How much do you charge from solar in Australia?

[Jays200]

Very interesting. But, why does your system clip and why do you have a 5kw inverter cap if you have 3p?

Tks

Because it is a 5kW Fronius Symo which can take up to 10kW of panels but will only ever feed in 5kW, hence the flatness of my green solar generation curve.

Synergy, the only Western Australian power utility (monopoly), in their "wisdom" only allows domestic solar up to 5kW if you want the measly 7c/kWh feed in

 

[Shock-On-T]

Because it is a 5kW Fronius Symo which can take up to 10kW of panels but will only ever feed in 5kW, hence the flatness of my green solar generation curve.

Synergy, the only Western Australian power utility (monopoly), in their "wisdom" only allows domestic solar up to 5kW if you want the measly 7c/kWh feed in

There is nothing more egregious than the crappy feed-in tariffs electric companies try to get away with.
Electric companies seem to have an untouchable status denied to other parties in our economy, where they can dictate supply cost without finding themselves in court.

 

[aegidius]

Roof pitches are usually a little too flat in Sydney. They're about right in the north coast or Brisbane. (and an old tile roof is a pain to mount anything on)

 

[Blue heaven]

 

[paulp]

There is nothing more egregious than the crappy feed-in tariffs electric companies try to get away with.
Electric companies seem to have an untouchable status denied to other parties in our economy, where they can dictate supply cost without finding themselves in court.

Not all. In SA, approx 1/3rd of our tariff (worlds 2nd highest power cost) goes to the generator, around 13c per kwh. As a small generator, agl will pay me 16c, and origin 20c for what I sell them, although they do tend to inflate their rates that I’m charged for importing to try and offset this ‘generosity’. You can beat that by playing the system a bit though. I’m now at the point that I sell my power for half the cost of importing power.

 

[paulp]

Roof pitches are usually a little too flat in Sydney. They're about right in the north coast or Brisbane. (and an old tile roof is a pain to mount anything on)

Nothing wrong with a flat roof. In Adelaide Facing north at 2.5 degrees slope you will loose 11% panel efficiency. Put some legs under one end and get it to 5 degrees for the loss to reduce to 9%. With flat rooves, you can either have all the panels touching and foolowingbthe roof shape, and take the losses, or place half as many panels spaced 1500 apart at optimum angle, and produce 40% less due to the reduced panel number.
The optimum panel angle in Adelaide is anyrpthing between 27.5 and 35 degrees. A similar wide range would exist for all other cities too. Going 20 to 45 dgrees is only a 2% loss.

 

[paulp]

View attachment 370468 View attachment 370467

My panels vary from 3 degrees to 10 degrees. My daily production averaged over 12 months is 4.01kwh per kw, so the sub-optimal angle is costing me around 5% efficiency. I use micro-invertors which provides more power per panel on average than a single invertor.

 

[Hovean]

My panels vary from 3 degrees to 10 degrees. My daily production averaged over 12 months is 4.01kwh per kw, so the sub-optimal angle is costing me around 5% efficiency. I use micro-invertors which provides more power per panel on average than a single invertor.

Would they be the 'Enecsys' brand of micro inverters?

 

[paulp]

Would they be the 'Enecsys' brand of micro inverters?

Enphase micro-invertors. Extremely reliable too and a very good reporting platform with ‘enlighten’
Fairly certain enecsys went broke years ago?

 

[eclectricdave]

Ive just pressed the 75% button. I do a lot of trips from Sandringham to near Lancefield .Both ends have PV but Lancefield has grid power also with and with 80kWhrs of storage with 22kWhrs being Lithium cells. The latter means that power can be sucked even in poor weather knowing it can be replaced when Im not there. I do go shopping on the way at one of two regional shopping centres with DCs to put in the last 10%. Usually use SCs on other trips eg to Sydney as there is little alternative. Charging rate can be up to 10kWs at Lancefield but 3-4kws at Sandringham

 

[JayTee]

26 - 50% for me, I would like to charge off the solar more but really only can on my 2 days off work per week.

I have a 8kw LG/solar edge system I had installed 6 months ago which is making about 55 - 60kw a day on a sunny day.
I charge at night most of the time at 14c a kw and get the FIT through the day at 11c kw so not too bad. Were averaging 25kw a day FIT which covers off the Model S.

