The system has an output of as little as 1.36 kilowatts. However, 14 of these small systems are installed on the roof of an apartment building in Linz. The idea behind this is that each of the small generators is assigned to one of the 14 apartments in the building. The residents use the electricity for internal heating: The systems supply energy to heating elements from the Austrian manufacturer My PV.
Solar power self-consumed completely
When the sun shines, the heating elements heat water in the storage tanks installed in the apartments. This allows the residents to later use solar energy even when the sun is not shining. In this way, the residents consume all the solar power on site. This has the added advantage that no inverter needs to be installed because the heating elements directly use the DC power from the solar modules. This not only saves money, but also increases the efficiency of the system overall.
All operating parameters at a glance
A special feature of the solution in Linz: The installers connected the individual heating elements to the solar systems on the roof via a Cloud-Connect unit. This is a small box that collects the performance data of the heating elements and displays it in real time in a portal – the My-PV-Live-Cloud. This means that apartment owners, landlords and housing companies have an overview of the current operating parameters of the heating elements all the time and anywhere. They can also be connected to the AC Thor power controller.
Remote control possible
However, the advantage of this solution is not only the monitoring of the energy consumption of entire apartment buildings, but also the remote control and remote maintenance of the individual electric heating systems. This is because the settings, such as the minimum temperature for different times, can also be set remotely. "There is no limit to the number of units that can be connected, because we customise the cloud-connect unit to suit each of our customers," says Gerhard Rimpler, Managing Director of My PV.
The cloud solution can soon be integrated into existing systems with heating elements from My PV. However, this requires an update of the firmware. For this reason, My PV will offer its cloud for such systems from the end of March 2020 at the latest. (mfo)
