This panel can put out close to 100 watts kzfaq.infoUgkxOqI2yqX0XVrhR2BMJciTWrHJpG8FhJyg when positioned in the appropriate southernly direction, tilted to the optimal angle for your latitude/date, and connected to a higher capacity device than a 500. The built in kickstand angle is a fixed at 50 degrees. Up to 20% more power can be output by selecting the actual date and latitude optimal angle.The 500 will only input 3.5A maximum at 18 volts for 63 watts. Some of the excess power from the panel can be fed into a USB battery bank, charged directly from the panel while also charging a 500. This will allow you to harvest as much as 63 + 15 = 78 watts.If this panel is used to charge a larger device, such as the power station, then its full output potential can be realized.

From the sweltering heat in Arizona, its nice to see cold weather this time of year. Hooray for the hemispheres!

I would suggest taking that extra power your panels are creating and pipe it into a battery bank that would also power a hydro cell that would produce hydrogen gas for your gas water heater. But I would suggest you have a valve to switch back to the natural gas when you don't have the extra power to donate to the cell or upgrading the cell.

Nothing like doing an installation while an EE is behind you with a camera! Now that's pressure. I'm in school for EE right now, but I worked as an electrician for a handful of years. I can say in all honesty, it sucks having people look over your shoulder. That being said... anytime somebody works on my stuff, I look over their shoulder! :)

There was a massive surge in PV installation here in the UK about 2 or 3 years ago, due to a government subsidy on the install price and a special deal on the feed in tariff back to the grid. When I investigated the viability of the deal it fell down pretty quickly. Depending on how many KWH a system fed back into the grid it was going to take 10 -15 years to pay for the system. Now, given that system prices would fall substantially in that time and the life of todays PV panels will probably only be about 20 - 25 years the numbers just didn't make good sense. And further, to qualify for the deal it was mandatory for the system to be installed by an 'approved' installer who would issue the necessary certificate in order that the owner could register for the feed in tariff payments. So it was all a bit of a gravy train for the manufacturers really. And of course, in the UK, the hours of sunlight are far less than down there in Oz, so the rate of KWH production is way less. PV panels prices have already fallen massively in the last 2 years, so those mugs that paid £10-20K for their 'subsidised' systems will be feeling a bit pissed off I would imagine! I'll wait another 2 years when a whole system can be had for maybe a thou or two, then I'll buy and fit myself.

I love how you are just digging through his stuff and checking his things out, marvelous :D

Here in Iowa our meter spins in reverse when we supply to the grid. When we built the house we covered both east west roofs with panels. Cost was high but we almost have no power bill. RI is 7 years at our current figure. Then a 1kw wind turbine will go up.

Here in Israel we also have everything inside the house. I also find it interesting how the stuff are arranged @ Dave's place... Great video non the less, Dave. Thanks for sharing! :)

Looks absolutely amazing and seems to be working great. I'm very jealous !

Man you have a nice place. Love the yard. Not so big that you spend half your time maintaining it, but big enough that you can spread out a lil and do "stuff". Nice nice. Can't wait to see the next vids on how the panels are working out for you. The vids are much appreciated. Thanx :)

EEVblog It would be nice to get a small update-video of how much power your system produced, how much you used of this and how much you fed to the grid.

I love it. I wish we had more of this here in the USA.

The panels preform better in a cold environment. So as long as the sun shines they should work very well in the winter.

Wow, the walk through your backyard tickles the biologist in me :-) Wasn't aware of the efficiency loss due to temperature in photovoltaics. Cooling with water really seems counter-productive to the whole renewable thing, especially in Australia.

He explained in the video, but one is for tracking total power usage, and the other tracks the power generated by the panels.

Hats off to you for taking the plunge! ...and yes...now that I'm in the northern hemisphere...I was wondering why I'm having a double summer!!! ;-)

The number of regulations and building codes you had to work around was crazy! Building projects like these are so much easier where I live: No enforced building codes! :D

Ripple control involves superimposing a higher-frequency signal (usually between 100 and 1600 Hz) onto the standard 50-60 Hz of the main power signal. When ripple control receiver receive this signal, they shut down the load until the signal is disabled or another frequency signal is received. Ripple control systems are used for switching tariffs, street lightning or other loads

Yep, gas meter & gas hot water system, electricity meter and fusebox are all generally outside in Australia. Makes it easy for the utility companies to read your meter for billing.

