Solar options for home in 2022

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71 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 16

#3308768 13-Nov-2024 20:12

How do you get the council to severely trim a tree that is encroaching on or shading the roof and filling the guttering with leaves and debris ?

Can you ask them to change out the tree for an evergreen tree that does not grow very high?

What are the options that are available?

Thanks .

Neil

fastbike

448 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 323

#3308784 13-Nov-2024 20:47

LightbulbNeil:

What are the options that are available?

My neighbour uses round up in the middle of the night, according to the neighbour on the other side who has lost two boundary trees. I'm not recommended that course of action. I regularly maintain our street trees in the cul-de-sac with a pole saw.

Otautahi Christchurch

prob

239 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 50

#3309529 16-Nov-2024 09:51

Does anyone have data about 12 months of actual solar power generation in the Auckland area they can share as a spreadsheet or csv file? I also need to know the size of your installation. Hourly figures would be best.

I am trying to model my proposed system against my actual usage (I have that data in 30 min intervals).

Thanks in advance.

fastbike

448 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 323

#3309632 16-Nov-2024 12:35

prob:

Does anyone have data about 12 months of actual solar power generation in the Auckland area they can share as a spreadsheet or csv file? I also need to know the size of your installation. Hourly figures would be best.

I am trying to model my proposed system against my actual usage (I have that data in 30 min intervals).

Go to https://monitoringpublic.solaredge.com/solaredge-web/p/home/public?locale=en_GB

Then sort by country, in reverse order. Go to page 145, there are some NZ sites. Hopefully one is close enough.

You will need the size of the site's inverter, their orientation to north and their roof slope. You can then use the Niwa Solaview tool to work out how much you planned installation will vary from the reference site chosen. We have 12kW of panels on a 10kW inverter. Compared to the reference site we used (5kW inverter) our production factor varies from 2.0 in summer, as expected, to 1.36 in winter due to slope and orientation.

Otautahi Christchurch

HarmLessSolutions

1230 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 812

Subscriber

#3309633 16-Nov-2024 12:55

We have been contributing our data to this site since the start of this month. I'm not up on how best to navigate the data it contains but any contributor's data is accessible down to a daily level.

https://www.harmlesssolutions.co.nz/

cddt

1973 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1906

#3309651 16-Nov-2024 13:49

LightbulbNeil:

How do you get the council to severely trim a tree that is encroaching on or shading the roof and filling the guttering with leaves and debris ?

You trim it yourself.

Trying to get the council to do anything is a fool's errand.

My referral links: BigPipe | Mercury

fastbike

448 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 323

#3309717 16-Nov-2024 15:59

cddt:

Trying to get the council to do anything is a fool's errand.

Maybe time to move ? We use snap send solve, and most requests are dealt with promptly and efficiently.

Otautahi Christchurch

wired

191 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 72

#3309802 17-Nov-2024 06:22

prob:

Does anyone have data about 12 months of actual solar power generation in the Auckland area they can share as a spreadsheet or csv file? I also need to know the size of your installation. Hourly figures would be best.

I am trying to model my proposed system against my actual usage (I have that data in 30 min intervals).

Thanks in advance.

Have a look at the NIWA calculator https://solarview.niwa.co.nz/' target='_blank'>https://solarview.niwa.co.nz/ this takes account of the panel angle and will give you hourly averages.

fastbike

448 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 323

#3309804 17-Nov-2024 07:35

wired:

Have a look at the NIWA calculator https://solarview.niwa.co.nz/ this takes account of the panel angle and will give you hourly averages.

This tool gives average insolation for an installation at a particular site, with a given orientation to north and panel tilt. However you then need to account for actual panel efficiency (not what is printed on the spec sheet btw), inverter efficiency etc.

I think the OP is after real production data for the last year to match against his real consumption data so he can model whether he would be importing or exporting at each half hour block. I found a local site that could provide actual production data to 15 minute resolution and built an excel model using the Niwa data (above) to correct the production data to reflect my planned site.

Otautahi Christchurch

prob

239 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 50

#3309950 17-Nov-2024 20:11

Thanks for this. The NIWA site looks great, but for some reason only gives you the date for 23 days of each month.

