Domestic Solar PV Quotes 2022 - No PM requests - See Mod note post #1

I think the €600 extra SEAI is in respect of the Zappi, not battery. I had some quotes done like this.

Good to know. I just wanted to chedk in case I am missing something obvious between the 2 systems. I am leaning towards the Givenergy to be honest. It is from an installer on the installer page in boards. I think the other one is from a smaller outfit.

I do use Home Assistant and have seen some videos about a HACS addon that can be used with Givenergy.

BTW, the €3000 includes the grant for the zappi which is an added bonus.

On a side topic, if you’re using 10000kWh on a smart meter on a 24hr tariff that’s expensive. You’ve no cheap slot available. So you could save yourself money on that too. I know you’ve an EV but are you on electric heating too with that usage?

Likely it’s better to get a smart meter tariff with a cheap 3 hour window to charge the EV, fill the battery in winter (which you’ll do), run dishwasher…. Or change the current smart meter to a D/N meter (free to change but impacts you getting FIT so have a good read and think of the impact of that). Check the other threads here on D/N and smart tariffs for pros and cons.  

That said with ye having high usage (more than solar can deliver for majority of the year) and a battery and an EV (assuming it’s home during day), you’re not going to export much most likely. Not if you tweak stuff. So going to a D/N and losing any FIT ‘deemed export’ might still be more cost effective. Once you change back to a smart meter in the future, you’d be entitled to FIT again. Youo don't need to do any of this for now, can wait until you see the usage stats and then decide.

If the Leaf is in the driveway during the day, the Zappi will charge from any excess solar. But once you get a cheap night rate it’s gonna be same-same to charge at night and let the solar excess pay you in FIT. As in FIT is ~20c a kWh, so if the cheap night rate is the same it’s pretty much the same. 

We have high usage alright. There is 6 in the household with electric showers x 6 a day, TV, internet, electric oven, EV charging most evenings(kids started to drive so car not always in driveway during day), dishwasher, washing machine and dryer going most days.

I am thinking of switching to a smart plan for EV charging. I can probably do the dishwasher and laundry during the day when its sunny. Probably can't get the kids to shower after night rate kicks in....but will try!

What worries me is when the winter months come in and I am on a smart plan the daytime rates are very high so normaly laundry etc will be expensive. There is only so much the5kw battery can cover. I can' see myself upgrading to a larger battery at current costs.

I don't know enough about the Zappi and EV (as I don't have one), but I do have a GivEnergy 8.2Kwh battery. It's actually a 9.4Kwh or something under the hood, so you get the full 8.2Kwh available as a depth of discharge. When I bought mine the Gen 2 (9.5Kwh) wasn't out yet, but it's a similar story with the 9.5Kwh that under the hood it's actually a 10.5kwh battery and you can go from 100%->4% safe in the knowledge that your not damaging the battery with a low state of discharge. That's how they can guarantee 9.5Kw after 10 years as they are using the "behind the scenes" capacity for degradation.

Yeah, with the Givenergy inverter you're stuck with Givenergy batteries, but that's not a bad thing. They are decent value and like Mick above, I'm even thinking of buying another battery to couple with my existing one. You also have the option of going DIY with your own battery albeit you would have to buy a seperate storage inverter like a ME3000.

Solis good brand too though. Solid inverter which is probably the most installed inverter in Ireland (guessing). Personally I don't like it for the poor remote control, but that's just me.

Either option won't be a lemon :-)

Good call - if it's down to one or the other, drop the Zappi and get a larger battery. I've an EV and a Zappi. You already have a car charger for the Leaf. If FIT and nightrate are close to being the same amount (as Mick says above), it makes no odds if you fill from night rate or use excess solar to charge the car or run the house. So get a nightrate and fill the car. Set other heavy devices on timers to run then on the nightrate (dishwasher, washing machine, tumble dryer when used). Or get a €10 smart plug to do that if devices don’t have timers - I do that and set to come on at same time each nght, so not overhead to manage devices. In winter you’ll charge the battery fully at night to use during the day. Means a large % of will then move to nightrate.

There’s threads here on options for smart meter tariffs (which you have) or D/N meter but they you’ll lose FIT export afaik (as replaced a smart meter).

