# Free mining capability, (is it worth trying it)



## Hellfire (Jan 2, 2019)

Hi guys,

So I have never mined, never attempted mining and not really looked into it. I understand a lot of the rigs are optimised, you have power usage to consider and hardware costs. However that said....

I have a solar system being fitted next week, the system is spec'd for 4KW in British weather and probably a low of 2.3KW/h in bad weather. During the day when we're all at work, this free power will be wasted
I also have my personal PC which has two Vega 64's (I know they're probably not the best to mine with but I already own them)

So I have a PC with a couple of cards and free power, from 8am to 5pm Monday to Friday (10 per day / 50 per week) could I see any benefit at all from using the PC for mining during these hours? Is there anyway to see what sort of estimate I could see?

I know nothing so I am at your mercy for advice.

HF


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## eidairaman1 (Jan 2, 2019)

The returns are miniscule now for the wasted power, Do Folding/Crunching with it.

Mining went bust


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## Hellfire (Jan 2, 2019)

Yeah, I have just been looking on google, apparently I'd make, maybe $11 a month, if I was lucky... Not even worth my time messing around with it.


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## Deleted member 158293 (Jan 2, 2019)

You would be "mining for later", meaning not worth selling now, but like all the previous cycles you can sell when prices go back up.  Probably in a few years, unless the cycle accelerates, which it also seems to be doing but no guarantees.


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## FordGT90Concept (Jan 2, 2019)

4 kwh = installed solar panel capacity?  Bought batteries too?  Solar has a capacity factor of about 30% which translates to levelized power delivery of only 1.2 kwh for the average of the year.  Installing all of that also isn't free and batteries are not cheap to replace.

Personally, I would just weigh the power savings from the panels against the investment cost of the panels. I wouldn't look to increase power consumption for pennies worth of payback.


Hellfire said:


> Yeah, I have just been looking on google, apparently I'd make, maybe $11 a month, if I was lucky... Not even worth my time messing around with it.


Seems like you already reached that conclusion.


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## Hellfire (Jan 2, 2019)

Hey @FordGT90Concept,

Totally with you, I know I'll not get 4Kwh constantly, if that at all. I'm getting a PV system installed.

The system I am getting, in detail is as follows

15 * 300w panels, (4.5kw total)
9x mounted -25° from azimuth
6x mounted +65° from azimuth

Unfortunately, UK legislation limits residential install size due to the FIT, so I'd need approval for anything bigger

Using PVGIS calculations and taking into the 14% system loss

For example April (one of the better months) generates 517 kw/h over a period of 417 hours of daylight. Averaging, as you say a 1.2 kw/h production per day. but that's taking into account weather and all conditions (based on April 2018 weather details)

PVGIS provide these estimates (two graphs due to two roofs)

Total estimate per year is 4321.5 kw/h which is currently 13.587p per kwh

So I generate £587.16 of power a year (off my bill)
I then get a government subsidy of £166.81 per year for generating renewable energy
And then I get an export tariff of 50% of generation of £113.22

So a total saving of £867.19 per year


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## hat (Jan 2, 2019)

yakk said:


> You would be "mining for later", meaning not worth selling now, but like all the previous cycles you can sell when prices go back up.  Probably in a few years, unless the cycle accelerates, which it also seems to be doing but no guarantees.


+1 on this. Probably nobody mining today is looking to "cash out" today. I for one continue to mine and hold my earnings hoping for prices to go up so my shit is worth more.


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## phill (Jan 2, 2019)

I would have said if you did this about two years ago, you'd have made something, but now, it's probably not worth the hassle or the electric, all depends on what the difficulty of the coin is and what coin you will be trying to mine.

I can't really complain as it did in a way pay for my solar panels but now it's just not worth it.  I'll see when I'm home about the calculators I used when I was mining with my mate and then you can make a call from that...  

