K
kate.harrison1
Hi,
I have followed this forum now since last autumn and wonder whether some of you experts out there can advise me?
I had a system installed last October (20th) as follows:
8x Sanyo HIT-N240SE10 on east facing roof and 8 on a west facing roof. Angle is about 35 degrees I think. The inverter is SMA 4000TL with twin trackers and east is in one, west in the other.
I have been monitoring generation since then and can report a total generation of 570 odd to date. I could give you exact monthly production figures but very roughly, Oct was about 65, Nov 75, Dec 55,
Jan 70, Feb 135 and March so far about 165
I had 4 quotes and all suggested an e/w system even though I do have a smallish south facing hip roof. When I had decided who I was going to use, a firm who had been installing solar since beore the birth of FITs, I pushed the question of the south facing roof but was told by all that because I would only get a maximum of 6 panels on it, it wasn't worth it. I was sold the advantages of the longer production day from the e/w and more panels and went ahead on that basis. I have no way of knowing whether I am on target to reach the predicted 2663 but I suspect that I am.
My issue is that, like all new customers of solar installations, I have become really boring and I am constantly looking at how much has been produced, where the sun is is etc. In my case, I am coming to the conclusion that I may actually have been better off having a smaller number of panels, say 12 or 6 south and 8 west and would have got higher output than I am getting from my 8 west and 8 east. It is true that at the moment, on sunny days, I am getting about 1Kw before 8am but shortly after that time, the sun is actually shining more directly onto my s facing roof than the east and I feel that 6 on there would get more than the 8 on the east as existing. The west seems to work pretty well.
My question to you guys is....with your access to Sunny Design and similar, could anyone tell me what the predicted output would be for 8 west and 6 south if it would even work that way with my inverter? Would the inverter be rendered overpowered if two panels were to be removed and will the twin trackers both work with an unequal no of panels? A guy down the road from me has a complete mixture of orientations; 6 south, 2 west and 4 east all on a Fronius inverter and it seems to work.
I just can't help thinking that I am not making the most of the available south facing roof which pretty much has direct sun for most of the day with no shading and that perhaps less might have been more in my case.
If models suggest that I am right, I might go back to my installer and ask them to move the panels on the east to the south (less 2). Do you think this would affect my FIT since the system technically would be smaller than the original?
It is very frustrating to sit here now observing the system in operation and wonder whether the advice I was given was more about selling and installing a bigger system than the predicted output. Clearly, It would have cost me less to buy and install 14 panels than 16 and there is likely to be a cost involved in moving them even if the existing inverter would cope. There was talk at one point of having two inverters, one for each string and I am beginning to wish I had gone for that now, would have been easier.
Any suggestions?
Please ask if there is any more info required.
Many thanks
Kate
I have followed this forum now since last autumn and wonder whether some of you experts out there can advise me?
I had a system installed last October (20th) as follows:
8x Sanyo HIT-N240SE10 on east facing roof and 8 on a west facing roof. Angle is about 35 degrees I think. The inverter is SMA 4000TL with twin trackers and east is in one, west in the other.
I have been monitoring generation since then and can report a total generation of 570 odd to date. I could give you exact monthly production figures but very roughly, Oct was about 65, Nov 75, Dec 55,
Jan 70, Feb 135 and March so far about 165
I had 4 quotes and all suggested an e/w system even though I do have a smallish south facing hip roof. When I had decided who I was going to use, a firm who had been installing solar since beore the birth of FITs, I pushed the question of the south facing roof but was told by all that because I would only get a maximum of 6 panels on it, it wasn't worth it. I was sold the advantages of the longer production day from the e/w and more panels and went ahead on that basis. I have no way of knowing whether I am on target to reach the predicted 2663 but I suspect that I am.
My issue is that, like all new customers of solar installations, I have become really boring and I am constantly looking at how much has been produced, where the sun is is etc. In my case, I am coming to the conclusion that I may actually have been better off having a smaller number of panels, say 12 or 6 south and 8 west and would have got higher output than I am getting from my 8 west and 8 east. It is true that at the moment, on sunny days, I am getting about 1Kw before 8am but shortly after that time, the sun is actually shining more directly onto my s facing roof than the east and I feel that 6 on there would get more than the 8 on the east as existing. The west seems to work pretty well.
My question to you guys is....with your access to Sunny Design and similar, could anyone tell me what the predicted output would be for 8 west and 6 south if it would even work that way with my inverter? Would the inverter be rendered overpowered if two panels were to be removed and will the twin trackers both work with an unequal no of panels? A guy down the road from me has a complete mixture of orientations; 6 south, 2 west and 4 east all on a Fronius inverter and it seems to work.
I just can't help thinking that I am not making the most of the available south facing roof which pretty much has direct sun for most of the day with no shading and that perhaps less might have been more in my case.
If models suggest that I am right, I might go back to my installer and ask them to move the panels on the east to the south (less 2). Do you think this would affect my FIT since the system technically would be smaller than the original?
It is very frustrating to sit here now observing the system in operation and wonder whether the advice I was given was more about selling and installing a bigger system than the predicted output. Clearly, It would have cost me less to buy and install 14 panels than 16 and there is likely to be a cost involved in moving them even if the existing inverter would cope. There was talk at one point of having two inverters, one for each string and I am beginning to wish I had gone for that now, would have been easier.
Any suggestions?
Please ask if there is any more info required.
Many thanks
Kate
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