Solar panel production figures

gpuerrilla said:
Also ten years in a progressive technology like battery storage or solar equipment in general, moves quite rapid so equipment hopefully not only get better priced (cheaper) but is more efficient/smaller/productive etc. As you said its the inverter that historically seems to fail early which is why you dyor on them and budget accordingly.
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The latest inverters are getting smarter and better at managing energy, especially for those of us that integrate it into home automation stuff you can really be quite cute with your energy management.

The way I see it is if you buy a car at £x it'll depreciate and will be worth less over time. However, the VALUE it brings to you outweighs the investment. i.e. you can drive to work, take the kids to school, go and do hobbies, go on holiday, go to the shops, etc... it unlocks opportunities and brings value and possibility to your life. Same for my investment in solar, the value it'll bring to me in the long term outweighs the cost. Now all the cabling is in and I've learned to exploit it, it's going to be win win. And the advantage is I can upgrade as I go, add more batteries, upgrade the inverter etc...
 
HungryHippos said:
Big surprise when giant farm handling extreme circumstances has higher failure rates.

What's next? Hard drives used in a data centre fail often so you shouldn't buy them for your home computer?
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Huh? Extreme conditions? You are aware its just a bunch of small strings on inverters which then link together??
Freefaller said:
Dammit. I should hire him to make my decisions for me. What do you say Diagro? What's your day rate?
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£250. I'm a bargain to be fair.
 
HungryHippos said:
Big surprise when giant farm handling extreme circumstances has higher failure rates.

What's next? Hard drives used in a data centre fail often so you shouldn't buy them for your home computer?
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Thats what i was wondering. I mean who knows. Inverters don't like to be hot. All the industrial stuff we looked at at work (looking at a very large potential array, we have about 30 acres uncovered grassed areas), they were showing photos in basically shipping containers with no active ventilation.
I was like wtf surely they get hot. First guys was oh yeah baking but we just accept the losses and replace them quickly as its a simple job. Makes sense on industrial scale. Active cooling costing more to run than replacing.

Failure is inevitable, cost vs benefit calculations in a throwaway society almost always end up in replace and throw away.

Anyway my panels are warrantied for 25 years. My inverter, batteries for 10. I've got an insurance back warranty should either/both my installer and/or manufacturer go out of business.
Oh I've got a £50 excess though. Yikes ;)

When i was researching I saw the industry stats which was that inverters at around 10 years were by far the highest failure rate, was approaching 50% between 10 and 15 years. Panels were low single figures.
Ive probably got the links somewhere still if interested but I am sure google will throw them all up again.
 
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Mercenary Keyboard Warrior said:
What you gonna do, stick him on an Ac coupled exercise bike?
Im not sure hes going to generate you as much as your panels tbh
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Imagine if it wasn't earthed properly... he'd be supercharged - then I'd really get ROI! :D

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