Gutted.
Google announced plainly that Google Powermeter will be cancelled in 90 days, 16th September being the termination date.
That was an unpleasant surprise. After drawn in with all the jingly pump of helping to save the planet they have doubtless got bored and pulled the plug.
You get what you pay for !
A timely reminder that the free services offered can be pulled at any time at the discretion of the providers.
Here is link to images of the appliances in happier days of Powermeter
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Tags: Google, Google PowerMeter
My Solar PV – FAQ (Glasgow)
Here is a list of ‘frequently asked questions’ that may help interested parties in the area considering Solar PV.
Q. Am I happy would I do it again?
A. Yes/Yes
Q. Is it right for everyone ?
A. Depends on your roof location (southerly and not shaded by trees/buildings/mountains)
……. and whether you can stomach a long-term investment
ie 10 years to break even !
(not for elderlys in there twylight years, mobile youngsters or wobbly relationships !)
Q. Can you recommend your installer ?
A. Yes, heartily – Highly recommended
Q. Technical Part – What do you have ?
A. System is a 3.95 kw peak rating installed by Tom Morley, Solar Technology, Edinburgh. Yingli polycrystalline panels and an Aurora PVI 3.6 inverter
Q. Poly or Mono ?
I am poly cos’ that’s all that was available at the time.
I have no advice on this, I would probably go for the best price for decent construction quality.
Q. What the financials/numbers
A. Installed total cost was approx 14k, I was fortunate to also gain a grant (~ 10k to me).
First year return or ‘contribution’ from FITS plus export plus less import electricity
~ £ 1650
A very rough rule of thumb is 50p per kwh
Q. Scotland is cloudy and rainy these panels are silly .. surely ?
A. Well we certainly don’t need to clean the panels !
Levels of collectible solar radiation is far better further south in Cornwall or the Sahara for sure, here are my figures in kWh for the last year. (note Dec to Feb is next to nothing)
J 500, A 430, S 340, O 190, N 75, D 29, J 66, F 11, M 250, A 460, M 500, J 500 *
Q. What is the most you have generated in a day ?
A. 27 kWh, yes it was a sunny not a cloud in the sky great day
However, today was good, certainly no heat wave has been okay and I got 23 kWh
Paradoxically, these panels become less efficient in hot weather and derate due the high surface temperatures on the roof, even by 20-25% that’s why the difference between sweltering hot and bright and windy is not so large.
Q. What about Solar Thermal (hot water heating)
A. I would have liked to do this and have reserved some roof space for this system, however, this may require a lot of extra plumbing, it does not attract the same high FITs, and for now if you have mains gas it far cheaper to use your efficient combi boiler. The case is better if you have no mains gas supply (or a hot tub!).
Q. Do you log monitor your energy usage and solar generation ?
A. Yes, browse through the other blog posts, I log all the electricity generate, used, exported as well as gas etc
Q. Big or smaller installer ?
A. I only had small installer quote that did not employ salesman that was I guess 18 months ago. Drive the best price and watch out for all the predictable smoke/mirrors double-glazing sales trickery.
At the end of the day the cost is due to the parts and spending time drilling fixings onto your roof, oh and profit as well.
Q. Is it money-making or planet saving or green ?
A. Another interesting debate, but I do believe in using less and being flexible in our energy expectations. ie a longer debate for another time !
Q. Is there better ways to spend the money (on becoming energy-efficient)
Again another lengthy consideration I really can’t answer for you – Insulation, monitoring, send children to an orphanage, cruise, drink etc etc etc
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Tags: Photovoltaic array, Renewable, Solar
Large Low Power LED TV
I’ve been thinking about upgrading the main lounge TV for some time and currently have a 5 year old Samsung 40 inch LCD that consumes a ‘reasonable’ 230 watts. In it’s day I guess it would have been a class leader.
Anyway, I have been hankering for a bigger screen, full HD 1080 support and freeview HD. Oh, and I have noticed LED TVs with sub-100w power ratings. I had hoped by now OLED would have matured and been commercialised, but they seem to have stalled and are taking longer to come to fruition. 3-D does not cut it for me at the moment.
So, good old Makro mail tempted me in with a 46 inch Sharp model at £760 including VAT. Way down on the price when this model was launched. The Sharp Quattron LC46LE811E really did look rather nice in the flesh and a 5 year guarantee was a nice bonus (internet sales do not qualify!). Furthermore, this model topped the energy leaderboard at an ‘in-use’ 85 watts over at SUST-IT
So its fitted, up and running and looks glorious, so what are the energy figures according to my Kill-a-watt device.