If you load shift a lot of the 10000kWh a year to night rate, you’ll save a lot. So between that and solar, you’ll be in good shape.

I read here recently that Energia?? introduced a lower allowance for their 2 or 3 hour EV night rate of 1000kWh every 2 months. Or 6000kWh a year. Or 16.6kWh a night. So you pay a higher rate for unit above that afaik – read the small print. Should still make financial sense if you got 6000kWh of your 10000kWh a year in that 3 hour window.

That's good in this market. €1200 per kWp, and a 4kWp system is small and they tend to be dearer as labour is the largest cost. See can you fit more panels. 4.2kW isn't large when you consider we'll all have EVs and (at least some) electric heating the in future (or majority will). I can only fit 4.9 and would love more. No space though.

If you're not getting a battery, you can get the non hybrid version of the inverter - will cost less. 5kW inverter can handle over 5kWp of panels. Ask installer to confirm to be safe - max it can handle depends on if they all on the same roof or split over E\W.

Get the extra 2 panels then. Can run a small electric heater in Autumn and a Spring from solar when don't need the full house heating on.

We have same low house usage as you. So I have started using electric rads at times. Gas boiler hasn't been on for last month bar here and there.

Can you not avail of any grants or tax cuts? https://renewablesnow.com/news/germany-approves-tax-benefits-for-small-solar-installations-807150/

There is no vat on panels or the delivery of them here at the minute but those prices re already netto. Beyond that there's no further help.

The removal of income tax doesn't gain much. You only get a few cent for feeding into the network.

There's no space for extra panels on the roof. In total We have about 25m² of roof space facing SSO minus the required distances to the neighbours and house edge we have maybe about 23 m² to work with.

We would work out with about 60% of our needs covered based on 6000 kWh per year most of that is the heat pump.

To summarise, the demand is mental and they can charge what they want.

It's mostly demand at the moment, our neighbours are also looking and are getting similar quotes. Once they need to be imported separately and then installed by a third party it may have impacts on the guarantee etc.

The waiting list is ca. 9 months from time of ordering.

Strangely enough the cheapest offer we got was from Solarwatt who have their production in Germany.

As this is the quotes thread I don't want to drag it too far off topic but wanted to give an example from today.

This was my production as you can see cloud cover kills PV generation at times so without batteries running high loads it would be be pulling a lot from the grid.

It's very hard to calculate the value of batteries based on factors like this just something to keep in mind.

Hi folks, good thread, thanks for lots of useful info. I see from PCDub above, that the solar system will be installed in mid-May.

Does anyone have any indication that this is a typical timeline for installation in Dublin?

Now long are people waiting??

Cheers, thx for the reply.

I am at the start of this journey, so please bear with me with some general questions,

How much interaction is there with installers in advance of installation. Typically do they do an online or onsite survey? Is there one or multiple site visits?

For those who have gotten multiple quotes, were you waiting long for a survey and did the quality and price of installers differ vastly?

On the site visit, I assume they check to make sure electrics are up to scratch, such as newer consumer unit, bonding etc...., If not do they quote this as an upgrade cost?

Do they recommend hardware or can you pick what you want?

Typically how long does an install take?

Thx all

Came across this document here where a solar company outlines the various costs by house type on their website. This is the one for 3 bed semi with 4.1kwp system which they quote at 8,279 with the grant reducing that to 5,879

They say it will save you 63,000 in energy costs over its life time as it generates 3,573kwh per year- is it realstic to generate that on a south facing 4.1kwp system? I had thought it was closer to 2,700kwh for that size but maybe Ive misremembered what I read elsewhere before.

Otherwise their calculations to get to the 63,000 euro saving are based on a energy cost of 51 cents for a kwh and an assmption that the price of electricity will go up 5% a year every year for the next 20 years. Which by my calculation would have us paying 1.46 per kwh in 2043. Im not sure how realistic that is when energy prices are expected to come down this summer, not go up further.

In any case 8,279 before the grant is pretty much 2,000 euro per kwp. Is this the new benchmark people are seeing for solar installs? The payback periods just seem to be going up and up lately making it uneconomic from what I can see. The abolition of VAT is welcome but only if the saving isnt added further on to the price, time will tell.