Solar panels and battery - any real world recommendations?

Johnson9 said:
I'm thinking of joining the solar soul train and would appreciate your advice :)

I plan to get a Tesla Powerwall 3 and some panels for a start. My home is a terrace house, that makes a turn half way trough. So I have 4 roof sections. One South facing with room for 6 panels, South-West for 5, North-East for 3 and North for 4.

Initially I thought of getting 14 panels on the South, South-West and North-East parts and leaving the North empty, but I've been reading this thread and people seem to recommend to get panels on the whole roof.

But the problem is the Powerwall in UK comes with 3 solar string inputs, so I won't be able to connect all 4 sections of my roof to different ports.

Do you think I should just get 14, or go for 18? If I do go for 18, how can I connect them to the Powerwall 3? I was thinking maybe get the panels on one of the sections fitted with micro-inverters and connect them to the AC part of the powerwall, but not sure if that is possible and makes sense.
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I think I would get the 4 on the North facing as opposed to 3 on the NE, but its a close call.
Generally we say max the roof but often talking of running 2 difference faces (3 potential with latest PW) but 4 facings is fairly unusual.
You could maybe get the NE and N facing connected together with optimisers but it adds quite a lot of cost x7 panels so might be just worth picking NE or N and doing that as a string and ignoring one small part of roof.
S6 and SW5 is a decent amount anyway.

Suggest finding one of the solar generation predictors and seeing what it throws out for N4 vs NE3 and which shows as highest probably generation.

Panels and mounting is pretty cheap hence why we say max the panels, but there are costs with installing them so its a bit of a generic saying that comes with a disclaimer of, unless installing the extra ones is too expensive vs what they will generate.
 
Mercenary Keyboard Warrior said:
Suggest finding one of the solar generation predictors and seeing what it throws out for N4 vs NE3 and which shows as highest probably generation.
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Do you have any recommendations on a site to use? I looked at the PVGIS one, but I couldn't see any options for shading.

I'm contemplating putting panels on a ground floor east facing roof. But as it's a 2 storey house, it'll be in shade for the second half of the day. It doesn't seem like an obvious choice, but it's a new roof, so we'd have to pay for tiles instead of integrated solar panels, so the outlay isn't as big as it would be for an existing roof.
 
NotAGolf said:
Do you have any recommendations on a site to use? I looked at the PVGIS one, but I couldn't see any options for shading.

I'm contemplating putting panels on a ground floor east facing roof. But as it's a 2 storey house, it'll be in shade for the second half of the day. It doesn't seem like an obvious choice, but it's a new roof, so we'd have to pay for tiles instead of integrated solar panels, so the outlay isn't as big as it would be for an existing roof.
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PVGIS can do it, you need to go to advanced options where you can do elevation models based on hills etc, including uploading your own for close objects.
 
Thanks for all the input folks.
Based on this, I think I should consider the northern side of the house.
I believe that the northern side will generate ~55% of southern side panels.
The northern side has double the free space that the south facing side has. So I'd be doubling my generation?
I think this would take me into the 8-9 kW generation range, and wonder if this could cause issues with inverter capacity - thus increasing costs.

I'm disappointed that none of the salesmen I've spoken to have advised on using hte north side, cosnidering that it's twice the area, and also a low slope (~15deg)

Battery wise, I believe I can start small (10kWh) and increase capacity at a later date relatively easily?
 
The problem with the North side is it generates almost nothing in winter when you most need it. It's worth is entirely dependent on export rates staying favourable but panels are very cheap now so if you're installing a new system it still usually makes sense to just max everything out.

Littlenose said:
Thanks for all the input folks.
Based on this, I think I should consider the northern side of the house.
I believe that the northern side will generate ~55% of southern side panels.
The northern side has double the free space that the south facing side has. So I'd be doubling my generation?
I think this would take me into the 8-9 kW generation range, and wonder if this could cause issues with inverter capacity - thus increasing costs.

