Solar Bolluxs

[Munroast]

I am very new to this fascinating concept of Solar panels and stuff

Was charging the batteries up during the night frm the grid (only 1.5p per unit) and with nothing else switched on in the house you can see the wastage

so 3.18 kW being used to charge the batteries by 2.76kW - 13% loss, so that headline price of 1.5p becomes 1.73p when the losses are considered !

wht charge through the night when you have solar? I can get 15p a unit exporting direct from the panels, so if I can import 8 kWh at 1.7p then that is an extra 8kWh I can sell at 15p

 

[Murdochcat]

Are you sure nothing else was switched on?

 

[big-all]

try the same experiment when not charging you batteries overnight

in my case fridge and fridge freezer 135w each about 30% on so average 85wh
freevew recorder boxes x3 av 15w each so 45wh
all tvs and tv boxes will have some draw even when on stanby not the o.5w perhaps 10-20w occasionally as they look for content off the interenet

 

[Munroast]

they are both very valid points, but if you look at a bigger screenshot you will see that the 'load consumption' rose at exactly the same time as it charged
esp looking at the bit above 02:05 there is zero consumption of anything (the fridge must not have been on)

there is a definite correlation with a load consumption of just above 400w just when charging - I guess this is losses going through the inverter

 

[ericmark]

I have put the clamp-on on my tails, and one by one, turned off RCBO's one at a time and watched the reduction in power use, and I see a drop, with socket circuits switched off, but I can't relate this to items I know are on the socket circuit, can't use the solar software to monitor as turning off sockets, would turn of router, and hard to monitor freezer and fridge use, as supplied from the UPS direct from the inverter.

Around my consumer unit there are a few CT coils, and I know these coils can affect each other. And the use of grid power always shows a little higher on the solar software to what is shows on the IHD or phone app.

Often the figures don't add up on the solar software.

Some where 47 watt has gone, however some of the data is live, and some by the server somewhere in China. However when looking at more long term data,

seems to line up with the app far better. Looking at the week 19-25 May export £14.27 import including standing charge £6.25 so clearly not costing me anything at the moment, and my account balance is increasing every month, at the moment £164.47 but this is summer.

Last winter I was not being paid for export, and I was on 8.95p/kWh off-peak, and 31.31p/kWh peak. I used the data to work out what it would cost with a fixed rate. And it showed I would have paid at least £25 more had I used a fixed rate, as many days in the winter my solar production does not exceed used.

So December 2024

yes battery shows as charging 24 more kWh to discharging so clearly some loses. So the phone app shows without standing charge and with standing charge. So £75.51 total for worse month, year before did not have smart meter, so no off-peak, and paid around £100, and year before that more like £150, so the off-peak clearly cut my bills. But since export was only 13.9 kWh so just over £2 so I can expect the same cost this year, of around £75 for December.

I would be paying a lot more, if I did not have a battery and off-peak, but solar for month is likely only around £24 for the month, so mainly in winter it is the off-peak and battery saving me money, summer of course very different, this month alone around £127 produces by solar (at 15p/kWh) but need to look at the bad as well as good, and I don't want to be swapping tariffs, I now want to forget the electric bill been there, done that.