Solar panels and battery - any real world recommendations?

No, it does not include the gateway. We didn't see a need for it considering we've only had a couple of short outages in the last few years.
I also understand it's possible to add in future.

I think I'm getting hung up on this mandatory requirement for calculations from the MCS standard, and it doesn't help being a structural engineer myself; but in the subsea world.
They have resolved this issue for me :)


img said:
i have my quote for sigenergy in this thread if you want to compare but i didnt have any scaffolding, they just went on ladders.

So far happy with it though just so you know
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that's great to hear you're happy with it, builds confidence :cool:
 
I was tempted by sigenergy but it was a lot more expensive than pw3 and at the time I was waiting endlessly for the 12kw single phase inverter option.

Would be interested in how much control you have over what it does (rather than it doing its "ai" thing), as pw3 can be a bit limited in that regard.

On the other hand having full access to all installer settings via teslaone is awesome!!
 
Littlenose said:
I think I'm getting hung up on this mandatory requirement for calculations from the MCS standard,
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As part of the paperwork, this should include sign off with building control, often done automatically, and therefore that they've satisfied themselves that the roof is structurally strong enough.

If you know the joist size, spacing and span then it's fairly easy to check yourself, for peace of mind. My garage would not have been strong enough for a weighted system, so we bolted through, using lots of CT1, but its only a garage and no ceiling.
 
rtho782 said:
I was tempted by sigenergy but it was a lot more expensive than pw3 and at the time I was waiting endlessly for the 12kw single phase inverter option.

Would be interested in how much control you have over what it does (rather than it doing its "ai" thing), as pw3 can be a bit limited in that regard.

On the other hand having full access to all installer settings via teslaone is awesome!!
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What kind of thing do you want? i had mine scheduled for battery but now changed it to AI mode and it sells battery back to grid as well
 
Gotta love the nonsense marketing of the ‘AI features’ though.

A home assistant automation can do that which is basically just ‘if this then that’ logic. There is nothing intelligent about it at all.

Then you have the likes of Predbat which is using an algorithm based on parameters like solar production, energy use and price signals. Again no one really calls that AI either.
 
img said:
What kind of thing do you want? i had mine scheduled for battery but now changed it to AI mode and it sells battery back to grid as well
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Can you directly control what it is doing? E.g. can you say "discharge to grid now at maximum rate" or "charge from grid now at maximum rate"?

With the powerwall, I have to kind of trick it into doing what I want by setting fake tarrifs, I can't directly tell it what to do when.
 
rtho782 said:
Can you directly control what it is doing? E.g. can you say "discharge to grid now at maximum rate" or "charge from grid now at maximum rate"?

With the powerwall, I have to kind of trick it into doing what I want by setting fake tarrifs, I can't directly tell it what to do when.
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Most systems can do that, it’s by exception that they can’t.

With the power wall, I’d suggest looking into home assistant and predbat if you want to fully automate all that stuff.

It will cover intelligent octopus car charging, savings sessions, automatic forced discharging to the grid etc etc.
 
b0rn2sk8 said:
Most systems can do that, it’s by exception that they can’t.

With the power wall, I’d suggest looking into home assistant and predbat if you want to fully automate all that stuff.

It will cover intelligent octopus car charging, savings sessions, automatic forced discharging to the grid etc etc.
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I use home assistant, and have achieved what I want, it's just that I have to manipulate it into doing what I want :D
 
Which of these two options do you think is the better choice for home battery?
  1. Tesla Powerwall 3 + Gateway 2, priced at £7,500 installed.
  2. Alpha ESS SMILE-G3 with a 5kW inverter and 2x 10kWh batteries (95% DoD, 19.2kWh total usable capacity) for £7,365 installed.
The Alpha ESS offers greater capacity at a lower cost, but the Tesla has a more powerful inverter and includes three solar panel string inputs compared to the Alpha ESS's two.

String inverters typically have a limited lifespan. If they fail after 10 years, the Alpha ESS allows for replacing just the inverter while continuing to use the batteries. With the Tesla, a failure might render the entire Powerwall unusable. However, Tesla's extensive experience with inverters could also mean theirs lasts longer.
 
What’s your wider set up and what do you need?

They are two different products with two different sets of features.

the Tesla has whole home backup in the event of a power outage. That is adding at least £1k to the Tesla price, the gateway is £800 on its own.

IIRC, Fox do a 10kw hybrid inverter with 3 or 4 inputs, 10kwh battery modules which also have heaters.
 
Yeah the worth of home backup will depend where you live a bit, some rural areas do get more outages than others I guess, I cant remember the last time we had a power cut here, must be well over 10 years ago. Personally wouldn't touch tesla products now but each to their own :)
 
Don't really care about whole house backup - it's a house in Manchester, don't think there was a single power cut in the last 10 years.

It's a rental property and renters are complaining about high energy bills. I thought if I get them a good battery it will drastically lower their electricity bill. I have a Powerwall 3 at home and practically haven't payed day rate since it was installed.

As an alternative to a big battery I'm considering say 10 solar panels plus a 5kwh battery. But the problem is the roof is North/South facing and there are tall trees on the South side.

One thing I'm slightly worried is the renters may sigh up for a VPP and quickly wear down the battery.
 
You must be an exceptionally good landlord to install a battery system, and be very trusting of the tenants.

If you don't give them control of the system then surely they can't abuse it. Set it to charge overnight during cheap rate for their chosen tariff, and job done.

I'd say the Alpha system is probably better value, and would give potentially more savings.
 
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