Solar PV DIY

D.flynn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120260286#Comment_120260286

Hi irishchris,

do you mind elaborating on the the inverter comparison? I'm just trying to figure out which inverter to go for

irishchris

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120263796#Comment_120263796

Both advertise 100a charging but Solis imo are disingenuous by advertising that as their inverter only sustains that for 15 minutes and drops to less than 70a. The 6kw EP sofar model sustains 100a charging and along with the massive heatsink rarely hits high temps compared to the solis which would regularly get high when charging.

Menus are intuitive in the sofar and allow a lot more configuration down to the particular months, days of week, times etc for charging and generally laid out much better.

Both offer decent pv input with the Solis allowing 8kw and the sofar 9kw

In reality the biggest reason between the two apart from those quick points are the sofar with true high charging for winter grid charging and early spring autumn pv charging where you only get short bursts of good weather to charge.

Solis mis-advertising 100a charging and nowhere in their adverts does it mention restricted to 100a and after contacting them they were adamant all other inverters do this. After installing a sunsynk recently for someone and now using my sofar I know this was yet another mistruth. Again above is all just my opinion from my particular setup and others will give their opinions on the above setups to help you decide on best route to go 👍

jasgrif11

I finally got everything powered on today, and what a day for the grand reveal. Seeing a combined 6kw from both systems at 10 am and 8kw at 12 pm. I had planned to complete all the wiring last Monday, but to my surprise, my Solar grant install vendor arrived at my house at 9 am with 8 people to do the 16-panel Solis installation (I have 16 panels grant install + 14 DIY install).

It's like poetry in motion watching 3 roofers with 1 labourer install all the required roof hangers and panels in 4 hours. The electricians took a lot longer as I wanted my inverter installed in my garage, which took a lot of routing cables etc.

Back to my DIY install. 

I set up all the trunking, and wired the Fireswitch, Spur and CT Clamps. The Solar vendor was very helpful when I asked them to install the MCB for the DIY installation.

Big thank you to @slave1 and @irishchris for help on some niggling issues.

I have spent the last 5 months telling my wife to only put on the washing machine and dryer after 11 pm to try to turn them on as much as possible during the day. Don't like seeing half the generation going out to the grid. Next up 16 X 200AH 3.2V Lifepo4 Batteries arriving end of March.

The addiction is real!

slave1

Just 16 batteries😜

jasgrif11

oh i’m sure another 32 cells will be a must, once I have the first 16 all figured out.

jasgrif11

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120287522#Comment_120287522

Based on a total yield of 32kWh for today (admittedly it was a rather nice day) 10kWh DIY battery probably ain't going to cut it.

irishchris

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120286904#Comment_120286904

Nice one, looks excellent! Enjoy the power ☀️

Thespoofer

Just my own input. I'm at the 'planning/research' stage of DIY PV installation.

Got a quote few weeks back and it seems high to me.

Any tips on suppliers to diy installers ?, I contacted Solarcity recently about buying ground mounted frame and was told I need to be seai registered.

Also in regards to ground mounting, has anyone used those moulded plastic mounts ( you fill with ballast ) then fix panel to , as opposed to the frame type set up?

Thanks.

Jaymacc

Great work. Well done. How much were the materials for the DIY phase and how much was the second phase of work minus the grant?

jasgrif11

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120289664#Comment_120289664

€4700 for kit (14 x 405w panels, rails, hangers, flashing, cables, AC&DC isolator, connectors and fireswitch). Panels have gone up in price. I purchased the Sofar Inverter separately.

€10,200 for 16 x 380w panels installed with Solis Hybrid inverter (that includes grant discount)

Jaymacc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120290143#Comment_120290143

Great value. Well done. Look forward to the battery install.

D.flynn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120289606#Comment_120289606

My plan was to go the DIY route, but in the end, there was only €2k in the difference between the installer i am going to use and DIY, so i opted to let them take on the hassle and get a certified installation.

With that said, my DIY system was to sourced as follows:

14 470 jinko panels from Failte solar €2755

Roofing materials from Kelliher electrics €1055 (chosen mailnly due to location as i could nip and get items if needed)

Sofar inverter €1337 Failte Solar

Sofar 10kWh GTX 3000 battery €4885 (EfficientHomeSolutions.ie)

All prices including vat

DC999

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120300861#Comment_120300861

I did consider DIY and then saw the 6+ days the roofs and sparks needed (4 small roofs so was slow) to get us setup. IMHO, DIY is brill to extend once you’re setup as you know more. And can extend on a flat roof 1st floor or a shed or garden wall or….. (so don’t risk killing yourself on the main roof). Micro inverters and panels and away you go to extend the DIY. 

D.flynn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120301260#Comment_120301260

my sentiments exactly. on that note, i have a quick hypothetical question for the group.

if i were to stick say 2 X 450W panels with microinverters on my shed and connect them directly to a 3Kw immersion, would this work (however slowly) ?

