Solar panels, or not (hello, Enphase!?)

Now we have a swimming pool with a 1.2kW pump, running 8-9 hours a day, the decision to install solar panels has become more urgent. A big consumer like this costs 2€ a day, or about 800€ a year, while the sun is shining constantly. Alas, a private solar installation is not as easy a purchase as in The Netherlands. In the Netherlands you can feed back your surplus electricity to the grid, and you get paid for that too. In Spain the government decided to tax power generated by private solar panels. The lobby is strong, apparently. The idea is that you buy less electricity from the electricity companies, and thus you disadvantage other consumers. Of course it's just an obnoxious law, that "Europe" is protesting. But, the government here has been out of a majority for a very long time, and nothing much happened, and the law has not yet been changed.

What to do. We don't want to go "off the grid", and become totally independent. By day you use power form the panels and you charge the batteries. At night you use the stored power. But batteries are expensive, dangerous, end short lived (ten years). Remains "grid tied", where you use your own power first, and if your panels don't yield enough you use power from the grid.In the Netherlands that is all arranged, but here in Spain it isn't. There is another option: you do connect your solar panels system to the grid, but you don't feed back surplus power to the grid. That is called "zero grid feedback", or "self consumer". Zero feedback would be nice. No fuss with taxes, you are sort of independent, but you can still use power from the grid, if needed, like at night.

What/which system, and how big? Well, preferably more than 1.2kW for the swimming pool pump. But, do we keep on cooking with gas (bottles), or do we switch to electric? Atag refuses to market its products in Spain, see http://jansenendewaal.blogspot.com/2017/03/oven.html, so we could switch to electric cooking. A big electric "burner" is ca. 3kW, though that is not all day. And are we going for an electric car? As you can see we'd like to start small, ca. 1.5 - 2kW, and extend later.

But, the "inverters", the apparatuses that convert the direct current from the panels to 230V/50Hz alternating current are not that flexible. Most like a configuration within their capacity. Capacities range, for example, from 1700 W to 2140 W, while the next bigger version is 2500 to 3600 Watt. These inverters, that convert power from a series of solar panels, are called "string inverters".

There is another option: a mini-inverter, where each solar panel has it's own small inverter. Buy an extra panel, buy another mini-inverter. The manufacturer of these inverters is called Enphase: Enphase (https://enphase.com/). Good! Hm, no dealer in Spain. Yes in The Netherlands, France, Germany. Understandable, if Spain is making life for solar people difficult. But you can order your supplies by internet, and diy the installation, which is easy with Enphase.

Another advantage of micro-inverters is that they are long lived, about 25 years, versus 10 years for string inverters. And, a system built with separate inverters is very good with shaded panels. It will simply shut off panels that are shaded, and not the entire system.

Remains the choice for grid-tied, and yes or no zero-feedback. Before you know if this is possible with Enphase a lot of water has not run through the Rio Antas. Enphase themselves don't tell you much about zero feedback on their website. "Contact us" gives me no response (twice). My internet dealer says "I think it's possible". Ask on a forum, and one person says "yes it is possible", the other says "no you can't". Let's study this topic ourselves then.


Enphase has a number of series inverters that are basically compatible:

M215, 215W (4th generation)

M250, 250W (4th generation)

S280, 280W (5th generation)

IQ6 (60 cell panels, 230W) en IQ6+ (72 cell panels, 280W) (6th generation)

Modern solar panels yield 280-300W at the sunniest moment of the day.

Enphase does say something about zero-feedback: you need to apply a "zero feedback grid profile" using your Envoy. The Envoy is a small box that controls and monitors your collection of inverters, and delivers nice statistics and graphs via wifi. On Hawaii there are regions where you need to apply this zero feedback grid profile. But, you need a more recent series of inverter than is available in Europe: the S-series or the IQ. In Europe only the older M-series is available.

But, in Australia, where they have 230V/50Hz too, like us in Europe, there is the S270 (260 W)! But, that's Australia, and not here.


Strange people at Enphase.

And still no answer from Support.

Ticket : 00982541
Submitted : 6/24/2017
Subject : Solar panels system with Zero feedback to grid - Envoy-S standard or metered?

After some more studying you encounter a comparable manufacturer: SolarEdge, who also have sort of a micro inverter, and a scalable system. It's the same company IKEA uses for their solar panels systems. But, SolarEdge is from a country I prefer not to do business with. Yes, Israël.

Studying further you see the financial situation of Enphase is not that great. Not strange if your support department does not answer and you don't market your products in Europe.. Anyway, 25 years lifespan and guarantee does require a company that is still around after 25 years.

Next year (2018) they will market the 7th generation "international inverter" that will make everybody happy.