As for solar, the last few weeks have been terrible and I've been barely making 1Kw in a day as the majority of the days have been overcast and so poor for solar it's been pointless   I think New Years day was nice as it was constantly about the 1500w to 2500w range for me which was lovely as I had all the crunchers on and I was cooking turkey for the family for New Year..  Might have needed a bigger array for the oven but heck the PC's were covered by the generation 

If I can help any more, just shout


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## Hellfire (Jan 2, 2019)

phill said:


> I would have said if you did this about two years ago, you'd have made something, but now, it's probably not worth the hassle or the electric, all depends on what the difficulty of the coin is and what coin you will be trying to mine.
> 
> I can't really complain as it did in a way pay for my solar panels but now it's just not worth it.  I'll see when I'm home about the calculators I used when I was mining with my mate and then you can make a call from that...
> 
> ...




Cheers buddy, think I'll leave the mining and maybe do some crunching with it  I have the two servers I'll use for crunching too but going to leave them in my test rack at work in my office for the free power. 

Re solar, I know it's up/down for generation and there is no guarantee, the best you can go by is PVGIS of course.


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## FordGT90Concept (Jan 2, 2019)

yakk said:


> For example April (one of the better months) generates 517 kw/h over a period of 417 hours of daylight. Averaging, as you say a 1.2 kw/h production per day. but that's taking into account weather and all conditions (based on April 2018 weather details)


Capacity factor takes into account everything.  100% capacity factor would mean producing rated power 24/7/365.  Nuclear power plants are usually something like 90% which means 10% of the year, they're producing less than advertised because of maintenance, mechanical failure, whatever.  Photovoltaic has a capacity factor of ~30% because 40% of the day, you're not generating anything and 30% of the day is sub-optimal.

So 4.5 kw * 0.86 adjust for loss * 0.3 capacity factor = 1.161kw average of power you didn't have before

I don't have the numbers to determine mining profitability based on power consumption but, best case scenario, it likely isn't going to beat what the utility pays to buy it back.

As phill said, one mining machine would eat all of that power and then some.


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## silentbogo (Jan 2, 2019)

Hellfire said:


> So I have a PC with a couple of cards and free power, from 8am to 5pm Monday to Friday (10 per day / 50 per week) could I see any benefit at all from using the PC for mining during these hours? Is there anyway to see what sort of estimate I could see?


Not sure if it's worth it at today's prices. Maybe if the exchange rate of Ether or XMR goes up and you manage to save up some coin, then it will be good.
At this point, if you do stock Vega64, you get around 34-35MH/s per card, or up to 40MH/s with some tweaking. So, both cards can get you around $15/mo if you use them 10 hours a day every day(less if it's only workdays). Basically not enough to warrant the risk of wear and tear on those expensive GPUs.


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## Hellfire (Jan 2, 2019)

FordGT90Concept said:


> Capacity factor takes into account everything.  100% capacity factor would mean producing rated power 24/7/365.  Nuclear power plants are usually something like 90% which means 10% of the year, they're producing less than advertised because of maintenance, mechanical failure, whatever.  Photovoltaic has a capacity factor of ~30% because 40% of the day, you're not generating anything and 30% of the day is sub-optimal.



Got ya, which makes perfect sense and matches what my estimates are going to be, 



silentbogo said:


> Not sure if it's worth it at today's prices. Maybe if the exchange rate of Ether or XMR goes up and you manage to save up some coin, then it will be good.
> At this point, if you do stock Vega64, you get around 34-35MH/s per card, or up to 40MH/s with some tweaking. So, both cards can get you around $15/mo if you use them 10 hours a day every day(less if it's only workdays). Basically not enough to warrant the risk of wear and tear on those expensive GPUs.



Thanks buddy, some quick googling showed me that too, (after I posted) So I think I will give it a miss, I don't want to break my pretty GPU's lol.


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## Sasqui (Jan 2, 2019)

silentbogo said:


> Not sure if it's worth it at today's prices. Maybe if the exchange rate of Ether or XMR goes up and you manage to save up some coin, then it will be good.
> At this point, if you do stock Vega64, you get around 34-35MH/s per card, or up to 40MH/s with some tweaking. So, both cards can get you around $15/mo if you use them 10 hours a day every day(less if it's only workdays). Basically not enough to warrant the risk of wear and tear on those expensive GPUs.



