GoSolr vs Solar

[Tomtomtom]

Speedster is right; while we all know what you mean, the W/h unit is wrong in this case and to us pedants it's as bad as if you gave the wrong number.

If you take 14000 Watt-hours and divide by 24 hours, you are left with 580 Watts. Not an hour in sight.

Note Watt-hour is a product i.e. two units multiplied together. That's probably part of the issue because ratios are more common, like km/h or R/month.

Also we're used to expressing "final" quantities like mass or distance in simple units like grams or metres.

If electricity was billed in Joules maybe it would be more intuitive.

50400000 J / 86400 s = 583 J/s (= 583 W)

Or maybe not.

Anyway a 580 J/s average rate is quite high for a small house imo. We do about half that.

 

[Speedster]

Hmmm ok the notation is hard to describe but the notion is the same, whether I use 580wh or 1kwh, its the equivalent of how much it would take to consistently use 1kw, during the time of a hour. Not sure what that consistency is though ie: per minute or per second etc.

I would assume that the basic electricity disk meter uses some form of current measurement across a resistive medium to run its counter, same as a CT measures the current.

My point to Dolby though is that if he monitors the drain on his system when it's "resting" ( so basic use like fridges, lights , tvs etc that pretty constant ) , it would give an indicator for as you say, the energy use over time. 580wh is not a unreasonable amount considering thats a average and there would be odd peaks ( outside of big draw items ) like a kettle, microwave etc that may spike but just cause a slightly higher reading in the hour and smoothed out over the period of a day.

Yes, I get the point you are trying to make and in this case the context clarifies what you mean. A part of me just wishes we could use the correct notation as that would (a) indicate an understanding of the principles and (b) minimise the possibility of any confusion.

For example, in your last paragraph you mention that "580Wh is not an unreasonable amount". Once again, in the context I get what you are trying to say, because I know you actually mean 580W. 580Wh could be consumed over 1 second or 5 hours, which would then influence whether it was considered unreasonable or not. 580W is clear that it is an instantaneous consumption with no time component. Using the correct terminology helps in the same way that specifying internet connection in terms of megabits per second and megabytes helps. The different terms refer to different things.

 

[Kosmik]

Yes, I get the point you are trying to make and in this case the context clarifies what you mean. A part of me just wishes we could use the correct notation as that would (a) indicate an understanding of the principles and (b) minimise the possibility of any confusion.

For example, in your last paragraph you mention that "580Wh is not an unreasonable amount". Once again, in the context I get what you are trying to say, because I know you actually mean 580W. 580Wh could be consumed over 1 second or 5 hours, which would then influence when it was considered unreasonable or not. 580W is clear that it is an instantaneous consumption with no time component. Using the correct terminology helps in the same way that specifying internet connection in terms of megabits per second and megabytes helps. The different terms refer to different things.

That is all we have though. wh is whats used in trying to determine both our battery and grid consumption ( energy cost as you say ). How else do we write it or purvey the concept of drain/gain because it fluctuates at individual points of time. Is an average the correct term? Doesn't feel right.

Serious question, not trying to be a pain.

 

[Speedster]

That is all we have though. wh is whats used in trying to determine both our battery and grid consumption ( energy cost as you say ). How else do we write it or purvey the concept of drain/gain because it fluctuates at individual points of time. Is an average the correct term? Doesn't feel right.

Serious question, not trying to be a pain.

You could use one of two options. The easier is to simply say something like average consumption of x watts. That would be perfectly acceptable and accurate scientifically. The other option is to specify the amount of wh used, and over which time period this consumption takes place. The net effect of the two is the same as one would simply take the watt-hour value, divide it by the time (in hours) to leave an indication of average consumption in watts.

 

[Dolby]

 

[Tomtomtom]

That is all we have though. wh is whats used in trying to determine both our battery and grid consumption ( energy cost as you say ). How else do we write it or purvey the concept of drain/gain because it fluctuates at individual points of time. Is an average the correct term? Doesn't feel right.

Serious question, not trying to be a pain.

A direct analogy is to say you travelled 14000 km in 24 hours.

