Mick and Janet's  Photovoltaic Solar System.

Updated 1 Jun 2009

          Janet and I have a Photo Voltaic solar power system on our roof consisting of 10 x  BP4170S 170w panels and a GCI1700E (Sunnyboy) inverter.  The system was commisioned on the 6th of Jan 2005.  The supplier estimated it should generate an average of 2500Kwh per year based on our location and amount of daily sunlight (in Adelaide South Australia). You can see photos from the Installation. 

Relocating the Solar Panels.

    I accepted a job transfer to regional Victoria, this meant Janet and I had to leave our home in Adelaide. Not wanting to leave the PV system behind, we packed up the panels and inverter and had them reinstalled on the roof of our new home. The relocation process was relatively painless, but did take a bit of research. The hardest part was finding someone that would do the reinstall. Everyone was happy to sell me a new system, but helping to recommission an existing system was not high on anyone's priority list, especially when you live 3 hours out of Melbourne.  The panels are connected in the same configuration on the new roof. Two banks of 5 panels, but to prevent shading, they needed to be laid out in a single row of 10. 

Our systems performance..

 Our system has worked as expected since it was commissioned. The supplier estimated it should generate an average of 2500Kwh per year based on our location and average amount of daily sunlight. The table below shows the total amount of Kilowatts produced by the system. To date its over 10 megawatts.

*year in progress.

The graph below gives a monthly breakdown of how much power the system has generated. Jan 2008 was the greatest output month ever. It was the driest January on record for Adelaide. No rain, no clouds, just a month of blue skies.  April 2008 has a low total as the system was decommissioned on the 21st of April and it moved to its new home in Victoria. The system was reconnected to the grid on the 11th of August, so there is no data from May, Jun or July 2008. Feb 09 saw a lower than average reading, partially because we have moved to Victoria, but also because of the bushfires that left the skies smokey for many days, reducing the amount of direct light hitting the panels.  

Solar Buyback system in Victoria

    In 2009 a PV power buy back scheme is scheduled to start in Victoria where we live.  Currently we get paid 20c for power we export to the grid.  To encourage more people to install a solar PV system, the government (via the power companies) will pay 60c for every  kilowatt of power exported to the grid, but you only pay the standard rate (14.6c) for the power you import..... Based on our own real life figures, this incentive is great news. As we don't consume much power during the day,  much of our PV generated power is not needed, and is exported to the grid earning us a credit. .The three fold increase means we should get a cheque from the power company (yes that right - they will be paying us). This initiative should help reduce the pay back time of the panels.  I was really looking forward to receiving my power bill in March, as I was expecting it to be a nice credit after the introduction of the 60c rate. Unfortionately the Victorian government have not authorised the rebate yet. Hopefully it will kick in as of July 1st. 

We would love to hear from others who have an interest in Solar Power.  Please Email us if you have any questions or info to share.

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