Solar panels and battery - any real world reccomendations?

Harnser said:
Thought I saw a comment in the thread about winter generation and east/west but can't see it now so replying to this one. I'd need E/W orientation as my big roof is north facing and the south one broken up by gables. Looking at the generation data on https://twitter.com/edent_solar (scroll down to see the winter figures) it does look lower than I'd expect from a south facing array of the same size. Anyone more knowledgeable able to comment? Array details at https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2020/04/comparing-solar-panel-generation/.
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Not sure just from what I saw, solar farms being E/W gives them less peak but longer generation through more of the day.

Winter is always likely to be kind of rubbish for solar.

tsinc80697 said:
Is it worth considering adding panels on NEE and NNW facing parts of the roof or is the drop off significant when not using south facing?

The panels don't seem to be an expensive part of the cost (from what I can tell), so adding 5x400w for ~£1000 (plus additional install cost I assume?) on a NEE/NNW facing roof would save some money per year, but is it worth it on that direction roof.
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You'd really need to get an installer out to quote, they can map the performance based on data they have, angle to the sun, pitch on roof etc.
 
Cadder said:
Yeah sorry - 320kWh per month is peak around December/January according to my Hugo app.
I asked the supplier and they say 9/10 times they can do everything from their tower which is included in price. They say scaffolding would be around £400 if necessary.

So option 1:
  • 10 x JA Solar 405 or Canadian Solar 410W Mono solar panels
  • 1 x Growatt 4kW Dual tracker inverter
  • 10 x Schletter on-roof mounting kit (2 x 5 in portrait would need 5.6m width x 4m height)
  • 1 x All cables, clips, generation meter, AC/DC isolators
  • 1 x Installation & commissioning
  • £4,595 inc VAT
Plus the following options:
  • Battery installation charge - £200
  • Two batteries from these options?:
    • 2 x GivEnergy 5.2kWh Lithium Ion Battery Storage System - £3,595 each
    • 2 x Fox 5.2kWh Lithium Ion battery Storage System - £3,495 each
    • 2 x SolaX 5.8kWh Lithium Ion battery Storage System - £3,895 each
  • Zappi 7kW Tethered EV car charging station - £995
  • iBoost / Solic200 Solar Immersion Controller - £295
That's looking like £13-£13.7k if I have assumed two batteries is the right way forward. Edit: removed
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Those SolaX batteries look expensive, my quote for same below, although it could be they are adding all the extras in free where as mine are itemised, but even so all the extras on my list your 2x batteries are way above the difference

SolaX Triple 5.8kWh LFP Battery (Master Console) £2,415.00
SolaX Triple 5.8kWh LFP Battery (Slave Console) £2,052.75

Edit, however when i consider your 13-13.7 against my 13 i have 4 more panels, you have the car charger, overall it seems pretty on par with mine.
i think we are just seeing where some add margin on one line and others on another. Eg my panels and install are probably 2k more than your quote, with the batteries 2k less (I have 750 install fee for batteries)
 
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HungryHippos said:
I'd ask them about the 9.5kwh battery they do, it may be cheaper than 2 x 5kwh batteries. One less thing to go wrong as well.
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Mercenary Keyboard Warrior said:
Those SolaX batteries look expensive, my quote for same below, although it could be they are adding all the extras in free where as mine are itemised, but even so all the extras on my list your 2x batteries are way above the difference

SolaX Triple 5.8kWh LFP Battery (Master Console) £2,415.00
SolaX Triple 5.8kWh LFP Battery (Slave Console) £2,052.75

Edit, however when i consider your 13-13.7 against my 13 i have 4 more panels, you have the car charger, overall it seems pretty on par with mine.
i think we are just seeing where some add margin on one line and others on another. Eg my panels and install are probably 2k more than your quote, with the batteries 2k less (I have 750 install fee for batteries)
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Options

  • Alpha ESS 10kWh Lithium Ion battery Storage System - £5,695
  • SolaX 11.6kWh Lithium Ion battery Storage System - £6,395

Price is going down. Now looking at £11.5k-£12.3k all in.

Does anyone know if the SolaX is really that much better than the Alpha ESS?
 
HungryHippos said:
We've discussed it a fair bit here, the main tariffs that support this are EV ones, if you don't have an EV but you wind up on one, there is a chance they could pull it out from under you. What I'm really getting it here, is you should design a system that doesn't just rely on that being the case.

You'd need a lot of battery power at 30kwh per day, which I think you'd potentially find it hard to charge up in the short off-peak tariff rates.

Not sure how fast you could charge at max speed, may depend on the number of batteries and max supply to the house.

9000 kwh is fairly high, have you looked at what is using that much power? that is around a constant 1kw all day long every day on average.

if you're looking at adding solar/battery/EV anyway you may as well consider contacting installers to see what they can do. South/North might in combination do a fair bit, though I think north is the worst for generation. A lot of solar farms are E/W to get flatter/longer generation even if S is better.
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If you had 2 Givenergy gen2 inverters each with two x 9.5 batteries you'd pretty much charge them all up on Go Faster (5 hours).
 
Harnser said:
Thought I saw a comment in the thread about winter generation and east/west but can't see it now so replying to this one. I'd need E/W orientation as my big roof is north facing and the south one broken up by gables. Looking at the generation data on https://twitter.com/edent_solar (scroll down to see the winter figures) it does look lower than I'd expect from a south facing array of the same size. Anyone more knowledgeable able to comment? Array details at https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2020/04/comparing-solar-panel-generation/.
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I've mentioned I'm having East/West on two flat roof areas, it will give a longer period of generation and reduce the peak but at the expense of maximum generation to the south.
However, in my case by going this way I'm able to fit 18 panels instead of 12 south panels which should more than makes up for the reduction in performance.
 