> Shop Mode – not measured
> 112w Eco Off (too bright – horrible)
> 82w Eco Standard (looks fine to me)
> 68w Eco Advanced (a little dimmer also looks great)
So there we have it a large 46 inch telly taking a meagre sub 70 watts quite remarkable.
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Tags: Energy Saving
In just 72 days the roof mounted Solar PV system has now reached the 1 million Wh barrier (or 1000 kWh)
Not too shabby.
Okay, it’s not a race, but it is both nice to see the ‘green’ investment performing slightly above expectations and there is also that childish hypnotic ‘odometer’ rollover syndrome.
Back to the numbers.
1,000 kWh generated in 72 days in sometimes sunny Glasgow, Scotland.
That’s 3.47 kWh / kWp installed.
If it were a car it would now be considered officially ‘broken in’.
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Tags: Kilowatt hour, Photovoltaics, Renewable energy
Solar Thermal – Appeal Review
Ding ding Round 2 !
Nearly a year ago I looked at solar thermal for hot water and could not justify spending money on this technology. So it’s time for an appeal review armed with all this recent solar knowledge and experience.
Why do I want to do this ?
- I like the idea of saving money, CO2, reducing energy usage
- I would really like some diversity from gas/boiler
- Maybe even drop boiler maintenance contract (further saving)
Why not to do it ?
- Currently our hot water usage and efficiency is surprisingly very good
- Teenage shower madness has been solved with an aerated shower head
- Too much effort for too little financial return
- Gas is still very cheap per kWh, furthermore the standing charge or daily fee makes it less attractive to save on gas.
When next to consider it ?
- When the Russians ramp up gas prices
- When the gas distribution network gets unreliable
- When I get a new boiler (a long time away)
- If the RHI Renewable Heat Incentive scheme made it more financially attractive (cannot see that happening now)
Measuring Hot water gas costs
As you may know I’m now logging gas usage with the Brultech ECM 1240
What would I have proposed to fit at this point in time ?
- Something like the Navitron high efficiency double wall evacuated solar tube panels
- A new unvented highly insulated twin coil tank with electric backup heater. (Maybe a thermal store – budget dependant)
- Reconfigure boiler from direct HW to system boiler
Budget ?
Well assuming no RHI payment it would be a DIY low-budget outing ~ £1500. Sized to provide 70% of hot water from the solar collectors. This represents a 20 year payback for my current situation. Note, that for ‘normal’ family using more hot water than us I reckon 10 years and for those using electric heating it would then be a no-brainer 3 years.
Appeal rejected – case dismissed
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Tags: Energy Saving, Solar, Solar thermal energy
Not the best photograph, but my new toy - an Android HTC Desire currently version 2.1 (waiting on full flash 2.2 froyo)
Anyway, nice to report that the flash lite bundle worked on the standard browser without any tweaking. See the snap below for a Google Power Meter working nicely on wifi.
Try that on an iPod !
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Tags: Android, Google PowerMeter, HTC Desire
So was August a good month for Solar PV ?
Short answer is yes !
The total haul was 445 kWh or 3.6 kWh per day per kWp installed on Glasgow SW 30 degree roof.
Commenting on the August results.
- Highest Daily record now 25 kWh
- also a new record low of 4 kWh as well !
- Financial contribution £222 (FITS, used, exported ~ 50p kWh)
Here is some additional snaps of relative electrical household usage and Net metering.
…..and finally how does it compare to the official prediction /statistics ?
Answer: rather well for August, actually spot on for a July, but it’s all down to the weather !
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Tags: Energy Saving, Solar
The way google conducts itself is so different to the razzamatazz of Apple with its product staged releases. Take the Google Power Meter after an initial video then foggy release I have found it to keep getting better without any hint, notification or even documentation.
On first use I had a number of bug bears, product suggestion ideas and annoyances. But they just secretly get slipped in, like some new game you have to spot them.
One feature lacked on release way the ability to wave the mouse over the google flash chart and see point values, quite annoying. Anyway, it’s slipped in unannounced and without any update/install/selection. Can’t even see a mention of it when searching the web.
Keep it coming.
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Tags: Energy Saving, Google PowerMeter, visualisation
Family Mobile Miser Challenge
Running mobile phones for a family of 5 can be a costly affair.
Or maybe not, here’s the challenge.
- Target Cost £5 per person per month.
