Domestic solar PV quotes 2018

Conar · 13-06-2019 8:54pm

Simona1986 wrote: »

How much do you spend on electricity per year at the moment?

About €1600 per year.

unkel · 13-06-2019 9:02pm

To be more specific: to get a 10 year payback, you need to buy the parts at competitive prices and do a DIY install and not install any battery

Your house has great potential for solar PV though with a 14 panel 4.2kwp system, and such high electricity consumption as you have. There is likely to be a FIT at some point in future, which is an alternative of using a battery (which costs nothing to install)

Conar · 13-06-2019 9:08pm

unkel wrote: »

To be more specific: to get a 10 year payback, you need to buy the parts at competitive prices and do a DIY install and not install any battery

Your house has great potential for solar PV though with a 14 panel 4.2kwp system, and such high electricity consumption as you have. There is likely to be a FIT at some point in future, which is an alternative of using a battery (which costs nothing to install)

I was thinking the same. Battery is probably pointless as we work shift so there's probably higher than usual daytime usage in the house too.

n97 mini · 13-06-2019 11:27pm

Conar wrote: »

About €1600 per year.

Ours is between 700 and 800 a year. What are you using electricity for? It might be more cost effective to run anything which requires heat (water, cooking, central heating) on another fuel source.

Conar · 13-06-2019 11:48pm

n97 mini wrote: »

Ours is between 700 and 800 a year. What are you using electricity for? It might be more cost effective to run anything which requires heat (water, cooking, central heating) on another fuel source.

Ah we have an air to water heat pump so that includes heating bills.
3 adults 1 teen so lots of showers.
Server running 24/7.
Hot water all day long.

I could definitely knock 30% off with more frugal use but I'd rather the comforts at this stage of life.

If I could cost effectively generate solar electricity I would but it looks like we're not there.

unkel · 13-06-2019 11:50pm

n97 mini wrote: »

Ours is between 700 and 800 a year. What are you using electricity for? It might be more cost effective to run anything which requires heat (water, cooking, central heating) on another fuel source.

Average household in Ireland uses 3.5MWh per year. Which on the best deals available is somewhere between €700 and €800 per year. If you spent €1600 and are on the best possible package, that means you are using well over twice the national average. I presume very large house / electric showers / heat pump / electric vehicle or some of the above?

Edit - beaten to it. Heatpump is the bad guy

n97 mini · 14-06-2019 12:10am

Conar wrote: »

Ah we have an air to water heat pump so that includes heating bills.
3 adults 1 teen so lots of showers.
Server running 24/7.
Hot water all day long.

I could definitely knock 30% off with more frugal use but I'd rather the comforts at this stage of life.

If I could cost effectively generate solar electricity I would but it looks like we're not there.

Have you got night rate electricity? I'd start there, and put as much of your load on it as possible.

Water John · 14-06-2019 12:18am

More and more energy using functions will become electric. Energy Watch estimate that by 2050, 70% of the worlds energy will come from solar.
So usage will go upwards over time.

Conar · 14-06-2019 12:32am

n97 mini wrote: »

Have you got night rate electricity? I'd start there, and put as much of your load on it as possible.

No, but I use so much during the day with 2 on shift that I don't think it would make sense.
We also have the heating on 24/7 rather than timed.
I'd much rather a steady temperature than warm at night and cooling down all day.

DrPhilG · 14-06-2019 8:50am

I spend about €1400 a year.

25k km EV driving, 24/7 tropical fish tank, 2000sq ft bungalow.

Wife loves the tumble dryer.

Valhallapt · 14-06-2019 9:23am

Here is the quote I went with:

Company x to supply, install, certify & claim the SEAI grant on the following Solar PV system:
18 panel system using 300W All Black Mono panels delivering 5.4kWp fixed onto Tiled roof
6.3kWh Battery Storage
€8,400 inc Vat. Total system price.

Company X will claim grant on your behalf.

I had the scaffolding up on site as the panels are going on a new extension

KCross · 14-06-2019 12:17pm

Conar wrote: »

No, but I use so much during the day with 2 on shift that I don't think it would make sense.
We also have the heating on 24/7 rather than timed.
I'd much rather a steady temperature than warm at night and cooling down all day.

imo, you have got that wrong.

You should definitely be using night rate electricity if you have a heat pump.

The heat pump will still run 24/7 as you have it today but it will cost half as much for the times it is running at night. You also have the background load and your server which will be half price at night.

