[ecenandu]

Originally Posted by maddy42

Congrats that looks like a nice setup. Few queries:

Is it 250 W per panel?

Which direction is it facing?

Do you use two meters or one smart meter?

Which brand panels and who did the instal? Were you satisfied with the work?

Do you have a battery backup or storage? How does storage work if you have netmetering?

Lastly whats the area it takes up? As most probably my home needs should be satisfied by 5kw.

Maddy

1. Yes, 250 W.

2. The orientation of the picture is
N
W E
S

3. There are two meters, the DC-AC inverter is single phase.

4.Its Su-Kam branded ones. And yes, so far we are happy with the installation.

5 and 6 Holyghost has answered them

Originally Posted by Holyghost

Congrats ecenandu. I guess you went with SuKam. Which brand inverter did they install?

Looks like there are a lot of trees on the left side in the picture. Is that the west side?

Thank you. Its Su-Kam branded on the outside, don't know the actual brand.

Yes buddy, it's the West side.

We started producing green power since yesterday , will update the units produced and other details next week. Once the guy from Su-Kam comes and explain it properly.

Sorry for the late reply, guys.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by ecenandu

Thank you. Its Su-Kam branded on the outside, don't know the actual brand. ...

We started producing green power since yesterday , will update the units produced and other details next week. Once the guy from Su-Kam comes and explain it properly.

Congratulations!

Can you please post pics and details of the inverter, batteries, etc!

<-- appreciation and envy!

[ecenandu]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Congratulations!

Can you please post pics and details of the inverter, batteries, etc!

<-- appreciation and envy!

We have gone for an on-grid based solar solution, so there are no batteries involved. The solar power produced will be supplied to the grid or used by the house only if there is power in the grid, that is the down side though.

The pics posted are old ones, now we have a new meter in the blank space that is seen in the second picture. The inverter can be seen in the first picture.

My dad wasn't a fan of off-grid system, mainly because of the recurrent cost of the batteries and the maintenance as well. Well, hopefully net power consumed will be negative. Will update once I get more info about it.

[ecenandu]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Can you please post pics and details of the inverter, batteries, etc!

Here is a video of the system

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4riTvhZ-Aw

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by ecenandu

Here is a video of the system

Thank you ecenandu!

1. How does isolation from mains work when mains is down?

2. Do you have a three-phase power supply? If so, how have is the single-phase solar integrated into it?

[ecenandu]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

1. How does isolation from mains work when mains is down?

I think the inverter will take care of that. Not sure.

2. Do you have a three-phase power supply? If so, how have is the single-phase solar integrated into it?

Yes, we are having a three phase supply. Currently only one of the three phase is connected to solar power. This set up is modular, so in future you can add more capacity say 5KW to the other phase etc.

When I skimmed through the documents I couldn't find a clause where they told the modular arrangement has to be same for each phase. With my limited understanding, I think we can do 5 KW - 5 KW - 5 KW or 5KW - 3KW - 5KW, etc.

But each time you have to go through the government paperwork and all that headaches, for modular that is.

[Holyghost]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Thank you ecenandu!

1. How does isolation from mains work when mains is down?

2. Do you have a three-phase power supply? If so, how have is the single-phase solar integrated into it?

1. The inverter shuts down within 30 secs once the mains are down. This is one of tests the electricity company verifies as part of the approval process.
Moreover, by design the inverter needs mains supply for its normal functioning. The inverter is designed to check the frequency curve of the mains supply and create a matching frequency curve with a slightly higher voltage to make the current flow back to the grid. Whenever the mains fail or its voltage/frequency goes beyond what the inverter can match, the inverter stops current production and goes into stand by mode. It will resume once the mains are up or the frequency/voltage comes back to normal levels.

2. The inverter will be connected to any one phase. You can later add additional inverters to other phase later, or replace existing inverter with a 3 phase grid tie inverter.

[ecenandu]

Update.

