Sig Energy Solar Installation

[ericmark]

Back onto solar, this is something new, note same date but different results. And

to get 22.9 kWh today seems rather unlikely at 5:41 pm now. I did not log the time for first one, second one while writing this.

Oh and forwarded email from wife, seems at last will be paid for export.

 

[morqthana]

In fact, on a number of occasions I have heard Chinese or other SE Asian 'TV chefs' saying that 'fried rice' should always be made from previously cooked (boiled or steamed) rice that has been stored in a fridge for at least 12-24 hours.

I don't know about 12-24 hours, but it does have to be cooked and it does have to be cold. But when you think about for how long, and where, fried rice has been a dish, refrigeration wasn't always available, so "cold" probably means "no longer hot".

Uncle Roger probably has some entertaining advice on the matter.

It doesn't take long to cook rice from scratch, so those supermarket pouches of microwaveable rice are a bit lazy, but jolly useful if you want to cook fried rice without several hours notice.

 

[morqthana]

However, as I said early on, although I don't really anticipate any protracted grid power failures, I am prepared for that (so long as I am at home) by having invested £150 in my Lidl generator

How is that for powering things with electronics in? Like CH boilers?

 

[JohnW2]

How is that for powering things with electronics in? Like CH boilers?

It runs my CH system fine, albeit it's all sufficiently old to have little, if any, 'electronics' . Also, despite eric's fears, it can run my freezers fine - I know that from 'testing', although (for the reasons we've been discussing) I wouldn't normally bother to run freezers from the genny (would just leave them closed, without power'!), since "I have better things to do with" the genny-derived electricity.

As for true electronics, it can run my router (without it blowing up!) and my laptop charger if I have to, and probably would be OK for things like the TV if I really wanted

 

[JohnW2]

I don't know about 12-24 hours, but it does have to be cooked and it does have to be cold. But when you think about for how long, and where, fried rice has been a dish, refrigeration wasn't always available, so "cold" probably means "no longer hot".

Indeed - and, when one considers the rice etc. in Asian 'street food' - although the whole setup initially looks terrifying, it is all wok-heated at extremely high temps the moment before sale (no matter how long it's been sitting in the sun prior to that!) - quite probably at a high enough temp to destroy most toxins, and certainly the bugs that produce them

It doesn't take long to cook rice from scratch, so those supermarket pouches of microwaveable rice are a bit lazy, but jolly useful if you want to cook fried rice without several hours notice.

Very much so!

 

[ericmark]

I remember the octopus legs for sale on street corners etc, when I lived in Hong Kong, but most of the locals seemed to use McDonald's however thought we were talking about solar power?

Thank you for reaching out!

I wanted to let you know that your export is currently being onboarded, and began on 14/04. It can take up to six weeks for this to be fully onboarded to your account. We appreciate your patience during this process, and if you have any questions or need further assistance, please don't hesitate to ask.

So it seems at last I will get paid.

The "if solar is worth it" discussion is pointless once one already has it installed. The discussion should I add extra batteries is still valid.

Yesterday was around the first time I was around net-zero.

I note 0.1 kWh both import and export, but used just a tad more than solar produced, today already imported 2.2 kWh, used the shower. But the idea was to break around even,

that is not going to happen. But not counting standing charge, an average of around £30 a month is an improvement.

But, I look at more and more being fitted in the area, including some commercial properties, with massive arrays, and wonder when the bubble will burst?

Things will clearly change, and we will reach a point when the grid can't take the solar on offer, I look at this twit, and wonder what will happen when the grid can't take even the small amount of solar power I produce? Clearly, installers should check if the infer structure can take the export, but even in the early days, we saw the battle of the voltage.

If we have 10 homes with solar panels, once the voltage reaches 253 volts they will switch off, but if home 1 switches off at 253.90 and other homes have a voltage 253.91, 253.92, 253.93 etc, the homes will turn off in sequence, having ones inverter switch off just 0.1 volt higher than the rest, means your only one to export.

I am not really considering an auto transformer to cheat with, but clearly that twit did, so others may also do the same. So suddenly we find we are not exporting.

 

[ericmark]

I note changes to software again.

Seems the prediction is improving.

 

[JohnW2]

I note changes to software again. .... Seems the prediction is improving.

How can you yet know that it's 'improving'? The prediction for 'tomorrow' is, indeed, fairly close to the graph for 'today', but until tomorrow comes one cannot tell how good the prediction was, can one?

When were the graphs published/released? They give a full 24 hours' data for 'today' - so I wonder if it actually means 'yesterday'??

 

[ericmark]

Storms are forecast, I will see how it does. This has been the problem with solar panels, trying to work out if the energy wants using.

 

[JohnW2]

Storms are forecast, I will see how it does. This has been the problem with solar panels, trying to work out if the energy wants using.

It all seems like a lot of effort to me - and, if it were me, I suspect I would probably decide that I had better things to do with what time I have left!

 

[Munroast]

were sort of up and running now - ere is a snap shot of the first day - I have switched export off now as I am waiting for an MPAN number from the dreadful SP Networks(I could wait months) pity really, at the moment that would generate £30 a week
and this was only a semi sunshine day

 

[ericmark]

I have switched export off now as I am waiting for an MPAN number from the dreadful SP Networks

I didn't even know I needed an MPAN export independent to MPAN import until I had moved to Octopus, to start with was with British Gas, and after being told did not need a smart meter, it seems something changed and now one does, so I have an independent export meter, which now does nothing. I had at least two attempts to get a smart meter fitted, may have been three, so 7th September 2023 to 30th January 2024 waiting for smart meter, at which point we were told any export would be back dated, 4th April 2024 went on EV tariff, 8.95p off-peak and 31.31p peak, and this had a £75 exist clause, so locked in for a year. I filled in British Gas forms, but it seemed going around in circles, as they said wrong format, how it was their form.

Anyway, the one 3.2kWh battery was charged overnight, but most of the time would run out before midnight, and we found we were exporting even with the battery not fully charged as limited to 2kW charge, and drawing from grid even when load of battery, and 3 kW discharge limit, so 15th October 2024 we fitted a second battery, so now 4kW charge limit and 5kW discharge (size of inverter) but this caused an unwanted situation which I was unaware of, where I was importing 6 kWh every night, but not using most of it, and exporting it for no pay later in the day. So on the 4th April 2025 I reverted to standard tariff, and a few days latter moved to Octopus, arranged by our installer, I was a bit put off when I found still no export, I had to upload the flexi-something which seemed to go well, then a message about missing MPAN, and I got in touch with installer, and next thing message being paid for export. My Octopus app shows export from 1st May 2025 so £20:56 to date for export, at 15p/kWh. So took Octopus about 2 weeks to sort out what British Gas could not do in 20 months.

Add they wanted us to return to them, fat chance, they can promise all they want, simply don't believe them. The installers offered to get us with Scottish Power to start with, but British gas paid a 1p more, so my misses said she would sort it. Lost far more than a 1p sorting it out. And also can see on my PC what is going on, not limited to phone, so is so easy to see what was going on.