Thoughts on Buying Solar Equipment Directly Vs From Supplier?

blobert

Hi Guys,

As mentioned in another thread I'm looking to install circa 30kW of solar pannels on a new build house. As it's a new build I dont think it will be eligible for any grant so the advantage of that may be removed.

I'm guessing most Irish domestic suppliers are likley to not be that competitive on price, especially as they have the grant factored into their pricing.

Just wondering if it may be cheaper to try and source the parts myself from an EU supplier and then have them installed locally.

While I'd be looking to do a large install I'm looking to do it as cost effectievly as possible.

I was looking at these or these panels.

Both of these if bought in bulk come in at well under 20c per watt of power and you're buying from a reasonably established EU company.

As the new house is going to have a standing seamed metal roof I'm thinking (assuming wind is not an issue with the large amount of pannels) that a simple roof clamping system like this would be the simplest/least expensive mounting system.

There then would be several days of labour involved in mounting the pannels.

Anyway let me know if you think this is likley to be a better way to approach it or if these is somewhere else I should be looking to source cheap pannels.

Thanks in advance!

unkel

With a price of €80 + VAT and delivery costs of €20 per panel on top, those prices aren't good at all.

SouthWesterly

unkel wrote: »

With a price of €80 + VAT and delivery costs of €20 per panel on top, those prices aren't good at all.

Can you make alternate suggestions?

blobert

unkel wrote: »

With a price of €80 + VAT and delivery costs of €20 per panel on top, those prices aren't good at all.

Thanks, so in the case of the 310w panels it's €80 if you're buying one.

At a pallet rate (30 panels) its €60 and probably less if I were to get 100 (waiting for a quote) and pallet delivery rate is more like €15 or I'd hope less if I was buying a lot.

I think it's probably easier to look at price per watt than panel. At €60 per 310w panel it's about 19c, the higher powered panels are actually slighly less than this. They are also higher efficiency (about 21%) and I'd imagine the total cost inc fitting would be less also as there are less parts and labour if less pannels to fit.

I'm by no means suggesting these are the cheapest out there but they seem to be among the cheaper ones I've seen from EU suppliers. Very few Irish suppliers seem to list prices but I'd seen prices of about 29 cent per watt in ones that did list so it seemed significanlty more. Obviously the delivery price would be removed if buying from a supplier here.

Anyway if anyone had any suggestions of where to look I'd appreciate it. In my business (not solar related) I think I've never found a product I couldn't source much cheaper from UK/Europe (including delivery) than here in Ireland so I assmued (perhaps wrongly) that the same would apply to solar panels.

Thanks again!

olearydc

Hi...
I have used these folks
Very pleasent, good prices and am sure they will give you good advice also..


https://solartricity.ie

https://midsummer.ie

unkel

olearydc wrote: »

Hi...
I have used these folks
Very pleasent, good prices and am sure they will give you good advice also..


https://solartricity.ie

https://midsummer.ie

This.

Alkers

olearydc wrote: »

Hi...
I have used these folks
Very pleasent, good prices and am sure they will give you good advice also..


https://solartricity.ie

https://midsummer.ie

Just to add solar city have been very helpful to me over the phone previously, happy to discuss various options and approaches etc

blobert

Thanks guys, I'll give both of them a try

Any other advice would be much appreciated!

garo

Also BHC electrical distributors up north. But that may be an issue after Brexit.

Gumbo

30kw system
Will you be off grid?
Are you putting in a battery?

unkel

blobert wrote: »

if I were to get 100 (waiting for a quote) and pallet delivery rate is more like €15 or I'd hope less if I was buying a lot.

Did you get that quote yet?

Would be interesting to see how much it would cost you incl VAT and incl shipment for 100 of those 310W panels

Curious_Case

blobert wrote: »

Hi Guys,

As mentioned in another thread I'm looking to install circa 30kW of solar pannels on a new build house. As it's a new build I dont think it will be eligible for any grant so the advantage of that may be removed.

I'm guessing most Irish domestic suppliers are likley to not be that competitive on price, especially as they have the grant factored into their pricing.

Just wondering if it may be cheaper to try and source the parts myself from an EU supplier and then have them installed locally.

While I'd be looking to do a large install I'm looking to do it as cost effectievly as possible.

I was looking at these or these panels.

Both of these if bought in bulk come in at well under 20c per watt of power and you're buying from a reasonably established EU company.

As the new house is going to have a standing seamed metal roof I'm thinking (assuming wind is not an issue with the large amount of pannels) that a simple roof clamping system like this would be the simplest/least expensive mounting system.

There then would be several days of labour involved in mounting the pannels.

Anyway let me know if you think this is likley to be a better way to approach it or if these is somewhere else I should be looking to source cheap pannels.

Thanks in advance!

I think the panels are the simplest component to price.
Can anyone here tell you what the minimum number of charge controllers you'll need is ?
Also batteries, how many will you need ?

Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries seem to be an improvement on the lead acid types.

quentingargan

Curious_Case wrote: »

I think the panels are the simplest component to price.
Can anyone here tell you what the minimum number of charge controllers you'll need is ?
Also batteries, how many will you need ?

Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries seem to be an improvement on the lead acid types.

Charge controllers are usually sized in amps at battery voltage, so 100A at 50V is about 5kw, so five or six of these, but you will need a ridiculously large battery pack, and most households won't use the production of 30kw of panels on any day in the summer. Unless there is some exceptional consumption of power during daylight hours, this will be hard to justify.

I have seen single phase consumers put in a G10 relay and go through the NC5 process, but it'll cost yer.

I heart DC coupling but AC coupling is a universal language. The voltage helps a lot with charger sizing. You can AC couple most low frequency inverters. I have several and they work great despite the manufacturers saying they can't and don't support it. Complicated sh1t though.

If it goes wrong it goes really wrong.

blobert

Thanks for the replies guys.

Just as an update I can get these panels for about €115 delivered each (including VAT) so that's about 20.7c per kW without VAT (but including delivery). The shipping was about €1,000 which was more than I expected. I'll compare with local suppliers and see.

One thing I was thinking was presumably it makes sense to get the total kW amount you're looking to achieve from as few panels as possible, ie fewer more powerful panels > greater number of less powerful ones?

I'm planning to fit these to a standing seam roof using direct connectors like these , which I think it is probably the most cost effective way to do so.

I'm guessing that the less panels I have the less mounting materials I need (it's going to be the same amount of clamps for bigger or smaller panels) the less optimizers/micro inverters I need, cabling etc so there's presumably a saving in all of that using less, more powerful panels.

Just in trying to get a very rough price of buying most/all the components of this system myself and getting someone to install vs working with a supplier here can someone tell me if I'm covering the basics of what I need:

Solar Panels
Mounting Equipment
Cabling
Possible Optimisers
Inverter

Anything else major missing? I'm guessing the labour cost for install would be significant also.

SouthWesterly

Have you gotten a price on installation?

blobert

SouthWesterly wrote: »

Have you gotten a price on installation?

No, not yet. I want to see what price I could buy the components for than see how that + installation price fares vs just using an Irish supplier/installer and getting everything via them.

SouthWesterly

blobert wrote: »

No, not yet. I want to see what price I could buy the components for than see how that + installation price fares vs just using an Irish supplier/installer and getting everything via them.

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