Solar for Beginners [ask your questions here]

EOBAP

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122536207#Comment_122536207

Ya I was wondering that alright. They also are giving the bigger battery. Do you know anything about the grant? Do you have to wait long to get it? **** will do the paperwork but they dont front the cost so I have to apply for that and reclaim. Thanks for advice

tommythecat

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122536254#Comment_122536254

Can take around 12 weeks to get the money back. Be very careful with *****. Communication after installation is very poor should you need anything adjusted etc. I've had two bad experiences with them. Car charger and solar. I only went with them for the solar as I got a discount due to having the car charger. It took them nearly 3 months to actually submit my claim to SEAI. I had to chase and chase. Extremely frustrating company.

Jonathan

I've edited out company names from the last two posts. Take it to PM if needs be.

EOBAP

OK thanks for that !!

EOBAP

Thanks for that!! The aftercare makes a difference alright …

EOBAP

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122537830#Comment_122537830

OK thanks for that

mjatkey

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122539067#Comment_122539067

Guys, we had our grant money in bank within two weeks of install, basically you set up a profile on SEAI website tell them who is doing the install and what size of install is, our BER was done week following install and all documents uploaded to SEAI and sent to us at same time, NC6 was also sent into ESBN and they then notify your supplier that you are good for FIT payments, to confirm install was 30/05/24, Energia paid FIT from 06/06/24 and SEAI paid grant following week.

To be honest I was very impressed with the whole thing from start to finish and any subsequent questions have been followed up on within a couple of days.

hkjohn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122530777#Comment_122530777

think you misunderstand. Heater is on for four hours - from 2:00 am to 6:00 am - but water is still freezing cold at 8:30 am. Before they came and installed the SPs, four hours would pretty much last us the whole day

According to the people who fitted the SPs, our boiler-controlled water heater and rads should function independently of the SPs. That said, when installing the SP control panel in the immersion heater cupboard, they removed the thermostat. FWIW, the boiler is less than a year and the timer control seems to work fine. old so no problems there

hkjohn

Boiler-controlled water heater and rads controlled via a timer in the downstairs utility. Boiler is only about a year old.

Was told by the guy who installed the SPs, that the boiler system will work independently of the SPs. Not sure why neither the water heater or radiators seem to be generating any heat - certainly not due to lack of oil as there were still 500L inside when I had it topped up last Friday. Would the solar guys' removal of the thermostat in the cupboard where the immersion heater lived have any affect on the water (can't see it affecting the rads)

graememk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122541682#Comment_122541682

Backing up a bit. Did you get solar PV (electric) or solar thermal?

Can you turn on your heat now to test if it's running? Could a switch been accidentally turned off?.

What thermostat was removed.. in a cupboard?

10-10-20

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122541664#Comment_122541664

Sounds like the element is either gone or disconnected. Does it heat up at all if you manually turn on the immersion?

hkjohn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122541818#Comment_122541818

Thanks for getting back

System is PV

Checked everything yesterday - WH for 8 hours (no hot water all day) and various (bled) rads for four hours (no heat at all)

Thermostat was in immersion heater cupboard and was previously used by IH

Have written three very polite emails to the installers asking them to come and check what the problem might be and how it might be fixed.

Lack of after sales follow up for a E6K system that is less than three weeks old is positively shocking

hkjohn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122543045#Comment_122543045

Not sure, TBH. The SP installers removed the thermostat but still seem to be using the on/off switch with the SP inverter box - as am a real numpty when it comes to any kind of tech, do not want to turn it off in case it makes matters worse (not that not having hot water for days on end could be any worse)

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122544633#Comment_122544633

Do you mean that they removed the old immersion timeclock? It wouldn't really make any sense for them to remove the thermostat. I'm assuming the SP inverter box is a hot water diverter?

Your central heating and water heating from the oil is independent of the immersion.

graememk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122544628#Comment_122544628

So when you turn on your boiler (oil? Gas? ) boiler does it run, make any noise?

When you say it was on, what do you mean?

PV doesn't touch the central heating at all.

What do you have for an immersion diverter, would it be an eddi?