My current project is micro-inverters for PV installations. This avoids the one shaded panel problem and provides redundancy for the inverter so the installation doesn't fall over if you lose the (one) inverter of a traditional system.

I'd love to see Dave get a shot of the off-peak switcher switching. Maybe scope the mains and see how the ripple sending works.

Itron meters used to be made about 5 miles from where I live here in England, and now they've shipped all production overseas. Itron is owned by a religious organisation, and at the Felixstowe plant, there is a large church on the side of the factory

Here's my question. Your electric bill the month before and the month after the panels were installed? By the way, I have a tiny system with 3 15W panels and a 200Ahr deep cycle battery. I use a 12V CFL camping light for reading, run my ham radios, and charge my cell phone/tablet off the system. It was very handy when a winter storm knocked out power for 4 days once.

That is no longer the case. The government has dropped their rebate. It's now 6-8 cents only from some retailers.

The model he installed in this video has two MPP trackers, meaning loss from shading can be minimized by having to separate arrays that make partial shading a much less significant issue.

Definitely going to the blog for more feedback. Dave, the inverter, do something about that. Need to know how they sync the inverter to the grid.

The interesting thing, is over on the other side of Australia, we only have one meter for both solar and house. Some states over east use a net metering system so they need two meters.

One is for off-peak hot water which we don't have, but the meter is there anyway.

Ah, that explains it. Despite the Australian winter being as cold as Dave says, it is still quite warm to the majority of Europe. Add in the fact that most of our houses have natural gas which greatly reduces electricity use if gas heating is used.

Funny Fuse Box :-D They do look different here in Germany :-)

Australian standard is 230V, 50Hz (single phase) or 400V, 50 Hz (three phase). The old standard was 240V, but there is an effort to bring AU and EU standards in to line.

Here in sweden it's in the middle of summer, but you still have better weather than us..

As a European you blew my mind by saying June and Winter in the same sentence :D

Yes, I was surprised they didn't put in a smart meter. Guess it's not standard/mandated in NSW yet. I'm thankful.

Yes. Majority of houses in oz do not have 3 phase.

Yes, most houses in oz have both on the outside. If the meter box is not on the outside then the meter dude cannot read it.

We generally have 240V 10A AC outlets here in Australia, suitable for most applications. Some more powerful air conditioning systems require 3-phase, as do alot of industrial devices such as inductive motors, but generally single phase is enough for home appliances.

Yes, two DC isolators, one on the roof, the other next to the inverter.

Yep, it's just been common practice in finland for at least last 40 years to run 3-phase to every detached house. But that is, with cold winters and no gas network for most part.

the ripple controll receiver is for switching between peak and off peak hot water in nsw isnt controled it just has its own meter

Yes, think I should frequent the forums more often, too. I have been a long time viewer but haven't really participated in discussions before.

That's why he said it was best to change your usage patterns so that you are using as close to 100% of the energy you produce yourself, instead of feeding it back to the grid.

Good point. I've been thinking of a semi-DIY systems approach using foil-backed "bead-board" they call it in the states. Place Cu tubes in contact with the foil side, pressed down into, compressing the foam, then put the [foam&foil&Cu-tube] sandwich in a frame that holds it in firm contact with the back of the PV panel. Solder the Cu tube ends into a manifold at the top and bottom of the sandwich. Use some of the PV DC to run a pump moving Ethelene Glycol thru the tubes, to a heat exchanger.

It's always interesting to see the various ways this stuff is done in different countries, but yeah, I don't think I've ever seen something where each breaker is treated as a separate unit just mounted on a board of some sort; the Dutch, French, and US systems I'm familiar with all have some sort of rail or frame that the breakers/fuses mount on or in.

5:00 and 26:00 I'm a little surprised you don't have a smart meter yet. Here in Victoria pretty much the whole state has them now and are mandatory by the end of 2013, not sure about NSW but I would imagine they would have a similar scenario. Feeding back to the grid used to be about 60c, but yeah in Vic it's only about 8c, more or less the same to NSW. Compliments on your lovely home and congratulations on a nice solar system installation.

