Domestic Solar PV Quotes 2020

gomamochi1 · 24-03-2021 11:35AM

Deleted User wrote: »

How much (after grant) should one be looking at for an 18 panel array?

18 panels
Inverter
5kW Battery
Hot water diverter

Looking at it my roof could take 36 panels but no way on earth could I afford that.

panels are the cheapest part and geting cheaper. Get the grant and inspection through with the max panels you can do with grant and one battery, then plaster the roof after the SEAI are done with you.

24-03-2021 11:35AM

Northumberland wrote: »

is the roof flat?

No pitched, tiled & south facing. house is SE/NW & long.
Would give me a chance to try out the mounting system without endangering the house

.

slave1 · 24-03-2021 11:40AM

Deleted User wrote: »

How much (after grant) should one be looking at for an 18 panel array?

18 panels
Inverter
5kW Battery
Hot water diverter

Looking at it my roof could take 36 panels but no way on earth could I afford that.

When you say 36 panels are you aware of the square meters you have available?
Some panels are small, some are not.
My 18 panels are each 2mX1m so I could get more panels if they were smaller but I went for the panel dimensions that would max my roof and keep within SEAI edge guidelines (or else they won't pay out the grant, you have to provide detailed photos of installation)

gomamochi1 · 24-03-2021 11:49AM

garo wrote: »

Yes get the Zappi if you want to charge from solar. It takes out the guesswork and you can set how much import you want to do from the grid from 0% to 100%. The Zappi will lower the charge rate down to 1.44kW if that's all the excess available. It will also stop charging the car when you say put the oven on and there is no PV excess.
Two things to keep in mind:
1) The car needs to be home during the day!
2) If you get a battery as well, Zappi cannot tell whether it is drawing power from the battery or from solar PV directly. So occasionally your call will drain your PV battery if you are not careful. This can be managed via timers if your EV has them for charging.

I agree with the above adn frankly though Myenergie would have some work around with point no 2 as I regularly draw on the battery if at home as the Zappi cant differentiate between the solar/ battery feed. I though that the recent upgrade to zappi whcih allowed up to 3 ct clamps to be fitted was going toa ddress this issue. Frankly I am surprised its not mentioned more often on these forums etc. Tried contacting them to no avail and they could not really suggest a work around...

24-03-2021 11:50AM

slave1 wrote: »

When you say 36 panels are you aware of the square meters you have available?
Some panels are small, some are not.
My 18 panels are each 2mX1m so I could get more panels if they were smaller but I went for the panel dimensions that would max my roof and keep within SEAI edge guidelines (or else they won't pay out the grant, you have to provide detailed photos of installation)

Based on a roof map an installer drew up, prob not the full 36 but over 30 if I wanted to use all Roof space. Not that I'm going the whole hog as would run foul of the grant limits I think?

slave1 · 24-03-2021 11:54AM

Deleted User wrote: »

Based on a roof map an installer drew up, prob not the full 36 but over 30. Not that I'm going the whole hog

You'll be able to map this out yourself, measure the length of your roof with any measuring tape and then all you have to do is measure just one tile/slate on your roof, count how many rows and you have your roof dimensions.
I found it easier to take a photo of the roof and zoom in to count the rows.

These are the dimension you need to keep to for SEAI purposes

The distance between the plane of the wall or a pitched roof and the panel shall not exceed 15 cm; The distance between the plan of a flat roof and the panel shall not exceed 50 cm; The solar panels shall be a minimum of 50 cm from any edge of the wall or roof on which it is to be mounted;

slave1 · 24-03-2021 11:56AM

Deleted User wrote: »

Based on a roof map an installer drew up, prob not the full 36 but over 30 if I wanted to use all Roof space. Not that I'm going the whole hog as would run foul of the grant limits I think?

I hope that roof is South facing or else you will get a lot of shading from your chimney

24-03-2021 12:00PM

slave1 wrote: »

I hope that roof is South facing or else you will get a lot of shading from your chimney

South X South East

Northumberland · 24-03-2021 12:18PM

I dont know why you would not permanently mount on the garage roof and be done with it, you could always bring DC leads in to the inverter installed in the house.

DrPhilG · 24-03-2021 12:54PM

Northumberland wrote: »

I dont know why you would not permanently mount on the garage roof and be done with it, you could always bring DC leads in to the inverter installed in the house.

I have half and half, house and garage. DC cables between the 2.

Northumberland · 24-03-2021 01:17PM

I just installed a 16 panel system on my flat garage roof in Nairobi, Kenya - almost on the equator and the ideal angle is just about zero degrees, so a flat roof is perfect, slight angle to allow rain to drain. I actually bought the Solis hybrid inverter, batteries and roof mounts here in Ireland, because there really is no grid tie available in Kenya at the moment, and I installed it myself. It works just like my system in Ireland, but 'on steroids'!

garo · 24-03-2021 03:03PM

gomamochi1 wrote: »

I agree with the above adn frankly though Myenergie would have some work around with point no 2 as I regularly draw on the battery if at home as the Zappi cant differentiate between the solar/ battery feed. I though that the recent upgrade to zappi whcih allowed up to 3 ct clamps to be fitted was going toa ddress this issue. Frankly I am surprised its not mentioned more often on these forums etc. Tried contacting them to no avail and they could not really suggest a work around...