Jonathan

Can you post some pictures and save everyone the twenty questions?

hkjohn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122544880#Comment_122544880

Grant Oil boiler - just over one year old operated via a dual zone timer in the downstairs utility room

When timer heater and water lights are on, the boiler is not making any noise at the moment that I can hear

SP installers removed the immersion timer - while the SP installers say this should not affect regular (i.e. non-solar) heating of water, plumber who installed the system disagrees.

Inverter is a Huawei Sun and the hot water is listed as EDDI

Thanks, btw, for your help and your patience!

hkjohn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122544846#Comment_122544846

You're right, it was the immersion time clock. SP guys say that this should not affect non-solar heating of water in the tank but the plumber who installed the boiler and immersion system disagrees.

Absolute nightmare. Begin to wish I hadn't bothered

graememk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122549083#Comment_122549083

It would be unusual for the immersion timer to be wired into the heating system unless the plumber grabbed power for something there.

Solar guys are right, removing the timer for the immersion shouldn't have effected the heating.

But it did.

It should be an easy fix, the boiler isn't getting power to run.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122549083#Comment_122549083

I would agree with the solar installer, the two systems of water heating are isolated from each other. Pictures would help.

Where are you based?

If you're in Cork, I could help you out.

Grumpypants

First sunny day in a while to test the EV charger. 5kw being exported but when I plugged in and set it to solar charging and min amp of 6. The same issue, it just pulls 31 amps / 7100w. While 5 was coming from the panels it started pulling 2 from the grid.

So something is off. It just won't lower to meet what is being exported.

I got on to the EO Mine 2 company and just got a response saying if you press fast forward it will boost to max charging. But there is no option for that.

Got onto an installer and he seems uninterested in coming to check it out. Just said there is a CT ( from a picture that shows a black cable).

So looks like charging the car at least for now is not an option.

hkjohn

Thanks everyone who took time to try and help me out.

Quick visit from my plumber showed me what was wrong and how to fix it

graememk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122553600#Comment_122553600

What was wrong in the end up? So if someone asks the same question we'll know a bit more.

hkjohn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122553617#Comment_122553617

70% my fault for failing to take on board details of how the EDDI unit eliminated the need for the hot press immersion switch and the utility room dual-zone timer .

30% the installer's fault for not taking five minutes to clarify and talk me through what I should be doing over the phone.

graememk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122561713#Comment_122561713

There's still something amiss here, the utility room dual zone timer should have nothing to do with the eddi and immersion.

Pre solar, were you heating your water just with an immersion?

hkjohn

Not sure if the dual zone timer we had installed with the new boiler a year or so back became redundant when the dual-timer was installed. Certainly became redundant when the SPs went in as the installers removed it.

While the problem with the boiler not heating oil had nothing to do with the SPs, we hadn't used the radiators since the Spring so the issue only became apparent at the same time as the water heater and the two issues became conflated into one

bilasy

Hi, may be someone got an answer, I’ve have the solar panels installed since late July, peak production in a sunny day is 5.42-5.47 KWH

Suddenly the max I’m getting is 4.7-4.8 for 2 days now, any idea if something went wrong or just today Saturday 31/08 not as sunny??

Based in Blackrock Co. Dublin

Thanks in advance

graememk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122567038#Comment_122567038

Sun is lower in the sky, and it's warmer.

June (longest days) would normally be the best month, December the worst (shortest days)

marco_polo

Just a quick on on performance I got a 7kw system installed this month in Clare. 4kw East 3kw west. 5kw Huawei inverter. Roof is about 35 degree pitch with no shading apart from maybe chimney very early morning for which optimisers were added to the panels nearest the chimney on the east side.

Since the 13th it has generated 215kwh in total which is an average of about 11.3kwh per day.

Today was about the best day so far generating 18.5 or so with clear blue skys until about 3pm but the peak hit was about 3.1kw around 11am. Worst 25th at 4.5kwh. Yesterday 16.5kwh.

In general on the best days it seems to peak somewhere in between 3.3-3.7 kwh between 10am-2pm ish. I have only once seem it get near 4kw since install.

Just from reading around it seem a decent amount behind what others are getting out of similar.

jambon0104

8kw south and I got 47.2 kw, very new aswell.