Solar PV - Immersion Heater
29/6/2013 System live at 13:00
Project:- Use excess electric generated to heat the hot waterI heat the hot water by gas, which on average costs 37p per day, based on a sample of 7 days (10th to 17th June 2013), can this be reduced ?
Yes hopefully especially in summer, I wrote an extra script to deal with this, it checks the current output agaist a threshold figure, if its below this nothing happens if above, it switches an ip power switch on which in turn operates a relay putting the immersion heater on, should the output fall below the threshold it switches off the ip relay and contactor and immersion heater, the script checks every 2 minutes output against threshhold setting.
The immersion heater is 3 kw, appears to take less than an hour to heat water,so unless brillant sunshine there will be usage from the grid, say max 1kw that equates to 12.6p, still a possible saving of 25p. Ideal solution would be a 1kw element thereby increasing the time over threshold.
12-10-2023 Takes about 50p to heat water now using gas.
Script and ip power relay installed and electrical work completed. Scripting work not finished, when complete this page will show status of immersion heater/solar pv heating.
Immersion Mod Costincluding p&pMeter, switch and cable I already had
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## Approx saving on gas,averaged 37p per day
Insufficent output or before sunrise |
Log
17/4/2019 Immersion Heater Replaced12/4/2019 - Immersion Heater faulty, awaiting plumber
5/4/2017 - 8 SunTech panels replaced with 7 LG panels
2/2/2014 - Added Status of the ip power switch ports
29/6/2013 - Electrical work completed, live at 13:00, then the fog rolled in off the sea.
23/6/2013 Started on addition to script to show minutes on and total time over threshold.