Solar PV Grant now Available - SEAI

BudEliJackson

gunnerfitzy wrote: »

BudEliJackson wrote: »

I am getting free research by Activ8 as met guy from the company on my way out of Woodies (my favourite shop

/QUOTE]

Get lots of quotes!! There is a separate thread on quotes posters are receiving.

Don’t feel pressurised into ordering during a home visit by an installer.

where's thread on quotes???

BudEliJackson

Shefwedfan wrote: »

My recommendation is to stay away from the person you met in Woodies....


Do a bit of googling and you will find out why.....

Thanks, I will do research as for everything I get for the house but would like to see what they suggest , pricing etc

gunnerfitzy

BudEliJackson wrote: »

gunnerfitzy wrote: »

where's thread on quotes???

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057898473

niallers1

I told them not to bother calling. I had a sick in my mouth when they started going on about their super dooper offers.

I can only assume it works for them but it stank of hard sell pressure tactics.

I feel sorry for some who will not be able to say no to them.

unkel

niallers1 wrote: »

I told them not to bother calling. I had a sick in my mouth when they started going on about their super dooper offers.

I can only assume it works for them but it stank of hard sell pressure tactics.

I feel sorry for some who will not be able to say no to them.

A little birdie in the industry told me they are the most profitable and most successful renewable energy company in the country

I feel exactly the same as you. Imagine all the poor folks who were ripped off

taytobreath

I googled boards about activ8 as I've met one of these guys in woodies myself doing the hard sell. Glad now I've been made aware of this.

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057614168

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=97283972

Anyone care to comment why FLA are excluded from the grant?
They're the best kind. Top of the Charts 150 years.

This grant makes me wonder if they consulted many technicals before drafting it.

I can't understand how lossy systems are being incentivised where a tradeable commodity like power is not.

Shefwedfan

unkel wrote: »

A little birdie in the industry told me they are the most profitable and most successful renewable energy company in the country

I feel exactly the same as you. Imagine all the poor folks who were ripped off

My brother didn't know about them....got them to come out....for Solar Thermal they quoted 12k but as he was the first person in area they would look at doing something to reduce the cost....signs etc


In the end with a bit of push and shove they could do for 8k :eek:


The same system I got quoted 3-4k

unkel

Shefwedfan wrote: »

My brother didn't know about them....got them to come out....for Solar Thermal they quoted 12k but as he was the first person in area they would look at doing something to reduce the cost....signs etc


In the end with a bit of push and shove they could do for 8k :eek:

Yep I was that soldier too many years ago. Came in with the big promises of heavy discounts if I did referrals, had a sign in my garden, etc.

They promised it would heat all my water and a lot of my air even in winter :rolleyes: Quoted about 11k for a system that probably could have been got for about 5-6k. I was expecting a heavy discount on that going rate of 5-6k because of the advertising, but couldn't talk them down below about 7k. So I gave it a miss. Got a far bigger, far superior system installed a couple of years later through another SEAI accredited company for less than 5k...

Water John

You can pick any industry esp a new developing sector. One entrant will be very aggressive, heavy marketing etc, with the fooled clients paying for it.

Sir, what's FLA? I'm the fella who sticks up his hand to ask the stupid question.

Zzippy

Please excuse the ignorance in the following post, but I'm not very tech savvy when it comes to this and would appreciate any advice.
Would love to know if PV would be worth getting.

Current consumption is ~5,000kWh per year.

• Oil fired central heating and hot water.

• Also have a stove with back boiler for HW which is on in the evenings ~7 months of the year (solid fuel, turf).

• Rear roof is SE facing. Also have a large shed which is SW facing, could put panels on either/both. Location is Galway so not as sunny as east/southeast counties.

Would appreciate any opinions on whether PV would be viable, and suggestions on size of installation recommended. Also if anyone has ballopark figures for cost even better!
Don't want to go looking for quotes until we're sure this is a road we want to go down in terms of savings long-term.

unkel

You won't save anything material on your hot water / heating but yes you will save on electricity. If you reckon you will stay in the house for a very long time, PV is always worth your while. SE + SW is a good combo. And Galway is probably not as bad as you thought:



Heating your house with coal / turf is terrible for the environment BTW...

Shefwedfan

Zzippy wrote: »

Please excuse the ignorance in the following post, but I'm not very tech savvy when it comes to this and would appreciate any advice.
Would love to know if PV would be worth getting.

• Current consumption is ~5,000kWh per year.

• Oil fired central heating and hot water.

• Also have a stove with back boiler for HW which is on in the evenings ~7 months of the year (solid fuel, turf).

