April 2011 - The Warmest (Sunniest) on Record?

The Met Office were reporting yesterday that this April may have been the warmest and driest in the UK on record.  Judging by the record amount of electricity I harvested, it may also have been the sunniest.

Now this time last year I'd admit that I had less PV installed.  The last lot of BP panels were installed in May and I had about 1.50kWp installed in total.  But the fact that I have just over 2kWp installed this April doesn't account for the power harvest being 2.9 times higher than the previous year.

 

The upshot has been that my solar system has offset just over 53% of my total electricity demand for the month, and up to 66% of weekly demand in the best week of the month (the last week).  On a daily basis, the best day was the 28th, with over 85% of electrical demand served by solar power.

Quite astonishing, given that I didn't install the upgraded capacity from the recent haul of solar panels until the middle of he month.

The newly upgraded immersion heater controller is also maybe having an impact, as it can more effectively use the spare power available in the system.