Great video. Looking forward to some of the data on these.

Those do exist, but the ones that I saw at a company that made them are bloody expensive as there is a series of aluminum plates behind the whole array and loads of copper pipes for the coolant. As such, they are usually used in building integrated systems where appearance is a big deal and worth the price premium. Separate (and MUCH cheaper) hot water collectors are the more common solution.

Yes, possible, but I don't want the expense and maintenance. Not worth it when you are grid connected.

Good job using native plants. Wish more people did that here so we could avoid all those nasty invasive plants.

We have a decent size block, but it's got some odd angles, so some parts not very usable.

You'll be very happy with you investment Dave, I know I was, and the funny thing is, you actually look forward to your power bill. My last power bill was $35 and that's during a Perth summer with A/C going most days and nights, I also have a 3kw system west facing. Oh BTW, you'll be running around the house now switching things off and being more energy conscious.

Not quite. They are measuring alternating current, so the direction of the power flow isn't detectable, unless you keep track of the current and the voltage across every half-cycle. Disconnect the inverter and add a load, and the meter would probably measure power through the load as if it was generated.

We have that problem in some parts of Adelaide (South Australia). The voltage spikes in the richer suburbs when the sun comes out. Queensland (or at least the power company in Townsville) regulates who can have panels installed and how many they can have to avoid that issue.

if you want to use the software on your computer for the inverter look for a SMA sunny beam as it has a usb connection so you can monitor your usage on the computer

The panels don't penetrate the roof. That's great. I like that.

Appears as documented a rather well done installation. As panels get hot, and work more efficiently when cooler, you might consider a hydronic loop which will cool panels and pre-heat (or heat) your domestic water. Why waste that heat, mate!

It depends completely on how much you are currently paying for power, here in California the average time for ROI is about 7 years. Even less for large commercial projects, but that is because they pay outrageous amounts of money for their power.

Chris was rocking a can of V, love that stuff

Sydeny is almost one of the worlds most expensive places to by realestate. More expensive than Manhattan, Paris and London.

you have a lovely looking house. hope your solar system is worth it, and your happy with it.

It's not cold here, I took that jumper off an hour later.

I saw him using that Milwaukee Tool impact driver. Wooooo Wisconsin.

Yeah, we got electric heating and stove connected to 3-phase. And additional outlets at meter and garage for heavy equipment like welder. +There seems to be nice people here. Maybe I should go to forum more often.

AWESOME, Photon replied!

Mr Average in Sydney. Many houses just streets away are worth 3 times mine.

Over here in the Netherlands both readings get cancelled against each other, so if you produce 5 kWh during the day and use 6 kWh during the night we only have to pay 1 kWh. Feed-in tarifs over here are comparable though. (exces production)

I have a SolarMax inverter, it's nice too!, But the best is a solar tracker system, this boost your solar production.

You have to clean the solar panels from time to time to keep them effective. The stuff that settles on it is not only man made pollution. Most of it is dust and pollen that occur naturally.

Hi Dave. I have the same SMA inverter (but with Sanyo/Panasonic panels) and probably at this time you will already know that you don't need the SMA Sunny Beam box (expensive for what it does) but just the free software Sunny Explorer to monitor your system on a PC. Hope this can help. Oh, btw, Great production to be in winter!

Here in Florida, the power company pays the same amount for purchased power and I pay them for my power. It varies by state here and some pay a lot more, some pay wholesale, just depends.

Can you imagine doing an electrical job on Dave's house ? You'd better be good at what you do ;-)

04:58 I'm curious: does Australia not use modular fuse panels? All the circuit breakers look like they're mounted by drilling into the backing plate. Does that mean you have to drill holes in the backing plate if you want to add a new circuit? In the US, we have bus bars into which you plug the circuit breakers*, and I guess I just figured they were common everywhere. *There are many different types because the manufacturers didn't agree on the best form factor until recently, which makes finding the right breaker a bit of a pain, but that's a different story.

