Solar info re production of power. I have a query.

[azureline**]

Can someone explain in plain English please, if you have a 1.5kw system, how much solar power is it capable of producing per day? (maximum amount)

[monman12]

AL: "if a system is 1.5kw, he said it can only produce 1.5 kw a day so over 92 days it would be 138 kw."

No, it would produce 1.5 Kw only  under perfect conditions, so using hours  it would be 1.5 Kwh for as long as the conditions were perfect.

Now  forget that and  use an averaged (over a year) daily output of 5Kwh from your system and work from there.

There are many variables as KIH indicates. Where you are in Australia ( average yearly sunlight/elevation) being important.
For more help provide:-

NPO
Your approximate area/position (for sun tables) and elevation.
Current power consumption, daily and  night day averaged  would be good (but hard to get)   or 3 month, or 1 year consumption.
Power costs out per Kwh you pay your provider (in 44 cents?)

How your panels will be mounted/angled is important, especially as you get closer to the equator. Will yours be  just the basic "on  a north facing roof"  or use a mount to take advantage of the sun's elevation annual variation. If  fixed to roof the pitch (angle) would help. I know! what am I talking about?.

nɥºɾ

PS

Make/model of your system would be good

[azureline**]

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@monman12 wrote:

AL: "if a system is 1.5kw, he said it can only produce 1.5 kw a day so over 92 days it would be 138 kw."

No, it would produce 1.5 Kw only  under perfect conditions, so using hours  it would be 1.5 Kwh for as long as the conditions were perfect.

Now  forget that and  use an averaged (over a year) daily output of 5Kwh from your system and work from there.

There are many variables as KIH indicates. Where you are in Australia ( average yearly sunlight/elevation) being important.
For more help provide:-

NPO
Your approximate area/position (for sun tables) and elevation.
Current power consumption, daily and  night day averaged  would be good (but hard to get)   or 3 month, or 1 year consumption.
Power costs out per Kwh you pay your provider (in 44 cents?)

How your panels will be mounted/angled is important, especially as you get closer to the equator. Will yours be  just the basic "on  a north facing roof"  or use a mount to take advantage of the sun's elevation annual variation. If  fixed to roof the pitch (angle) would help. I know! what am I talking about?.

nɥºɾ

PS

Make/model of your system would be good

---

I must not be explaining this well..... a guy told me my system can only produce a maximum of 1.5kw per day, at optimum performance because it is a 1.5kw system.

He must be mistaken?

because we are currently getting a credit from our supplier, well in excess of this and we must also be using power the panels are producing during the day.

It is north west facing on a pitched roof and gets sun from 10am through to sundown.

[izabsmiling]

Az is your credit in watts or kw ?

[azureline**]

kWh

[izabsmiling]

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@azureline** wrote:

kWh

---

that's the measure of energy

a kW is the measure of power

[izabsmiling]

Sorry Az, It's too complicated for me to fully understand so that I can explain 

[izabsmiling]

this may help ? ..info on solar power Brisbane 

Solar Energy Production - You will often see various solar promotions claiming that a certain system will produce so much energy. It can be confusing. As a guide, you can estimate the daily energy produced by a solar panels system installed in Brisbane by this formula:  Solar System Size (in Kwh) times 4.2 =  Daily Energy Generated by the system. For example;

Solar System Size           Approximate Daily Energy Generated 

1.5Kw                                      4.2Kwh

The daily usage of energy in Brisbane households can vary from 10Kwh to 60 Kwh per day, depending on appliances used, number of people in the home, home insulation and many other factors. 

[monman12]

"I must not be explaining this well..... a guy told me my system can only produce a maximum of 1.5kw per day, at optimum performance because it is a 1.5kw system.

He must be mistaken?

because we are currently getting a credit from our supplier, well in excess of this and we must also be using power the panels are producing during the day.

It is north west facing on a pitched roof and gets sun from 10am through to sundown."

Your "guy" does not understand basic electrical power use  terms. The term for  electrical power use is kWh,  h = HOUR.

The system can produce 1.5 Kw under perfect conditions, but the amount of power used depends on how long in HOURS it produces this,   so for 2 hours of perfect conditions  it would produce 3KWh

However the system is not perfect and the sunlight varies:  angle/intensity and day/night./season  So leaving out the technical stuff we arrive at  an approximate accepted figure of 5-6 kWh produced PER DAY for a 1.5 Kw system (assumed variables) averaged over a year.

It could  be better  or worse ,  but the information you have provided is of little use for calculating further..

North facing is the most efficient, whilst a NW alignment will produce reduced power.

nɥºɾ

[azureline**]

Thanks Iza, that helps a lot.

Thanks also Monman, I thought he was in error as well and he at no time professed to be commercially  knowledgable about it. ( as in he doesn't sell it etc) I don't like to call people out on it when they offer info and I wanted to be sure I was more informed.

I would not be happy to pay out for a system that didn't produce at least 25% of our daily energy use. (It does more than that on average)