The average speed (power) is 583 km/h.

Saying "average" is not just correct it's pretty important, because there was probably a lot of variation, waiting in the airport, etc.

 

[Speedster]

A direct analogy is to say you travelled 14000 km in 24 hours.

The average speed (power) is 583 km/h.

Saying "average" is not just correct it's pretty important, because there was probably a lot of variation, waiting in the airport, etc.

And just to tag on to this, energy notation is out of sync with most of the values we use in that the rate is the one that doesn't have a time component. I think this confuses some people.

Rate	Volume
kilometer per hour	kilometer
megabit per second	megabit
litre per second	litre
watt (a.k.a. joule per second)	watt-hour (a.k.a. 3600 joules)

 

[Speedster]

That is all we have though. wh is whats used in trying to determine both our battery and grid consumption ( energy cost as you say ). How else do we write it or purvey the concept of drain/gain because it fluctuates at individual points of time. Is an average the correct term? Doesn't feel right.

Serious question, not trying to be a pain.

Here's a little something I wrote for you and @Dolby. I hope it helps

What are watts and watt-hours?

With many forumites being forced to embrace electrical backup and solar systems I thought it might be helpful to put together a little explainer on the basic theory regarding energy and power (and maybe save some of my sanity in the process). The idea isn't to be an electrical course (wayyy...

mybroadband.co.za

 

[vietnam vic]

i think golslr is a great option for now. 2 years from now you dont want to own your current system. R20 000 uninstall is going to be a bargain.

 

[Dolby]

• The solar panels will yield around 4 x 375watts x 5,9sun hours = 8,85kwhours of sun energy a day
• This will allow you to charge the battery (2,kWh) for the evening as well as run your home throughout the day

So, just an update is that install was 80% complete on 27th March and then some issue meant they couldn't install the last 20% until the following week. Then next issue was then the settings, which weren't corrected, solar wasn't generating and just a general balls up. So, I got someone that understand what some of these settings are he helped tweak it - but said we may do some more tweaking when I get more data

It's only be a few days - but yesterday my peak solar generation at one time was 1321kw and just under 5kWh over the day. Not sure how big the summer vs winter yield is?. I need to 'learn' when to heat the geyser and what appliances draw what in order to make everything more efficient.

I checked with two other people they'd charge in the range of R90,000 for everything - so I think I got a good deal . The final price dropped to under R55,000 in total.

One thing I want to ask is the inverter buzzing an issue (not a fan - a buzz) . Google says maybe incorrect sized battery cables?

EDIT : It looks too small a cable was used (4AWG/25mm)

 

[Kosmik]

So, just an update is that install was 80% complete on 27th March and then some issue meant they couldn't install the last 20% until the following week. Then next issue was then the settings, which weren't corrected, solar wasn't generating and just a general balls up. So, I got someone that understand what some of these settings are he helped tweak it - but said we may do some more tweaking when I get more data

It's only be a few days - but yesterday my peak solar generation at one time was 1321kw and just under 5kWh over the day. Not sure how big the summer vs winter yield is?. I need to 'learn' when to heat the geyser and what appliances draw what in order to make everything more efficient.

I checked with two other people they'd charge in the range of R90,000 for everything - so I think I got a good deal . The final price dropped to under R55,000 in total.

One thing I want to ask is the inverter buzzing an issue (not a fan - a buzz) . Google says maybe incorrect sized battery cables?

EDIT : It looks too small a cable was used (4AWG/25mm)

Small correct, 1321W not KW. Winter is a bitch, my yield is now half what it was in March so expect improvement as we swing. Buzzing inverters I believe can be normal when on which is why folks say don't have it in a living area. Thats only when its on battery mode though with no grid, my inverter seems pretty silent during normal operation ( Deye ) but I also have it mounted in a flatlet, not the main house.

