Solar options for home in 2022

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#3505124 21-Jun-2026 22:06

Stu1:

Depressing week hit my lowest ever day. Is lower even possible mabey they need a clean

Yes lower is absolutely possible, though looking quickly at Grafana it looks like 2kw is my lowest. Some days there's just not enough light to generate much power. In winter I think as solar as giving me a bit of a discount on my power bill, whereas in summer I hope for a zero bill... but haven't quite gotten there yet. It's those line charges...

dantheperson

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#3505125 21-Jun-2026 23:07

timmmay:

Stu1:

Depressing week hit my lowest ever day. Is lower even possible mabey they need a clean

Yes lower is absolutely possible, though looking quickly at Grafana it looks like 2kw is my lowest. Some days there's just not enough light to generate much power. In winter I think as solar as giving me a bit of a discount on my power bill, whereas in summer I hope for a zero bill... but haven't quite gotten there yet. It's those line charges...

Cheer up guys, today is the winter solstice. From here, the only way is up.

For all you people with new solar installs it's time to start checking your production values every evening and celebrating as each daily production record is smashed!

fastbike

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#3505127 22-Jun-2026 06:03

Stu1:

Depressing week hit my lowest ever day. Is lower even possible mabey they need a clean

Yes, last Monday yielded a measly 3.3kWh although it was book ended by days with 30+ from a PV array of 11.8kW

Overall the month is fine though , yield is 446 kWh which is 2% lower than last year. Time to clean the panels.

Otautahi Christchurch

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#3505133 22-Jun-2026 07:52

Might give them a clean this weekend, definitely a discount on power over winter .I have never seen it that low before . In the name of Clarkson need more POWERRRR

fastbike

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#3505136 22-Jun-2026 08:20

Stu1:

Might give them a clean this weekend, definitely a discount on power over winter .I have never seen it that low before . In the name of Clarkson need more POWERRRR

LoL. I hear JC now has an electric tractor.

Anyway back to my setup, according to my numbers that is $75 I'm not having to give the power company. And that is in the lowest PV part of the year.

I've exported 127kWh (daytime when battery is full) and imported 358 (night time to charge car or top up battery for upcoming cloudy days).

Otautahi Christchurch

sen8or

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#3505140 22-Jun-2026 08:58

2.2kwh is my low on 15th June, but so far this month, 411kwh in (about $110 worth) and only exported 6kwh so my self consumption is high. Still imported 650, but its winter and we have our heatpumps on 24/7, happy to pay a bit to be warm

Stu1

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#3505191 22-Jun-2026 11:57

fastbike:

Stu1:

Might give them a clean this weekend, definitely a discount on power over winter .I have never seen it that low before . In the name of Clarkson need more POWERRRR

LoL. I hear JC now has an electric tractor.

Anyway back to my setup, according to my numbers that is $75 I'm not having to give the power company. And that is in the lowest PV part of the year.

I've exported 127kWh (daytime when battery is full) and imported 358 (night time to charge car or top up battery for upcoming cloudy days).

He has pretty impressive kit now the robot plower is insane . The Dutch are miles ahead of us in farm tech

Paul1977

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#3505424 23-Jun-2026 11:54

mark0x01:

The right edge of this panel has no edge support over nearly half it's length and at least half the edge panels are the same.

If the rails had run vertically, clamping at the top and bottom would have been the correct way according to the installation guide, but I suppose many installers never read those so would have missed this information.

"The Module must be installed by a professional who is familiar with the mechanical and electrical requirements during installation. Installers
must strictly adhere to the manual instructions, as well as comply with local laws, regulations, and requirements from authorized agencies."

If it's supported on the top left corner, then the unsupported surface area is less than 1/4 of the panel. But I have no idea how you'd calculate how that compares to the manufacturer specified installation method in regard to wind resistance. Regardless, I would have thought it would invalidate manufacturer warranty if it's not installed as per instructions, so you should contact the installers if you haven't already and see what they have to say.

EDIT: Rotated image to correct orientation.

fastbike

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#3505650 23-Jun-2026 21:03

We just had a brief power cut in the northern part of Christchurch.

The Orion page shows about 1500 properties involved

Fortunately I have an extension cord wired into the backup port of the inverter so we had some lights up and running lickety split.

And then the power came back on, LoL

I must talk to my sparky mate about wiring some circuits into the backup: freezer, router, some lights etc.

Edit: damn autocorrect

Otautahi Christchurch

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#3505977 25-Jun-2026 10:57

Stu1:

He has pretty impressive kit now the robot plower is insane . The Dutch are miles ahead of us in farm tech

Must be crazy expensive though. Even with his (and probably Amazon's) bank balance, he leased them rather than buying them.

wellygary

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#3505985 25-Jun-2026 11:29

Paul1977:

Stu1:

He has pretty impressive kit now the robot plower is insane . The Dutch are miles ahead of us in farm tech

Must be crazy expensive though. Even with his (and probably Amazon's) bank balance, he leased them rather than buying them.

The robot tractor is about 300k pounds to buy,

Euro Ag is extremely intensive and they always have plenty of toys (helps having 70 billion Euros a year in subsidies + trade barriers )

https://www.futurefarming.com/smart-farming/agxeed-launches-new-agbot-t2/

Stu1

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#3506418 26-Jun-2026 22:33

I had a chuckle at this how does Aussie survive hot days?

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2026/06/24/grid-operator-demands-more-power/?WT.mc_id=tmgoff_fb_photo&fbclid=IwdGRjcASrNEhleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAo2NjI4NTY4Mzc5AAEeLMn6POZxk5VCRYqZKhMcFKpBhdYtq8DSVi6zwgnrQc8u6UfqoMkuLej4jNQ_aem_6nDmlNMonSj3bOmdGlENcg

cddt

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#3506425 27-Jun-2026 05:56

"Solar panel efficiency typically drops by 0.3pc to 0.5pc for every degree that a panel’s temperature rises above 25C."

Interesting, didn't know that. I wonder how much hotter than air temp panels get in the full sun?

Stu1

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#3506457 27-Jun-2026 09:04

cddt:

"Solar panel efficiency typically drops by 0.3pc to 0.5pc for every degree that a panel’s temperature rises above 25C."

Interesting, didn't know that. I wonder how much hotter than air temp panels get in the full sun?

it’s an interesting debate, apparently they are paying the EU 15 times more the additional electricity. An island full of coal and surrounded by oil struggling been green

HarmLessSolutions

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#3506458 27-Jun-2026 09:23

cddt:

"Solar panel efficiency typically drops by 0.3pc to 0.5pc for every degree that a panel’s temperature rises above 25C."

Interesting, didn't know that. I wonder how much hotter than air temp panels get in the full sun?

I discovered this not long after I imported 5 kW of BP panels from California in 2012. They were on a significant discount which I realised was because they were black, which was shunned by many in that market due to temperature issues. Not a problem for NZ's comparatively cooler conditions, and they actually generated at least 6 kW (rated at 5.1 kW) in mid summer for us.

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

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