HERE ARE the results of a whole year garnering electricity from 15 Sanyo solar panels on top of a terraced house in North London. The panels were first installed in March 2007, so this is the first full year of results available.
This table below shows an estimate of what the panels have delivered since installation, together with a rough idea of the money they’ve generated.
For more on the system installed, check here, and here, and here. As well as on this bog, here and here. ♥
NOVEMBER 2008 was not the sunniest of Novembers we’ve had, but the 15 Sanyo panels on the roof continue to deliver bijli (‘lectricity) to the house and to the UK’s National Grid.
Here’s a screen grab of what happened in November 2008, and because the system has run for not too far short of two years now, we can contrast this with November 2007. Was the 30th of November so dull that no light shone from the south? Surely not.
Hang on – according to the November 2007 screengrab below, there wasn’t a 30th of November last year either. Perhaps there is a bug in the Fronius software?
Anyway, facts are facts. Since the system first started, we have been in credit with our electricity supplier – it owes money. And the National Grid scheme pays cash for the contribution the panels make. It is a daft idea installing panels unless you really go for it – it’s obvious that you have to place them in the right place, and polysilicon is at a premium right now, so they still remain expensive.
Perhaps with the panic in the semiconductor market, there will be more polysilicon available. Undercapacity fabrication plants (fabs) are very expensive to run. It’s a crying shame folk in places not on our latitude but which see the photonics more can’t have more of these panels on their roofs – futile green gestures are not nearly enough to make a difference. ♥
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Tagged fronius, kilowatts, photonics, polysilicon, Sanyo, semiconductor market, solar panels
FOR MOST of October, I was in Bangalore, and it’s so near to the Equator that when the sun bursts through the rain clouds, it really is quite hot.
Checked out the 15 solar panels on my return today. Despite snow lying on the ground sometime last week, October appears to have been very sunny indeed, hence allowing the Big 15 Panels to deliver Grid power and subsequent monies.
Here’s how 2008 is looking so far.
So much for global warming. Isn’t it about time the UK government got wise to this phenomenon called photons, and start again to actively promote silicon photo-voltaic thingies on roofs, like Germany and Japan have done for years? November is looking very dull – as in the dull, dark days before Christmas of lore. ♦
APRIL 2007 was unusual for the UK. The whole month was dead hot, and then the rains set in. The swifts looked unhappy, two months of rain after the first of May doesn’t give them much chance to feed their little chicks.
But this April is far more like a regular English April. We append below a pic of how the Sanyo solar panels have done so far this month. Of course, fuel prices have gone up since we took advantage of the Department of Trade and Industry’s “generous” 50 per cent grant.
THE LADS AND LASSES at nikkei.net have an interesting wee story about a breed of music players that offer far better quality than your average IC based gizmo.
The article said Sanyo and other manufacturers are rapidly moving into producing linear pulse code modulation (PCM) players. They apparently have the advantage that the technology does not compress data, with sampling frequencies of between 48 to 96KHz/sec and sampling bit rates are 16-24 bits.
They also are affordable, with prices under ¥50,000. There’s more here (subscription required). ♣
A WHOLE YEAR of solar panels on the top of what used to be INQ Central, and these charts below give you an idea of the output of the 15 Sanyo solar panels on our roof.
The money we got back is slightly less than the £309 on this page below, but on the other hand we’re in credit with the electricity supplier and haven’t paid an electricity bill during all this time.
The amortisation rate is still, as we’ve said in the INQ before, about eight years. In early April we did have snow and I’m not climbing on the roof to sweep it off, so for practically a whole day the blanket of crystals delivered not particularly brilliant solar results, except back to the clear blue sky.
On the other bright side, the pigeons couldn’t poo on our arrayed panels and went skiing instead. ♥
Dūrgā Devī