• Rear roof is SE facing. Also have a large shed which is SW facing, could put panels on either/both. Location is Galway so not as sunny as east/southeast counties.

Would appreciate any opinions on whether PV would be viable, and suggestions on size of installation recommended. Also if anyone has ballopark figures for cost even better!
Don't want to go looking for quotes until we're sure this is a road we want to go down in terms of savings long-term.

Have you tracked your usage and see what are peaks etc are?


What your standard workload is?

Zzippy

unkel wrote: »

You won't save anything material on your hot water / heating but yes you will save on electricity. If you reckon you will stay in the house for a very long time, PV is always worth your while. SE + SW is a good combo. And Galway is probably not as bad as you thought:

Cheers. Yes it is hopefully a lifetime investment, just thought we might also save on hot water in summer months when the back boiler is not in use and we have to use oil to heat water.

unkel wrote: »

Heating your house with coal / turf is terrible for the environment BTW...

Appreciate that, not long in the house, we didn't build and the stove was already in place, plus the in-laws harvest turf every year and I'd be divorced if I said no to them. Long term I'd prefer a more sustainable alternative.

Shefwedfan wrote: »

Have you tracked your usage and see what are peaks etc are?


What your standard workload is?

Do you mean day/evening etc? No, but we both work during the day so early evening would be peak usage with cooker, washing machines, tv, etc.
Have only tracked usage through the bill, and it varies from ~10kWh/day in summer to ~17kWh/day in winter.

unkel

Zzippy wrote: »

thought we might also save on hot water in summer months when the back boiler is not in use and we have to use oil to heat water.

Some people have a diverter installed (costs about EUR500) to send all the electricity they don't use to the hot water immersion heater, but PV is not really suitable / efficient for heating water. Much better for the environment if you send it back to the grid - you might get paid for that in future too.

Shefwedfan

Zzippy wrote: »

Do you mean day/evening etc? No, but we both work during the day so early evening would be peak usage with cooker, washing machines, tv, etc.
Have only tracked usage through the bill, and it varies from ~10kWh/day in summer to ~17kWh/day in winter.

Yeah kind of,......


So I got Owl electricity tracker.....10 quid on adverts...so during the day with "nothing" going on we are at a constant 0.3kW


We then have peaks over 10kW in morning/evening.....


I used 10,000kWh per year so I "need" a bigger system but unless I get a battery in reality my bigger system will just be feeding the grid majority of the time...

What my little plan is to buy the equipment myself. Install onto a shed, maybe 1kW to start it. Get my electrician to hook up and see what it does.....if I can go bigger I will and then install battery and use grant....


Any crowd that comes in automatic say a 6kW system. But 5.5kW during 9-5 will be pushed out to grid:mad: with no return


Please note that is the definition of "man maths":p:p

unkel

Zzippy wrote: »

Do you mean day/evening etc? No, but we both work during the day so early evening would be peak usage with cooker, washing machines, tv, etc.

You will get zero PV in winter in early evening and even in summer at about 6PM-7PM, you only get a fraction of what you get around noon. Forget about the SE panels too. You'd save a lot more money by getting a free night meter and run your appliances at 7c night rate electricity

A battery is an option, they are coming down in price all the time, but they are still very, very expensive. Even after the subisides.

Zzippy

unkel wrote: »

Some people have a diverter installed (costs about EUR500) to send all the electricity they don't use to the hot water immersion heater, but PV is not really suitable / efficient for heating water. Much better for the environment if you send it back to the grid - you might get paid for that in future too.

unkel wrote: »

You will get zero PV in winter in early evening and even in summer at about 6PM-7PM, you only get a fraction of what you get around noon. Forget about the SE panels too. You'd save a lot more money by getting a free night meter and run your appliances at 7c night rate electricity

A battery is an option, they are coming down in price all the time, but they are still very, very expensive. Even after the subisides.

I would consider a battery alright, but by sounds of the above if we are not at home during the day when the PV is being generated, we will not get much benefit from it until they start paying customers for feeding into the grid?
Presumably even a battery would only give a limited amount of power in the evening before it is exhausted.

Shefwedfan

Zzippy wrote: »

I would consider a battery alright, but by sounds of the above if we are not at home during the day when the PV is being generated, we will not get much benefit from it until they start paying customers for feeding into the grid?
Presumably even a battery would only give a limited amount of power in the evening before it is exhausted.