If Ethereum reaches $1K again, it would be.  What are the chances of that happening?  ...probably very low.


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## silentbogo (Jan 2, 2019)

Sasqui said:


> If Ethereum reaches $1K again, it would be. What are the chances of that happening? ...probably very low.


I hodl my hopes high )))
Personally I don't mine and never mined. It's just when mining is popular - I get lots of stuff to fix in my workshop. Consequential income


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## phill (Jan 2, 2019)

Hellfire said:


> Cheers buddy, think I'll leave the mining and maybe do some crunching with it  I have the two servers I'll use for crunching too but going to leave them in my test rack at work in my office for the free power.
> 
> Re solar, I know it's up/down for generation and there is no guarantee, the best you can go by is PVGIS of course.



Crunching will soon rip through the power as well, it's kind of amazing to see how far some days you produce next to nothing and others you produce more than enough to in theory power two of your houses together lol  I'll try and grab you a screen shot of the lows and the highs of solar production..  See how you feel about it   I've a similar array at home, 3.6Kw in panels, but it'll produce nearly 4Kw at a peak.  Something to do with the PV rating down in the south, as it's about 10% more than in the Midlands I was told, then in Scotland it's less there..  

Having the bigger array will help or benefit in the winter months as it'll produce a little more but when it's not producing much more than 100w at anyone time, it's a bit of a waste..  Get a little sun on it and I've found with just having the basics on (fridges, freezers, NAS, printer etc) I need to produce about 200w about an hour to have free for just the standard stuff you have on, let alone the big PC that requires 1000w to run with the 4 GPUs and maxed out CPU plus all the speakers and monitors to go with it  

Free power at work is a bonus   I have my work laptop running WCG all the time so it's a little something to help..  Sad it's only using about 45w max, but it's 45w an hour, 24 hours a day etc etc   The servers I've got at home have no issues at all draining 300w under load crunching and that's with two L5640's, low powered CPUs lol  Must be those damn delta fans that help take all the power lol


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## Sasqui (Jan 2, 2019)

silentbogo said:


> I hodl my hopes high )))
> Personally I don't mine and never mined. It's just when mining is popular - I get lots of stuff to fix in my workshop. Consequential income



So much collateral business from that boom, right? It certainly also wouldn't hurt the bottom line for PC component makers either...  AMD, NVidia, Mircron, Intel, etc etc etc!


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## Hellfire (Jan 2, 2019)

phill said:


> ..... (lots of stuff)



Cheers, sounds good. I'm down south too (Essex) so not south south but still south.

re crunching, I have 8 PC's and 10 laptops all being recycled, they all work fine, just older specs and EoL for business purpose, it's a shame they have to go as I'd love to just set them up crunching away


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## phill (Jan 2, 2019)

I'd guess with 10 laptops they might use up about 500w or so, as for the desktops depending on the CPUs in there, they could manage 100w under load for the system, so there's as a guesstimate of 1500w gone before you start


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## Hellfire (Jan 2, 2019)

phill said:


> I'd guess with 10 laptops they might use up about 500w or so, as for the desktops depending on the CPUs in there, they could manage 100w under load for the system, so there's as a guesstimate of 1500w gone before you start




Yeah but I'd run them at work, just tuck them into my racks in the office.


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## phill (Jan 2, 2019)

Hellfire said:


> Yeah but I'd run them at work, just tuck them into my racks in the office.



Best way 

Here's a few days of solar, I've tried to find low and medium and best case 
Low solar




Medium day, fairly good for production 



Higher end of the production scale...

  

Very sadly the last one was a brilliant day but for some reason the dongle that I have, seems to have a fit every so many days and stops working...  Long story short, it takes 3 days before I can put it back in and get it working..  I've no idea why at all...
But I take a reading every day of the amount I have generated and record it in an Excel sheet.  It's a bit of a pain in the butt, but I suppose it's worth it just knowing how much each day I've produced, good or bad 

I thought I'd just put thumbnails for the screenshots as they are off of my phone..   If there's anything else you'd like, just let me know


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## MrGenius (Jan 3, 2019)

I thought excess solar got sold back to the grid. Lowering your bill, or making you money if you sold enough excess. I know that's how it works in some places anyway(pretty sure that's how it is where I'm from). Effectively making it impossible to "waste" any of it.


