Curious about the weather?

[Devil]

It is now exactly one month since my PV system was switched on. Obviously, I don't know yet how much benefit I can get out of it (if any). What I do know is that not a single one of those days, 30 days in the middle of summer, has provided me with good wall-to-wall sunlight. Two days have come up with just over 80% of the theoretical maximum kilowatt hour but only for a relatively short periods. Many days provided 50 to 80% of the theoretical maximum for short periods. A few days never even reached 50%. Overall, we averaged about 71% of the theoretical maximum, which is only barely sufficient to consider that the system is paying for itself.

That having been said, obviously this is not the whole story because we cannot extrapolate the effects of a short period of the weather. What it is brought to my eyes is the fact that round and about where we live, the land is not parched brown or yellow – it still has quite a significant amount of green, much more so than I remember ever having seen in previous years. We have a hibiscus hedge in glorious full flower, yet we have not had any irrigation since winter.

My garden is about 300 m altitude plonk in the centre of the island, so it may be different elsewhere. In fact, the PV system has only brought the current weather anomalies to my thinking. I would welcome the thoughts of other members of this forum, especially regarding the weather.

[cyprusmax47]

It is the same at my area above Paphos, 450 m sea level, it is quite green around and I realized at night that it is too cold to sleep without duvet while the window is wide open. I tried the other day only with a blanket but woke up freezing at 2 AM and the outdoor temperature was only 13 c with more than 95% RH. Normally in June it is much hotter, less clouds, and less humidity in my area. (day and night time).

This year it is also not too hot to have an hour sun after lunch for me, unlike all the other years were i had to hide indoors.

On the other hand my credit on the electricity meter went up much more than in previous years when I had to run 2 air-cons already in June. So regarding the electricity production from my PV system may be a little bit lower but at the end of the day my credit from EAC is much more beneficial.
By the way: my last bill for 2 month was one of the lowest in the last 3 years with 12.83 Euro + VAT.

Max

[mark4007]

Obviously, I don't know yet how much benefit I can get out of it (if any). What I do know is that not a single one of those days, 30 days in the middle of summer, has provided me with good wall-to-wall sunlight. Two days have come up with just over 80% of the theoretical maximum kilowatt hour but only for a relatively short periods. Many days provided 50 to 80% of the theoretical maximum for short periods. A few days never even reached 50%. Overall, we averaged about 71% of the theoretical maximum, which is only barely sufficient to consider that the system is paying for

wow.. you are never going to get hour after hour of theoretical maximum.. thats simply not how a PV system works..

and really - you didnt figure out what the benefit would be before you had it installed and forked out cash for the system?

its easy to figure out the expected benefit.. there are charts etc even within this forum showing how much you should expect to generate yearly or even monthly

even a cursory google search will give you some idea - this is an extract from the first result from a search i did..

"The 3 kWp system will produce about 5,070 kWh per year, and the 4 kWp system will produce about 6,700 kWh per year."

of course to get a better idea you have to factor in shading/ direction the modules are facing etc..

i dont know how much you paid upfront for your system but if its a 4KW system then 6,000 units a year should quickly (2-4 years) recoup the costs..

forget trying to see how close to the theoretical maximum you can get..

work out the saving the expected units you should generate over year... and figure out how quickly your savings (and the grant that i assume you will be able to get) will take to recover your upfront cost..

If you dont have one hell of a saving you have paid far far too much for your system..

[Devil]

Yes, Max, I fully understand what you're saying and agree with your principles.

I'm afraid that you, Mark, seems to have gone off at a tangent with facts and figures that are hardly relevant to what I put in the original post. I was not looking for savings on a PV system; I was commenting on the apparent fact that the weather has gone haywire over the last four weeks or so. This was brought about by lower-than-expected energy, which made me look around me to confirm that the landscape is unnaturally green for the time of year. It is quite possible that I may have overlooked such changes but I noticed them mainly because of my curiosity resulting from the PV installation.

[Dominic]

Your problem was you waffled so much. Had you just said "Isn't the weather odd at the moment?" the replies Would have been about the weather.

[mark4007]

Sorry Devil - didn't mean to go off on a tangent - it was just your opening paragraph of your original post (which I quoted in my response) with all the words and figures about theoretical maximum kilowatts and the statement "which is only barely sufficient to consider that the system is paying for itself" made me think you were talking about your ne PV system and those words and figures made me think you had a fundamental misunderstanding of how much to expect from a PV system and the economics of a PV system.

Thank you for clarifying that all your opening paragraph was trying to say was that its not been as sunny as we would expect or is normal for the past month in Cyprus..

And yep - I, and I think everyone (with or without PV modules on their roof), would agree that May/June have not been as Sunny as one would expect.

[Devil]

Thank you, Mark. Apparently, my "waffling" defeated what I was trying to say! The purpose of my post was obvious from the question in the title-subject; this was not a statement, to avoid the usual 'you don't live in Paphos, it is different here'. The first paragraph was an explanation of any geographic difference.

Not relevant to the post, I have just received notification of a power cut tomorrow from 07:30 – 14:00: it will be interesting to see what happens at a PV level!

[cyprusmax47]

Not relevant to the post, I have just received notification of a power cut tomorrow from 07:30 – 14:00: it will be interesting to see what happens at a PV level!

What you expect? You will only produce a bit from 14:00 - 16:30 when there is such a long power cut.

Max

[mark4007]

Thank you, Mark. Apparently, my "waffling" defeated what I was trying to say! The purpose of my post was obvious from the question in the title-subject; this was not a statement, to avoid the usual 'you don't live in Paphos, it is different here'. The first paragraph was an explanation of any geographic difference.

Not relevant to the post, I have just received notification of a power cut tomorrow from 07:30 – 14:00: it will be interesting to see what happens at a PV level!

As soon as the powercut happens your inverter and PV modules should shut down.. they should, but may not, come back on line when the powercut ceases.. if they dont then you may need to restart them..

[Devil]

Exactly, this is what I expect but I'm the guy who puts his hand into Jesus' wound! I'll let you know if I have any problems with it.

[cyprusmax47]

Unlike when there is a power cut after a lightning strike, the inverter should come back to normal function as soon as power supply is back ...
I have 2 different inverter installed and after many power cuts from EAC in the last 3 years, they were reacting like that.

Max

[cyprusmax47]

Back to weather. There was light rain yesterday morning and today it is even more like autumn. Rain woke me up in the night and right now there is rain again and we are heading towards July....

photo 5 minutes ago



Max

[Lincoln]

Nice and dry here some dark clouds, but the sun is shining. Had a nice early walk. Feels a bit muggy.
,

[cyprusmax47]

One hour later a heavy shower cleaned for sure my solar modules, however as it came with wind also my bed linen are soaking wet now because window was wide open



Max

[Dominic]

Rain too in Polemi. Dammit, I so much wanted to wash the car this morning!

[Lincoln]

It just poured down - Heavy rain passed through. Lasted about 10 mins only. Now blue sky and sunshine. However Dark clouds in the distance.

[Uncle D]

Saves me watering the plants and we always need the water

[Kili01]

No rain where I am in. Chloraka, yet, in the same village, but at the other end, they had a light shower of the usual muddy rain, just enough to dirty the look-of a previously nice clean car!
Very strange weather! And now its nearly the 3rd week of June!

Dee