I wish I had of gone with a bigger system thoigh as I have enough roof space for about 30kw of panels and I have 3 phase power so not locked into a 5kw system. I think adding another 8kw system would be the go.

Planning another EV for my wife, probably a Model Y when they come out. She is home during the day so shoukd be 100% solar charging for her car.

 

[Blue heaven]

26 - 50% for me, I would like to charge off the solar more but really only can on my 2 days off work per week.

I have a 8kw LG/solar edge system I had installed 6 months ago which is making about 55 - 60kw a day on a sunny day.
I charge at night most of the time at 14c a kw and get the FIT through the day at 11c kw so not too bad. Were averaging 25kw a day FIT which covers off the Model S.

I wish I had of gone with a bigger system thoigh as I have enough roof space for about 30kw of panels and I have 3 phase power so not locked into a 5kw system. I think adding another 8kw system would be the go.

Planning another EV for my wife, probably a Model Y when they come out. She is home during the day so shoukd be 100% solar charging for her car.


View attachment 371104

@JayTee if you add the extra 8kw do you still get the 11 cents FIT?

 

[JayTee]

@JayTee if you add the extra 8kw do you still get the 11 cents FIT?

Sure do. This would have a longer payback for the system though as most of the production would be exported instead us self used. Still a good return even if looked at only as an investment.

 

[Hovean]

Enphase micro-invertors. Extremely reliable too and a very good reporting platform with ‘enlighten’
Fairly certain enecsys went broke years ago?

Slightly OT:
They certainly did - about 4 months after I'd had them installed. Power production could only be tracked via their online app which is also no longer. Meaning I never know what is being produced.

 

[paulp]

Slightly OT:
They certainly did - about 4 months after I'd had them installed. Power production could only be tracked via their online app which is also no longer. Meaning I never know what is being produced.

You can by a generic CT meter online. They come with little rings that you place over the red phase of the cable and it then reports data either to a meter or online, depending on which one you get. It wont give you individual panel data, but at least you will know your production. They are quite cheap.

 

[Hovean]

You can by a generic CT meter online. They come with little rings that you place over the red phase of the cable and it then reports data either to a meter or online, depending on which one you get. It wont give you individual panel data, but at least you will know your production. They are quite cheap.

Thanks for that info. I'll chase it up. At the moment the only way I can tell if my system is not working correctly is if there's a noticeable aberration in my utility's invoice.
FYI: Western Power charge $0.28/Kwh, and pay me $0.07/Kwh for my surplus solar power.

 

[JayTee]

Thanks for that info. I'll chase it up. At the moment the only way I can tell if my system is not working correctly is if there's a noticeable aberration in my utility's invoice.

I really like my Solar edge monitoring. Can see what each panel is producing and keep an eye out for faulty panels. Also can switch appliances on one by one and see how much power they draw in real time. We have days where we 90% self consume the solar generated beacause we can switch washing machine, dishwasher, AC etc on and make sure we're not going over the production.

 

[Mark E]

Depends on your definitions. My car is charged off peak, so generally overnight, on the controlled load circuit that is shared with the solar boosted off peak hot water. Over the last 3 month billing cycle my net export of excess power (house uses solar output first) was 917kWh from a 3.3kW system. (East facing roof). The net usage on the controlled load circuit was 915kWh - so the combination of hot water and car used less than my exports to the grid. I get 12.5c FIT and the off peak costs 16c, so pretty well my car was run for free and I used the grid as a battery.

Admittedly the actual power was most likely from coal, but I also have a 100% offset plan.

 

[srwx]

I've automated my wall charger using an ESP32 based IoT board so that I can squeeze every last Wh out of my solar and put it into my car:

It'll dial in the charge rate to match my solar excess when I'm otherwise exporting and it also helps manage any excess power in my powerwall each morning before the sun rises to try and self consume as much solar energy each day as I can. In winter I do need to do the occasional top-up at the local supercharger which makes me look at my yard and seriously think about adding another 10kW of ground based panels (I've run out of roof space).

 

[ICUDoc]

nice one, srwx.
Nothing succeeds like excess- it's the right thing to do, take the concept to its natural extreme