Solar for Beginners [ask your questions here]

TheDoc

Hi all,

Have been humming and haughing around solar for a while. Recently got more interested as my electricity bills have been really getting expensive (average 250euro a cycle). I saw Electric Ireland have a partner they work with for installations so figure I'd have a chat and we did that today.

I had a company out earlier in the year and the rep was really offputting and just kept saying 'guarantee' to the point I was basically convinced it was all a scam and left it at that. Person today was very informative and was more information than a sales pitch.

I've no interest in batteries or heating water (done by gas). I work from home so usage high every day. Wife also works from home minding kids so there is generally TVs and washing machines etc. on the go pretty regularly. Evening and nightime there will be the living room TV and then I PC game most evenings. PC on all the time. Also have a server running all the time. I guess everything else pretty run of the mill. Electric shower maybe the big thing to note, no dishwasher.

Diesel car but I've probably decided my next car will be electric, probably next year depending.

Here are my figures from energypal for Year to Date

Their offer is

10 Pack Panel

7441EUR (Excluding grant received afterwards)

Estimated 3700kw generation annually

12 Pack Panel

8189EUR ( Excluding grant received afterwards)

Estimated 4400kw generation annually

Dont mind sharing my Dashboard showing usage and cost

Trying to work out if this is a potentially good investment for us. Our nagging concern is you drop all this money and wait a number of months to see only a tiny difference. Would anyone know what sort of savings or difference I could actually see?

We are in a house built in the 50's so have put a fair bit of work and money (we bought last year) into modernising a bit and I guess its very obvious to see where the money is going and benefit (Replaced all windows and doors, did internal insulations and attic insulation etc.) so I guess all this will be is money saved on elec bills, but they are getting to the point where it drove me to look back into solar again. Averaging at 250 a month is just substantially more than I am used to.

Any help or guidance on this would be greatly appreciated. Don't have any friends of family who have done solar so ideally I'd just chat to one of the lads to see whats happening, but don't have that :D

TheDoc

Just as an additional I was sent the proposal through and here are some of the key elements of it, all 'reads' very no brainer

I guess maybe this is just a bit of a guestimate from the supplier in terms of their workings as like, I'm using 650kWh+ a month.

graememk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122831528#Comment_122831528

Have a look at our quotes thread to get a feel of things.

Although 10 panel systems are considered on the smaller side which would drive up the €/kWp price (kiloWatt of Panels) people are still getting close to the €1000-1200 / kWp mark,

Just noticed thats excluding grant, the above numbers are including grant.

the 12 panel system is coming into €1260 ish including the grant, not too far away from the rough guide

TheDoc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122831848#Comment_122831848

Thanks will take a look. Noticed as part of the proposal I was sent through they are recommending an 11 panel setup

graememk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122831872#Comment_122831872

Generally the consensus is fit as many as you can now (either space or afford). As it's much more expensive accordingly to add on a few panels later on.

slave1

What meter do you have? If you can, you should switch to a Day Night plan ASAP and move whatever you can to Night rate e.g. washing machine/dryer and likely the electric shower if you shower early in the morning before work etc.

I know you have no interest in a battery but these are plug and play and if you are a high daytime user of electricity then you can charge at cheap night rates and effectively bring down your day costs through discharging, there is no human intervention after install, the inverter will do it all…..

kco3d

Hi all,

Is there any point in applying for the grant if the plan is to max out on panels and breach the distance requirements between panels and roof edge/velux etc..?

Thanks,

graememk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122836750#Comment_122836750

That's a discussion between you and the installer.

Although some of the spacing has since been rolled into the planning exemptions.

fatmax

can any one recommend a good installer in Castlerea area

mossie

System installed today and running but when I go into Solis cloud it's showing as offline. Why would this be?

Edit: Never mind, it's online now.

Grey123

Can solar panels be installed on a flat roof extension to semi d house? The back of my house is south facing but it has 3 windows so I would probable only get 8 panels on. My extension is maybe 6m by 3m and does have a sky light on it.

I'm not sure on the weight or securing them. The surface looks like a felt.

mossie

My system was installed on Wednesday, Solis inverter and 2 Dyness batteries. It's sweet to charge on night rate between 2 and 6 but didn't do so last night. It actually charged at 1400 yesterday because the installer had set the time 12 hours out. I changed this to the correct time but didn't charge at 0200 as it should. Any suggestions what could be wrong?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122846286#Comment_122846286

Your best bet is to upload pictures of your inverter settings.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122844498#Comment_122844498

Pretty sure there're solutions for most roof types, why not get an installer out to survey? You can use ballasts instead of fixings, but there may be weight issues there.

mossie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122846312#Comment_122846312

I think I've got it now. I updated the time in the app but it didn't update on the inverter. Done this now so hopefully will charge tonight.