Its free to switch to night rate. Your standing charge will go up by about €45/yr and your day rate will go up about 1c/kWh but everything at night will be half price.... you will almost certainly save money.

If you ever decide to get an electric car or shift washers/dryers to night rate you will save even more but the HP alone is enough for you to move to night rate.

If you are not convinced get one of those energy monitors and see how many units you are consuming at night. If its more than 3 per night you should be using night rate.

Conar · 14-06-2019 12:19pm

KCross wrote: »

imo, you have got that wrong.

You should definitely be using night rate electricity if you have a heat pump.

The heat pump will still run 24/7 as you have it today but it will cost half as much for the times it is running at night. You also have the background load and your server which will be half price at night.

Its free to switch to night rate. Your standing charge will go up by about €45/yr and your day rate will go up about 1c/kWh but everything at night will be half price.... you will almost certainly save money.

If you ever decide to get an electric car or shift washers/dryers to night rate you will save even more but the HP alone is enough for you to move to night rate.

If you are not convinced get one of those energy monitors and see how many units you are consuming at night. If its more than 3 per night you should be using night rate.

Thanks, I appreciate the nudge.
Maybe I have that all wrong so.
I'll work out my usage figures and do the sums.

Evd-Burner · 14-06-2019 4:35pm

Conar wrote: »

Thanks, I appreciate the nudge.
Maybe I have that all wrong so.
I'll work out my usage figures and do the sums.

Also depending how big your heat store is you can set the HP to heat the store during night rate electricity. Then during the day you take the heat from the heat store and the HP only comes on if the heat store drops below a certain temperature. You could potentially make good saving here too!

Nedved85 · 14-06-2019 5:06pm

KCross wrote: »

imo, you have got that wrong.

You should definitely be using night rate electricity if you have a heat pump.

The heat pump will still run 24/7 as you have it today but it will cost half as much for the times it is running at night. You also have the background load and your server which will be half price at night.

Its free to switch to night rate. Your standing charge will go up by about €45/yr and your day rate will go up about 1c/kWh but everything at night will be half price.... you will almost certainly save money.

If you ever decide to get an electric car or shift washers/dryers to night rate you will save even more but the HP alone is enough for you to move to night rate.

If you are not convinced get one of those energy monitors and see how many units you are consuming at night. If its more than 3 per night you should be using night rate.

I have a heatpump which has been idle for the past two months as the house is hovering at 20 degrees on its own. It does turn on after showers to refill the hot water. For the winter months it's on for about 4 hours per day to heat the house from about 17/18 up to 20.
I charge mostly at work so I'd say I'm better off staying on the 24hour rate?

KCross · 14-06-2019 5:22pm

Nedved85 wrote: »

I have a heatpump which has been idle for the past two months as the house is hovering at 20 degrees on its own. It does turn on after showers to refill the hot water. For the winter months it's on for about 4 hours per day to heat the house from about 17/18 up to 20.
I charge mostly at work so I'd say I'm better off staying on the 24hour rate?

Same advice.... get an energy monitor and if you are using more than 3 units, on average, per day during the night rate hours then you should be on a night rate plan.

My bet is that you would save also, as 4hrs per day during the winter months is alot of energy and spread that out over the year along with the 365 days usage to heat water and you are almost certainly more than 3 units per day... probably multiples of it to be honest but as I said, dont trust me.... get an energy monitor and prove it for yourself.

Shefwedfan · 14-06-2019 5:25pm

DrPhilG wrote: »

I spend about €1400 a year.

25k km EV driving, 24/7 tropical fish tank, 2000sq ft bungalow.

Wife loves the tumble dryer.

With the wind up around your end of the country???

Great drying weather :P

Nedved85 · 15-06-2019 8:17am

KCross wrote: »

Same advice.... get an energy monitor and if you are using more than 3 units, on average, per day during the night rate hours then you should be on a night rate plan.

My bet is that you would save also, as 4hrs per day during the winter months is alot of energy and spread that out over the year along with the 365 days usage to heat water and you are almost certainly more than 3 units per day... probably multiples of it to be honest but as I said, dont trust me.... get an energy monitor and prove it for yourself.

Watching the zappi charger, the house is ticking over at 0.1 kw so I guess I should stick with the 24 hour plan for now. That said, we could change our habits and put the washing machine and dishwasher on at night. I also do roughly one weekly car charge at night, say 20kWh.

KCross · 15-06-2019 8:35am

Nedved85 wrote: »

I also do roughly one weekly car charge at night, say 20kWh.

That alone is your 3 units per day for the week. Add in your heat pump during the winter and you should be on night rate.

