We have a 2kW 8 panel solar array (Panasonic HIT panels), mounted on a south-facing roof at approximately 35-40° angle from the horizontal, which was installed at the end of August 2013.
These are the results for November 2015 (in red) with last year's results (purple), year before (green) and distribution by average sunlight 1971-2010 (met office stats) in blue:
The panels have done 27kWh this month - down 32kWh on last year's results, and down 50kWh on the forecast by average sunlight.
With 300 hours of daylight in November (sun up to sun down for all 30 days), the average kWh generated per hour of daylight this month was 0.09kW. October last year was 0.19kW. A particularly gloomy November this year.
In September, I started monitoring the average wind speeds across my back garden to see if a wind turbine would be a financially viable investment.
Here is a graph showing November's wind speeds:
Average wind speed for the month was 2.58m/s.
Average gust speed for the month was 4.26m/s.
Maximum wind speed recorded for the month was 10.2m/s.
Maximum gust speed was 16.3m/s.
As usual, November was quite blustery, yet the average wind speed values recorded are disappointing. The average gust speed for the month is still less than the 5m/s ideal minimum recommended value I've been reading for cost-effective generation.
However, there is no doubt that a turbine would have been productive for a significant percentage of the month. I've done a bit of digging and have found the transfer function for the EOLO 1000 turbine I'm looking at (ie, how many W are generated at a particular wind speed):
Next I will find out how to plug these curves into my actual raw data in excel to arrive at a (hopefully reasonably accurate) prediction for kWh generated.
Here is a pic of the E1K EOLO 1000 turbine I've been considering:
Here is a pic of the E1K EOLO 1000 turbine I've been considering:
With all the grid-connection kit, and the 6-blade upgrade (as shown), it costs a total of 924 euros + 66 euros shipping = 990 euros - approx £670. If I do installation myself, that would cost a couple of hundred quid (foundations and mast), so the whole shebang goes in for under a grand. Note it has "1k" and "1000" in it's title, but look at the transfer function - it only hits 1kW at 24m/s - that's a 53mph wind! At a more realistic 5m/s it's only doing 120W, and it hits 200W at 6m/s.
This is why looking at the number in the title for any given turbine is a waste of time. Another turbine I'm looking at, the Aeolos V-600 turbine generates 200W at 5m/s http://www.windturbinestar.com/600wv-v-aeolos-wind-turbine.html
This is why looking at the number in the title for any given turbine is a waste of time. Another turbine I'm looking at, the Aeolos V-600 turbine generates 200W at 5m/s http://www.windturbinestar.com/600wv-v-aeolos-wind-turbine.html
Transfer function - pdf here:
No price information online for this one. I'm suspecting it's significantly more than £1000, but without actually asking them I don't know...
This is all the data I need to calculate a cost-per-kWh to compare to buying the electricity from the grid. Sadly, there will be no new feed in tariffs available from January 2016 (thanks very much Mr Osborne :P )
