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sedgy34

Hi Guys!!

Got a potential customer got 4 BIG houses behind some private gates each house costs 4,000 per year on gas and electric.Hes got a (paddock) few acres on the back of his garden (very nice) its classed as farm grazing land he wants me to put together a project so he can have a mix of renewables im going to suggest as follows:
1, 4kw pv system on ballast trays wired back to each house for 21p fit rate
2,A 50kw pv system as he will have a 3phase main put in the paddock with a seperate meter and m,pan 15.2pfit rate
3, a small scale wind turbine

The aim is to generate as much as posssible to offset his annual costs
your thoughts and ideas are welcome

CHEERS IN ADVANCE GUYS
 
OK great so you can save him some electric but what are the plans to save some gas?
The best way to use electric to heat a home (in my opinion) is to use a heat pump, however unless the house in very well insulated and has either oversized radiators or under floor heating then it will not work so well.
 
Cider said:
OK great so you can save him some electric but what are the plans to save some gas?
The best way to use electric to heat a home (in my opinion) is to use a heat pump, however unless the house in very well insulated and has either oversized radiators or under floor heating then it will not work so well.
Click to expand...

yeh have done one of them 5 years ago very efficient too, not sure if we can convert as the houses are complete. thought about suggesting solar thermal too for his hw.
 
Have you also considered voltage optimisation to help reduce his electricity costs? relatively easy to install and they dont break the bank.
 
cogsey133 said:
Have you also considered voltage optimisation to help reduce his electricity costs? relatively easy to install and they dont break the bank.
Click to expand...

yeh we were fitting the voltis hd units but they were tripping old and new rcd,s in the cu,s voltis suggested change the rcd cause its change over cycle time was within 24ms same as rcd. we stopped installing them after that.
 
I have found the vphase units very easy to install and have had no problems with them. really interested to hear you issues with voltis units as this is an area i am keen to get more into.

Cheers
 
Last edited by a moderator:
cogsey133 said:
I have found the vphase units very easy to install and have had no problems with them. really interested to hear you issues with voltis units as this is an area i am keen to get more into.

Cheers
Click to expand...

the voltis units save 18% they fit inline after the meter and have a 63a breaker i normally use a clamp meter to see what the house is using as your downgrading to this 63a, my problem was only with the hd voltis unit and others had the same problem The normal 230v units i believe have been ok.the hd unit is for 237vto 253v.
 
Manufacturer's quoted savings of up to 18%

(Mines saving me around 7-8% based on monthly consumption figures compared to the same period 12 months ago - not terribly scientific but I am happy it's working nonetheless)
 
Yes, I was pleasantly surprised. With so much scepticism of these units on this site I figured the only way to find out if they really work or not was to try one. As far as I'm concerned, they work.

Not suffered any tripping issues either and I still can't work out why a unit fitted upstream of any RCDs should cause them to trip.
 
JulianC said:
Yes, I was pleasantly surprised. With so much scepticism of these units on this site I figured the only way to find out if they really work or not was to try one. As far as I'm concerned, they work.

Not suffered any tripping issues either and I still can't work out why a unit fitted upstream of any RCDs should cause them to trip.
Click to expand...

is yours the HD unit or normal as i said earlier its omly the hd units that voltis have had problems with
 
I think I'll have to install one on my own home and monitor it.

I'd love to see some more real world data to back up manufacturers' claims though. (perhaps from someone that doesn't immediately lose their chin when you ask them for it....)
 
SolarCity said:
I think I'll have to install one on my own home and monitor it.

I'd love to see some more real world data to back up manufacturers' claims though. (perhaps from someone that doesn't immediately lose their chin when you ask them for it....)
Click to expand...


we didnt get as far as monitoring to prove 18% as the tripping problems occured our customers didnt want the nuissance tripping so we took them out i have a spare was going to put in my house but just havnt got round to doing it yet.
 
I can not see why you had any tripping issues, as they are fitted upstream and just drop the incoming voltage down from (in the case of the one I have fitted) from 245v to 220v.
It is running a GSHP and garage block and is working fine.
Maybe there was a fault in the house and the voltage change caused the RCD to trip?
 
Earthstore said:
I can not see why you had any tripping issues, as they are fitted upstream and just drop the incoming voltage down from (in the case of the one I have fitted) from 245v to 220v.
It is running a GSHP and garage block and is working fine.
Maybe there was a fault in the house and the voltage change caused the RCD to trip?
Click to expand...

A FAULT!!! how could that be when the rcd didnt trip previously, the solar circuit didnt go on the rcd side either you can call marshall tuflex they may be able to shed some light on why there units are tripping rcds
 
sedgy34 said:
Do you have rcd protected circuits in the distribution board
Click to expand...

Yes. Otherwise they wouldn't be able to not trip.

Can't see the Voltis being the cause of any tripping. It is installed upstream of any RCDs so I do not see how it is possible to influence their operation.
 
sedgy34 said:
A FAULT!!! how could that be when the rcd didnt trip previously, the solar circuit didnt go on the rcd side either you can call marshall tuflex they may be able to shed some light on why there units are tripping rcds
Click to expand...
Where was your PV connected? Before or after the Voltis.
I am just trying to help.
 
The Pv was connected same day as the Voltis unit was fitted then re occurance of tripping throughout different days through the following week we disconnected the Voltis unit and left the Pv in situe the tripping hasn't happened since hence the Voltis being taken out.
 
I put it down to the imbalance of voltage the rcd didn't like when it changed to its 220v cycle causing the rcd to pick it up and it's cycle changeover is 24 ms same as the tripping time on the rcd
 
The Voltis is installed after the meter and before the distribution board it's got a 63a breaker on it
Connection is Feed in from meter load out to db
Pv was in a spare way in db 20a circuit
 
I think that we may have found the problem, the PV must be connected in before the Voltis unit, as your PV was on a spare way it was connected after the Voltis unit.
That would trip the RCD as the PV would be trying to export back through the transformer in the Voltis unit.
It should be Incoming meter>PV system>Voltis unit>CU.

I hope that makes sense and helps also.
 
Earthstore said:
I think that we may have found the problem, the PV must be connected in before the Voltis unit, as your PV was on a spare way it was connected after the Voltis unit.
That would trip the RCD as the PV would be trying to export back through the transformer in the Voltis unit.
It should be Incoming meter>PV system>Voltis unit>CU.

I hope that makes sense and helps also.
Click to expand...

thanks that makes perfect sense!!!! but why would you fit a small 2way consumer unit if there are 2/3 spare ways in the DB not knowing the rcd will trip when its all installed with the voltis unit
 
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