I don't think there is any workaround. If you have a hybrid inverter, the Zappi won't be able to differentiate between power coming from the panels and the battery. About the best you could do is a IFTTT system that turns off the Zappi when your inverter reports battery discharge. But that requires a myenergi hub and a lot of tinkering on the inverter data side.

Deagol · 24-03-2021 03:20PM

garo wrote: »

I don't think there is any workaround. If you have a hybrid inverter, the Zappi won't be able to differentiate between power coming from the panels and the battery. About the best you could do is a IFTTT system that turns off the Zappi when your inverter reports battery discharge. But that requires a myenergi hub and a lot of tinkering on the inverter data side.

What I've done with my Eddi (and assume you can do same on the Zappi?) is to set export threshold to 150watts and timer to 30secs. This means that slight lags in the inverter responding to draw are ignored so the Eddi doesn't turn on and draw the battery down. Because it's forced to wait until there is stable output from the panels to the grid it doesn't use the battery up. I'm not entirely sure why but I've found the lag in the Eddi itself seems to set up a feedback loop if I can call it that, that in effect means if the battery is supplying to the Eddi, the Eddi drops over the space of a minute or so the amount it's pulling from the system which in turn means the battery quickly stops being the source of the power for it. Hope that makes sense!

garo · 24-03-2021 03:41PM

The reason why this doesn't work for the Zappi is that it doesn't go below 1.4kW. With the Eddi it will try to reduce the power it is consuming and check if there is export now that it could consume. With the Zappi it does the same but stops when the draw gets to 1.4kW.
The Zappi allows you to set the % that it will draw from the grid. So if I set it to 50% that means as soon as it sees an export over 700W it starts charging the car and as soon as it sees an import over 700W it stops. In between that range, it will keep charging the car and drawing from the grid and the battery.

24-03-2021 03:49PM

Northumberland wrote: »

I dont know why you would not permanently mount on the garage roof and be done with it, you could always bring DC leads in to the inverter installed in the house.

approx 17sqm of south facing roof vs 100sqm of SE ,
I have the house attic linked to the garage with pipe so my options are open.
6sq supply to the garage.

Deagol · 24-03-2021 06:55PM

garo wrote: »

The reason why this doesn't work for the Zappi is that it doesn't go below 1.4kW. With the Eddi it will try to reduce the power it is consuming and check if there is export now that it could consume. With the Zappi it does the same but stops when the draw gets to 1.4kW.
The Zappi allows you to set the % that it will draw from the grid. So if I set it to 50% that means as soon as it sees an export over 700W it starts charging the car and as soon as it sees an import over 700W it stops. In between that range, it will keep charging the car and drawing from the grid and the battery.

Ah, thats a nuisance. This tech is still very random the way we can't get all the units to talk to each other! If the only inverter could communicate with the Eddi / zappi / hub!

Deagol · 24-03-2021 06:58PM

BrownFinger wrote: »

approx 17sqm of south facing roof vs 100sqm of SE ,
I have the house attic linked to the garage with pipe so my options are open.
6sq supply to the garage.

6sq is same as I have - plenty for solar, I have 6.1kw going from the ground mount / roof mount to garage inverter and that's tied back to the main supply via the 6sq.

Tarant · 24-03-2021 09:48PM

Northumberland wrote: »

(I actually installed a second smaller one myself - so 2 inverters) and the batteries and switch gear all accessible, located under the electricty meter box inside my (heated) front porch,

How did you connect your second inverter? Straight into the consumer unit? Or connected with your solis hybrid inverter, charging your battery

gomamochi1 · 24-03-2021 11:42PM

Deagol wrote: »

What I've done with my Eddi (and assume you can do same on the Zappi?) is to set export threshold to 150watts and timer to 30secs. This means that slight lags in the inverter responding to draw are ignored so the Eddi doesn't turn on and draw the battery down. Because it's forced to wait until there is stable output from the panels to the grid it doesn't use the battery up. I'm not entirely sure why but I've found the lag in the Eddi itself seems to set up a feedback loop if I can call it that, that in effect means if the battery is supplying to the Eddi, the Eddi drops over the space of a minute or so the amount it's pulling from the system which in turn means the battery quickly stops being the source of the power for it. Hope that makes sense!

Will try that with your settings as have an eddi also which may have been a bit premature of me as I
Have solar thermal also the past 5 years to good impact on our hit water production. Two panels east and west facing each. The eddi is probably a waste of space...