First meter reading done today.

130 Units of solar power in 9 days, .

I was expecting more, greedy me.

[Holyghost]

5kw system should produce more, but it depends on the local weather.
My 3kw system produced 12.5 units yesterday. The average has been 300 units per month. And I was unhappy that it is not producing 15units per day.

Since Oct 5, 2016, My system has produced 1593 Units as of Mar 7.

Edit: You are producing an average of14.4 units per day. Mine is at 10 per day. It is only marginally less. Lets see how much it produces this summer. And BTW, clean panels makes atleast 20% more. My panels had accumulated too much dust and the production has been around 9 units since Feb. After a heavy rain on Sun night, the production climbed to 12.5 units/day.

[ecenandu]

Originally Posted by Holyghost

Edit: You are producing an average of14.4 units per day. Mine is at 10 per day. It is only marginally less. Lets see how much it produces this summer. And BTW, clean panels makes atleast 20% more. My panels had accumulated too much dust and the production has been around 9 units since Feb. After a heavy rain on Sun night, the production climbed to 12.5 units/day.

Update.

There was a mistake actually. The first 9 days production was 85 and not 130 as I quoted before.

We did clean the solar panels and it was covered in dust but didn't see any drastic increase in production.

So raised a complaint and the Engineer came down and had a check, looks like they have done some fundamental mistake, he was evasive on what was the actual reason for the low production. Last two days we are getting an average of 17 units.

So my expectation wasn't greedy in the first place.

A bittersweet experience.

I will update once I get the official bill from the electricity board, will clear all the confusion.

[ecenandu]

Update:

Last 9 days : 146 units.
Highest : 21 Units.
Lowest : 4 Units. (Power cut 10 AM to 5 PM).

Have asked the engineer how the solar panels are connected, will post the details once I get them.

[black12rr]

Originally Posted by ecenandu

Update:

Last 9 days : 146 units.
Highest : 21 Units.
Lowest : 4 Units. (Power cut 10 AM to 5 PM).

Have asked the engineer how the solar panels are connected, will post the details once I get them.

Great .

Could you also tell some thing about cleaning the panels. I am sure after 2 or 3 days, there would be a layer of dust sitting on panels. Leaving it not cleaned after a week , would cut down on efficiency ,highly, right ?

[ecenandu]

Originally Posted by black12rr

Great .

Could you also tell some thing about cleaning the panels. I am sure after 2 or 3 days, there would be a layer of dust sitting on panels. Leaving it not cleaned after a week , would cut down on efficiency ,highly, right ?

Its been hardly a month since we started producing solar power. So don't know how much the dust will cut down on efficiency. Currently taking reading everyday, to build a baseline. So if there is any significant drop in the production over a week or two other than cloudy weather or power cuts, we will clean the panels.

If you check Holyghost's post earlier, he said there was an increase of 20% in solar production after a heavy rain.

[ecenandu]

Originally Posted by ecenandu

Update:
Have asked the engineer how the solar panels are connected, will post the details once I get them.

My solar inverter got two MPPT trackers, so 10 panels in series(300V) is connected to each of the tracker. The inverter will give output if there is 150V or more produced from the solar panel.

Last 16 days: 282 Units.

Since our thread is about "Using Solar / Wind Power to charge your Electric Vehicle in India". With 16 days of electricity production you can charge your Tesla 90D three times over which will give you a range of 1420 Kilometers.

Not bad, eh. .

[Thad E Ginathom]

At this tme, I cannot afford a proper setup, on off grid. I have to replace our inverter anyway, and have now almost decided to go for this Luminous setup. They are qoting 2 lakh for a 2kva setup. Haven't got 2 lakh: end of story (plus the fridge, new specs, ac, car detailing, etc etc on the must-spend list).

And what I fear is falling between two stools: spending far more than I need to keep a computer and lights/fan going for several-hour power cuts, but not having enough Kva to power the larger appliances.