Self install solar pv

irishchris

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117960880#Comment_117960880

You could do but the high humidity in there will definitely impact the life span of the eddi

Jonathan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117961406#Comment_117961406

Unless you have a leaky cyclinder (or are putting wet clothes in there to dry), I'm not sure how a hotpress would be more humid than a hallway (or where ever your CU is located)?

slave1

EDDI has no cooling fan, just a heatsink, I placed mine in the bedroom hallway rather than the hot press to avoid the heat

irishchris

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117962227#Comment_117962227

Not so much humid but plenty of heat nonetheless! Large hot cylinder and double radiator in small area with no real airflow which combined would lead to a short life for my poor old eddi so safer putting it elsewhere 😁

Jonathan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117963911#Comment_117963911

Agreed on heat issues. Our hot press isn't too bad heatwise, so I was happy to install it there.

SchrodingersCat

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117960244#Comment_117960244

I am already looking around the house wondering where I can place more panels! 😁

Considering a household and solar energy monitor will cost me the guts of ~150 quid, it probably makes sense to just spend the money for a hot water diverter, as it already has the energy monitoring functionality built-in.

How are you finding the Eddie? Any reason you picked that over the cheaper Solar i-Boost, for example?

irishchris

Mainly as their app and management is much more advanced than the iboost

slave1

EDDI is also fanless whereas the iBoost is not, so if placed near bedrooms you avoid that humming, especially if on partition walls

puntypower

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058166412/self-install-solar-pv

Where did you buy all your set up?

irishchris

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118425353#Comment_118425353

Mostly from solartricity and some from mpeonline

corcaigh1

Install was 2k? I thought panels are like 170-180 each x 10 is min €1700.

Given the recent energy price increase announcements i'm considering this project. What is the story with your setup in terms of bills etc, did your install cut much off your bills??

irishchris

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118791277#Comment_118791277

Panels were 95 ex vat from solartricity. Also had 10% off everything from there as got multiple buys as had bought some for family member installs too.

Problem is now this year everything is going up with inflation. Still got decent deal on panels this time around but the likes of unistrut has tripled in cost. Timber, cement and basically everything has increased a lot from my original install to the latest 7 array I added this week

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118791916#Comment_118791916

What did the latest install cost you?

Did I see you mention discount? 🤣

irishchris

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118794887#Comment_118794887

Latest install was more expensive as unfortunately costs going up. Materials including panels, cables, clips etc came to €1290 for an extra 2.7kw

Then an extra 190 for timber/unistrut for mount. Had some 4*2 spare from previous install thankfully

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118794971#Comment_118794971

That's actually not bad

Andrea B.

Folks, trying to optiptimise space on a sloped roof.

What losses might be expected mounting some of the Longi panels in landscape as opposed to portrait?

Ubbquittious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118794971#Comment_118794971

The price of timber is insane. A 19ft floorboard now costs about 20 quid

graememk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118801253#Comment_118801253

Should be no difference at all

Andrea B.

Thanks, and finally (well unlikely) is there a reason for all kit configurations advertised as being an even number? Is it voltage related?

graememk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118801948#Comment_118801948

No Reason, other than looks, Most panels are in 2 rows and to have one row bigger than the other looks weird.

What do people think about using unistrut to make a ground mount? . Was suggested on the FB group.

slave1

I’ve put in a tall ground mount using galvanised steel tubing as much more “beef” regarding structural integrity. If a low ground mount then I’ve seen loads of YT on unistrut and it does seem like a popular choice

Irish Steve

So, looking at all sorts of potential options, and this will be a new one for most people, but I am going to ask it.

Sitting in my garage, at present not in use because the planned use was killed by the recession, I have a big Liebert AP400 UPS, which is a computer room system, and capable of chucking out 15 Kva, so capable of running the entire house without any limits. It's fully wired, but never got recommissioned due to the job it was bought for not going ahead.

This is where it gets complicated. The input to the device is 3 phase, which I have, as the battery voltage it runs on is 312V, effectively 26 x 12 v packs, when I got it originally, it had a huge external rack of 150AH VRLA lead acid cells with it, but they got recycled a few years ago due to their age, and there was some serious weight in them. It can be configured to run on much smaller cells, the standard cell size is a Yuasa 18Ah cell, which can fit inside the cabinet, and it seems that effectively, any size cell could be used.

Given that the inverter is designed to provide very clean power (server type systems), is it worth considering finding a way for Solar panels to provide the charge to the cells, I certainly have the space for the panels, and a decent standby generator in case of a substantial outage, so it's a case of deciding if this unit is worth the time and effort compared to putting in something like a Solis inverter that ( as I understand it) could also then feed excess power back into the grid.

