How big solar array? living in Cornwall

Hello

Looking for some solar panels not sure what to get, living in Cornwall have lots Of wind as well, will also get a turbine. Looking to support 3kw max?

Could someone also recommend a decent panel as well, Also wondering what they output in winter if any? Could one still support 3kw if the array was big enough?

Pretty clued up on battery's and inverters bms's and dc to dc, just haven't got a clue about panels and what they can provide in terms of output.

Thank you

You might want to start with the PVWatts Calculator - https://pvwatts.nrel.gov/pvwatts.php - where you can put in your location + solar panel array sizes + (use defaults for the rest till you learn more) to get approximate monthly power output you can expect.

Next - maybe start reviewing some youtubes on panels to get some basics under you're belt. Here's an example -
One thing about panels - you might hear about 'mono' crystalline (all black in the pic below) vs 'poly' crystalline (bluish tone in pic below). The Poly are significantly larger (and heavier) for the same wattage so they take up more room. I didn't really ever focus on this till I actually had the 2 different panel types, both 285w, side by side - its noticeable!

Wasson me ansom. Wher ee to?
I’m out St Ozzell close to Eden.

chuckp said:

Wasson me ansom. Wher ee to?
I’m out St Ozzell close to Eden.

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Camborne

Jonisingt35r said:

living in Cornwall have lots Of wind as well, [...] what they output in winter if any?

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Just by looking at weather statistics, you only get 70 ~ 90hrs of sunshine per month in the winter months. So a pretty miserable 2~3 hours per day on average. On top of that the sun is extremely low on the horizon, so unless your panels are mounted nearly vertically and with no obstruction by neighbours (note I spelled the proper way ), they won't deliver anywhere near their rated power. All that before accounting for snow or frost covering the panels.

My recommendation is to basically forget solar power during the winter months. Consider it an unexpected bonus if they should generate anything, and optimize solar for the remaining 9 months. Ie mount solar panels shallower to maximize output in spring/summer/autumn.
For the winter months, concentrate on wind, pellet/woodstove, etc.
Integrating your powerwall with the Octopus tariffs might be very interesting for the winter months. Charge the powerwalls during the night/weekends when electricity is cheap/free or even get paid for to use!

I bought 6x 280W polycrystalline from Ebay, that's a total of 1680W/hour on a sunny day. I choose them based on space factor (these are 160x99cm big), costs and my energetic needs. I avoided the cheapest ones and the most expensive ones. Obviously if you buy a good brand panel it's usually better. I have both mono and poly and I must say poli panels give a good performance; some say mono are better.

I'm sure you did your maths, just to be sure you answered the following questions about dimensioning, 3KWh could be enough or maybe not:

- What capacity is your battery pack? This question is to calculate how many hours it will take to charge them from solar. Do you want them to be possibly charged in one day?
- What charging capacity does your charger have? This parameter must be kept into consideration also to calculate how many hours it will take to charge the batteries supposing panels can give enough amperes.
- How much do you expect consume on daily basis and as average and peak usage?

italianuser said:

I have both mono and poly and I must say poli panels give a good performance; some say mono are better.

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I hear the quality of polycrystalline panels have improved very much in the last ~5 years. Mono are of course still (and always will be) more efficient, so they're the obvious choice if maximizing power output vs space. Poly if aiming to maximize power output vs cost.

Here’s a sample of my monthly production for last year and so far this year.


Also weekly production for last year and so far this year.