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## Hellfire (Jan 3, 2019)

MrGenius said:


> I thought excess solar got sold back to the grid. Lowering your bill, or making you money if you sold enough excess. I know that's how it works in some places anyway(pretty sure that's how it is where I'm from). Effectively making it impossible to "waste" any of it.



Yes, however national grid cannot measure how much solar is sold back, so every quarter you provide your buyer with a generation reading, you get paid two tariffs, X amount on all power you generate, and how much you export, which because they can't measure is automatically deemed to be 50% of generation.

So even if I use 98% of what I generate, and export 2% they pay me for 50%


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## moproblems99 (Jan 3, 2019)

Hellfire said:


> Not even worth my time messing around with it.



Not completely true because you can't put a value on knowledge.  Knowledge is priceless.  And, if you like techy things that can be a pain in the ass, that is worth something too.


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## Outback Bronze (Jan 3, 2019)

I have a 5kw system.

My power company only pays me $0.07 per Kw back to the grid.

Its more profitable for me to mine even within the current market.

To answer your question: Its probably worth trying. What have you got to lose?


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## phill (Jan 3, 2019)

Hellfire said:


> Yes, however national grid cannot measure how much solar is sold back, so every quarter you provide your buyer with a generation reading, you get paid two tariffs, X amount on all power you generate, and how much you export, which because they can't measure is automatically deemed to be 50% of generation.
> 
> So even if I use 98% of what I generate, and export 2% they pay me for 50%



They do an export meter if you'd like one fitted it can be done but most people do opt for the 50% automatic export..  I can't imagine very many are that 'exact' they'd need to know what they exported.  That said I do wonder if the smart meters will help or hinder that bit of data.

The program and setup I use monitors the generation, it's got some funky issue when it decides to just disconnect which then stops me getting the graphs and details above, but I've no idea what is stopping that from working.  If it stayed sync'd all the time it would be a brilliant bit of kit.. When I mentioned it to the company I bought it from they'd never heard of the issue, yet I've had a replacement directly sent out again and it still doesn't work any better..  Rather frustrating....

But still, I try to use all of the power I generate, I hopefully don't pull too much from the grid but with a few PCs running on a cloudy day, it doesn't take much to upset it... But I am happy I have it, during the summer I can generate enough solar power to cover the costs of whatever electric I use during the night, even when I base it on 5p a unit


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## hat (Jan 3, 2019)

I really don't see a reason not to do it... you're getting "free" power (you're paying for solar, but... once it's there, it's there), may as well use it. Mining doesn't wreck cards like some would have you believe, unless you happen to be that unfortunate... you just cruise along, slow (well, not so slow) and steady with reasonable settings. I run two 1070s in my computer and with an adjusted power target and fan profile, they don't draw too much power, so they don't run too hot, and the aggressive fan profile helps with the temps, too. My cards just coast along at 65c on average.

Or, if mining isn't for you, but you want to put your hardware to work, try our F@H team instead? I mine with my cards cause I hope, perhaps foolishly, it will help me out someday... but I run WCG with my CPUs. Either way, Bonus points if you're keeping a cold room warm with it. My miner doubles as a space heater.


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## Papahyooie (Jan 3, 2019)

The question is: "Is it worth trying it."

You're getting free power. If you don't use it, it will go to waste. So IF you've got a card to mine with or can get them cheap, there's no point in not doing it (especially during the winter months when it translates to free heat as well, if you live in a temperate climate in the Norther hemisphere. During the summer, you'd have to factor in cooling costs)

Mine and hold, with the hope that it will become more valuable again and then you sell at that point. It's like going to the casino on someone else's dime. You can't lose. (Unless you go out and buy a pallet of 1070s expecting to get an ROI....)


