You should go to the Results page to see the latest update on the harvesting of the sun.
A full analysis will be available in early February at which stage we will have 12 months worth of results and a record of all Meridian bills etc...
Tuesday, 8 January 2013
Saturday, 22 December 2012
One year in the new house
Well here we are a year since we first moved in albeit another two months before all our solar systems were turned on.
The house is working really well, nearly cleared all the minor things and have had the plasterers back for a few minor screw wholes, painters will be back early in January to re-paint. The concrete floor cracks will also be sorted then.
Here is a brief video of the outside of the house which gives a good indication of the work in the garden area, or you can use my link
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151378922919602
Well here we are a year since we first moved in albeit another two months before all our solar systems were turned on.
The house is working really well, nearly cleared all the minor things and have had the plasterers back for a few minor screw wholes, painters will be back early in January to re-paint. The concrete floor cracks will also be sorted then.
Here is a brief video of the outside of the house which gives a good indication of the work in the garden area, or you can use my link
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151378922919602
Sunday, 2 December 2012
Wednesday, 7 November 2012
Great to see credits coming in through the energy account.
This month saw the first sizable dollar credits in our power account, albeit that it may have been due to their estimation process. We had a credit of over $65 for the month.
The month also generated for the first time over 300KW's for the month averaging over 10KW each day and peaking at 15.1KW on the 31st October. The next few months leading up to the longest day should give really good results.
The rest of the house is working really well, although we did have an incident part way through the month. We had a planned power outage on one day for 3 hours, but no one told us, and as a result the hot water system that collects heat and heats our hot water and stores heat in our core over heated. The pumps turned off once the Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) ran out. The water in the solar panels on the roof then went to over 120 degrees C and turned into steam. Once the power came back on the pumps pushed this steam down into the core and blew two of the six pipes at the ground level in our laundry. Luckily the door to the rest of the house was closed but we ended up with a sauna in the laundry and total loose of pressure. The system survived but still needs to be fixed so that we can run it properly. The redundancy in the piping in the slab and core have taken over and we are collecting heat still but only providing storage to two thirds of the core.
The power company has admitted liability, having failed to notify us of the outage. We are now looking at solutions to ensure that the UPS can survive in the future.
This month saw the first sizable dollar credits in our power account, albeit that it may have been due to their estimation process. We had a credit of over $65 for the month.
The month also generated for the first time over 300KW's for the month averaging over 10KW each day and peaking at 15.1KW on the 31st October. The next few months leading up to the longest day should give really good results.
The power company has admitted liability, having failed to notify us of the outage. We are now looking at solutions to ensure that the UPS can survive in the future.
Wednesday, 3 October 2012
Spring has finally arrived
SPRING
Spring has arrived at last.
The house has stayed really warm right through the winter, so the test now is to complete a full year and interpret what that means for
As at end of September we have generated 1.63MW off the roof. By next February when we have completed a year we will have a good feel for how much that is of the total usage of power in the house.
See the results page for the most up to date data on the power generation.
After a very dull autumn and cold winter its good to see the garden starting to respond to the sun.
The tulips have done really well give the equinox winds.
Sunday, 3 June 2012
We are now into June 2012 with the house having settled down and all systems pretty well balanced.
The hot water is now working as expected with plenty of water on average days, a little less when we have a really poor light day as happened in early June.
The house is nice and warm and is consistently in the range of 20+ degrees with the odd morning where it gets down to 18.5 degrees (on a frosty 0.5 degree morning).
Here is the view from this morning looking out to Mana Island.
The hot water is now working as expected with plenty of water on average days, a little less when we have a really poor light day as happened in early June.
The house is nice and warm and is consistently in the range of 20+ degrees with the odd morning where it gets down to 18.5 degrees (on a frosty 0.5 degree morning).
Here is the view from this morning looking out to Mana Island.
Saturday, 19 May 2012
An update after 5 Months
The first 5 months have flown by and we have been very busy getting ready for winter.
The summer and autumn has been very poor with very little sun and hence the amount of heat stored below the house is not as great as first thought, but having said that the house has remained nice and warm with the Digital Self Heating Home system providing a warm environment with the temperature throughout the house not getting below 18 degrees even on the very cold nights such as this week when outside it got down to zero for the first time.
The gardens are now starting to look like they should, the lawn is nice and green and all systems are go for winter.
Thus far we have generated over 900 kwhr's of electricity and the house is operating an providing about 65% of power coming off the photovoltaic system. The hot water system and house have now been balanced and are working well.
The house is certainly warm 24/7 and hence has that real nice healthy feeling. The uPVC windows and doors are proving their worth with no condensation what so ever even with the very cold mornings.
The LED lights are great and we appear to have calculated the light requirements pretty well with the need to only add a couple of lights in the kitchen and in the walk in wardrobe to get the required coverage.
The summer and autumn has been very poor with very little sun and hence the amount of heat stored below the house is not as great as first thought, but having said that the house has remained nice and warm with the Digital Self Heating Home system providing a warm environment with the temperature throughout the house not getting below 18 degrees even on the very cold nights such as this week when outside it got down to zero for the first time.
The gardens are now starting to look like they should, the lawn is nice and green and all systems are go for winter.
Thus far we have generated over 900 kwhr's of electricity and the house is operating an providing about 65% of power coming off the photovoltaic system. The hot water system and house have now been balanced and are working well.
The house is certainly warm 24/7 and hence has that real nice healthy feeling. The uPVC windows and doors are proving their worth with no condensation what so ever even with the very cold mornings.
The LED lights are great and we appear to have calculated the light requirements pretty well with the need to only add a couple of lights in the kitchen and in the walk in wardrobe to get the required coverage.
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