TOOLS, TINKERINGS & CODE
Sorry for the recent downtime, my 74 gig raptor drive died and while I have pretty recent backups I’ve had to recover some stuff through the use of google cache so forgive the out of order posts and missing bits (if I missed any)
I still have to go through all the sub-domains and other sites I host to make sure everything functions (especially chumby things)
It’s late now, so this isn’t a long post, I have so many more things to sort out (this is more than a webserver)
Sorry it’s taken so long to update you all on my solar install.
The installers came back out and replaced my indoor in box inverter with an outdoor model and wired it up with two inputs.
Sexy isn’t it?
While they were here they found a faulty connector on the roof, which was killing one string from my array, and fixed it.
The install isn’t as tidy as I would have liked, but it works now.
I’ve created and released my first cpan module Device::Inverter::Aurora and stopped using the C program (not that there was anything wrong with the C program, this just suits my application better)
And, I’ve created a Google AppEngine application to produce and display graphs (for laughs I also use html5’s canvas and lots of javascript) – http://arraywatch.appspot.com/ – I love how you can see the lensing effect the edges of clouds have as they pass over the roof
Since the new meter was installed at the beginning of October I have exported 547kWH to the grid and imported only 167 at night (approx 10.13kw/day export)
The array is working well, not perfectly – it could really use some tilt – but since it’s been fixed we’ve had fairly bleh weather so I really haven’t been able to see what it’s peak is yet.
Stopped by Bunnings on the way home tonight and picked up a bunch of miscellaneous venting hardware
Take the aluminum fly screen, cut it and fit to the back of each of the 5 louvre vents.
Fit two of those louvre vents to the top of the left hand side of the box
Fit the other two in the middle on the right hand side of the box
Fit the last one to the bottom of the door.
Place fly screen between the other vents, and place them in the floor of the meter box.
That should about fix my airflow I hope :D
As with all new things, I guess glitches are to be expected…
A week after my install was completed here’s a list of glitches.
The inverter has a fan fail fault – so is going to be replaced
The two strings are connected in parallel to one input on the inverter (see next one)
The two inputs on the inverter haven’t been paralleled for use as above meaning there is the potential for overload
The total output for my system on a bright sunny day is awfully low
The box is a touch on the small side
I can will fix the last one, I’m going to cut some vents to match the vents on the inverter and fit with mesh and down pointed slats to keep out the rain.
I expect the others to be fixed when they come and replace the inverter, will let you know how that goes.
It is producing the minimum I expected as an annual average – which is the amount I estimated and budgeted on – so that’s not bad, but it’s not performing as well as it should.
And now, a picture of the array on my roof
I now have Solar Power (PV)
System Specifiactions
18×170 Watt Solar Monocrystalline Modules (arranged in two strings)
Aurora PVI 3600AU Inverter
Installation is on a almost flat (slightly curved east to west) roof.
Total System Power: 3060 watts
Checked this morning and the inverter was live and operating at 5:45am (was “Waiting for sun” at 5:20am).
This weekend (providing the cat5 turns up) I’ve got to install some cat5 so I can access the RS232 port on the inverter.
Coming soon (See new “Solar” category on the left): photos and output graphing