Right now, we don't have an EV, so probably would end up putting power back into the grid, as our daily usage is not massive, but that may change in a while, I won't be able to keep my wife's car going for ever, and an EV would be sensible to replace it.

That said, we could also update or change the hot water system to make it possible to use solar to heat the water, but it's a case of trying to decide which is the best return, and the other consideration is trying to get away from oil or gas, as I don't see the prices ever dropping much, Eamon Ryan must be privately rubbing his hands with glee, Putin has given him the perfect excuse to push his off the wall green agenda even harder.

I'm not convinced about air to water heat pumps, there's not much to do here to make one possible, current BER is C1, and we've had the roof spray foamed since then, but running a heat pump in the winter off Solar is likely to be a problem, though with large enough batteries, we could top up with night rate to reduce the costs, the possible issue being able to push enough into the batteries during the cheap rate period.

Anyone done anything like this? Probably not, but it's worth asking, before I make a decision about taking the Liebert out if it's not worth keeping it in use.

Cheers, and thanks

graememk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118828833#Comment_118828833

Have you any way of Automating/controlling how fast it charges?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118808320#Comment_118808320

Have you photos of your system you can show us?

Irish Steve

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118829274#Comment_118829274

Not that I'm aware of, which may well be the killer, in theory, it keeps the batteries at full charge all the time, and I don't have enough information to know if it does recognise a severe depletion and ramp the charge rate up or not. The manual I have is good, but not that helpful about the parameters that can be set. I may be able to get more information from Liebert, but it's a discontinued model at this stage.

Given the age of the unit, (manual first edition is 1997) and the design concept predating things like Solar and LiFEPo4, I suspect that it wasn't capable of being set in this way.

bullit_dodger

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118828833#Comment_118828833

There's a lot there in your mail Steve, but just to remark on your heat pump thoughts. You might be looking at solar the wrong way in that regards. I don't have a Heat pump, but they are (if installed correctly and placed in an appropriate house) pretty efficient systems. The ground to water being typically a more efficient than the air-to-water ones, but of course.....also more expensive to install and messier as you have to dig up the back garden normally.

In terms of power, it's true that that indeed in the winter where the solar production is low is when it's likely your heat pump is going to want to draw the most power, so that's not a great match up, but I think people need to look at heat pumps in an isolated scenario. Excellent if you have enough panels to cover your load in winter and then supply the heat pump, but that's very unlikely.

The question is probably better phrased looking at a HP for your house in isolation and seeing if it will return on investment after 10-15 years (that kind of range). Air-to-water heat pumps usually have a COP (coefficient of performance) of 2-3 in our climate. Then it's a question of the calorific value of the fuel you burn, efficiency of your boiler and then cost / unit......over the price per unit of leccie. One thing that you could get benfiit of course is the huge battery you have, charge that puppy up at night and then you have night rate for most of the day to run the Heat pump.

Sadly I fear, the math isn't very favorable for a HP here, if your chucking out a working system, but if you are on a new build.....or if the existing boiler is on it's "last legs" and your forced into replacement anyway, it could be worthwhile.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118829650#Comment_118829650

Spoke to a guy who installs them. He said 10k after grant. He has solar so was able to run it mainly but not exclusively on pv.

His heats his radiators.

Not a goer for us as we got a new oil boiler last year

bullit_dodger

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118829786#Comment_118829786

He has solar so was able to run it mainly but not exclusively on pv.

I think that might be......"optimistic" and he was spinning you a fable - LOL! Just take your own figures for a sanity check....here are mine on a 5.3Kwp system for Nov-Jan. Granted it's an east/west split so not great in the depths of winter.

Average daily production 3Kwhr or less. Even if everyday I generated the max amount for Nov (around 6kwhr), I'd still be short of what most people need to run the house. Let alone adding another 15-20Kwhr/day for a heat pump.

Nahh, it sounds like the perfect match having a solar array and a heat pump and then we're all set, but no.....unless you have like 40-50Kwp in panels your not going to be warm in winter if your relying on solar.

That's not to say don't get a heat pump. I think they are fantastic devices! You just need to have the house suitable for one (I don't) and ideally be in a position of having to get in a new boiler with a new build, or replacing a defective one. If you are chucking out a working system, then it's very difficult for me to see how you'd save any money with a heat pump.

Despite the fact that I like the environmental positives of a heat pump, it's not a runner for people to replace a working system

Mr Q

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118829786#Comment_118829786

Prices of everything have gone up since I put in a HP. But 10k after a grant seems very expensive if it was A2W.

And I don't doubt he told you that, but you will not run a HP mostly off of solar over a year. You just won't produce enough when the heat pump needs it the most.