Domestic Solar PV Quotes 2020

Thanks for the pm's folks, much appreciated!

sebdavis wrote: »

Whats the max panels you are allowed? I have 19 but I hear people have installed more? I have never gone over 5kWh

As I understand. There is no limit on number of panels. But there is a limit on how much grid connected power you are allowed. Bear in mind that if you have 8kw of panels connected to a 5kw inverter, you are still limited to max of 5kw of grid power by the inverters ability to convert the 8kw of DC / Solar power to AC 'grid' power.

You cannot have more than 6kw grid connected power so you cannot have say 24 panels and two 5kw inverters for instance. You could have >6kw of solar but you'd have to have anything over the 6kw connected to off grid devices (say directly to immersion heaters).

At least that's my understanding, I could be corrected yet though by someone else

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on the 50cm rule:

just curious, whats it there for? is it a safety thing?

real question: If my roof is connected to my neighbors roof, that's not an edge, so i can go right up to that boundary without breaking any rules, right?

actually, on the feed in tarrif - as far as i can see its for new systems installed after july only and you will need a C level or higher BER on the building to qualify - is this correct?

thanks!

Deagol wrote: »

The 50 cm rule is simply because if you put the panels close to the edge, the wind can get under them and lift them up - I was told by a roofer that in fact they could rip the battens up and then lift the entire roof off!

The FIT in July is not decided yet. But there has been indications that you will possibly need a B or better BER. This is I think , to stop people putting up solar to make money but at the same time have a badly ineffecient house. In other words, they want you to spend money first on simpler things like insulation.

Ah, makes sense on the wind thing - that backs up my hope that I can use the space right up to my neighbours part of our shared roof - the 50cm rule is tricky on my roof as it slopes to the front, back and also to the gable end so the south facing part is like a rectangle with a triangle attached.

Interested to see how little concern there is around the number of panels vs planning permission in these conversations, has anyone actually got planning permission specifically for solar?

My roof will only fit about 7 panels anyway so it's not an issue in my case unfortunately.

I see the zappi has a 1.4kw activation - that's higher than I expected, feels like a 2.5kw system might be too small to effectively use that? Anyone with a small system is a zappi charger effectively? Home all day and will be in future too.

blue chuzzle wrote: »

I see the zappi has a 1.4kw activation - that's higher than I expected, feels like a 2.5kw system might be too small to effectively use that? Anyone with a small system is a zappi charger effectively? Home all day and will be in future too.

graememk wrote: »

Yeah to get any benefit from it, it needs an 1.4kw excess to start, above your normal house load. Getting a zappi over a cheaper charge point just for solar isn't worth it with a small system.

I wouldn't be so sure. You could get a cheaper system with a non-hybrid inverter and no battery and spend some of that money getting a Zappi. You can control how much initial export the Zappi needs to get going. So you could theoretically set the Zappi to start when there is 700W excess and it will take the rest from the grid. If your car is home during the day and you have a south facing roof there is a good chance you charge your car with the Zappi at least four months of the year.

graememk wrote: »

That's no better than charging on night rate!

Agreed at 700W but if you set that as the threshold there will be times when you are producing more excess and that's going into the car. So overall you come out ahead. You can also set the threshold to 800W or 900W or whatever. With a 2.5kW south facing system you'd be producing close to 2kW on a sunny day and you are likely to have a large excess a lot of the time.

championc wrote: »

Let's be real here - you will only get 2kW for between an hour or so either side of solar noon, and that's on days with perfect sunshine. And to think of only getting 1.4kW into the car in a whole hour sounds pretty pointless when you can charge the same amount in quarter the time at night. So overall, if you have a 2+kW system, you might be better connecting the car to your granny charger, at the slowest rate.

Not really. For a due south 35 degree tilt a 2.5kW system would give you >2kW for 4 hours from mid April to late August assuming full sunshine. The advantage of the Zappi is it will stop automatically when you turn on the oven or put on the kettle and restart again.



Whether it makes financial sense depends on whether the person already has an EV charger, how much it will cost to get a Zappi what their base load is and how often the car is at home during the day. And of course how much the grid export payback rate is.

slave1 wrote: »

Throw up whatever you want, I’ve filled both aspects of my semi roof with 36m2 of panels...

There was (and still could be) limitations under planning regulations about the amount of roof space covered by solar panels.

Did you ever look into what your local authority had in their regs?

deravarra wrote: »

There was (and still could be) limitations under planning regulations about the amount of roof space covered by solar panels.

Did you ever look into what your local authority had in their regs?

Well that's me fuxked with 20 panels, to be fare one next door neighbor has doubled the size of their house and the other neighbor is building a 7ft swimming pool with feck all planning permission.

SD_DRACULA wrote: »

Anyone used...

There's a ban on naming suppliers in the thread, so you'll probably get edited.