Sunny Beam installed

I have received the Sunny Beam equipment for my PV inverter. It came in two bits.

The first piece is a bluetooth transmitter which fits into the inverter. The second piece is the Sunny Beam display unit.

Although the units work perfectly well together they haven't yet got the ability to post my data to a website.

After talking to my fitter I will be able to return the display unit and see how much a more expensive unit called a Sunny Web Box which is supposed to be able to do what I want.

FIT plan accepted by E.ON

E.ON have now received the FIT paperwork for my PV system.

This means that they will now be paying me for generating power at The Swamp. This also means that I can pay the fitter the final 5% of the installation fee.

Solar generation numbers so far ......

Well I have finally returned to The Swamp to a very cold snap.

The generation meter showed 198kWh since the installation was completed. This equates to 42 days (appropriate). So far this means we have an average daily production of 4.71 kWh.

The current rate is 41.3p per unit generated, whether I use it or not. Eon have agreed that they will pay me an extra 3p/unit for 50% of what I generate as part of the FIT.

The equation is 41.3p x units generated + 3p x 50% units generated. 41.3 x 1 x units + 3 x 0.5 x units = 42.8p x units

In money terms, given 41.3p/kWh, and that 50% will get an extra 3p per unit, I have generated approximately £84.74 since connection.

If I use this average generation over a period of 365 days this equates to an annual influx of £735.80. This DOES NOT take into account the amount I save by not buying in this energy.

The weather is obviously not the best, as the days are short and the sun is low in the sky.

I have ordered a meter which should hopefully let me post my daily generation levels on the web LIVE!

FIT paperwork

Oops. Very nearly missed out on getting the Feed In Tariff from my energy supplier E.ON.

I had assumed that the solar panel installation company would have taken care of this but apparently they don't. This is due to issues of privacy etc. They don't have my supply detail to hand and E.ON shouldn't just hand them out to anyone who happens to ask.

All I had to do was go onto the E.ON website at the following URLhttp://www.eonenergy.com/At-Home/Products/Feed-in+Tariffs/How-to-apply-for-fit-payments.htm?WT.mc_id=How_to_Apply&WT.svl=8 and then download the form under 'download the application form (PDF)'.

Print that off, fill in the blanks and then send it off with a copy of the MCS certificate to the address supplied.

As there were a few questions I had about the form I simply rang the number 0845 301 4884. The person I spoke to was very helpful.

It should now be all sorted and again goes to prove you shouldn't assume stuff where money is concerned.

Full on !

I have just taken a reading from the inverter in the attic when the sun is in a clear sky and almost (but not quite) perpendicular to the solar panels.

This being Oct though, the sun is not very high in the sky.

The readings were

Time (GMT)	SolRad (W/m2)	E-total (kWh)	h-total (hours)	E-today (kWh)	PAC (watts)	VPV (VoltsDC)	Mode
1325z	439 W/m2	16.6 kWh	18 hours	6.62 kWh	1963 Watts	310 Volts	MPP

The system was commissioned in the afternoon of Tuesday 19th October 2010.

Rather than having to go up the ladder to the attic every time I want a reading I'll now have to investigate the possibilities for getting it posted to the WWW.

Scaffolding down today

The scaffolders came back this morning and dismantled the scaffolding. Didn't take too long at all. About 1 hour. Now have to reconfigure the garden deck to what it was before they came.

Day 1 for The Swamp Electricity Generation Board

Woke up early this morning (before dawn). Not exactly sure why. As I was up before the sun I decided to see what would happen on the inverter as the sky brightened up.

I was hoping to correlate the readings from the inverter with the solar radiation readings from the weather station. For some reason the station has stopped updating. Will need to check that.

The following is a series of times with readings from the inverter. It is quite dry but is mainly to act as a reminder. Will only update information if it changes from time to time.

Woke up early this morning (before dawn). Not exactly sure why. As I was up before the sun I decided to see what would happen on the inverter as the sky brightened up.

I was hoping to correlate the readings from the inverter with the solar radiation readings from the weather station. For some reason the station has stopped updating. Will need to check that.

The following is a series of times with readings from the inverter. It is quite dry but is mainly to act as a reminder. Will only update information if it changes from time to time.

0740h	All 3 LED's are lit on the inverter. No backlight or data on the LCD screen.
0741h	Back light for the LCD screen has come on. The LCD screen itself is blinking, looks like it is trying to show data.
0744h	LCD screen has settled down and is showing the following. Sunny Boy 2500 WR25 - 026
0745h	Green LED is now flashing, others have gone out. PAC 0W VPV 243V E-total 1.4kWh h-total 2h E-today 0.00 kWh mode = waiting, the system is waiting until the power from the panels is enough to start pushing power to the outside world. It needs to detect the levels and phase of the incoming power to match it.
0749h	VPV 270V
0756h	VPV 290V
0800h	VPV 297V
0801h	VPV 305V
0803h	Green LED started to flash v. quick VPV 310V mode = offset, this means the system has detected the incoming power cycles and found there is an offset between this and the on-board generator.
0804h	Green LED back to normal flash at about 2Hz. VPV 312V mode = waiting
0806h	VPV 320V
0810h	mode = grid mon, the system has enough power to start generating but needs to be sync'd to the incoming supply.
0810h	VPV 329V mode = waiting, panel output dropped below minimum
0813h	VPV 330V
0817h	VPV 331V
0824h	VPV 340V
0825h	VPV 243V PAC 35W mode = APP
0826h	VPV 238V PAC 43W

Towards the end we can see that as the voltage drops the power goes up.

After this is I left it to get on with it.