Domestic Solar PV Quotes 2024 - No PM requests - See Mod note post #1

graememk

Snow never cleared from mine (but we did get more snow up here).

I've only 20 tubes. But on a sunny day, in winter you can see it taking the edge off the coldest water in the tank.

Breezy_

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121636412#Comment_121636412

Ah ok, so nothing like 50c

ColemanY2K

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121636431#Comment_121636431

no not at all. my parents have had one of these for nearly 20 years. for 9 months of the year they have free hot water but during winter it tails off dramatically...the temp would usually be in the teens before OFCH kicks in.

Mossy

Thoughts on price for the following:

For a household in West Co. Dublin using 3.5kWh per year.

8 x 435W Jinko mono-perc panels

5.1kW Battery, brand: Sofar, included in price below as €1160 or half that for a 2.4kW battery in rack that have up to 2 more 2.4kW batteries added later.

Hybrid inverter, unknown brand

BER not included

Installers are company empolyees, not contractors, installation work complete in one day.

Apart from the warranties covering the solar panels, battery and inverter, all other components and workmanship are guaranteed for 2 years.

30% deposit.

Price: €8712, after grant of €1850 and assuming agreement to hosting a lawn sign for a few weeks.

Thoughts?

graememk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121639030#Comment_121639030

Very expensive. It's only a 3.48 kwp install.

Get more quotes and see how they stack up.

aidan364

Got a quote for a PV system earlier today. We had been meaning to get the ball rolling and just yesterday we got a knock at the door from a door to door salesman. He asked a couple of questions and arranged to come back today with a quote. I was a pretty skeptical as we were approached rather than doing the approaching. anyway I agreed to have him come back with a quote since we are considering getting them installed soon.

Size of system:2.4kw

number panels: 6

Price: €8,500

price after grant: €6,775

I am based in North County Dublin in case location would have a baring on the cost of install. The company however are not based in Dublin. Price seems high to me.

tommythecat

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121639677#Comment_121639677

That's very high cost.

aidan364

That was my thinking too. We were put off them for a few reasons, not just for the cost of the system. One positive though, we're now actively going to look for a solar install this year rather than kick the can down the road.

con747

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121639754#Comment_121639754

Have a read of the first few threads, plenty of tips and other helpful advise in it. https://www.boards.ie/categories/renewable-energies

keno-daytrader

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121639677#Comment_121639677

A real cowboy quote, run and dont look back!

timmyntc

12 x 435 JA Solar PV panels

5KW Solis inverter

12 x PV optimisers

€9500, 7400 after grant for 5.2kW system

Seems high? No idea how to price optimisers.

Company rep is very good though

Breezy_

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121640236#Comment_121640236

€80 per optimizer

graememk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121640236#Comment_121640236

Why optimisers?

idc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121640617#Comment_121640617

Thats very high for an optimiser - midsummer has Tigo ones for 54 euro. I got same from spanish company for about 40-45 each.

Breezy_

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121642856#Comment_121642856

Thats what a good quoted me.

Username here

Hi all, great thread, which I've found very useful.

I had a solar install last week, and was advised during the install that while the install could be completed, it couldn't be turned on until there was an earth rod visible outside outside my house. The lead guy onsite told me they couldn't help with the earth rod, and gave me the option of proceeding or not; on the basis that he advised it should be a small job, I went ahead anyway. The requirement to have the earth rod visible outside is apparently a new requirement that was brought in between the install company surveying my property 5~ish weeks ago, and the install date.

For any of you who also needed an earth rod to be made visible in advance of an install, were the solar install company able to handle this? (Or for those of you who know more about this type of thing, should the installers have been able to do this on the day?)

KingPanko

I am planning to put around 30KW of panels on a farm shed for my dairy farm and would love the advice from the knowledgeable people of boards. Thinking of also getting 30KWH of battery capacity.

It is an East / West system evenly spread, not sure the shed is 15 or 20degree pitch.

The provider I am thinking of going with is giving me a choice between panels, inverters and battery brands.

My needs is a battery with a very good charge and discharge rate as my power consumption is spikey especially in the evening when solar is past its best. What is the main limitation to the battery discharge rate, the battery management system or the inverter?

Panels: 53 x 575 Watt Panels (Jinko 575w BiFacial N-Type (JKM575N-72HL4-BDV). From reading boards I have seen the opinion and take it that I should not over think the brand of panel, many installers are claiming they have the best and pushing glass-glass or glass-foil etc.

Inverter and Battery: They are giving a choice between Huawai inverter and battery or Solis inverter with a few different battery brands, one being Pylontech. They also mentioned that they could supply Sofar but did not seem keen on them. The Huawai would be two 15KWH stacks of capacity if I go with 30KWH.

They are pushing the Huawai saying it would suit my needs better. I do not like how you are locked into using only their inverters and batteries together into the future e.g. battery and inverters lifespan of 10-12 years, panels 30, so if in 10 years the batterys are past their best and I want to replace it, inverter is still going strong so I replace with Huawai and then 2 years later the inverter gives up I am stuck with that brand indefinitely. If they are a lot better I would get over that.