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## Sasqui (Jan 3, 2019)

Hellfire said:


> Yes, however national grid cannot measure how much solar is sold back, so every quarter you provide your buyer with a generation reading, you get paid two tariffs, X amount on all power you generate, and how much you export, which because they can't measure is automatically deemed to be 50% of generation.
> 
> So even if I use 98% of what I generate, and export 2% they pay me for 50%



That sounds like a good deal.  The technology is there to measure what you are pushing back into the grid.

In most US states, "net metering" is used.  When excess power is generated, it literally spins* your power meter backwards, so you are getting refunded the same amount you pay per kWh for supply.  That is changing in a lot of places and they have instituted "caps" on the amount you can push back, or the meter spins less in reverse.

When I looked into solar 4 years ago, they also had a program where the total excess you've generated over a year (if any) would earn you a credit in cash or power.  But it was only a fraction of the market rate.

I have indoor hydroponics veggie garden that is supplemented with artificial LED light, about 150 watts of it.  I'd gladly have solar to help with that.

*Spin:  The old meters used to have an analog disc that would turn depending on how much power you were using.  These days, it's all digital.


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## moproblems99 (Jan 3, 2019)

Sasqui said:


> I have indoor hydroponics veggie garden that is supplemented with artificial LED light, about 150 watts of it. I'd gladly have solar to help with that.



Sorry for the off topic OP.  You can get 150W solar panels from Harbor Freight with some auto batteries for that small of a load.


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## phill (Jan 4, 2019)

Sasqui said:


> That sounds like a good deal.  The technology is there to measure what you are pushing back into the grid.
> 
> In most US states, "net metering" is used.  When excess power is generated, it literally spins* your power meter backwards, so you are getting refunded the same amount you pay per kWh for supply.  That is changing in a lot of places and they have instituted "caps" on the amount you can push back, or the meter spins less in reverse.
> 
> ...



Surprisingly most of the meters now over here I believe are turning digital.  The unit I had fitted to my home when I bought it back in 2010 was digital so I'm guessing now most will be when new units are put up.  The analogue dials I remember having back in the house I was raised up in, was kinda difficult to see what you were using in comparison but still 

But still, when there's mornings like today down in Somerset, slightly overcast and well, frozen...






It's a little bit pants lol   Here's a little grab from the results I had last year with my production - 





I just record every day what the generation is, then put it in a spreadsheet.  Should start getting better from here on now as January starts a better increase as you can see


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## Hellfire (Jan 4, 2019)

I'm lucky, my new system has a meter that monitors usage, generation and how much is going back into the grid, so I can make the most and use as much as possible.


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## phill (Jan 4, 2019)

What system do you have, inverter wise etc?


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## Hellfire (Jan 4, 2019)

Growatt dual MPPT inverter & Geo Solo III Generation meter and usage display


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## phill (Jan 4, 2019)

Exactly what I had...  But the company I used couldn't get it to work and I found with how it was installed into the mains supply, I walked away from it as I wasn't safe nor sure of 2.5mm cable being connected to 100A wire...  Thought it was a little dodgy so I left it alone.  Was charged £350 for it and when I asked them to take it away because it wasn't wanted or even used, the didn't want to and thus its now left up in the loft in it's box   Would have been good but wasn't comfortable with how it was having to be connected.

Out of interest @Hellfire, how big is your Inverter or do you have two of them with the two roofs?


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## Sasqui (Jan 4, 2019)

phill said:


> I wasn't safe nor sure of 2.5mm cable being connected to 100A wire...



No idea how that works, but safe to assume the 2.5mm wire isn't carrying 100 amps.


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## dorsetknob (Jan 4, 2019)

phill said:


> I wasn't safe nor sure of 2.5mm cable being connected to 100A wire..


in UK think your find
1.0mm twin +earth (for lighting circuits ) = 5 to 7amps
2.5mm twin +earth ( for power Ringmains) = 15 amps
6.0mm twin +earth (for Electrical Cookers ect) = 30 to 40 amps
Your Utility's feed into the property is lightly to be 10mm twin +earth and thats going to be rated 100 amps (ish)


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## phill (Jan 4, 2019)

Sasqui said:


> No idea how that works, but safe to assume the 2.5mm wire isn't carrying 100 amps.