Northumberland · 25-03-2021 07:07AM

The second smaller inverter, single MPPT connected to just 3 large panels facing SW, is connected directly in to the consumer unit. I did this following clear advice from the Ginlong Solis technical expert based in Liverpool, who said that my 'main' large Solis Hybrid inverter would "see" when their was surplus current being generated by the small inverter (by way of the CT from the big inverter) and would use that to charge my batteries etc, instead of 'giving it away' to the grid. And that is the way it works, very well.

DrPhilG · 25-03-2021 08:02AM

Northumberland wrote: »

The second smaller inverter, single MPPT connected to just 3 large panels facing SW, is connected directly in to the consumer unit. I did this following clear advice from the Ginlong Solis technical expert based in Liverpool, who said that my 'main' large Solis Hybrid inverter would "see" when their was surplus current being generated by the small inverter (by way of the CT from the big inverter) and would use that to charge my batteries etc, instead of 'giving it away' to the grid. And that is the way it works, very well.

Good to know, I might be in a similar position at some stage with a second inverter.

slave1 · 25-03-2021 08:08AM

Northumberland wrote: »

The second smaller inverter, single MPPT connected to just 3 large panels facing SW, is connected directly in to the consumer unit. I did this following clear advice from the Ginlong Solis technical expert based in Liverpool, who said that my 'main' large Solis Hybrid inverter would "see" when their was surplus current being generated by the small inverter (by way of the CT from the big inverter) and would use that to charge my batteries etc, instead of 'giving it away' to the grid. And that is the way it works, very well.

I was told this as well, the third string I’m thinking about will be at rear of garden and I was actually told I could connect it to a mini consumer unit I have in a shed, was told current Solis inverter would “see” generation via CT clamp at main consumer unit...

DrPhilG · 25-03-2021 08:43AM

Sounds perfect for me then, connecting to the fuse box in the garage.

slave1 · 25-03-2021 11:19AM

I have to say, I don't understand the logic of it though....

DrPhilG · 25-03-2021 11:27AM

slave1 wrote: »

I have to say, I don't understand the logic of it though....

Welcome to my world.

If it works, I'm happy.

If I understand it, that's a bonus.

championc · 25-03-2021 11:54AM

Sounds like it's very much WHERE in the main board that CT clamp is connected.

The main thing here is that the Main Inverters CT Clamp must be able to "see" the power being generated by the secondary unit

garo · 25-03-2021 12:49PM

slave1 wrote: »

I have to say, I don't understand the logic of it though....

Why not? As long as the second inverter is connected before the CT clamp you have a picture like this:

House load

|
Hybrid inverter

|

||--
Mini Inverter

|

where || is the CT clamp. It sees what is going into the house or out of the house and controls what power goes into the battery based on that. It can even draw AC power from the mini-inverter if needed.

Deagol · 25-03-2021 03:52PM

garo wrote: »

Why not? As long as the second inverter is connected before the CT clamp you have a picture like this:

House load
|
Hybrid inverter
|
||--
Mini Inverter
|

where || is the CT clamp. It sees what is going into the house or out of the house and controls what power goes into the battery based on that. It can even draw AC power from the mini-inverter if needed.

Power doesn't have a lag in it though according to where in the line it's connected, power flow direction and current changes are all effectively instantaneous to all the CT clamps irrespective of were they are mounted. In fact, the lag will occur in the polling of the CT clamp by the respective inverter which muddies the water further.

Or am I being exceptionally thick here

?

graememk · 25-03-2021 06:32PM

Deagol wrote: »

Power doesn't have a lag in it though according to where in the line it's connected, power flow direction and current changes are all effectively instantaneous to all the CT clamps irrespective of were they are mounted. In fact, the lag will occur in the polling of the CT clamp by the respective inverter which muddies the water further.

Or am I being exceptionally thick here ?

The inverters response to changes is very quick, I know someone who's doing fancy power monitoring for industry and they can sample at insane levels, something like 16000 times a second. But he's mostly looking at the waveform, being able to really accuratly measure power is a side effect of it.

So yeah, the ct that is on the main tails at the meter monitors the flow in or out.

Assume no battery is charging for now.
If the hybrid inverter is putting out 2kw and the second inverter is putting out 2, and the house is drawing 1, there would be a potential excess of 3kw being exported,

The hybrid knows that its putting out 2 kw. But there is 3 kw being exported. There is a missing 1kw from somewhere that still could be captured in the battery.

Without a ct on the feed from the second inverter, it can only see the effects of it, not the actual output.

Everything would work fine.

Only thing that would be screwed up is the consumption statistics, as to work out the house consumption you take the grid input/output(negative) and add it to the solar output.

al2009 · 25-03-2021 10:10PM

Could i get pm's with munster based PV installers please? Perferably ones that you've had experience with.

Domestic Solar PV Quotes 2020

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