Solar for Beginners [ask your questions here]

Another step along the mystery road. It does appear the CT is the big square looking one and is in the right place but the wiring is wrong.

I opened up the charger box and sure enough, there are no wires in the CT3 (Solar), just the CT1 section. I tried moving the red and white wires from the CT1 side over to the CT3 solar side and the app started to pick up the solar export correctly.

But no joy with the charging. Still flies up to max charging even with Solar generation at only 9A and min amp charging at 6.

So i think I wasn't far off my original theory of either there is a separate solar CT clamp needed that is missing or there is a second set of wires.

I looked at the other end of the cat 5 cable and one the brown and white are tied to the CT clamp in the fuse box. So none of the others are connected.

Looking at it now with 4kw being exported the EO app shows site consumption as 17amp. No negative reading.

Yeah just checked there. 3kw being exported and the app showed a positive 8amp. Plugged in the car and it stayed at 8amp. The only bit that updated was what the charge rate is, that jumped to 32.

Ive tracked them alright. They go into the big blocky CT. It was hard to see them entering as it was right behind. Everything is so tight it's hard to pop it open. The sticker says gave this way towards the source (I assume that's towards the meter box) so I think it is working on that side okay.

But I'm 99% sure I just need the second CT (like you mentioned) for solar. I'll try pick one up. I can connect it to the other wires in the cat5 cable and get from the fuse box out to the charger.

It's not the end of the world. It would be a nice thing to have so I could charge for free. But at the moment I'm selling to the grid for 18c and charging the car at 2am for 6. So that's actually a bit of a better option.

Yeah that's my thinking too. It was more to see if I could, rather than I should. Who knows what the future holds. But for now I charge my car and solar battery between 2-5am.

Hi, the simple answer is that it all depends on where the battery obtained it's charge from initially. If the battery was charged between 02:00 and 06:00 (which I presume you meant) and there was still sufficient power in the battery at 21:17 when you posted this, then the power for the washing machine would come from the power which you paid for earlier. So yes, the simple difference would be 36c minus the night-rate (let's say 9c), so a saving of 27c per kW unit. Charging the battery off the solar panels during the day would have an effective 0c rate in terms of what you bought off the grid, and some people call this 'free energy'.

Except… don't forget about that the inherent cost of the battery, inverter and solar panels, these also have to be accounted for as they have life-cycles and will need to be replaced at some point. So you have to also consider that they add a cost to any units which you either put into the battery or take off the solar, therefore there is a cost to free energy.

I hope this makes sense and answers your question.

This helps a lot thank you. Sounds like I need two steps, the CT and the software configuration.

Not sure if this is the right place to post, but here it goes..

I’m installing 18 panels on my roof. From about 2 PM onwards, the panels will be in varying degrees of shade due to my neighbour's trees.

I’m deciding whether to use individual micro-inverters, optimizers, or grouping panels with micro-inverters.

I can’t afford to add a battery but I plan to do so next year. I will also be adding an Eddi.

I plan on selling excess energy back to the grid, so I need to think about the 6KW limit.

Would be very interested to hear people recommendations on the setup.

Guys, couple of questions, do you need panels for an inverter to still work, ie charge battery at night and run house during day or would that require different setup? (can't put panels up as its an apartment, so won't be applying for any grant either).

I've read somewhere about start up voltage, but as inverters still function at night I assume it was more to do with the inverter passing electricity from the panel input.

If I buy an inverter, battery etc and get qualified/registered electrician to install can I/they submit NC6 to ESBN so my supplier will pay us FIT?

Does anyone know any electrician in the Cavan area that is familiar with solar/inverter battery setup, I've spoke to one I know and he says his done a few and will "give it ago" if I get all the bits?

Thanks

Thanks, that was lucky I nearly bought Solis on Ebay today.

So two things, we have Solis in house in Dublin with panels, does that mean if mains trips at night and comes back on before sun comes up we wouldn't be able to use the battries either to run the house or charge during the EV window?

Could you "start" an inverter by applying >120v DC @>1amp from say a plugin transformer?

Thanks

Hi, I've got one quote of e10k pre grant so far, for 20 panels (8.7kw system) with no battery. They suggested to wait about getting a battery until I have an idea of usage with the solar panels and how exporting to the grid is going.

We have an air to water heat pump and EV, so using about 12,000 kwh pa with about 60% on the night rate over the year. I also work from home most of the time, wife is primary school teacher, so there is usually a bit of daytime activity.

Does it make sense to forego the battery for now? We're with flogas on a fixed rate, so our night rate is 12.5c and export rate seems to be 20.0c. I'd be happy to use the solar to offset the day rate as much as possible, use the night rate as normal and sell back the excess to the grid.

Anything else I should keep in mind, especially with the EV charging? We have a zappi charger since 2021, presume it needs to be wired up to the panels at some point.

Thanks!

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I recently got 11 solar panels panels fitted. I haven't a clue what's whats going on. Not much was explained to me. I have an Eddie to heat the water and then the surplus goes back into the grid, we've no battery. Do I need to do anything to get paid for surplus? My current electricity contract is up at the minute as well so I have to try figure out who best to go with next too

While many the case of a battery/no battery is debatable, with your usage, I'd strongly recommend a battery and the biggest one you can get. Most household use about 4000-5000kWh per year, with you being in 12,000 - your the prime candidate for getting a large battery, charging that up on night rate (often as low as €0.08/kWh on some of those EV tarrifs) and then using the battery for use as much as you can during the day. Depends a little of how much of that 12,000 kWh is EV and how much is the rest. If most of it is EV usage, then it's not a given but I think most people who's bought a battery don't think they made a mistake. Even if it can't completely cover the load of HP, covering a fair chunk of the usage of that will save you a fair what of money per year.

I estimate your savings with that setup would be ~€2k/year, give or take. 5-6 years and you should have it all paid back and your quids in. The battery question isn't as easily answered if your only using 4-5K units / year.