*edit* Sorry, just saw, you only have 4 x 375W panels so your kwp is 1.5KW, if you peaking at 1.32, thats pretty good for winter, does depend where though as explained in the other thread, winter angle of sun kills more than anything else and in durbs we drop to 35 degrees

 

[Dolby]

Small correct, 1321W not KW. Winter is a bitch, my yield is now half what it was in March so expect improvement as we swing. Buzzing inverters I believe can be normal when on which is why folks say don't have it in a living area. Thats only when its on battery mode though with no grid, my inverter seems pretty silent during normal operation ( Deye ) but I also have it mounted in a flatlet, not the main house.

*edit* Sorry, just saw, you only have 4 x 375W panels so your kwp is 1.5KW, if you peaking at 1.32, thats pretty good for winter, does depend where though as explained in the other thread, winter angle of sun kills more than anything else and in durbs we drop to 35 degrees

Yea, I have small place and have very few power hogging appliances .

In fact , yesterday was putting back into the grid as it was generating too much ... and that caused an issue because my meter charges me for what goes back. So, I killed that option. Today should be first full ay

 

[Kosmik]

Yea, I have small place and have very few power hogging appliances .

In fact , yesterday was putting back into the grid as it was generating too much ... and that caused an issue because my meter charges me for what goes back. So, I killed that option. Today should be first full ay

Either accept the overgen or increase your battery

 

[Dolby]

Either accept the overgen or increase your battery

I'm doing both ... accepting for now, and increasing my battery soon

 

[shadow_man]

So, just an update is that install was 80% complete on 27th March and then some issue meant they couldn't install the last 20% until the following week. Then next issue was then the settings, which weren't corrected, solar wasn't generating and just a general balls up.

Jirre guy...

You were told not to go with a friend of a friend of a friend. This is what you get, someone who doesn't understand what they're doing. Good luck, but you're causing yourself your own pain here.


Your pricing tbh - I don't think it's that great.
5kWh inverter with 5kWh battery (friend just had this installed with Deye and I forgot what battery for 60k) + 3kWp panels is probably around another 20-25k with mounting.

You're getting half that, for not half the cost.

 

[Dolby]

5kWh inverter with 5kWh battery (friend just had this installed with Deye and I forgot what battery for 60k) + 3kWp panels is probably around another 20-25k with mounting

That's why ?

 

[Lupus]

Small correct, 1321W not KW. Winter is a bitch, my yield is now half what it was in March so expect improvement as we swing. Buzzing inverters I believe can be normal when on which is why folks say don't have it in a living area. Thats only when its on battery mode though with no grid, my inverter seems pretty silent during normal operation ( Deye ) but I also have it mounted in a flatlet, not the main house.

*edit* Sorry, just saw, you only have 4 x 375W panels so your kwp is 1.5KW, if you peaking at 1.32, thats pretty good for winter, does depend where though as explained in the other thread, winter angle of sun kills more than anything else and in durbs we drop to 35 degrees

Here in JHB winter yield can be almost as good as summer, sure no shooting to 100%. Also it seems that KZN actually has the lowest daily peak
Weird you'd think it would be one of the better

 

[Tomtomtom]

Also it seems that KZN actually has the lowest daily peak
Weird you'd think it would be one of the better

Higher average cloud cover presumably.

 

[Dolby]

So I can’t find the post , but someone said I was considering capacity with load when chatting about inverters and batteries .

The example was that I could could use (hypothetically) a 10kw inverter with 1kw battery or 1kw inverter with 10kw battery .

But I’ve realised it isn’t that simple and you do actually need to match have a minimum (maybe inverter dependant).

So I’m getting a 2nd 2.4kw battery next week

 

[Speedster]

So I can’t find the post , but someone said I was considering capacity with load when chatting about inverters and batteries .

The example was that I could could use (hypothetically) a 10kw inverter with 1kw battery or 1kw inverter with 10kw battery .

But I’ve realised it isn’t that simple and you do actually need to match have a minimum (maybe inverter dependant).

So I’m getting a 2nd 2.4kw battery next week

What are watts and watt-hours?

With many forumites being forced to embrace electrical backup and solar systems I thought it might be helpful to put together a little explainer on the basic theory regarding energy and power (and maybe save some of my sanity in the process). The idea isn't to be an electrical course (wayyy...

mybroadband.co.za