Broken??

The SolarEdge site is good, but not much good NZ data.

Anyway...

I have roughly worked out that in IRL, a system on my house costing about $12,000 for just over 7kW (17 * 435 watt panels, most facing north, some facing east) will generate about 9 - 10,000 kWh a year.

That's $1,700 to $2,000 worth of power each year at 20c kWh.

With Kiwibank requiring a 7 year loan, that is more than the yearly repayments of about $1,700.

Now, second problem. I am with Z Energy (mainly for the 3 hours fee power every night when I heat my hot water). They buy back power at the wholesale rate. Because the rate is low during the day, it looks like I will get back about 10c kWh on average, so I may need to change power company (Power Edge is offering $17.39c which plus gst is 20c kWh).

Is anyone on a tariff where the buyback is the wholesale rate and what is your calculation of the buyback average rate (daytime obviously as I don't have a battery)

EgorNZ

64 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 23

#3309953 17-Nov-2024 20:15

prob:

Thanks for this. The NIWA site looks great, but for some reason only gives you the date for 23 days of each month.

Those are the times of day, not day of month. It's showing you the average irradiance over all days in the given month, in hourly increments.

Jase2985

13735 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 6217

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#3309954 17-Nov-2024 20:28

prob:

Now, second problem. I am with Z Energy (mainly for the 3 hours fee power every night when I heat my hot water). They buy back power at the wholesale rate. Because the rate is low during the day, it looks like I will get back about 10c kWh on average, so I may need to change power company (Power Edge is offering $17.39c which plus gst is 20c kWh).

Is anyone on a tariff where the buyback is the wholesale rate and what is your calculation of the buyback average rate (daytime obviously as I don't have a battery)

Highly suggest you consider their import rates, because while you can sell back for a lot, if your day import rate is high then you would want to be maximising your self consumption, ditto if your night rate is high, you would be better running things like dryer and HWC during the day.

Export isnt everything in a calculation if you can't adjust your power to make use of it.

HarmLessSolutions

1230 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 812

Subscriber

#3309969 17-Nov-2024 21:44

prob:

Thanks for this. The NIWA site looks great, but for some reason only gives you the date for 23 days of each month.

Broken??

The SolarEdge site is good, but not much good NZ data.

Anyway...

I have roughly worked out that in IRL, a system on my house costing about $12,000 for just over 7kW (17 * 435 watt panels, most facing north, some facing east) will generate about 9 - 10,000 kWh a year.

That's $1,700 to $2,000 worth of power each year at 20c kWh.

With Kiwibank requiring a 7 year loan, that is more than the yearly repayments of about $1,700.

Now, second problem. I am with Z Energy (mainly for the 3 hours fee power every night when I heat my hot water). They buy back power at the wholesale rate. Because the rate is low during the day, it looks like I will get back about 10c kWh on average, so I may need to change power company (Power Edge is offering $17.39c which plus gst is 20c kWh).

Is anyone on a tariff where the buyback is the wholesale rate and what is your calculation of the buyback average rate (daytime obviously as I don't have a battery)

??

Your annual generation looks to be in the ballpark. Our 9.5kW feeding into an 8.2kW inverter generated 11,600kWh in the last 12 months but that total will have been influenced down from what the system is capable of due to our system being on a single phase so limited to 5kW export by way of a throttling limit on the inverter. This is a potential influence for you to factor into your design data.

Also according to Solar Analytics that generation has resulted in a return of $3,050 over that 12 month period based on export and self consumption calculated using the supply rates active at the appropriate times. The split of that amount is $2,308 of self consumption and just $742 of export. That brings up two points:

We are with Octopus and their FIT has been 17c/kWh for all but a few weeks of the last year, and
your return is more than just what your export earns you. As is always the case for domestic solar, the best return you will receive on your generated electricity is by using it as it is generated. That will give it a value to you equivalent to whatever the import price would have been for the consumption you offset by doing so, including GST. In this regard charging of EVs and diversion to a HWC are great ways of optimising self consumption, or of course home battery charging.

https://www.harmlesssolutions.co.nz/