Solar panel production figures

Far better than expected today on the house system the wattage coming in was up and down like a fiddlers elbow all day
with the cloud's passing. But we did a nice 42.80Kwh in and exported 27.20 of making the second highest day
of the year and since the system was fitted back in March this year

House System is East West
down in not so sunny Devon.
East 8 x 420w panels 45 deg pitch
West 10 x 420w panels 45 deg pitch
Givenergy Gen3 5kwh hybrid
2 x 9.5 battery's

Workshop system is South/East
2440w of panels two 720w strings
one 1000w string
Hybrid inverter with 4x 12v 100Amp
Battery's
Plus grid tie inverter as well
 
40.8 today not great but not bad either, I need a daily average of 36.3 for the month to stay in target.

Despite June being pretty cold, we’ve only had 5 days below 36.3, of which 4 were still >30kwh.

I’m up to 758 for the month which is ahead of target (689.5) for this time of the month.
 
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Ron-ski said:
That must be a very early FITS system, and even though very good quality panels, I suspect the efficiency was very low to start with. Have you considered replacing the panels and inverter with a modern system? FITS payments would be pro-rata'd based on system size increase, but I bet with panel improvements you'd get a big uplift in generation and thus payments, as efficiency increases aren't accounted for. Today's panels also work better when cloudy.
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Sadly the original contract I have does not allow replacement only repairs. If you are caught tampering, then you would be kicked off the scheme. During the early summer of 2011 Germany announced that it was cutting its payments to solar owners from 0.34 Euros to 0.30. The exchange rate was about 1.44 Euros to the £ at that time. Germany was producing more solar energy than the rest of Europe put together. I ordered and paid a 40% deposit less than a week later. Our rate was 43p/kw at the time and I feared it would drop, which it did. We should have had our panels in September but Sanyo's were in short supply which delayed it all for a month.

From memory our panels were rated at 19.7% at the time and the SAP forecast was for 3560kw/year. First year we got 4309kw and £1994.68p. Most other panels were about 14%. More interesting, perhaps, was the guarantee from Sanyo, that at some point during the first year their panels would produce more than their rating. At 17 x 235 watts we came in at 3.995kw. Being a "solar saddo" I was eagerly awaiting this and on the 23rd February 2012, we peaked at 4.023kw. In June 2018 we had all of my money back. Our original contract helped to finance my expansion of 10.4kw panels, hybrid inverter and 26kw battery storage. I am currently £7k short from getting that money back as well. Give me sunshine has all the data on PV Output.

We did have a snap inspection about 7 years ago. The guy came and checked that we were not just recycling electricity from the grid to claim FIT payments at a much higher rate. I asked him why I had been targeted, and he told me that I was in the top 2% in Hampshire and at the top end of what they considered to be genuinely achievable figures. On PV Output, the only person to do better than myself was St Lawrence Solar. He was right at the bottom of the Isle of Wight, some 25 miles further south of me. What enabled him to do better was the fact that he was perched right on the cliff edge overlooking the sea. The reflected light from the sea boosted his outputs. In the USA and elsewhere, they use mirrors for the same reason. Being a bad loser, I classified this as cheating!!!!!!!!!!

I know that nearly everyone has their figures downloaded from their inverters, as we do from our new panels. My figures come from the official meter which measures our output. Our inverter does show higher amounts than this. I have done well, so no complaints
 
@Peteronthesouthcoast You can change the panels, as I said payments are pro-rata on original system size.

The info is hard to find, there is a small snippet here under Can I extend the capacity of my installation?

Feed-in Tariffs (FIT) - Generators

This page is for the owners of accredited installations, known as FIT Generators.
www.ofgem.gov.uk www.ofgem.gov.uk

See also this document.


However as your panels are 19.7% efficient then probably not worth it unless you wanted more capacity, mine installed in 2015 are only 14%, but mine are staying.

My system installed in 2015 paid for itself in 2022.
 
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Ron-ski said:
@Peteronthesouthcoast You can change the panels, as I said payments are pro-rata on original system size.

The info is hard to find, there is a small snippet here under Can I extend the capacity of my installation?

Feed-in Tariffs (FIT) - Generators

This page is for the owners of accredited installations, known as FIT Generators.
www.ofgem.gov.uk www.ofgem.gov.uk

See also this document.


However as your panels are 19.7% efficient then probably not worth it unless you wanted more capacity, mine installed in 2015 are only 14%, but mine are staying.

My system installed in 2015 paid for itself in 2022.
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Thanks for that. It is most helpful.

I did some quick number crunching.

Our original panels had been in situ for 12 years come October 2023. On a south facing roof they have produced an average of 1093kw/year per 1kw installed capacity.

Our newer ones (Hyundai shingle 400 watt) are 20.5% efficient. On the same basis as above, the east array has a figure of 873 and the south 1104. The new panels do have very slight shading issues. They have only done 2 complete years.

More capacity is not something I need. As it is my children think I should be sectioned, even though it is their future I have tried to protect.
 
Ron-ski said:
IF. ;)
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at the moment we dont have any clouds and the forecast is for it to stay this way now and im just booking a call with a solar pv installer in swansea, to fit me a new inverter and do my dpo application for the bigger export. With the new shed being built in august spetember, i want to add 4 more panels. so a 16 panel system
 
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