- Unlimited free calls between all family members.
- Unlimited SMS/texts for 2 teenagers
- Some inclusive talk/texts for everyone
- A basic phone
It was a rhetorical question, because it can be done !
Check out http://giffgaff.com/ here’s the deal.
- Free calls between all giffgaff’ers no need to register or pay for family/friends
(need to top up £10 every 3 months = 10 x 4 x 5 = £200 ) - Unlimited Text goodie bag for two teenagers = 5 x 2 x 12 = £120
- Giffgaff referral payback for family (should be more)
£5 referrer and £5 for reciever, that gets 4 x 2 x £5 = -£40 - Miser grade 5 phones at 90p each = £4.50
- Calls are 8p/min, texts are 4p so you get some minutes included
Total annual cost = 200 + 120 – 40 +4.50 = £284.50 /5
= £ 4.74 each per month !
Another key benefit is that is contract free, no lock in. Hurrah
What’s the downside ?
Not muc
h, but you don’t get an iPhone though !
PS.
Anyone who knows me, call and I’ll sent a free sim.
You get a £5 added to your account for nought !
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Tags: cheap mobile calls, giffgaff
Even with the days shortening we had a super sunshine Sunday and this was backed up by generating the highest total to date since our July installation. Whilst the daily energy was 
25 kWh, I looked at the maximum Wp reading and was surprised to see that the maximum peak was only 3.25 kW.
Head scratching begins to figure out why the peak was down over 18% on less spectacular days. The inverter was up at 60 oC but this is not an issue. The panels were rather hot. I’d hazard from the touch test maybe up nearer 60 oC as well.
Apparently, according to a source on the web …..
Crystalline panels suffer a high voltage DROP when heated by the sun (Crystalline panels lose power, for each degree above 25C). At the 60 C they lose approximately 30% power. Output only 60% to 70% of Wp.
...This was from an article pushing different materials.
Other sources 20% loss at 60 oC or 0.5% per degree above the lab 25 oC rating.
So, doing the sums backwards based on losing 0.5% per degree above 25 oC to get the loses the panel temperature should in theory have been 62.5 oC.
I also checked back on an okayish day like today which yields 17 kWh but the wind and lower roof temperatures managed to high full expected peaks of 3.995 kWp
C’est la vie, bummer !
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Tags: Energy Saving, Solar
I tip my hat to this man he deserves a medal, MBE, Knighthood.
The bar for ‘pro-DIY’ has been well and truly raised.
http://peckhampower.org/blog/insulating-our-victorian-living-room
It is a well told story, actually more like incredible journey (those Disney pets had it easy) about the quest for a little more warmth and comfort in a home lounge/living room.
I remain inspired and in awe.
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Tags: Energy Saving, Insulation
A Working Google Gas Meter !
I am now getting gas usage data through to Google Power Meter.
I did mention a while back that a connection was established to the gas meter and being logged, but the data never up until now never made it through to Google Power Meter. Here is the old article link
http://albacontrols.wordpress.com/2009/08/17/gas-metering-result/
So those clever people at Brultech have now added a little more functionality to get the gas/counter displayed on the very useful Google Power Meter, here is a snap.
It is great to manage both energy utilities, though both work best once some history is collected. Not sure if anyone else has done the Google Power meter for gas yet ?
Okay, it works and is useable though not perfect. My display says kWh but it is actually m3 and Google only provides one costing rate so the financial figures are for generation. I do wonder how much effort the Google people put in on this topic as it sounds spookily quiet on the help/forum.
Recap, how is it done ?
In summary, the Brultech ECM 1240 device channel 7 can be configured as a counter which is interfaced to the 0.01m3 pulses output from the domestic gas meter. The Brultech EngineG software will then work out a rate measurement and post it off to Google every 15 minutes. Easy !
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Tags: Energy Saving, Google PowerMeter, visualisation
(Domestic) NET Metering Solution
So what is NET metering ?
It is the ability to measure power/energy
- Generated (for solar/wind)
- Used ie how much the home consumes (That used to be easy!)
- Exported back to the grid (basically = Generated – Used)
NET metering is really of value where there is some generation on site such as a wind or solar PV. When these new investments are connected to the grid NET metering helps you keep on top of your usage and figure out how your big investment is doing along with tracking your new energy buying and selling profile. Even better to be web based rather than hiding on those dials in the meter closet.
How can this be done ?
Measure Home meter power and the Generated power. The measurements should be capable of totalising directional (polarised) energy flows and take account of power factors to give useable information.