Yeah pretty much...  



dorsetknob said:


> in UK think your find
> 1.0mm twin +earth (for lighting circuits ) = 5 to 7amps
> 2.5mm twin +earth ( for power Ringmains) = 15 amps
> 6.0mm twin +earth (for Electrical Cookers ect) = 30 to 40 amps
> Your Utility's feed into the property is lightly to be 10mm twin +earth and thats going to be rated 100 amps (ish)



Exactly that @dorsetknob 
When I spoke with some electricians that came in shortly after to do some work on some sockets for me, they said that wasn't right in their eyes, but I just had it ripped out.  The wiring diagrams that I was given where incorrect from Geo and I never managed to get a proper answer from the company as one person said it was fine, the other said it wasn't right and he wanted to check it out..  Needless to say, I was far from happy and I just didn't ask anything else.  I really hope @Hellfire has had a better experience than I had with the company that installed my solar.  I'd be interested in seeing how his was setup and if he's had a electrician over to check it over.  I don't want to cause any scare mongering at all but I was somewhat uncomfortable with how it was setup and proclaiming to be having no electrics qualification in any way, I didn't want it installed the way it seemed it had to be


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## Hellfire (Jan 5, 2019)

phill said:


> Yeah pretty much...
> 
> 
> 
> ...



I have an independent sparky (friend) coming in to check the work the day after. They know this too. I actually paid about £800 more than my cheapest quote because the reputation of the company is top notch.

Did your installers do a full survey. They sent two surveyors around to mine, one spent an hour testing all current electrics and the other did a structural on the roof and loft. They sent me a 45 page report. As detailed as my survey from when I bought the place.

I'll happily throw up details of the set up once it's done.  

Only one inverter with dual feeds, one for each roof. It's 3600-4000watts (I forgot which I'll check)


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## phill (Jan 5, 2019)

I wish I had paid some more because although the job was done I feel or was left feeling that it was not done well enough to give praise considering the amount of cock ups or oversights that happened during the install..  Too small an inverter, the wiring over the stupid Geo was incorrect, the guys installing the panels weren't electricians just people that followed instructions.  I don't believe this was good enough.  

The only survey that they did was ask for pictures to show the location and entrance to the rear of the property so they knew what scaffolding needed to come and be put up.  I don't recall anyone coming to test over the circuitry and do any form of testing.  They just asked for pictures for the fuse board and mains supply into the home.  I don't believe or remember any sort of survey, nothing that detailed at all.

If there's anything I can do as well, don't hesitate to ask.  

Ah I get you, it might be a dual string setup (which means if I have this correct, that the arrays of panels for the two roofs work independantly of each other, so if something happens to one array, the other doesn't go down.

I'll be having my home tested and certificated in the coming weeks, as I've a few jobs that need doing (or that I've been wanting to have done for years) so I will find out what they think of the install and see if anything needs to be redo because of their sloppy work.  When I mentioned about the wiring too them, I never heard anything back in response.
The company I had was working out of Hampshire, under the name of ECH Group.   Personally from my experience, I couldn't recommend them.


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## Hellfire (Jan 6, 2019)

Yes, you're right, two arrays as they're on two roofs, on the same array they'd only make the peak power of the lowest panel,

So if roof 1 is making 250/300w per power, and roof 2 is making 120/300w per power, roof 1 could only make 120 as it's on a single array.

See attached, example page from my structural, it's from a company independent from my installers too.


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## phill (Jan 6, 2019)

I never had any of that, they just turned up and off they went    I can't complain too much, it's working but without the monitoring kit I had hoped would have worked but still..  I plan to move at some point so I'm not going to dwell on it too much..  I believe due to the changes and extras I've done to the house, I believe I'm nearing an A grade efficiency home, which I don't think is ever a bad thing    I do just wish I had a more professional approach to the installation of the solar, as it was a fair chunk of cash but ah well   Oh here's today's production for you to smile at lol 





Pretty much nout


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## Hellfire (Jan 6, 2019)

Ouch bad day today then... :-(


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## phill (Jan 6, 2019)

Pretty much a standard day in December/January to be honest mate   But come the next few months, it'll improve   Here's a quick grab of my 2018 year...