I'm disappointed that none of the salesmen I've spoken to have advised on using hte north side, cosnidering that it's twice the area, and also a low slope (~15deg)

Battery wise, I believe I can start small (10kWh) and increase capacity at a later date relatively easily?
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I've asked a couple of the comapies giving me quotes to consider the north side and I'll see what they come back with.
From what I've seen so far, it feels that the solar companies are trying to sell what they call "bespoke" packages without any real optimisation of design going into them.
 
Littlenose said:
From what I've seen so far, it feels that the solar companies are trying to sell what they call "bespoke" packages without any real optimisation of design going into them
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That is very much the case.

Try https://www.dorsetsolarsolutions.co.uk/ I know they will install north facing, they did Upside Down Forks on YouTube.

The low pitch wil also decrease generation, but if it's a large roof it could well be worth doing in addition to the better roofs.
 
Finally getting around to doing the south facing wall installation this weekend, got a 4m tower coming from HSS on Friday and have enlisted the help of my long suffering DIY buddy (brother) on the promise of a BBQ and beer afterwards.

Think I'm going to change the configuration of the panels, initially I was going to go for 2 rows of 3 but after some consideration I think I'm going for the option on the right:

4o4E6Il.png


My thinking being:
  • The left most panel will incur less shading from the chimney breast later in the day
  • Less of a horizontal squeeze, giving a bit more brick either side (previously would have only been 12.5cm)
  • The top two panels will be flat instead of 3 panels being flat to prevent shading on the lower row
  • The lower row will be easier to adjust as the slide out parts will be accessible via steps instead of a full blown ladder. (tweaking)

PV Ultra is all run in from the garage up to the loft and ready to poke out of the wall, last few fitting accessories turn up tomorrow all being well and good. Ordered a decent set of crimps, some heatstink cable boots for the ends of the PV Ultra and some beers for a victory dance once it's all done. :D
 
Just finally agreed on a deal for a 32 x Aiko Neostar 2S 460w panel system with a Fox ESS 10kw Hybrid Inverter and a Fox EP11-H 10.36kW battery with bird blocker and all scaffolding/electric work for just over £11K.

A big investment, but we'll have 21 panels on the rear south face of the house and another 11 on the front. After working through a few quotes & deciding on best course of action I can't wait to get it done & generating/exporting once the time comes. :D
 
Gazanimal said:
Just finally agreed on a deal for a 32 x Aiko Neostar 2S 460w panel system with a Fox ESS 10kw Hybrid Inverter and a Fox EP11-H 10.36kW battery with bird blocker and all scaffolding/electric work for just over £11K.

A big investment, but we'll have 21 panels on the rear south face of the house and another 11 on the front. After working through a few quotes & deciding on best course of action I can't wait to get it done & generating/exporting once the time comes. :D
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That looks like a really good deal. Who was that with out of interest?
 
reef said:
That looks like a really good deal. Who was that with out of interest?
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FutureProofSolar - dealt predominantly with them but had some other competitive quotes but after a lot of back and forth emails I’ve decided they were a cracking deal and overall come across as very helpful.
 
Oy. Raised a ticket with SolarEdge this week to get my site transfer in so I can configure my second string/optimisers. Their web form sucks, so I had to raise a ticket. After a few days of no response, I've just fired up a web chat with support.

The agent is refusing to facilitate the site transfer and won't give me access to provision the stuff and things. They keep pointing me back to the installer, who wasn't willing to help me with my request. Round and round we go...

edit - oh the webform is working now, lets see what that does.

edit edit - still nothing. But I am a Certified SolarEdge Installer now thanks to the training on their site, see it that greases the wheels. :D
 
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lots of new sigenergy improvements, which look potentially very helpful, including smart device control (but still not HA compatible in an easy way), scheduling and prioritisation, battery capacity expansion, more commercial and mega system sizing options.

 
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f666 said:
lots of new sigenergy improvements, which look potentially very helpful, including smart device control (but still not HA compatible in an easy way), scheduling and prioritisation, battery capacity expansion, more commercial and mega system sizing options.
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That's interesting... I was thinking of going with SigEnergy as they seem to be well worked, but the lack of easy use Home Aasistant puts me off a little.
Could you explain more about what you mean by that ?
 
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