Domestic solar PV quotes 2018

+1

6k would be my target for a 4kwp system with diverter and small battery (after grant), You shouldn't pay much more than that

It makes no financial sense to go for an SEAI grant if you install 4kwp without battery. If your budget is well below €6k, do a (partial) DIY job or increase your budget.

garo

Without a battery the grant is only 1400€. I don’t think you will get anyone willing to do the job for €4000 after grant. 5k possibly. 8k is ridiculous. I got a 4.8kW system with 2.4 KWh battery for 7k after grant.

Stefs_42

3.6KW system with 3KWH battery cost me 9.7k, after grant applied 3.5k, I end up spending out of my own pocket 6.2k. I think its reasonable enough price. Ive got almost max allowed grant, so getting a system with a battery is a no brainer.
I was the one of unlucky ones selected for inspection, which has passed with flying colors. Ive been told that going forth inspections will become more frequent.

unkel wrote: »

+1

6k would be my target for a 4kwp system with diverter and small battery (after grant), You shouldn't pay much more than that

It makes no financial sense to go for an SEAI grant if you install 4kwp without battery. If your budget is well below €6k, do a (partial) DIY job or increase your budget.

I'm getting a similar system installed on Monday next, 4.2kwp, diverter, 2.4kwh battery. Costing €6400 after grant. Have the option to double the battery to 5kwh... should I go this route to future-proof the system as I intend to get an EV in summer 2020.??

rx8 wrote: »

I'm getting a similar system installed on Monday next, 4.2kwp, diverter, 2.4kwh battery. Costing €6400 after grant. Have the option to double the battery to 5kwh... should I go this route to future-proof the system as I intend to get an EV in summer 2020.??

Batteries are expensive but are likely to come down in price over the next few years. And installing another one in a year or two is a very easy job

How much extra is he looking for to add another battery?

Presuming the battery is the Pylontech US2000 (2.4kWh), can you also ask him to quote for a Pylontech US3000 (3.5kWh)?

I think he said about €700, but not 100% sure. The ease of dealing with them was the deciding factor. Met quite a few companies talking bullsh1t at the RDS last week. My guys do all the grant work and BER stuff and have 25 years experience of solar. Looking forward to it going in.

I doubt he is asking for that little, double check! That would be below his cost and he wouldn't be charging VAT at that price, or anything for the install time for that matter

And ask about the other options I suggested too.

Alkers

rx8 wrote: »

. Met quite a few companies talking bullsh1t at the RDS last week. .

Absolutely, it was embarrassing, most of them were only setup to sell to people who hadn't a clue what they were talking about.

unkel wrote: »

I doubt he is asking for that little, double check! That would be below his cost and he wouldn't be charging VAT at that price, or anything for the install time for that matter

And ask about the other options I suggested too.

Just spoke with them, and they don't have a 3.5kwh battery available, but they would do another 2.4 for €1200 if I wanted to make it a 4
.8kwh system. I don't know how much batteries cost, is that a good deal? €7600 all in?

€1200 extra is a decent deal, presuming that's including VAT. He's making very little money on that. Just his trade discount really as these retail for about €950 + VAT (solartricity) or GBP820 + VAT (midsummerwholesale.co.uk). Pylontech US2000, yeah?

Up to you whether you want to spend the extra money, but one of the big benefits of having 2 of them is that you can draw 2.5kW from them (or charge them at that speed), only half of that if you have just the one. I think I would go for it.

€7600 all in is a decent enough deal (from a good installer that you trust), but you can always ask them for another few hundred off

rx8 wrote: »

Just spoke with them, and they don't have a 3.5kwh battery available, but they would do another 2.4 for €1200 if I wanted to make it a 4
.8kwh system. I don't know how much batteries cost, is that a good deal? €7600 all in?

unkel wrote: »

I think I would go for it.

And why havent you! Its great encouraging others to do it but you didnt yourself. :P:D

I wouldnt go for it. You'll be a very long time breaking even on that €1200, if ever.

You are not getting any additional grant for that extra battery. It's money down the drain.

Your previous recommendation was to get the smallest battery possible to get the largest grant possible. Why are you saying otherwise now?

rx8, if you are happy with the current quote at 2.4kWh battery then go ahead with that and get your max grant.

If battery costs go down in the years ahead look at expanding then. You also need to see how the whole Feed-In-Tariff thing pans out which might make batteries irrelevant entirely. Keep that €1200 in your pocket.

