Friday, June 5, 2009

We're making electricity!


It's now over two years since we dismantled our solar PV system from our previous house and nearly a year since we put the panels on the new woodshed at East Cambusmoon. So high time we made the connection to the grid again!
With Jim the electrician round to do some bits and bobs around the house, we took the opportunity to dust off the inverter, check all the cables and connect it up.
After a few hours work by Steve and Jim came the time of the big switch on late afternoon. Firstly the solar voltage was checked - 180V in cloudy conditions - then the final connection made. After a final check all disconnects were connected and all switches switched on, and the inverter buzzed into action. A couple of minutes later 300W of power registered on the output meter, then as the sun appeared from behind a cloud as if to clebrate our latest milestone we were up to 900W - 8 times more than we were using with our excess, renewable, organic green electrons spilling back onto the local grid!
By the end of the day (we were still generating a few watts at 8:30pm) we had generated over 2kWh, half of which was exported. Next step is to register with Scottish Hydro and get paid 28p for each of those units we export!
Home made power doesn't get much better than this...!

2 comments:

Calico Kate said...

Hey well done. Am so impressed. This great weather will earn you lots and lots!
CKx

Debs said...

Yes, its terrific news. Its taken us ages to connect but if as everyone says its going to be a hot summer then we should be just great. One of the fab things about this part of the world are the long daylight hours which really help the generation numbers at this time of year.
thanks for your comments, lovely to hear from you, Debs x