As you can see, December, November and then January where the lowest months, otherwise, it's been pretty decent   Made about 4000 units of electric last year   Hopefully will keep that trend this year too


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## phill (Jan 9, 2019)

I thought you might like to see a bit of a better day 





This will help for the crunching


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## Outback Bronze (Jan 9, 2019)

Gday Phill,

Just thought id show you what the Aussie sun is capable of : )











This is a 5Kw inverter with 6.5Kw of panels. 

If I had of gone any bigger I lose my tariff from the power company but in hindsight I should have just gone a bigger inverter and not worried about the AUD $0.07 per Kw back to the grid..


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## phill (Jan 9, 2019)

I was going to say, couldn't you have done a dual setup so had two array to split the power??  

When I saw the first one I was like something up there as it's pegged at 5Kw or something..  That is some massive power right there!!  I'm unsure though if I could have coped with the snakes and spiders around there mind!!   That is one mental production    How many panels do you have to make it 6.5Kw??  Amazing stuff


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## Outback Bronze (Jan 9, 2019)

phill said:


> How many panels do you have to make it 6.5Kw



Pretty sure its 24x275w. They wanted to put some panels at the front of the house but I told them no, they look too ugly : )

I was told to get 6.5Kw worth of panels so the 5Kw inverter is always maxed out as you lose power through efficiency.

e.g. 5Kw of panels might only fill 4.5Kw of the inverter hence the 6.5Kw worth of panels for the 5Kw inverter.

Cheers matey.


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## phill (Jan 9, 2019)

When I had a smaller inverter fitted to my panels, the inverter cut out and never worked..  So I'm surprised yours works as it's too small for the array...  Shame you couldn't have had like a dual string or something setup so you could have had all the panels making more electric for you.  Do you have batteries at all for the system as well?  40Kw+ a day is amazing..  Past few days here, I've not even been making 1Kw lol  

How long have you had them bud?


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## Outback Bronze (Jan 9, 2019)

phill said:


> When I had a smaller inverter fitted to my panels, the inverter cut out and never worked..  So I'm surprised yours works as it's too small for the array...  Shame you couldn't have had like a dual string or something setup so you could have had all the panels making more electric for you.  Do you have batteries at all for the system as well?  40Kw+ a day is amazing..  Past few days here, I've not even been making 1Kw lol
> 
> How long have you had them bud?



Hey buddy,

No batteries just yet mate as they are just wayyy to expensive and they would probably be useless to me as I use up the 5Kw worth of power anyways.

A lot of people here in West Oz have solar and apparently its overloading the grid lols, so in fact I'm actually helping them.


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## hat (Jan 9, 2019)

This is some good stuff right here. Do we need a solar clubhouse?


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## phill (Jan 9, 2019)

I decided against it myself, batteries when I had mine were about £6k or something, lasted 8 years, but took 7 years to pay off..  I thought what was the point..  The solar cost wasn't soo bad, £4.5k, but I can see it already making a good difference when it works, hardly much at the moment lol  The UK isn't the most sunniest of places at the best of times, but I'm glad I have it 

When I move homes, I'll put it on again   Not surprised people there have solar at the production rates...  Absolutely mental!!  



hat said:


> This is some good stuff right here. Do we need a solar clubhouse?



I'll leave that with you Mr Hat


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## hat (Jan 9, 2019)

Ehh it's not my place to start such a thing... the only solar powered device I own is a calculator... but it could be interesting reading.


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## phill (Jan 9, 2019)

hat said:


> Ehh it's not my place to start such a thing... the only solar powered device I own is a calculator... but it could be interesting reading.



Starting off small is better than not starting off at all    (I hope that is funny if not, I'll grab my coat........ )


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## Outback Bronze (Jan 9, 2019)

phill said:


> The solar cost wasn't soo bad, £4.5k



Is that cost recently mate?


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## phill (Jan 10, 2019)

Outback Bronze said:


> Is that cost recently mate?



About 18 months ago bud   July 2017 I had the solar put in


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