DC999

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122844498#Comment_122844498

Yep, they can. I have them on my close to flat roof. If it's completely flat they will need to be more careful with waterproofing the fixings into the roof. But that is the same for any fixing

bryangiggsy

Hi got Solar panels from Activ8 in February… the back of our house face south/west and fronts face north/east…so sun in the morning on the front and from midday on the back. We got 5 panels on the front and 7 on the back. Would like to get more on the back however when we were getting them installed Activ8 said you if you getting panels on front and back they have to be a similar amount….eg 5/7 ……you cant get 4 on the front and 8 on the back…..or 5 on the front and 10 on the back….

Anyone know the reasoning behind this?

Thanks

Bryan

slave1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122836750#Comment_122836750

Just be aware the installer needs to take photos on the install as part of grant approval process

LowPowerMode

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122851908#Comment_122851908

Hi Bryan,

I got an install earlier on this year as well - got 12 on the front and 6 on the back - the split was left up to me - there wasn't any requirement of having a similar number of panels. I wouldn't be an expert but did read a lot of details on here and any such limitation doesn't ring a bell. For my system - the front and back are on different strings to the inverter - is that the same for yours such that you can see the output of each side separately? If that is the case, I think the only limit after that would be any voltage limits or the like on each string but I wouldn't expect you would be reaching those with 5 and 7 panels. Somebody with the same inverter as you might be able to give more specific information.

10-10-20

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122851908#Comment_122851908

Not sure without more detail, but they may have done what's called two parallel strings… except I have never heard of that in at a residential level in Ireland really. What inverter did they install and can you take a photo of the incoming cables to it?

graememk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122852235#Comment_122852235

Wouldn't be paralleled either with a 5/7 split

10-10-20

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122852517#Comment_122852517

Oh maybe I misread it, it's not too clear. I'm wondering though if it was an inexperienced sales guy referring to a Voltage max input per mppt and thinking that it needs to be balanced in some way. Still would be nice to know what inverter they fitted…

bryangiggsy

Thanks guys will take a photo when home tonight and share tomorrow

Monstervi

I was in your shoes not too long ago, and I found it super helpful to start by understanding my energy needs. For example, I looked at my average electricity use to determine how many panels I would need. From there, I did a bit of research on different types of panels and inverters.

mossie

My Solis inverter and 2 Dyness batteries are in the (uninsulated) attic. With the colder weather on Weds morning the batteries only charged to 77%. Last night I put some insulation around the batteries (Silver bubble wrap type) and it charged to 85%. I have seen where people make insulated boxes to enclose the batteries and I'm wondering what type insulation would be best in this case? Are there any heat pads available that might help?

Anziox33

I have been browsing the solar photovoltaic pages though haven't read them all.
I have a few questions.

1. Whilst there is a large number of refs to 'panels' there are very few specs on the dimensions, or range of dimensions. (Only one I can see of 180cm by 138cm.) Are they all the same size?

if not what sizes are available?

2. The large size of panels makes it awkward to use all available space. Does anyone produce 'offcuts' that could be used to fill in 'gaps'. (I presume some electrical wizardry is needed to maintain performance on mix-and-match fit-ups.)

3. Are there planning reqts for puttisng panels on front.walls of properties. (Planning generally not required for anything not visible from front.)

Cheers, A.

jkforde

1. 1.8m² or thereabouts is fairly standard but depends on the wattage \ number of cells in the panel.
2. No, would need leccy wizardy.
3. Planning reqs are minimal at this stage but placing the panels vertically on a front wall might not be a goer I reckon..

Ginger83

I'm wondering is there any way to tell how much of a difference optimisers would make on panels if at all?

We have shading from a few trees in the morning and possibly from a broadband pole on the chimney in the afternoon but I'm wondering if they are worth the cost

Markus Antonius

Apart from the higher cost, are there any other obligations for going the NC7 route over the NC6? I have 16x 420W panels but may want to extend in future so would like to get an inverter with higher capacity than the 5.8Kw limit.

fiona111

Hi. If you have enough solar pv panels that you end up with a permanent credit on your electric account so that it is still in credit at the end of the winter, and then keeps rising, can you ask for a refund from them?

slave1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122888452#Comment_122888452

€2k for starters and if declined you don't get it back and even if granted esb overlords can force you to software restrict export to say, 6kW versus potential generation much higher