east/west split and pvsol help!

[blades1898]

Trying to do an east/west split on my own house for mcs, i have pvsol, on the 3d shading programme i cant seem to find were you link the 2 arrays together so it will choose one inverter? so i tried to do it without 3d shading and no inverters came up.Im wanting to put 10x 250w on the east side and 6 on the west(as west side as a hip and thats all can get on). I know you can do this as ive read on here plus i ran it through sma design and it picked out a 4000tl's.Cant get mi sweede around what im doing wrong on pvsol either in 3d or without 3d. Ive had pvsol for about 3 months and seemed to picked up everything else ok on there and have designed a few other systems but this is the first time ive come across the split.


This forum as been a god send trying to get started in pv, we paid to get Mcs reg back in oct about a week before gov came out with the tariff change.We had 2 jobs lined up and both fell through as they went to companies who would guarantee the 43p. So we were stuck in limbo and i couldnt afford at the time to have them on my house, which i just about can now(and need to).

Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[Earthstore]

As you have unequal strings, it would probably work better to have two seperate inverters, even if you use a dual tracker the start up voltage of the 6 panels may be too low to start the inverter.
you could then link the AC before it enters the export meter.
Run them through SMA seperatly and see what it comes up with, the smaller one may be an SB 1200, then maybe a 2500 for the larger string.
Hope this helps

 

[blades1898]

Thanks, tried this the 10 panels needs a 2000hf or a 2500hf inverter but would cost more (£200ish) for having 2 inverters.SMA design does say the 4000tl's will do the job i just cant get me head around why pvsol wont have it, unless im missing something out.

 

[wstevew]

You could use znshine zx250 (48) MS with a dual tracker.

 

[Earthstore]

Sorry I can not help you on the PV Sol issue, but that extra £200 spent would probably be the best investment you would ever make.
The start up voltage for the 4000TL is what, 150V, although that can be adjusted slightly, I have not checked, but what is the start up voltage for the 1200?
Due to the nature of your split, the maximum that your system peak at is lets say 3KW, that is a long way from a 4000TL, but to be honest most of the time it would be running around 2KW (with some sunshine),.
Sometimes you need to use common sense over design systems.

Hope this Helps.

 

[blades1898]

just put the 2 versus 1 inverters through sma design again the annual energy yield for one inverter is 2758kwh and for 2 inverters its 2681kwh.
Does this take into account what your saying, because according to sma design one inverter is better,but common sense is not taken into account.

 

[Earthstore]

In a real situation, the sun will shine on your 6 panels in the morning, when the voltage reaches the min to start the inverter, away you go £££ start rolling in, the west side would hardly be producing a thing, then the sun moves around and the west side starts producing and the east drops off.
If you use two smaller inverters, the start up voltage would normally be lower than one big inverter, so every morning, and every evening, you will produce for slightly longer, therfore, more energy produced.
Also inverters tend to work best if they are working at their max, when your panels are peaking, IE panels producing 4KW fit a 4000 inverter, but due to a split system you will never achieve 4KW, but you will start producing earlier in the morning, and continue later in the day due to e/w split.
If it were my house, I would fit two inverters..
You do not have any shading issues do you, as this can happen more on split systems?

 

[blades1898]

No shading issues,thanks for the info.

 

[moggy1968]

I am having a similar problem with PVsol, how do you put arrays on say a front and rear elevation on the 3d imaging, it will only let me do one side.

cheers

 

[SolarCity]

I am having a similar problem with PVsol, how do you put arrays on say a front and rear elevation on the 3d imaging, it will only let me do one side.

cheers

On the 3D roof, click on the arrows. This should spin the roof to the next section, if that makes sense.

 

[Scott H]

I can get the arrays on both the front and back of a property, but how do you link the arrays onto one inverter in PVSol?

 

[SolarCity]

In 3D mode? Can't be done, for reasons that escape me.

 

[moggy1968]

On the 3D roof, click on the arrows. This should spin the roof to the next section, if that makes sense.

DOH!! thanks Biggs, top tip, should have really worked that one out for myself!