KCross wrote: »

And why havent you! Its great encouraging others to do it but you didnt yourself. :P:D

Because I already had my PV installed when the subsidy came in. If I had nothing I would have gone for a battery system with indeed the smallest battery as soon as the subsidy came in

Back then I did not appreciate though that with just a 2.2kWh low voltage (48V) battery you are severely limited in your charge / discharge rate

Agree with you that the pay back over the extra €1200 will be quite long. I'd say thank you very much for the €3,800 subsidy and this €1,200 I will cough up as my own contribution to go greener, even if it will barely pay off.

If I had known 3 years ago that the prices of PV panels would be slashed and that a generous PV subsdiy was coming in, I would not have gone solar thermal either

unkel wrote: »

Agree with you that the pay back over the extra €1200 will be quite long. I'd say thank you very much for the €3,800 subsidy and this €1,200 I will cough up as my own contribution to go greener, even if it will barely pay off.

Dont you think thats a rather important detail to leave out when someone asks you if its a good deal and you say it is and that you think you'd go for it?

No issue with someone going ahead just for environmental reasons but you didnt say that!

Regardless, I dont think I'd go ahead with that extra battery for financial or environmental reasons. If a FiT comes in it would be ALOT more environmentally friendly to send the excess to the grid than into a Li-ion battery and the environmental damage that that does to manufacture.

Yeah, they said that there's no problem adding another battery next year. Wait to see if I'm giving much power back to the grid over a period of a few months and re-assess. Will update next week on the whole installation process etc. and see if I can recommend them. Thanks guys for your help.

garo

I have a 4.8kW system split evenly E/W with a 2.4kWh battery. Having more charge/discharge capacity is definitely an advantage. On the other hand you won’t be able to charge the second battery most days from Nov-Feb.
It is debatable whether that second battery is greener. You are reducing your own footprint but producing the same amount of power sonot is a zero sum game.
And realistically speaking you won’t make the 1200 back for 15 years. Might as well wait and see if prices come down.

KCross wrote: »

Dont you think thats a rather important detail to leave out when someone asks you if its a good deal and you say it is and that you think you'd go for it?

No issue with someone going ahead just for environmental reasons but you didnt say that!

Absolutely. Everybody spending a lot of money on any system should know what they can expect from in financially.

It is a good deal for one reason only and that is that he pays the same as buying the additional battery for the best retail price available and get the install done for free. So a professional install (including sign off) for the price of a DIY job

Payback calculation of the additional battery is probably fairly long and if we do get a FIT, it will be a lot longer again

From a ROI point of view, it would not make sense to go for the extra battery. I don't think I can be any clearer than that?

KCross wrote: »

I dont think I'd go ahead with that extra battery for financial or environmental reasons. If a FiT comes in it would be ALOT more environmentally friendly to send the excess to the grid

Agreed again, but somehow nearly everyone in this thread is getting an immersion diverter. If we get a FIT, a diverter will also not have paid for itself by the time it is dead. And a battery is likely to last a lot longer (with some degradation) than a diverter will.

So most of the people in this thread spend money either not knowing it will never pay for itself or they don't expect a FIT any time soon or they do it despite it not making financial sense

unkel wrote: »

So most of the people in this thread spend money either not knowing it will never pay for itself or they don't expect a FIT any time soon or they do it despite it not making financial sense

I can only agree with you.

My guess is they believe the salesmen and don’t run the numbers for themselves.

spose

Found this thread very informative for the last couple of months so said I’d share.
Just turned on my DIY install for the first time and nice to have a sunny day to check it out. Went for the max I could fit which was 4.7 E/W split with no battery and a diverter. Mounted on my steel shed so was able to do all myself except for the electrical connections. All in its cost me about €4200.
I went DIY because I couldn’t get a quote anywhere near that even after the grant.

banjolin

spose wrote: »

Found this thread very informative for the last couple of months so said I’d share.
Just turned on my DIY install for the first time and nice to have a sunny day to check it out. Went for the max I could fit which was 4.7 E/W split with no battery and a diverter. Mounted on my steel shed so was able to do all myself except for the electrical connections. All in its cost me about €4200.
I went DIY because I couldn’t get a quote anywhere near that even after the grant.

Just going through this and saw your diy job. I put 5 micro systems in five off-grid cabins (1 panel, 1 battery, charger, inverter). Found it near impossible to get any useful information in Ireland, or anyone interested in supplying or installing them. So diy was the only option. Was thinking about a system for my own home. Where did you source your kit, if you don't mind me asking? What size is it? Like you I think diy makes more financial sense if access is easy.

bunderoon

spose wrote: »

Found this thread very informative for the last couple of months so said I’d share.
Just turned on my DIY install for the first time and nice to have a sunny day to check it out. Went for the max I could fit which was 4.7 E/W split with no battery and a diverter. Mounted on my steel shed so was able to do all myself except for the electrical connections. All in its cost me about €4200.
I went DIY because I couldn’t get a quote anywhere near that even after the grant.