Currently in the USA, Some utilities credit, or buy back, the power at the "retail" rate. Some utilities are claiming when they buy power from other major generation sources on the grid they pay wholesale, therefore they want to pay residential producers a "wholesale" rate as well. Go Figure!

makes sense, we have a dual rate tarif here and the meter is supposed to get a time signal to sync, but its out of sync since fitted 8 years ago.. the guy didnt know how to set the time on it, and said dont worry it will sync one day.. so its been off since then. not by much, but its odd its never got the signal, the UK has all one main supply

June....middle of winter Dave says... coinsidently here in holland we have almost the same temperature ! :D ...... only thing is....here is almost in the middle of summer.... ffs...

It really annoys me when journalists on TV say kilowatts instead of kilowatt hours when referring to total energy. But I will forgive you for the slip-up since you obviously know the difference.

These must be consumer grade panels. I've been involved in production of 475W+ ones some time ago. Testing process is quite interesting as well: to determine the output of the panel it is getting fed into a flashing machine which generates an intense flash of light. The rating then recorded and assigned as its maximum output.

I can't be certain, but I believe Dave's fuse box is fairly old and a more modern one would be DIN mounted receptacles with an escutcheon plate over it

In Poland we usually have a fuse box, water valves and water meters on the inside (to prevent people from turning your power off). Gas meter and gas valve are always outside for safety reasons. Electric meter is usually on the outside in a locker with special key (multi-appartment buildings) or inside (stand-alone homes). In industrial buildings only gas is outside. Unfortunately we usually have to let the "dude" in. On the other hand, they check water meters once or twice a year so who cares.

You could charge a battery bank during the day and use it to run lights etc at night and use even less grid power.

The big point to be made is that if you've got cash in the bank your likely getting stuff all interest on it. My understanding is that money invested in PV panels give a much better percentage return and the price of power only ever seems to go up! Not worth borrowing money, for but if your sitting on some.

My hot water is on tariff 33, just need to ensure it's a big enough storage system (Not one that only heats when in use). I've never run out of hot water, even when I had a fairly major leak in one of the hot water pipes under the house (didn't notice for a while).

I will have to change my usage habit substantially to really get a low bill. But plan on doing that.

Congrats, Dave. Now we need to see a full economic analysis . . .

thank you very much for sharing this with us.

I'm an electrician here in America and that is the weirdest breaker box I've ever seen

nice, hope in 5-10 year the solar panel will be much more efective and low cost for every one

With a feed in tariff (in most states) of about $0.22 and a feed out tariff of about $0.44, there's a 10 year pay off over here (Australia) too.

Hey Dave, Go download the Sunny Explorer software, you can monitor the performance from your pc without going outside :)

even if i did, to get one of those we have at least 50% import duty plus ~6 times the cost(relativ to wages) and you can't sell power to the utilities, so energy costs will keep being costs, you pay them or start using candles

So adorable Sagan...

depends where you live. In Queensland Ergon only allow you to have a 5kW inverter. More panels just mean you get a peak for a long period of the day.

16:48 : "Let's have a 2-minutes teardown" would be cool :-D

In Estonia - eastern part of europe, we have some electric meters with the main breaker away from the house with the box base digged into ground, mate, so the meter dude doesn't need to tackle with dogs.

Funny that in Australia is winter and in america it's almost summer! :D

Check the description.

I think the inverter keeps it the same as the grid, so it's 100% in phase and correct voltage!

I wonder... If you buy a kilowatt for 26c, and the company pays only 6c for your produced KW, wouldn't be wiser to add a battery bank and go off-grid? You have the panels already... Thx for the vid!

You would have had a right good rampage / moan about our solar system install job. The plonkers installed two rows of 2kw and the upper row were all installed upside down, so the male and female link cables did not match. As such the installers left the entire upper row disconnected. I sniffed a rat though after the inverted only ever read a max of 1.9kw on a sunny day, then i noticed the disconnected cables tucked in under the panels.

It can - but the payback looks very different. Under the old system you'd want loads of excess production, now you aim to match your usage. A mate has a 5kW system on old tariff with ~3 year payback. Under the new tariffs I'd be looking at more like a decade. I will probably be selling or renting this house before then, so it isn't looking super attractive (assuming the grid power doesn't double in cost again).