Domestic Solar PV Quotes 2022 - No PM requests - See Mod note post #1

silver_sky · 01-05-2023 12:41pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120542529#Comment_120542529

How much for each one? that's the important question.

Spec-wise they're quite close. Those Dyness batteries are cheaper should you want to expand.

Citizenpain · 01-05-2023 12:52pm

thanks

Quotes are Around €8.5-9k -ex vat after grant

k123456 · 01-05-2023 1:48pm

New to this, so apologies if asked before

Two people in one house, Dublin sqm 200m, two storey, house renovated 10 years ago, rewired , reinsulated, LED bulbs throughout. House is semi D, built 40 years ago

back roof faces south east, front NW

no trees, no shading

Elec car 28kwh battery IOniq, and using the car GUI, I can start end charging at a time that suits. Wall charger installed by Ecars some years ago, ABL I think, and as far as I know , does not differentiate between Solar produced power and standard grid supplied (unlike a zappi charger) . I drive about 160km a week, I think I charge it every ten days

No one in the house Mon to Fri 0730 to 1700

My washing machine has a delayed timer start , my dishwasher does not

I am currently with Board Gais , for elec , are they obliged to buy excess power from my proposed solar "investment", and does the rate compare favourably to other elec providers. ?

I have a smart metre

I guess there is no way to substantially reduce the standing charge , for my elec supply ?

I am currently with Board Gais for Gas, this is what I use to heat house and hot water . I have a four zone system, which means I don't heat areas of the house, that are unused

I have one quote from *****

Thanks

silver_sky · 01-05-2023 2:30pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120542691#Comment_120542691

Sounds good IMO. I'd prob go with the Solis & Dyness pairing personally as both are common. Cheaper to expand the Dyness if you wanted to.

con747 · 01-05-2023 4:53pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120542846#Comment_120542846

No naming companies allowed on the thread, but the one you mention are the most expensive in the country so I would look elsewhere unless they changed their spots.

Citizenpain · 01-05-2023 6:48pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120542963#Comment_120542963

Thank you . The solis dyness combo is a well known installer , on other side of country though . The solax is a local lad

silver_sky · 01-05-2023 7:06pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120543679#Comment_120543679

Comes down to your preference in the end. Either one would be fine and you could probably argue either way.

silver_sky · 01-05-2023 7:13pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120542846#Comment_120542846

Only way to reduce standing charge is to change suppliers to one with a lower standing charge. Payment for exports will also take the sting out a little. You should look at your usage in kWh (units) over the past year and that will give you an idea what can be supplemented/replaced by solar PV. Without knowing this you're going blind.

graememk · 01-05-2023 7:20pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120543679#Comment_120543679

The solax kit is usually a bit more expensive. But does lock you into solax batteries etc

Local could be a bonus if there is any issues, good word of mouth spreads quickly.

casey80 · 02-05-2023 12:02am

Could anyone please confirm if batteries are VAT exempt from 1st May?

I have a few solar system quotes from different installers, and some apply VAT while others don't.

Citizenpain · 02-05-2023 12:16am

1.1 Ancillary equipment to solar panels

The zero rate applies to ancillary equipment supplied and installed with the solar panels as part of the same supply and install contract for the solar panels, such as the wiring, the controller, the combiner box, the batteries, etc.

HotSwap · 02-05-2023 8:22am

Details here:

https://www.revenue.ie/en/tax-professionals/tdm/value-added-tax/part03-taxable-transactions-goods-ica-services/Services/solar-panels.pdf

astaines · 02-05-2023 3:25pm

Three quotes for rather different systems - house is a semi-d, B3 right now, beside the sea, 2 electric cars (100kwh per week, roughly), and getting a heat pump, insulation etc.

Three companies

4kw, one inverter, optimisers, no battery, Eddi or equiv, Zappi or equiv, €12,300

4.8kw one inverter, optimisers, 5kw Battery, Eddi or equiv, Zappi or equiv, €11,500

8kw, two 4kw inverters, optimisers, 10kw battery, Eddi or equiv, Zappi or equiv, €31,400

All excl. VAT and excl. SEAI grants

I'd certainly prefer as much solar as possible, but money is far from unlimited.

Comments, suggestions are welcomed.

bullit_dodger · 02-05-2023 3:55pm

Well, you can bin that €31K quote for starters.

So have you had a look at your bills for the past 12 months? Usually if you are with any of the major providers ESB, SSE their website will allow you to look up your figures for the past 12 months. You'll need to do that rather than multiplying your latest bill by 6 as it wouldn't be indicative of the edds/flows of the usage over the year.

If you have 2 electric cars, I'd probably hold off on a battery. Considering you have 2x electric cars, and I assume at least 1 of them will be there most days, you have an ample storeage place to put excess electrical energy. Sure you can go for a hybrid inverter (a little more expensive) but that would keep the door open for a battery down the road.