Nedved85 · 15-06-2019 8:40am

KCross wrote: »

That alone is your 3 units per day for the week. Add in your heat pump during the winter and you should be on night rate.

The 20kWh is an estimate.. I'll get the spreadsheet out to track my usage over the next month or two (once I have the Zappi hub app setup) and see where I'm at. Cheers for the info. Out of interest, what's the logic behind the 3 units per night?

Even during winter, the heatpump is not on after say 11pm. The house is sitting at 20 degrees and I drop the baseline temperature for the house to 18 overnight and during the early day, so the temperature tapers back down, whilst the heatpump is off.

Water John · 15-06-2019 12:42pm

IWT maybe bring on the HP at 5/6 am and build up the living areas back up to 20C. That would justify your night rate also.

Coltrane · 17-06-2019 11:41am

Conar, I would spend whatever you can manage on the rooftop-PV and postpone the battery.

I strongly disagree with many of the payback/ROI-calculations for renewables that I see (on here and elsewhere).

Firstly the calcs all disregard tomorrow's financial costs to each and every one of us of the environmental damage we are doing today. If the science is right, we will very soon have to build floodgates, dikes, additional border controls etc to try to mitigate warming. If we're lucky, we would in this way get to preserve something like today's society, at a cost. We all need to factor these costs now, unless we don't believe the science. No-one tells us how high the costs will be, but we need to plug in some kind of estimate to our ROI-calcs, or we're running incorrect numbers. Mitigation will not be free!

Secondly many of the calcs disregard obsolescence and maintenance costs. They run something like this: if I spend 100 euro today on PV, and save 2.5 euro a year in energy costs, my ROI is 2.5%. But this doesn't factor the reduced market value of the panels at the end of the period for which we are calcing return - these will obselesce and therefore fall in value by, presumably, substantially more than the 2.5% per annum, not to mention maintenance of, for example, the inverters...when you wrap all of that into the ROI-calc, the numbers tend to make little sense for many renewables...except when you factor future environmental damage.

Not too many renewables yet pass muster on classicial ROI-calcs. We many of us tend to buy renewables because we sense the cost of damaging the environment.

We need to start plugging some value for that damage into our calculations.

For me, PV works on above basis, but batteries don't because they themselves have an environmental footprint and I've found no evidence that export is technically unmanageable by the grid.

QUOTE=Conar;110432696]Ah we have an air to water heat pump so that includes heating bills.
3 adults 1 teen so lots of showers.
Server running 24/7.
Hot water all day long.

I could definitely knock 30% off with more frugal use but I'd rather the comforts at this stage of life.

If I could cost effectively generate solar electricity I would but it looks like we're not there.[/QUOTE]

gally74 · 18-06-2019 5:46pm

25k generated off 4.2 today. 6x and it's not 6 yet.

wexfordman2 · 18-06-2019 7:03pm

gally74 wrote: »

25k generated off 4.2 today. 6x and it's not 6 yet.

That's pretty good, 26kwh here with a 6kwp systen

Gumbo · 18-06-2019 7:33pm

13.25 kWh from a 3kw system.
Still generation over 400w now which is more than powering the base load of the house.

gally74 · 18-06-2019 7:53pm

wexfordman2 wrote: »

That's pretty good, 26kwh here with a 6kwp systen

Yep delighted with the system so far. Opened up the immersion cover to turn up the thermo stat today..... eddi working really well clever kit

unkel · 18-06-2019 8:18pm

20kWh from 3.8kwp west Dublin. Better than I thought. Was quite cloudy today, but the sun was strong when out

n97 mini · 18-06-2019 9:29pm

4x here. Kinda surprised some others aren't getting more as I've a shadow from 6.30pm and I think my inverter is clipping slightly at around 3pm.

wexfordman2 · 19-06-2019 11:02am

gally74 wrote: »

Yep delighted with the system so far. Opened up the immersion cover to turn up the thermo stat today..... eddi working really well clever kit

Yeah, the eddi is great, I am really surprised at how well it tracks and soaks up the excess.

I had a period when I didnt have the eddi in, and it was heartbreaking to see all that power being exported.

Stefs_42 · 19-06-2019 6:46pm

wexfordman2 wrote: »

Yeah, the eddi is great, I am really surprised at how well it tracks and soaks up the excess.

I had a period when I didnt have the eddi in, and it was heartbreaking to see all that power being exported.

small hope that we will get paid some day for that exported energy

Domestic solar PV quotes 2018

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