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Nice to see. I have 14 panels going on East facing and 11 West facing soon.View attachment 811336
most representative image I could find (18-May). My morning ramp-up, from East panels, is much more dramatic than the evening slow-down (from South)
Bit broad brush, but I'm thinking that East and West arrays would provide most flexibility than South
and 11 West facing
I'm keen to get going but perhaps I was a bit optimistic when I said installed "soon". I'm waiting for some new GivEnergy gear to arrive and it looks like it may be August. So if my kit is in by mid Sept I'll have done well. Just in time for winterI'll be interested to see how your ramp-up and ramp-down looks, once you have enough data for a graph of a perfect-sun morning / evening
I've had a number of clear-sky mornings and they all start almost vertical for a bit (06:30 - 07:00), and then a sharp angle (80 degress-ish) forming a straight line 07:30 - 09:00, and then a bell curve after that
Could go 2 totally separate smaller inverters? Or edge Inverter per panel?A solar installer tells me that my plan of 4 x 545W panels and 4 x 400W panels (as separate strings) won't work and all the panels have to be the same type/wattage. (although we could have been at cross purposes and he thought I wanted to put all the panels as one string)
I'm not convinced of this so I found a manual for the GivEnergy Hybrid inverter (albeit an old one) and found this...
View attachment 814078
The diagram and "... you can connect two independent MPPT channels." sound promising but the section below seems contradictory and ambiguous to me - especially where it says "Same quantity of PV modules...." which implies referring to the 'other' string.
I can't think of any reason why the two strings need to have any reference to each other and the inverter will just deal with whatever power it sees on each channel.
What do you think?
I can't think of any reason why the two strings need to have any reference to each other and the inverter will just deal with whatever power it sees on each channel.
What do you think?
I'm guessing that's a general/generic response to cover them in their terms and conditions -as you say, certain conditions such as conservation areas may require it - just check with your local planning department if you've any doubt/concerns.What have people done about Planning permission before installing solar in a non conservation area. I know that solar is allowed under the "Permitted Development" rules, but I have seen one installer's contract that says it is my responsibility to to ensure that I have permission.
I assume that the installer will meet all the building regulations requirements.
Pretty sure it just means that you have to be confident that the permitted development rules apply to you, or if you are in a conservation area you have done whatever you need to do.What have people done about Planning permission before installing solar in a non conservation area. I know that solar is allowed under the "Permitted Development" rules, but I have seen one installer's contract that says it is my responsibility to to ensure that I have permission.
I assume that the installer will meet all the building regulations requirements.
I didn't realise this was an issue myself until it was pointed out to me, I'm probably going to have to leave one input redundant on each Inverter and put 9 panels east and 9 panels west on each string.Just got a reply back from GivEnergy re. my different panels on different strings plan - he confirmed there is no problem with that but he said a 4 panel string "...may struggle to reach the required 150V for the system to start generating".
I had no idea there was a minimum!
What would cause that - dark winter days?
How likely not to reach 150v?
Do other hybrid converters have a minimum working voltage?
Do micro-inverters also have a minimum voltage to work? (I know that would make it an ac-coupled system)
I'm having them on all panels just so I can monitor them, it makes it easier to identify a faulty panel. My understanding is you don't need them on all, just as you said, or shaded panels etcJust had a call from my supplier, it wasn't on my quote, but apparently I need some Tigo optimisers. Annnd everywhere had run out. They were expecting some in this week, but now its Aug before any come.
Weirdly they say I need optimisers for all the panels on one side - not just the 4 on different slopes? My (superficial) reading of the Tigo marketing blurb is you just need 1 per off angle panel? Anyone have any more experience?
Still in discussions about what compromises we make but thought I should let others know of the shortage.