watervole: (Default)
Judith Proctor ([personal profile] watervole) wrote2011-03-21 03:41 pm

Angle of incidence

Interesting to see the difference that the angle of the sun in the sky makes.  it's getting towards 4om now and generation has fallen to around 1.3KW - which is still far less than the 300W I'm actually using, but you can see the pattern.

Electricity use will rise a bit in the evening with lights switched on and more computers in us (though it's surprising what a difference it makes if you get serious about switching off lights in rooms you're not actually in).

It will be interesting to see how much difference clouds make.  If a cloudy day can still manage 2-300W, then it will be really useful.

Incidentally, if anyone is interested, this is the monitor that I'm carrying around the house with me to view the net electricity generation/consumption.  It's a remarkably handy little gadget.  I've been using it for a month or two and not only does it give me a good feel of which appliances use how much electricity, I find that now I'm used to the normal patterns, I can often spot when things have been left switched on elsewhere in the house.

At low readings during the day, I'll now find it tricky to tell difference between a small gain and a small loss solar electricity-wise, but I'm sure I'll get used to it.  I can always go and look at the solar reading in the meter cupboard if I really want to know.

keris: Keris with guitar (Default)

[personal profile] keris 2011-03-21 08:18 pm (UTC)(link)
OK, how does that Owl thing show you how much individual things are using? Is it only by turning them off and seeing the difference?

That power is a lot more than I'd expect from solar panels, what area do they cover? And is your roof south-facing? Mine is SE/NW so it's far from ideal.

How do you get them to install it free? Since my average power consumption (without heating on) is around 500W that might reduce my costs quite a bit, but not if I have to pay several thousand pounds to have it installed.