PowerSwitch

An historic day here at Chateau Renewable. The gentlemen came round this morning and did the final measurements on the roof, and I wrote a rather large cheque for the deposit...yes, after all these years, Chateau Renewable is finally Going Solar!

We'll be expecting photos.
(Maybe not of the gentleman.)

RenewableCandy wrote:An historic day here at Chateau Renewable. The gentlemen came round this morning and did the final measurements on the roof, and I wrote a rather large cheque for the deposit...yes, after all these years, Chateau Renewable is finally Going Solar!

Are you sure you'll get an inverter with it, or will you just have a shiny roof for months until they can make one .

The chaps said it's all gone a bit mental since FiTs came in: all the MICE (newly retired "Money Is Coming Easy"-types) are buying, and "you can't get inverters for love nor money".

I can wait. After all it's taken 3 years already.

Are you having solar hot water (SHW) ?

I'm just gonna wait for TEOTWAWKI and then go rob all the solar speed signs.

Sadly we can't have a SHW without re-arranging our entire heating system, as we haven't got a tank. Perhaps we should get one: come TEOTWAWKI a Tank'd be jolly useful !

RenewableCandy wrote:come TEOTWAWKI a Tank'd be jolly useful !

I'm sure it would be, but have you got anywhere to park it?

I presume that this is a grid tied PV system ?

If so, I presume that you are aware that it wont provide any standby or backup power, you will still be just as grid reliant as before.

Still an excellent idea, for financial and enviromental reasons, but not a disaster prep.

You may wish to consider a small stand alone battery charging system as well. It could be worth fitting a single additional PV module for this at the same time.

In any long term emergency, the modules of your grid tied system could of course be used for battery charging.
To facilitate this, as many connections as posible should be accesable from inside the loft space, without requiring acces to the roof externaly.

Thanks for the reminder (about the connections). Yes it is a bog-standard grid-tied system, a topic about which I have thought long and hard and drawn, for what they're worth, the following conclusions:

1. The system will shut down in the event of a power cut (G83 and all that)
2. Power cuts (going on my own past experience) are far more likely to happen when it's cold
3. Coldness is far more likely to happen during the hours of darkness...
4. ...during which our roof would not be producing owt anyway
5. Some places are more succeptible to power outages than others: rural Cumbria and W. Wales for example
6...because they don't have the UK's biggest s*d-off power station (Drax) just 15 miles down the road (erm and Eggboro' and Ferrybridge)
7. The people who run Drax are having Biomass burners installed, and want one unit of the 6(?) to run on bio entirely...
8...with a view to carrying on after 2016 and the LCPD
9. HMG may very well decide that the EU can shove its LCPD where the sun don't shine rather than leave most of Yorkshire in the dark
10. We could have a battery that's topped up from the bog-standard mains or, if the worst comes to the worst, I can shin out of the Velux and wire one of the panels up individually (although I would of course have to do this at night!)
11. I am also wondering if there's such a thing as a low energy mains-emulator that can be fed into the inverter to deceive it into thinking that mains is still on?

If any of this is bollix, I'm all ears...

I am not aware of any easy way to fool a grid tie inverter into "thinking" that is connected to the grid when it is not.

As you point out, grid tie PV has many advantages, but has the drawback of not providing any protection against power cuts.

Power cuts are indeed more likely in winter weather, when PV provides little, and at night when PV provides nothing.
There are 3 main causes of power cuts.

1) mechanical failure or breakdowns in the network, this can happen at any time, without notice, but is more likely in severe weather due to the liklehood of storm damage.

2) industrial disputes over wages etc. In theory these can occur at any time, but in practice are likely to be timed for winter weather for maximum impact.

3) Rota cuts due to lack of generating capacity. Most likely at times of peak load, but can occur at any time.

I dont think that the proximity of a large power station will help you at all.
Any lack of generating capacity would lead to rota power cuts imposed as fairly as possible over the whole of the UK. I donth think that district near large power plants would get special treatment..

Industrial disputes would lead either to rota cuts as above, or to localised random breakdowns taking longer to repair.

Phone call from the PV Man today and we have a date!! So, by sunset on 4th August, Chateau Renewable will be Solar! (I checked and yes, they do have a shedload of inverters...s'long as nobody hijacks the shed )

RenewableCandy wrote:Phone call from the PV Man today and we have a date!! So, by sunset on 4th August, Chateau Renewable will be Solar! (I checked and yes, they do have a shedload of inverters...s'long as nobody hijacks the shed )

So summer ends on 3rd August then

Good on yer, RC.

Believe it or not I am beginning to get a bit nervous. I keep wondering if they'll find something non-part-pee our electrics, or that the bank won't be able to process the payment (which has to go through on the day and which has to come from 2 different accounts because we're skint til next month), or that the electric company won't agree we're fit for FiTs, or if the drive/path/garden/attic is too full of stuff for them to go about their business safely (we'e had a massive tidy-up and Chateau Renewable, especially the attic, now looks slightly unfamiliar). Apparently the project includes (it says in the blurb) a "risk assessment". I'd like to see what a risk assessment of Chateau Renewable looks like (then again perhaps I wouldn't...)

Anyone else ever felt owt like this?

The worst thing of all is that I'm already contemplating the next big project (in purely absract terms, you understand...)

Pictures (for those who like that sort o'thing...)

The van arrives...



reinforcements turn up



Scaffolding for ascending the South Face of Chateau Renewable...



Panels arrive!



Frames go into place...



...without having to remove the tiles



a panel waits for a lift...



...and pauses on its way up



Panels are bolted to the frame (in the rain!)



Will get a shot of the roof and the internal gubbins when it's all done: the electrician finishes tomorrow!