But what am I to do now? I would be perfectly happy with the M250 inverters, but then I need to be able to install a system here in Spain that is allowed to feedback the grid. No answer about that from ENDESA, who are not overflowing with information either. Their support department is the same as Enphase's, apparently: still no answers.

Sigh.

Pergola Ibiza Style

As of today we are in an Ibiza Style Pergola atmosphere.

Límon variegata

We have bought a lemon tree.

And look, stripes!

 On the interwebs they have even more beautiful ones, with a yellow lining at the edge of the leaves.

Sigh, what did we buy? There seem to be pink ones, too.

Truss Pergola

The pergola now is twice as big, almost, and is now two times 5 x 4.5 meter.

These shade sails are last year's, and are now attached provisionally.

We want something like this.

Retractable

Pumpkin - Coco

We're having a small family expansion:

"APASA:

Our Pumpkin is a beautiful classic podenco. Unbelievable how she developed in the asylum into a stable sweetheart. Little is known of her background. Was she dumped because she did not hunt well? She has been walking beautifully and is a true humans dog. She so deserves her own home. This girl has been in asylum for a long time and is doing her best to be liked by the volunteers. Of course she does, but she needs someone who can adopt her. Pumpkin has been living peacefully in 4 years with four other dogs. But just because she so likes to be cuddled cuddled, Pumpkin is more suitable for a home. Oh yes she is vaccinated, chipped and healthy! Who oh who gives our darling a chance ?!

(Input 12 July 2017)"

We do!

"Pumpkin was tied to our gate with a white cord around her neck when we found her that morning. We untied the cord and she followed us into the dog pound as if she had been living in the pound her whole life. She was only a bit afraid at the beginning, but after only one day, she liked all dogs and also the people who look after her. Pumpkin is the kind of podenco that could live with any family. She is gentle towards everybody and everything. As she is a podenco, a home with other dogs would be perfect for her." (http://www.apasa.eu/Pumpkin-1)

As a dog you're not allowed to leave the asylum without being spayed. Here you can see hert in the car on her way to the vet. If I were her I'd have that same facial expression. And I do feel a bit guilty: because we chose here she has to have an operation. But, as Syl says: she gets a whole new life, so she'd prefer it. Probably.

20170718: we're told she's well! The wound is very small, only 3cm, perhaps they used keyhole surgery? That can be done,
but is more expensive due to the equipment. It's good for the dog, as she's fit again in just a few days.

We're looking forward to having her here! Hopefully end of the week, provided her recovery goes well.

Just what shall we call her. Pumpkin is not a great calling name.. We already have Zoomba and Papaya (Paya), so best another sound than "oo" or "ah"/ "Ee"? Mimi?

It's now: Coco. In honour of Coco Chienel.

Sansevieria

Everyone like the sansevieria, but especially people not terribly keen on plants. Common names include mother-in-law's tongue, devil's tongue, jinn's tongue, bow string hemp, snake plant and snake tongue, so you see it is a plant that suits every home. Their biggest habitat is Belgian windowsills, but originally they're from Africa, the Angola area. They're very easy. Plant them once, don't look back ten years. Very popular in the sixties, when indoor smoking was still the custom, as the pot with sanserierias was very handy as an ashtray too.

We'll plant some along the fence. Nice green without fuss, and only little water.

Two of these tubs of a small variety

Make a lot of plants. In a few weeks they'll probably have some roots, so we can plant them in the garden.

We have small-medium-large plants

Shutters, mosquito screens and oil

Some people may think we're lazing in the pool all day, but at least for one of us that is not true. There are some shutters, screens and windows to do up. Not seen sandpaper or brush in at least ten years, so high time to sand off the old dry wood stain, and apply a nice Tung oil. (These are the windows and shutters of the kitchen, at the side of the house.)

Shiny!

 Now for the windows themselves..

Plants 2 - Frangipani

Frangipani, or Plumeria in Latin, is a plant we know from Australia, although originally from Mexico, Brazil and Central America. Plumeria is a relative of the Baobab, and you'll see it by the strange stem.

But it's all about the flowers. They are fragrant as frangipani. Sweet, but not yucky sweet,
if you get my drift.

There are white-yellow ones,

and pink ones, although the flowers of this one are white-yellow, though they have a pink edge when just open.

oo, a wild colors version!

Oh well, bought another few. They're very well suited for un-deep soil as we have at the edge of the terrace. Frangipani is great in containers too, as they don't have large root systems. And, very important,
they're from tropical regions, so they love the full sun.

So today's task is to turn the soil once more, add more compost, remove the stones, and prepare for planting.

And a job it is, in this weather. Lucky we have a pool for cooling off. Funny, our pool is green-yellow-white, too.

Pergola // Trusses

Experiments