Big job, fair play. Would you mind sharing a few pics of it?

Prowetod

I have begun research into a future solar PV install in my home. I have a couple of questions if anyone has any experience they could share. I have a heat pump and am on a day/night ESB tariff. The bulk of the power demand in the house is from the heat pump and currently, most of that is early morning and evening time demand. I can bring forward the heat pump evening demand, to some extent, to conicide with the peak PV output.

Are there existing systems available to optimise the solar output and the battery charge/discharging? In an ideal world I would be able to use the night rate to fill the battery for use later during the morning peak demand, on the assumption that the batteries would be emptied in the evening time to meet the evening peak demand before night rate kicks in.
Has anyone implemented a solution that delivers what I am looking for?
I have a Daiken heat pump that I would like to setup to consume the excess PV when the battery is full - I presume this logic has to be built into the heat pump itself? How would it know if there is solar to consume.

In the short to medium term I expect to get an EV (soon after the PV install) - obviously integrating this new power demand with the solar would be great too.

Going to pull down a few numbers in terms of consumption (kWh and kWp), pv potential for various systems next. If anyone has any good resources would appreciate it.

spose

banjolin wrote: »

Just going through this and saw your diy job. I put 5 micro systems in five off-grid cabins (1 panel, 1 battery, charger, inverter). Found it near impossible to get any useful information in Ireland, or anyone interested in supplying or installing them. So diy was the only option. Was thinking about a system for my own home. Where did you source your kit, if you don't mind me asking? What size is it? Like you I think diy makes more financial sense if access is easy.

Bought through the local electrical wholesaler. Not sure what the rules are on providing names but a google of solar PV wholesale cork should give it to you. It’s 16x 295W panels.

So, got my system installed yesterday. (see above), very pleased with the results. Really good set up, 3 really nice guys. Glad it wasn't raining on them, but it was quite windy on the roof. First day today, battery was fully charged by lunchtime, then the i-boost came on to heat the water. Seems like a good job. Definitely recommend the installers. Very professional went through everything with me. Very pleased to say the least.

So did you go for the single 2.4kWh Pylontech battery?

unkel wrote: »

So did you go for the single 2.4kWh Pylontech battery?

Yeah, the single battery, but it's in a separate cabinet that can take up to 3 batteries. So easy to add more in the future if needed.

thos

Prowetod wrote: »

I have begun research into a future solar PV install in my home. I have a couple of questions if anyone has any experience they could share. I have a heat pump and am on a day/night ESB tariff. The bulk of the power demand in the house is from the heat pump and currently, most of that is early morning and evening time demand. I can bring forward the heat pump evening demand, to some extent, to conicide with the peak PV output.

Are there existing systems available to optimise the solar output and the battery charge/discharging? In an ideal world I would be able to use the night rate to fill the battery for use later during the morning peak demand, on the assumption that the batteries would be emptied in the evening time to meet the evening peak demand before night rate kicks in.
Has anyone implemented a solution that delivers what I am looking for?
I have a Daiken heat pump that I would like to setup to consume the excess PV when the battery is full - I presume this logic has to be built into the heat pump itself? How would it know if there is solar to consume.

In the short to medium term I expect to get an EV (soon after the PV install) - obviously integrating this new power demand with the solar would be great too.

Do you know what model Daikin you have, or what year it was installed?

The Daikin solution to PV integration is through a LAN Adapter, using their 'Smart Grid' functionality. There is a compatibility matrix here.

This installation manual gives you some idea of the configuration and how it works.

The bad news is that there doesn't seem to be any Irish installers who've done this, or want to try. I tried contacting 4-5 places and didn't get anywhere.
Daikin themselves pointed me to some documentation, but overall weren't very helpful.

I was hoping to get it for heating water during surplus production, as the usual immersion diverters don't work with this system.

I hope you have better luck with it than I did!

Tom

antoinolachtnai

Someone may know better but you will need a proper electrician with a head on her/his shoulders to get that to work with your PV. It will need some arrangement with a relay at the minimum and might need something more complex to detect when the output from the panels goes above a certain threshold.

It looks like it is really designed to work with a load switch supplied by the electricity company.