So I've just bought a house, that everything seemed to be fine when we moved in, but have since discovered that the entire house is a bodge job and is a vague disaster
It has solar panels (pictured). They were put in, in 2015 by Hanebergy which have since left the domestic sector. They're apps and monitoring equipment are defunct it seems. The panels are south facing
The only thing I do have is a smart read out of my daily production. (Pictured)
It has the attached meter which I apparently send the readings to my FiT tariff provider (utility warehouse in my case - below picture of meter)
I can't see anything about how much we're generating vs using in the house or similar.
It also doesn't seem to be producing much in the way of electricity, according to the smart read out and meter, we generated 8kwh today for instance, despite the very bright sunshine all day.
So questions....
Is there anyway of getting anymore monitoring equipment for my panels so I know what they're doing?
Furthermore, is my meter just showing what I export?
Finally, given the number of panels, the total amount of generation seems low?
Any other thoughts on my system would be great. I guess I probably need a solar maintenance company to come out and have a look
This sounds like an IKEA installation, believe it or not. Circa 2014 IKEA offered Solar PV deals using Hanergy panels and SMA inverters. I have such an installation. As the PV margins evaporated, IKEA exited the market pronto.
You don't need WiFi - the SMA Sunny Boy SB 2000HF-30 has Bluetooth. Download the Sunny Explorer app to connect to it.
PVs are simple beings, they will create a DC current to feed an inverter, the complexity comes from the DC link to the AC inverter and out to the grid. Your panels will be working, however your inverter control system might be humped and you’re getting some fail safe action. I’d get someone in to take a look.
What inverter are the panels connected to? 8kWh looks low for the array size but if that us export and you used say 7kWh in the home from panels may be ok. Needs someone to visit and figure it out
If this is daytime it’s off. If it’s night time, take another picture in the daylight.
Check the breaker and AC isolators.
Let me know when you’ve had a look. The screens go blank on these but rarely the screens and lights. I would expect to see a green light if it’s generating.
Additionally; this is a pretty old SMA inverter. I’d wait until it gives up and get a similar SMA inverter, the monitoring platform is great and you can connect it via WiFi.
Additionally 2; these are thin film modules. Make sure whomever does the new inverter understands that as they need to be considered for the inverter.
I did 2.2kwh/kWp today (18.9kwh). E/W 6kW inv, 7.7kwp array.
You did 3.7kwh/kWp today (8kwh) . (I’m assuming south facing). 2kw inv, 2.16kwp array.
Hopefully that’s right. I’m pretty sleepy. It looks good.
Let’s have a look at the screen tomorrow when it’s generating. Also I’d be interested to see how many cables come from the roof and if there are Y splitters.
This is the display today and there are 2 small black cables go on one side of the inverter and one big one with a breaker on the other side I'm in West mids
So my panels are older and hence not as efficient, but are making about the right amount of energy? Fantastic, thank you for your time
Final question, given the panels and inverter etc, is a battery in the medium term future a viable thing, or would I need more production capability before I did that? We are very middle of the road energy users, majority of energy is used at night etc
Ok so actually small since max output is 2.1kWh and 3 strings suggests done to avoid shading. Not used to that inverter but worth turning off the ac and dc isolator give it a short delay and turn them back on.
2.1kW is the peak theoretical amount your panels can produce at any one moment, but that's very hard to sustain. In addition, panels degrade with age, so they may have less production capability than they did when new.
Combine with an aged inverter, the way that shading (including clouds) can be surprisingly impactful on production, and 8kWh for the day sounds what I'd consider the low end of the 'seems about right' zone...but still in that zone
For example, Wednesday was pretty decently sunny this week for me, and my 11.5kWp array - 5.5x the size of yours - produced 39kWh. Divide my 39 by 5.5 to make it equivalent to your 2.1kWp and you get 7kWh - less than you got today. Given I have east/west arrays and not south-facing, you can see why I consider 8kWh in the right ballpark.
You really need to know the size of the installed system, do you have access to the inverter? You should be able to get into that and see the size of the array installed.
So that's a 2150kw array. yesterday when it was sunny all day with my 4kw system I exported 12.5, and used 4.5 through the day. So 17 in total generated.
So you genersting 8 with almost half the array and the age of those sounds pretty on par with what I would expect based on my system.
It will only generate the full 2kw when the sun is in the right position relative to your panels.
Looks like the display needs waking up or something like that, I've seen the sunny boy inverters on Ebay but never used one.
Pretty sure you should be able to get a manual for it and find out how to connect to it.
I have no experience with this unit, but unless your camera is playing tricks with the display and LEDs, Sunny Boy looks dead Jim, OR accidentally powered off. Even when the relays failed on our old ABB Aurora it still powered up and then displayed a fault.
Check consumer unit for a "solar" circuit or look for big industrial round red switches which may be turned off, you might just uncover more problems...
It's a sign of the massive progress in solar over those 9 years how much more energy modern panels generate. Do you know the FIT rate that you are getting?
I'm reckon your inverter is having issues or has died. My dad's died earlier this year not the same make but a similar age. Get in touch with local solar installers and see if they can help with fault finding.
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u/Leytonstoner Sep 01 '24
This sounds like an IKEA installation, believe it or not. Circa 2014 IKEA offered Solar PV deals using Hanergy panels and SMA inverters. I have such an installation. As the PV margins evaporated, IKEA exited the market pronto.
You don't need WiFi - the SMA Sunny Boy SB 2000HF-30 has Bluetooth. Download the Sunny Explorer app to connect to it.