Another debate is the amount of inverter capacity. My MIC is 29KVA so the inverter needs to be lower than that. Is 20KW ok with 30.5KW of panels or will I need to get to 25KW to avoid excessive clipping? Huawai seem to have a limited amount of options of 3 phase Hybrid options, two 10KW Hybrid inverters? Or one 10KW hybrid inverters and one 15KW 3P inverter (not hybrid)? Or two 10KW hybrid inverters and one 5KW 3P inverters? Note that it is East / West but with the pitch of the roof being low, in summer both sides will get full sun for a period of the day.

The other debate is the type of hanger system to connect the panels to the roof, it is standard corrugated farm shed roof and the standard is to just screw into the corrugated sheet, the other option is the screw into the timber purlins which sounds better but as the purlins will not be at the correct distance apart it adds to the steel needed therefore more cost, weight and the panels will the further from the roof. When I research it I dont see much info. Anybody have any insight?

graememk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121650724#Comment_121650724

Mines attached to the roof directly, Works really well. Very fast install and sits really neat on the roof.

As for inverters. Huawei you are locked into them, whereas others you have much more choice. - but if its something you dont want to touch or expand on it doesnt matter.

Charge and discharge rates for the battery on the inverters is the main one to compare each other.

Panels, cheapest per watt. Bifacial isnt really any benefit on a shed roof.

As you will be on an NC7 anyway, it does allow export limiting, you possibly could run closer to your 29KVA limit. (Single or three phase?)

I do really like the Sunsynk too, They do support parallelisation (and they do a 16kW inverter on single phase)

East west (on a walkable roof), does struggle in winter, but in summer, works fantastic.

Seventy Plus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121650002#Comment_121650002

An Earth Rod visible outside the house? News to me.

Seventy Plus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121640236#Comment_121640236

The prices I got for Optimisers was €50 and €55.

deezell

Electricity standard rate now in the 20s with Yuno's new reduced rate announcement of 27.38c, vat included. Finally, a return to some normality, and expect the big operators to jump again. Solar quotes and savings now have to be evaluated on the basis of sensible unit prices, not the stratospheric rates we've endured for two years. This can only make the installation market more competitive, as panel prices per kw have also been dropping, batteries too, and even further with new technologies just around the corner.

KingPanko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121651400#Comment_121651400

Thank you graememk, I have 3 phase, yes I could go closer to the 29KVA limit with export limiting however the issue with Huawei is that there are no 15, 20, 25 or 30KW 3 phase hybrid inverters, they go from 10 to 40, that is a part of my thinking that if I decide that Huawei is the best for me that two 10KW inverters would have to do. The ESB is not installing smart meters on 3 phase customers yet, I do not think I will be consuming more than 20KW at any moment in time and as I wont be getting paid for export so on the best day of the year when the 20KW is clipping my output I will clipping free export not my consumption.

Breezy_

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121652511#Comment_121652511

New tech doesn't seem much better than current for pv anyway. The stuff been worked on in the labs are about 8% better.

Years away.

The rain and night panels even more years.

NinjaTruncs

Waiting on new tech will be a never ending wait in my opinion, as there will always be better tech on the horizon.

Sure in 5 years time there will be something better out, but in 5 years I would expect my current set up to have almost paid for itself.

deezell

Anything that makes prices fall is welcome, even if it is the promise of disruptive tech, and market reaction. The hiatus in ev land will no doubt lead to diversion in battery production, and this report shows how panel prices have tumbled.

"One of the interesting notes in the recently published US Solar Market Insight report is that the average global solar module price in the 3rd quarter of 2023 was down 30–40% from the average global solar module price in the 1st quarter of 2023"

The point is not that you'd be waiting forever, rather the signs are good for new adopters now who had been put off. I suppose peak price adopters will not be too worried, a bit like last years VW EV buyers who have seen new prices drop by €13k, and thus their future trade in value.

KingPanko

My provider was pushing me towards Huawei saying that it was most suited to my needs, (I need fast discharge of batteries to get best use of them, in the ideal world I could empty the battery within two hours or as close as possible, the provider said Huawei would give a discharge rate of 15KW) planning 30KWH of capacity which with Huawei that would be two LUNA2000-15-SO, I am not sure would they have two Battery Management Systems or not with that. After reading the datasheet of them I am not sure they are correct that they are the best or that the 14KW discharge is accurate. It says they have a Max output power of 5KW, a Peak output power of 7KW, 10s. Can somebody explain the Peak output power to me please?

Other things to note with the Huawei is that 100% depth of discharge which is great. 10year warranty which sounds great but the warranty is that the battery will be 60% after 10years which does not sound great but perhaps that is as good as they get.

Can anybody recommend what inverter and battery combination to look at?

con747

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121662180#Comment_121662180

@HotSwap has a Huawei system and might be able to help. I have a Solis inverter and Puredrive batteries which suit my needs but everyone has different needs.

Breezy_

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121662217#Comment_121662217

Can you mix batteries?

con747

On Huawei I think only 2 brands work, their own and I think it's Lg but not 100% on that.

Breezy_

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121662681#Comment_121662681

puredrive and dyness?