Why ?
Well usually the inverters used by solar/wind give generated numbers and the utility supply meter usually only gives bought energy. The inverter interfacing can get complicated and is different for all the various types.
What Information is useful to know?
Basic stuff usually financial accounting reports or graphs like
- How much £/$ has renewable generation made today/week/month etc
- How much energy is consumed. Are we still reducing our carbon footprint ?
- How much solar energy are we consuming/exporting.
Again a green self-sufficiency angle and a costing exercise
It also helps if you can casually flick to your browser and look at this information in a simple way just like this Google Power Meter screenshot.
NET Metering
How did I do it ?
Well it sounds like a product recommendation and it is. The Brultech ECM1240 companion software has a NET metering configuration option. Flick it on and bingo all the fancy directional energy flows are measured and posted off to google or a local dashboard. Pretty neat.
Filed under: Home, Industrial | 4 Comments
Tags: Energy Saving, Solar
I now have a 3.995 kWp Solar PV installed and working, here I my thoughts now its in and running.
Bad Points
- As I grumbled before the red tape and silly hoops/paperwork/procedures/process to go through to get a proper MCS approved system and a grant/loan was sooooo boring rigor mortis was close to setting in !
The time delay this added meant that I lost out on valuable summer generation. - Price increases and supplier changes due to market availability meant that the cost went up and payback is an extra year
Good Points
- Ended up using Yingli panels and an Aurora PVI 3.6 inverter. Impressed and happy to recommend both of these.
- Installer was Tom Morley, Solar Technology, Edinburgh. Classy install and very helpful, happy people who do a first class job at a good price.
- Looks fine and just works, here’s a snapshot of the panels
Would I do it again, I guess so, but the time taken to do it kinda takes away any purchase glow. But it is nice to be generating in summer more electricity than we need and the FITs payment make the Solar PV financially worthwhile.
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Tags: Energy Saving, Solar
Talking about a handy utility that Power One provide for their Aurora inverters. In my case one for domestic Solar PV duty (nice piece of hardware). The version used is v2.9.6 which is produced, I believe by some nice people in Italy. So what’s my thoughts on it so far….
Cost – Well it is free with the inverter, so VFM is very good !
Effort to setup – Very Easy
I have the ‘outdoor’ version fitted ‘indoors’ so there was no issue connecting to the USB port. However, if you have it outside you’ll need to look at hooking up to the RS485 port. There is no ethernet port.
Reliability for me – rather rubbish although this maybe due to the USB/Serial virtual device driver, although the software does seem to be rather greedy on computer resources. (I presume this will be overcome and others have better robustness). That said as I have a separate NET metering system I only use the software occasionally.
Features – Pretty Okay (update ! actually Comprehensive and easy to use)
Displays current input readings and those all important generation output numbers in watts and kWh. It also has fairly neat charts.
If you manage to keep the software running the plant display feature can show weekly/monthly/year energy charts as well
Oh and it can send out reporting emails to keep you informed of your daily generation totals. It even attached a log of lots of parameters sampled at 10 minute intervals that can be tossed around in excel etc.
Usefulness
I think it is a useful piece of software, to use now and again, but hopeless (for me) as an email reporting tool or long-term logger. It just falls over too much. But hey, if you want to drill down and look at inverter temperatures or individual string voltages during commissioning then it is great.
Alternatives ? There two hardware solutions (yes, involving money) for getting information out of the inverter, an interface box and little very expensive colour display. However, I couldn’t find any interfaces to enable the inverter to be easily integrated into a custom web/hmi/scada/database. In fact I struck out in finding any published details on the communications interface should you be inclined to develop your own driver.
Who reads the manual and clicks everywhere, well not me. I did browse through the menu bar options and missed the very useful Inverter Control Panel. Just click on the inverter list and up pops the Inverter Control Panel. Here is a few screen shots to give you an idea.
Filed under: Home, Industrial | 4 Comments
Tags: Solar, visualisation
Recent Entries
- Google dump Google Powermeter – 90 day notice given
- My Solar PV – FAQ (Glasgow)
- Large Low Power LED TV
- Solar PV 1,000,000 Wh Target reached
- Solar Thermal – Appeal Review
- Android 2.1 works with Google Power Meter
- August Solar PV Production Figures
- Google Power Meter keeps improving
- Family Mobile Miser Challenge
- Solar PV : Disappointed with new record !
- Changing Rooms – This guy deserves a medal
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