My little mind has been experimenting with installing a buffer tank with immersion heater to my oil heating system. Since i run my heating on demand (40-60 minutes here and there) i was thinking that energy from these few panels would be dedicated to heating the buffertank thus easing the pressure on my boiler to heat the system when needed.

I know my biggest issue here is around needing heat in winter Vs summer, but just throwing it out there for feedback

graememk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120304283#Comment_120304283

Doesn't quite work like that, microinverters are generally grid tied and you can't just connect them to an immersion.

You could just connect them to your house and let them supplement your panels.

Although 2 450 w panels will barely make a dent in a buffer tank. As a 500L tank takes 25-30kwh to heat.. and that's not taking anything out of it!

slave1

agree with sentiments on DIY two storey roof installs, I'm not killing myself lifting those up that height or working at that height. My first (roof) install was contractor, second one at more ground level was DIY

D.flynn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120304331#Comment_120304331

Thanks for that. My next notion was to use the second heater output of an eddi for the buffer tank as i only need 1 output for my cylinder.

I realise i have to do actual calculations if i want to look into this further, just throwing it out there for now. My plan is to see how good the PV system and eddi perform for the first year(especially winter) before i look into it further.

Hellrazer

On the subject of micro inverters - are people using them plugged in to a wall socket or getting them run back to the consumer board?

Ive space on my shed for 4 panels - 2 East and 2 west and as someone said earlier this is addictive.

Also have space for another 6 panels ( possibly) on my extension in the garden but thats North Facing so not sure wheter to bother with that or not. But the shed would be a very easy diy - depending on what panels I could get I could add another 1.6kw plus to the system - is there such a thing as a 500 / 600 watt panel?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120304697#Comment_120304697

How does plugging them into a socket work? How do you avail of the power?

slave1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120304836#Comment_120304836

In theory you can plug anywhere into your electrical circuit. I am not condoning this.

unkel

@Hellrazer - "as someone said earlier this is addictive"

😁

North facing in a good location in Ireland generates about 55% of south facing over the year, so still very much worth your while if you can install cheaply enough.

Hellrazer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120309079#Comment_120309079

See I could DIY the panel installs on the shed and extension - no problem there - Its the supply to the consumer board thats the issue. I doubt Id find anyone to sign off on someone elses work.

It would give me 8-10 more panels.

I could have 3 strings - 1 east / 1 west and 1 North - more like NE as my panels are just off South by about 15 degrees.

slave1

I don't see the issue, I cabled everything, the panels, the feeds back to the house, all the isolators and battery connections and feeds from inverter with cable left to hook up to the consumer unit. The covers were everything so the leccy could inspect. He inspected and hooked to consumer unit.

bullit_dodger

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120304969#Comment_120304969

Yeah, ideally you want to go back (directly) into the consumer box onto the main busbars. That said, as slave1 mentions above if you plug your micro-inverter string into a standard socket that would (in effect) go back to the main consumer board via the cables feeding the socket. That's what I've done myself, although I do have an isolator on it also.

Where you need to be careful is that most house circuits would only be rated for 16A or so. This means that at most you shouldn't be pushing more than 3500w through a standard circuit. Infact I wouldn't go above 2.5Kw in panels on a standard circuit. A cold day with bright sunshine and you might go over your "offical" panel max.

Into the consumer unit with a spark signoff would be best though.

Hellrazer

Thanks @slave1 and @bullit_dodger

Slave yep I could diy the panels - no problem there. My confusion is with the type of inverter Id need.

Is there such an inverter that would take 3 separate strings?

Ive 3 options.

Put the inverter in the garage ( converted) on the wall beside my eddi and run DC cables from the panels to that.

Put the inverter in the shed and run the DC cables from the panels to that and then run a single AC cable back to the house.

Put the inverter in the attic beside my current inverter and feed the panel cables into the attic and a single ac cable back to the board.

Which would be easiest from a DIY perspective and secondly whats more cost effective.

@bullit_dodger I like the idea of the micro inverters with an isolator fitted. Currently the shed is fitted with a single ac swa cable going back to the board. My plan is to fit 2 panels east and 2 west and either 4 or 6 North - all 400 watt.

Since they wouldnt be all generating at the same time I couldnt see the feed being more than 2400 kw and that would only be on the north facing ones and only if I can get 6 panels on the roof - Looking at it this morning it may have to be only 4 .

So heres a question- could I put both east and west on one micro inverter? Granted only 2 panels will generate at a time but would the inverter actually work like that?

That would make that install so much easier.

Evd-Burner

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120304283#Comment_120304283

What about wiring directly into a storage heater for somewhere that needs a lot of heat, IE a large living area.

The immersion is a simple resistive load, similar to a storage heater. Storage heaters depending on model can hold anywhere from 10 to 20 kwh. A buffer tank would need to be over 500-1000L with mixing valves and additional pumps etc to hold anywhere near that 10 to 20kwh, the cost of that would be insane.

I'm using one of the below, which can time when to release the heat etc. You could go much cheaper and buy a 2nd hand one on adverts and fit it yourself, although those units are super cheap they don't have as good control.

https://www.dimplex.co.uk/product/quantum-hhr-storage-heater