me a double whammy.

I used about no grid in 20 days but 1 weekend with family visiting caused me to use 15 units from grid for the 2 days. 

Graph below from my main string of 1.62kW.

 

2 hours ago, Chris_S said:

You must be inland. Down at the coast it's halved already

I thought it's only me, looking forward to see what the system can generate in summer. Have the system from mid March and production is halved since then.

Cpt solar killer today at 12h00 221w/m², total solar irradiance for 10 hours 2031w/m²🥲 6.83kwh🥲 for the day from a 8.8kwp array.

57 minutes ago, TaliaB said:

Cpt solar killer today at 12h00 221w/m², total solar irradiance for 10 hours 2031w/m²🥲 6.83kwh🥲 for the day from a 8.8kwp array.

Irradiance is a killer in CoCT. Compared to my higher yield today(7.8kWh) from only 1.62kW.

I lose about 500w production over winter and that's mainly due to generating starting later and ending earlier and only peaking at about 4500w compared to summer where I'll easily be doing upwards of 5000w. I'm generating about 20-25kWh in winter and summer I do about 20-30kWh. 

No need to add extra panels for me, I just manage my draw better. 

Quite some clouds in Gauteng in the middle of a winter's day today. 

Start of things to come this summer? 

4 hours ago, Scorp007 said:

Quite some clouds in Gauteng in the middle of a winter's day today. 

Start of things to come this summer? 

The forecast states Thursday, Friday and Saturday Gauteng will have plently clouds. Most probably cold front moving in.

Edited June 25, 20241 yr by TaliaB

In the northern hemisphere it is not much better. In my area, 2728wh/m2 today, 2935wh/m2 tomorrow and 2932wh/m2 on Saturday, just starting the summer 😆

Weather is crazy...

On 2024/05/14 at 2:40 PM, TaliaB said:

Get the panels now best prices ever currently.

I'm sure.

But the problem is that unless you can do it yourself, you are going to pay an arm and a leg. I got a quote for new panels (I have 325W panels, and I could get a lot more oomph just by replacing them with newer models) and the quote was high and included new circuit breakers, new wiring, new DC DB etc etc. I can kind of see the point, as if they just put panels in and the  6 year old wiring fails then I won't say "oh, the wiring must have failed", I will call them up and be all angry. So maybe that approach is reasonable.

I am told (by my installer) that there is a dodgy piece of wiring on my roof, and I know that the AC DB for the inverter (with the surge protectors, the Goodwe smart meter etc) needs replacing. But try and find somebody to attend to these issues.

I can get guys off a street corner who say they will do it, but I'd like somebody with a bit of expertise to replace that (also somebody who actually has tools, transport and has or can get the nexessary stock). But nobody wants to or they want big money. There is a local electrician who says he can do the job, but he added one isolator to that DB to give me a non-backed up 3 pin socket for my pre-paid meter, and this was notable for not actually isolating anything despite the position of the lever.

So...

Edited June 27, 20241 yr by Bobster.
correct panel wattage

On 2024/06/25 at 10:40 PM, TaliaB said:

The forecast states Thursday, Friday and Saturday Gauteng will have plently clouds. Most probably cold front moving in.

Shhh! This will get my Missus going. Every year I get out of bed on June 22nd and observe how nice and early the sunrise was, and she will start up with how we haven't seen the worst of it yet.

And so we are daily seeing better production in Gauteng. The last 2 days the best for the winter periode. 

6 minutes ago, Scorp007 said:

And so we are daily seeing better production in Gauteng. The last 2 days the best for the winter periode. 

Agreed. In fact according to the history my system keeps, the last two weeks or so have been better than the same dates last year.

1 hour ago, Bobster. said:

Agreed. In fact according to the history my system keeps, the last two weeks or so have been better than the same dates last year.

Mine would depend on LS so too much work to compare. 

How’s everyone’s PV Production looking these days? Having a really good day today in Jhb with the wind blowing and clear skies…😃

Last few days in JHB have been incredible our side as well,

 

Currently running at close to 90% efficiency, similar to your performance (8.1kW from a 9.1kW array in our case) at around midday. Breeze (to keep the panels cool) + clear skies = win.

 

Daily production has been between 40kwh and and 45kwh over the past week. The warmer overall weather has also dropped our demand for hot water such that all our water-heating is taking place during the day (whereas mid-winter requires an hour or two of evening geyser-running to supplement the daytime-from-PV-to-element heating).

 

Looking forward to seeing how the (longer) summer days perform!

 

Edited August 14, 20241 yr by JayMardern

My peak production is still way down at about 75% of PV installed. Yesterday a bit down from the previous 3 days. Production is picking up nicely. 

Low production before 09h00.

1 hour ago, JayMardern said:

Last few days in JHB have been incredible our side as well,

 

Currently running at close to 90% efficiency, similar to your performance (8.1kW from a 9.1kW array in our case) at around midday. Breeze (to keep the panels cool) + clear skies = win.

 

Daily production has been between 40kwh and and 45kwh over the past week. The warmer overall weather has also dropped our demand for hot water such that all our water-heating is taking place during the day (whereas mid-winter requires an hour or two of evening geyser-running to supplement the daytime-from-PV-to-element heating).

 

Looking forward to seeing how the (longer) summer days perform!

 

Warmer temps are definitely helping with the geyser runs...I'm now running both geysers for 1hr each in the early mornings...in summer that will drop to about 30-45min each last summer there were days where I wouldn't have to run the geysers from the previous afternoon runs!

Definetly seeing better figures as we approaching spring.  

12 hours ago, AndrewJdc said:

Definetly seeing better figures as we approaching spring.  

Yesterday the best day this winter.

 

2 hours ago, Scorp007 said:

Yesterday the best day this winter.

 

Mine, also the best so far, but things are improving on a daily basis.

Indeed,
Had a steady ~5kW solar production for nearly 2 hours
and I had a record daily production for the lifetime of the system, just short of 30kWh. Only because I behaved like a lunatic and had a 2kW fan heater running all day 😜