Associate
Nightmare and nightmare!!!!!
Ronski's Solar & battery DIY build with whole house backup
- Thread starter Ron-ski
- Start date
It's frustrating, I hate relying on trades people, especially when they don't reply for days on end.
I'm capable of doing what's left myself, but need to cover my backside as they say.
I'm capable of doing what's left myself, but need to cover my backside as they say.
I haven't updated for a while, last weekend I finalised the wiring design for the rear wall panels, and fitted the heat shrink boot.
Heat shrink started out the same size as the top one, incredible how much it shrinks, it is also adhesive lined, so seals the cable nicely.
I also started installing some conduit for the new outside lights, the conduit will be hidden behind the panels, and drops down to the lights. I finished this off this Saturday, and mounted the lights and PIR, ready for the electrician to run in the cables. No pictures of this, you'll have to wait and see the end result.
Yesterday, was supposed to be a nice easy day, a cracked tile on the bottom row on the roof, and also a loose one further along, but.................
A hole in the felt, the felt didn't lip over to the gutter, and a lot of nest material top left of the above picture, this was 11am on a Sunday, but worse was to be found.......
When I removed the corner tiles, the rather knackered felt, and all the nesting material, I found the end rafter was completely rotten, along with the tile battens. This was 12:22.
I think this had been bodged up before, likely when the soffits and fascia was replaced in the late 90's before we owned the house, not sure if the nesting material was more recent, but couldn't see where they'd got in.
Time was short, and also the DIY stores close at 4pm on a Sunday, so I had to come up with a plan and quickly, and make sure I purchased what I needed.
Rotten wood cut out, and new wood laid in.
Then all screwed in place.
There was some brickwork to cement back in place, then some new felt laid in, which meant another trip to buy some, as I thought I had some, but there wasn't much left, the next picture was taken at 16:05.
And the repairs finished at 18:00, the end row of tiles had to be bedded on cement, one sits a little lower than it should, but it doesn't matter.
Tonight I've been up on the roof, and sprayed the entire N/W side with Wet and Forget.
Heat shrink started out the same size as the top one, incredible how much it shrinks, it is also adhesive lined, so seals the cable nicely.
I also started installing some conduit for the new outside lights, the conduit will be hidden behind the panels, and drops down to the lights. I finished this off this Saturday, and mounted the lights and PIR, ready for the electrician to run in the cables. No pictures of this, you'll have to wait and see the end result.
Yesterday, was supposed to be a nice easy day, a cracked tile on the bottom row on the roof, and also a loose one further along, but.................
A hole in the felt, the felt didn't lip over to the gutter, and a lot of nest material top left of the above picture, this was 11am on a Sunday, but worse was to be found.......
When I removed the corner tiles, the rather knackered felt, and all the nesting material, I found the end rafter was completely rotten, along with the tile battens. This was 12:22.
I think this had been bodged up before, likely when the soffits and fascia was replaced in the late 90's before we owned the house, not sure if the nesting material was more recent, but couldn't see where they'd got in.
Time was short, and also the DIY stores close at 4pm on a Sunday, so I had to come up with a plan and quickly, and make sure I purchased what I needed.
Rotten wood cut out, and new wood laid in.
Then all screwed in place.
There was some brickwork to cement back in place, then some new felt laid in, which meant another trip to buy some, as I thought I had some, but there wasn't much left, the next picture was taken at 16:05.
And the repairs finished at 18:00, the end row of tiles had to be bedded on cement, one sits a little lower than it should, but it doesn't matter.
Tonight I've been up on the roof, and sprayed the entire N/W side with Wet and Forget.
No it wasn't, especially late in the morning, I wasn't amused, my wife said I was quite stressed!
Very close, depends on the weather really
Very close, depends on the weather really
Consider buying Benzalkonium Chloride (BAC) in the 50% bottles and diluting it down. Wet and Forget is just 9.9% BAC so like many similar products its just over charging for BAC which can be bought at 50% concentration for about £32-35 for 5 litres (cheaper for 2 or more) so almost a fifth of the price of Wet and Forget, Patio Magic and others.
Soldato
Whilst a ball ache, probably a win in reality.
Eventually that would have spread enough to end up with a failure.
Probably during some storm when a freak gust catches the corner at just the right angle to rip it off.
Eventually that would have spread enough to end up with a failure.
Probably during some storm when a freak gust catches the corner at just the right angle to rip it off.
Yes, a ball ache, but it needed doing, it would have only got worse, and as you say at some point it would have failed.
Good to know.
Another hard days work, electricians arrived 8am this morning, they work as a pair but also have an apprentice, which meant four of us in total to get the panels up, and into place on the roof which made things a lot easier, but still a very hard days work.
We're all really pleased with how the panels look, very flat, and central on the roof, there was only one problem, and it wasn't of my making.
The electrician had a brain fart and got the MC4 plugs the wrong way around (easy done with MC4 plugs), so the polarity is reversed, which is not good. Had I used single core black PV cable we could have just swapped it around in the combiner box, but PV Ultra is colour coded red and white. So they are coming back with new plugs tomorrow, they had enough spare plugs to do one array, but not all three.
Now this array is fully functional, and came to life at 15:30, the scaffold poles do shade the panels though, and we were working in front of them tightening bolts, and securing cables, but again very pleased with how they have turned out.
Total installed PV is 15.525 kWp
We're all really pleased with how the panels look, very flat, and central on the roof, there was only one problem, and it wasn't of my making.
The electrician had a brain fart and got the MC4 plugs the wrong way around (easy done with MC4 plugs), so the polarity is reversed, which is not good. Had I used single core black PV cable we could have just swapped it around in the combiner box, but PV Ultra is colour coded red and white. So they are coming back with new plugs tomorrow, they had enough spare plugs to do one array, but not all three.
Now this array is fully functional, and came to life at 15:30, the scaffold poles do shade the panels though, and we were working in front of them tightening bolts, and securing cables, but again very pleased with how they have turned out.
Total installed PV is 15.525 kWp
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Soldato
Incredible effort making the unexpected roof repairs - could have been a major headache in the future!
Electricians arrived at 9 this morning, NW roof panels up and running by 9:47
Soldato
So whats the total size of the system now??
15.535 kWp, total of 43 panels.
Soldato
So now do you need more batteries?
No, but when we come around to spring next year I will need to automatically send some to the grid, and some to the batteries, basically balancing the charge & grid rate to maximise generation, otherwise the batteries will charge pretty quickly, then the 11.5kWp connected to the 8kW inverter will be clipped to 8kW, although its unlikely we'll ever generate the full 11.5kW due to the panel orientation and angles.So now do you need more batteries?
Associate
Going by mine, I don't think it'll be too much of an issue. With 9.42kW I've only breached 8kW five times this year and those were just on occasions when it had been cloudy and the sun had come out. They peak at around 5pm but then your other panels are dropping off by then.
Going by your trace on 25th June for example they'll peak at 5pm, but then the rest of your panels were down to 3.5kW by then, so you'll not breach the 8kW.
Time to get jealous - see this post as you must have missed it, you've got some catching up to doI'm getting jealous again.....
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