For you though with 2 EV's and thinking of a heat pump, it's panels, panels and panels. You want to be maximising that out. I'd say 8Kwp possibly 9Kwp if you can get it done within the next month you can get a 6Kw inverter, failing that, you'll be limited to 5kw. That will probably reduce your panel size to 8Kwp as you can't over juice the inverter TOO far. I'd say maybe €10-12K for 8Kwp of panels with a 6Kw (hybrib) inverter after grant. Ballpark.

Bawnmore · 03-05-2023 10:21am

I'm back to getting quotes. Trying to decide what we need again, but had settled on max panels + hybrid inverter (not limited to brand like Huawei) to future proof when I was looking last year. Have 1st quotes in for 3 sizes from same crowd and 2nd from another crowd which seem pretty good based on formula:

alfa_aficionado · 04-05-2023 12:35am

Any thoughts on these quotes? (Have put what I think are the best ones here - I ended up getting quotes from 6 installers!)

The system will be an even East-West split.

(1) 22x 400W Canadian Solar panels, 6kW Solis hybrid inverter, 10kWh Puredrive battery €12800 after grant

(2) 20x 400W Canadian Solar panels, 6kW Solis hybrid inverter, NO battery €8400 after grant

(3) 22x 415W Jinko Solar panels, 6kW Solis hybrid inverter, NO battery €9000 after grant

Option 3 works out the cheapest per kWh at €985 but an additional €3800 for 2x 5kWh Puredrive batteries seems very good? I know you can get storage cheaper if DIY-ing but I’m not interested in going down this route.

DC999 · 04-05-2023 9:50am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120552710#Comment_120552710

All are very good prices. Peanuts in the difference.

10kWh of battery for that price is good. But it's still close to 4 grand. Seems you can claw back ~€200-300 a year max on a battery (I don't have one). See that breakdown here: Solar PV Performance Thread - Post your monthly output - Page 55 — boards.ie - Now Ye're Talkin'

That includes if you charge it in winter from cheap night rate and run the whole house for a lot of the day from it (solar output in winter is very low). You decide if it's worth it. Do you have an EV in the drive during the day to soak up excess? If you do, the benefit of the house battery reduces some.

Quote 3 is giving you an extra 1kWp (9.1kWp v 8 from quote 1-2). Ask them for a quote for a 10kWh battery. If it's the same, they work out marginally better price wise for a larger system.

hollywoodhoppy · 04-05-2023 4:48pm

Long time lurker with very little knowledge. Any thoughts on the following quote:

5.16kW System

12 x JKM430N-54HL4 430 Watt Panels (Jinko Solar Co., Ltd.)

1 x S5-EH1P5K-L-UN Inverter (SOLIS - Ningbo Ginlong Technologies)

1 x PSII-5kWh-BAT (Puredrive Energy)

1 x Eddi

Purchase Price €12,906.00

SEAI PV Grant €2,400.00

Net System Cost €10,506.00

Cost Without Battery €7,206

Thanks in advance.

Fingleberries · 05-05-2023 12:59pm

After lurking around for a long time on the forum, I've finally got around to getting a quote. From my untrained eye, and the quote 'rule of thumb' analyser it seems to be a middling quote, but would appreciate a second opinion. As they're one of the only installers who would quote me because I have a north facing roof with the most space. I'm aware that North-facing isn't less useful than south, east or west, I've also been watching the thread (Is north facing solar a complete waste) to see how @Manion and others got on, and checked out the JRC PV tool for possible values of north-facing in my location.

Quote 1 - even split North / South - €12,384 (gross), €9984 (after SEAI grant)

4.2 kWp system (50-50 N/S)
- 10 x Tiger N-type 420W panels (66TR 400-420, JKM420N-6RL3)
3.3 kWh LFP battery (Growatt ML33RTA)
Growatt 6kW inverter (MIN 6000TL-X)
Eddi

Quote 2 - South Facing only - €9,383 (gross), €7,793 (after SEAI grant)

2.1 kWp system (100% south)
- 5 x Tiger N-type 420W panels (66TR 400-420, JKM420N-6RL3)
3.3 kWh LFP battery (Growatt ML33RTA)
Sofar Solar 3kW Inverter (SOFAR 3.3KTLX-G3)
Eddi

They also have an Eddi in the quote, but I don't think I'll take them up on it - rather either get FIT for excess or leave the EV plugged in to charge it with what little excess there might be.

Also, any opinions on the Growatt battery and inverter?

Thanks in advance.

DC999 · 05-05-2023 2:00pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120558382#Comment_120558382

Ignoring price for now, and just looking at the size. What do you want to achieve? Do you use a lot of electricity, how many kWh a year? Is so this size system won’t cover all of it. Maybe you know that.

Can you fit more S, or W or W anywhere else? I’ve 5 panels on our kitchen extension. Or a shed that gets sun, or have a lot of space to look at a ground mount?

North (as you’ve read) is really when all other orientations have been maxed out.