You would need to have timer and have items running in the day....washing machine etc


In reality I have night meter, installed free of charge....I already have all the white goods running on the lower cost electricity so my business case is getting hard to find


Unless of course I get a second electric car and charge during the day

TomOnBoard

Shefwedfan wrote: »

You would need to have timer and have items running in the day....washing machine etc


In reality I have night meter, installed free of charge....I already have all the white goods running on the lower cost electricity so my business case is getting hard to find


Unless of course I get a second electric car and charge during the day

I've yet to see a well-constructed business case for Irish homeowner PV, based on financial arguments alone. That is not to say that it doesn't make sense. A number of other justifications, such as conscientious belief in environmental obligations, add to the case for many people. A sensible FIT might add to the economic case, but for now, I don't see it, although it is improving with better solar 'bang for the buck' as panels etc. improve.

Water John

Water John wrote: »

Sir, what's FLA?

Flooded lead acid. Tubular plate traction batteries are never compared to li-ion because they're too good and the compartitive results are discouraging to newer tech batteries.

listermint

I know there was some questions on planning permission. Seems like the LA will take cases to court into this

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/courts/district-court/woman-claims-order-to-remove-solar-panels-forced-her-to-burn-fossil-fuels-1.3622137

For me the law needs to be adjusted. Providing installs are safe not allowing for aesthetic reasons is ridiculous. As a country we are paying fines to the EU for energy . There needs to be a collective government led change

wexfordman2

listermint wrote: »

I know there was some questions on planning permission. Seems like the LA will take cases to court into this

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/courts/district-court/woman-claims-order-to-remove-solar-panels-forced-her-to-burn-fossil-fuels-1.3622137

For me the law needs to be adjusted. Providing installs are safe not allowing for aesthetic reasons is ridiculous. As a country we are paying fines to the EU for energy . There needs to be a collective government led change

It's absolutely ridiculous, paper pushing and no logic to it. Adds costs to the process and at least a 3 month planning process

niallers1

Exemption needs to be high enough to avail of the full SEAI grant.

The 12sqm came about due to the maximum grant available from SEAI for solar thermal back in the beginning.

Planning law originally took direction from SEAI not the other way around.

wexfordman2

niallers1 wrote: »

Exemption needs to be high enough to avail of the full SEAI grant.

The 12sqm came about due to the maximum grant available from SEAI for solar thermal back in the beginning.

Planning law originally took direction from SEAI not the other way around.

But why are the two linked in any way ?

12sq m or any fixed sq m is just an arbitrary figure. 20sq m might be okay on a detached house but not on a semi detached for example, 20sqm might take up 30% of a roof or 70% of a roof, it's a ridiculous rule to base it on a fixed sq meterage

TomOnBoard

listermint wrote: »

I know there was some questions on planning permission. Seems like the LA will take cases to court into this

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/courts/district-court/woman-claims-order-to-remove-solar-panels-forced-her-to-burn-fossil-fuels-1.3622137

For me the law needs to be adjusted. Providing installs are safe not allowing for aesthetic reasons is ridiculous. As a country we are paying fines to the EU for energy . There needs to be a collective government led change

The judge's comment is very telling in her response to the Council trying to shut the case down:

"However, Judge Marian O’Leary interrupted after 20 minutes of hearing evidence and said: “There’s more to this … it requires a full hearing.”

uck51js9zml2yt

TomOnBoard wrote: »

The judge's comment is very telling in her response to the Council trying to shut the case down:

"However, Judge Marian O’Leary interrupted after 20 minutes of hearing evidence and said: “There’s more to this … it requires a full hearing.”

Is there any date for that?

TomOnBoard

Hayden Limited Tag wrote: »

Is there any date for that?

The article says "The matter was adjourned to Kilmallock District Court on October 13th."

I note also that the lady is representing herself which may have spurred the Judge to ensure that she gets full access to the Court..

niallers1

I bet if there was support for her in the court that she would be allowed to keep them.

Any green party members or friends of the earth members looking at this ðŸ˜
A trip down to Limerick with banners and flags to support her would help everybody .

niallers1

TomOnBoard wrote: »

Hayden Limited Tag wrote: »

Is there any date for that?

The article says "The matter was adjourned to Kilmallock District Court on October 13th."

I note also that the lady is representing herself which may have spurred the Judge to ensure that she gets full access to the Court..

The reason the judge got her back up was because the solicitor for Limerick county council told the judge that the lady was contesting the case. The solicitor told the judge that she should be done in 5 minutes as if to say there was a not a hope for the lady . Sounds like the Judge didnt like being told how long a hearing will take in her courtroom so basically gave the solicitor a big F.you.