Solar for Beginners [ask your questions here]

As the lads said its the Zappi is holding you back, I have a 16 kVA connection as well as a Zappi and discovered this as well early on. The Zappi will throttle down to not break 60 amps.

Go into the setting in the Zappi and set the grid limit to 80amps and you should be good to go. You should then be able to import up to around 17 kW before the Zappi again will throttle back.

Brilliant, so just to confirm, for my 16kVW connection, I can safely increase it to 80amps?

For an estimate you can survey the roof yourself. Take a clearer photo of the roof. Put a 500mm border around the roof and 200mm border around each velux. From the velux measure the size of a slate. Get the dimensions of the panel you want to use and convert the measurements into number of slates. (e.g. in portrait mode, 1 panel is 4 slates wide and 7 slates tall). Then draw in the panels.

Hi, we had asked activ8 to quote us for fitting some solar panels, on the phone they told us that our roof was not suitable for panels due to the space available, this was done via an app, they didn't visit us.

Now, a neighbour behind us has two panels on their front, red line is the 'property line' with our next door neighbour and what looks like 5 or 6 panels on their gable end. Their gable is south facing, ours is east, their front is east ours is south. For reference the above picture from google earth, was taken in Oct around 9am, due to the school traffic visible.

We were told that we wouldn't qualify for the grant, if the panels were not fitted correctly.

So, I suppose simple question is, are we screwed space wise and there is not much point getting panels fitted, 2 of us in the house someone here during the day. With only the two of us, washing machine is used maybe once/twice a week, we use a tumble dryer during the colder wetter months. Some FOMO with the panels, gas heating (boiler just replaced) so not going to be getting a heat pump anytime soon.

Appreciate the replies.

Thank you for this. I don't have a panel in mind yet. I presume different installer work with their choice? A quick google shows Sunpower use 61.3 inches by 41.2 inches. Would that be a good starting point. Do they need to be touching or could I have one under the small window on the right?

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Are there are return on investment calculators out there for battery and non battery that take account of your usage?

Something a bit like energy pal? I graphed potential results from here https://re.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pvg_tools/en/ vs my actual useage for 12 months.

Things look good April to September but not so good October to March. We have air to water, I guess I should almost forget about trying to cover the heating over the winter?

The solar generated would cover 67% of my usage. With solar and a battery would it be fair to say I could reduce by usage by say 50%. Split it evenly between night and day?

What about without?

My night time usage varies between 25-40%, highest in summer.

Thanks, that's exactly what I did. I increased to 65 and that has given me enough for the two cars, the battery and maybe a washing machine and/or dishwasher.

Thanks to all who helped with this. It has made a huge difference😎

I think you are getting mixed up with big construction projects and getting a small contractor in to put up PV panels in your home. If you asked them who the PSDP is they would look at you silly.

From a very basic google search I think all you need to satisfy yourself is they are competent to do the job, ask them maybe have they insurance (and you have your own house insurance…)

When I was building my house a couple of years ago I did have a PSCS and PSDP but I was spending hundreds of thousands and there were multiple contractors involved.

The HSA does specifically call out residential solar panel installation as requiring appointment of PSCS(and PSDP) due to being risky working at height. I agree that the contractor is likely to look at me silly for even asking about it, but I don't want to be the 'lucky' person that eventually has one of the cowboys fall off their roof. A lot of contractors advertise having full design teams to size the installations, so they even wouldn't be able to use the shaky argument of installing generic designs and not requiring a PSDP.

I expect to find they'll either not consider it at all, or they specifically make sure that the homeowner is appointed for both roles.

Perhaps not strictly a solar quoting but trying to understand how my heat pump generally works in a normal setup (new build 4bed semid).

I am a bit confused as to how it manages the two tasks it does, heating the water tank for showers etc and heating water for radiators.

Are these two different water sources

I understand it heats the water for showers to 50deg 6 days a week and to 60 on a Saturday night. This avails of the night rate on my d/n meter.

But what is it doing when I see the fan spinning during the day. Is it topping up the water tank or heading the water for radiators? I presume this water is just circulating and separate to a tank.

Should I be setting my heading to boost a bit before the day rate comes in to take advantage of night rate?