It’s a small system (I’ve 4.9kWp on E, W and tiny S which isn’t large either). So you’re right to remove the Eddi and use the excess elsewhere.

When you say ‘leave EV plugged in to charge it with what little excess there might be’, do you have a Zappi charger now? You need that or another smart charger to know when there is excess solar. A normal car charger won’t know that. It’s about 1.5k supply and fit, but could see your current one online.

I’d question if you’ll have enough excess to charge the car from excess on a 2.1kWp South. Needs 1.4kW or more excess to charge. Of course you can supplement that and set it to charge once there is at least 1kW free, rest will pull from the grid. I don’t have a decent sized S so am only guessing.

I’d also question the gain of a battery if there is an EV in the driveway and it being a smaller system. I’d scrap the Eddi, possibly the battery. And scrap North and max out other orientations where possible.

Have a look at real-world stats here and find a similar size. Slayer91 seems to have a SSE 2.1kWp so could use that as close enough for your S setup. Then could assume the N generates half of S (in summer, will be way lower in winter I expect) and find a 3.3kWp S system. Then you’ve crude output amounts by month. Boards.ie - Solar Capacity and production analysis - Google Sheets

I know you don't want to hear this after doing a lot of grunt work already. But if you get the design right, you're sorted.

Fingleberries · 05-05-2023 2:31pm

Thanks so much for the detailed reply - one of the reasons I love the Boards community is how helpful we are. Unfortunately, I'm mid-terrace (north co. Dublin) so N/S are the only roof spaces available, so I'm very limited for options (and have a dormer window in the south window to make things worse). There's a neighbour without the dormer window that could fit 3 extra panels on their South facing roof.

There's a small shed at the far end of the garden that would get sun, but I'd reckon I could fit one panel on it (SW), two at a push, so probably not worth it.

Luckily, I've a Zappi already installed, but leaving the car plugged in was a last ditch though to avoid exporting excess, but probably might not be as effective (since it would be pulling from the grid during day rate, if there was not enough solar which I would be hoping to avoid). Still, at the moment Electric Ireland have a reasonable FIT payment.

We use 8-10kWh per day (excluding the car) and it's possible that the 4.2kWp system might cover 80-ish% of our needs - maybe more in Apr-Sept (sunlight and weather conditions permitting)

If anything, I might hope to increase the battery to charge at low rate during the night and use that during the day time, or during the winter months when solar is much lower on South-facing also. Although battery storge, I presume offers diminishing returns (yes with more battery, I might save more during those darker months, but it will also cost more to buy / install)

I'll take a look at the Google sheet you linked. It'll make a useful read - any and all advice and experience from others is greatly appreciated, because I could go in thinking I know it all and make a complete hames of it.

Thanks again.

DC999 · 05-05-2023 3:18pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120558846#Comment_120558846

Class, you’re well researched so. You’ve low house usage, like me. So a smaller system works well for you.

The Zappi can be set to only take from solar excess and then also charge XkWh overnight. Means on a day with excess (1.4kW or higher) it sucks it up, but will then feed from the grid if it didn’t get enough from solar. So say car got 2kWh from solar but you always wanted it to always get at least 8kWh a day, it will pull the remaining 6 overnight. Meaning it won’t charge on day rate. Not sure if I’ve best explained that.

As you say, ignore the shed if it only fits 1-2 panels. You could always DIY that in time with microinverters.

Yep, diminishing returns on a battery. You want to fully empty it each day to make it pay for itself. So a small battery works for your low usage.

Cogee88 · 05-05-2023 11:31pm

Hi all,

New to this so apologies if there are any forum rules I am not aware of.

Had my first quote today - East-West Mid Terrace, BER C3, North Dublin:

10 No. 420W Jinko Solar Panels (4.20 kWp) 5/5 split

Huawei Sun 2000 4KLT inverter

Solar Eddi Diverter

No battery

BER included

€8973

By the quote analyser this seems high, but perhaps am missing something? Aware I can't name companes, but anywhere ye would suggest to look to see good ones in Dublin?

con747 · 06-05-2023 12:21am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120561036#Comment_120561036

There is a list of companies members here used here https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058243236/solar-pv-boards-members-installer-information#latest That quote is on the high side.

jim-osullivan · 08-05-2023 12:02pm

My house is overlooking the sea in north west.

Have been advised to get glass on glass panels only due to corrosion from seawater.

Which manufacturer produces these and are readily available in Ireland

Thanks

sligopaul · 08-05-2023 2:03pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120569313#Comment_120569313

Interested to see how you get on, I can see the Atlantic from my house and various neighbours as well as myself have Solar and were never directed to glass on glass. Some are years into their install.

DC999 · 08-05-2023 2:59pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120569313#Comment_120569313

I’ve these and are supposed to be glass on glass. Installer uses them in Kerry as they do a lot of work close to the coast. Panels - Product overview - Our Products - Solutions (solarwatt.com). I'm in Dublin but these were the only panels they install.