FYI @Ron-ski if you log onto the Bulb site, there is a section for Smart Meter reading frequency in your account.

For mine it was set to monthly. I've set this to 30 mins (takes a few days to update it says).

Worth doing sooner rather than later, as I have no idea if my smart meter is capable of working with Bulb yet, and I'd have to wait more than a month to find out at present!
 
HungryHippos said:
FYI @Ron-ski if you log onto the Bulb site, there is a section for Smart Meter reading frequency in your account.

For mine it was set to monthly. I've set this to 30 mins (takes a few days to update it says).

Worth doing sooner rather than later, as I have no idea if my smart meter is capable of working with Bulb yet, and I'd have to wait more than a month to find out at present!
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Thanks, I'll login and change that. My smart meters hadn't worked for a long time, then they started working towards the end of last year I think, then they stopped working about two weeks ago.

94JDH said:
I think I worked it out at 240mm for my panels at 10 degrees.
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Mine work out about that, but that's not above the highest point of the roof, so will be much closer to the 200 above highest point.
 
If they don't work, I'm sure they'll come and fit some new ones. I've no idea why they've stopped nothings changed my end.
 
Ron-ski said:
If they don't work, I'm sure they'll come and fit some new ones. I've no idea why they've stopped nothings changed my end.
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Maybe if they don't work/can't fix them.

They said they can't swap mine to SMETS2 directly because gov charge a fee for removal of a smart meter, even if they're replacing with a new one.

Not sure if true for broken ones though, probably not.
 
Thats just typical, they roll out dodgy Smart Meters, then people aren't allowed to upgrade to the better ones. Ours were installed in 2014, think recently they managed to update them somehow, hence they started working.

This suggests that they are allowed to change them if faulty, otherwise £150 fee for removal.

www.thisismoney.co.uk

I want to remove my smart meter but have to pay £150. Why is this?

I moved into a property in October and found it had a first generation smart meter installed. When I asked about having it removed, I was told it would cost £150. Can I not have it removed for free?
www.thisismoney.co.uk www.thisismoney.co.uk
 
Yeah basically, and mine were installed by previous occupants before I bought the house, so stuck with SMETS1.

Mine did work with EDF but I have a feeling they were installed by EDF.

I am not sure if it will start working with Bulb automatically. Something to do with suppliers enrolling them into their networks I read about lately, so could magically pick it up.
 
Meeting with the electrician's went well tonight, he seems really keen. They will be MCS certified, but aren't yet. I've no idea what he's going to charge yet though, seems happy for me to do a lot of the work, but not the AC stuff obviously.

Only major concern is they are new to solar, but he's done the MCS course, and is aiming to get on the Tesla course, but not sure when he can fit that in. Other concern is what its going to cost, but its only money ;)

Journey said:
Yeah I am going with the Quattro for that very reason, the second AC-in, as I'll be running V2L from the car in to it instead of needing bigger batteries for the house, might as well use the ones sat on the driveway.

I've actually got an outstanding query with Victron about the certifications on the newer Multiplus/Quatrro II's and such, so I'll let you know what I hear if anything at all.

Going to be doing some Victron courses as well, so I can become more familiar with the programming etc. as want to be able to make most use of the system. Looking forward to being in control of it rather than the manufacturer, and the Cerbo GX looks amazing for data capture and control.
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I'd be very interested to hear what Victron come back with reference the certification of the newer inverters.
What courses are you doing? Do you have a link?
One of the reasons I'm going the way I am is the flexibility and control.

Troop said:
@Ron-ski when you purchase the Lifepo4 cells, make sure they have "Brand new" stated in the listing, you have way more comeback if they have them listed as brand new, and you find that they are not, If you are dealing with a source in China.(it seems new in China can mean repackaged used cells)

KJ BMS is a good choice for the cells, mine has been running for 90days without having to touch it, always keeps the cells very well balanced, like to 0.005v.
Only out of that range at the very top of the charge range, I only charge mine to 3.5v per cell.

If you have no heating in the Garage, safe bet is to set the BMS to stop charging @2c as the sensor reading is only from the cell the sensor is touching, other cells might be a bit higher or lower.

Just what has worked well for me.
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Thanks for the tips, I'm presuming that's a typo and you mean JK BMS, that's' my first choice at the moment.

Any recommendations for cell suppliers?

I really need to start my own thread specifically for this install, keep all info together then - possibly a job for the weekend.
 
Ron-ski said:
I'd be very interested to hear what Victron come back with reference the certification of the newer inverters.
What courses are you doing? Do you have a link?
One of the reasons I'm going the way I am is the flexibility and control.
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There's a link to some introductory training, and pro level stuff here. However I have been in touch with a local distributor/installer who also run courses, and they seem quite good value, even offered some free ones if I buy the kit from them.

Keep and eye on the training website for Victron as they also do free hands on stuff at trade shows etc. Nothing in the UK right now, I have asked what is up an coming, still awaiting a response though.

Loads of community support as well,which is good to see.

I've still not heard back regarding the certification, and if I don't hear soon it will force my hand and I'll have to go for the 8000kVA Quattro unit, which I'd prefer not to spend the extra if I am honest.
 
Yes sorry, JK BMS, If you're happy to buy your cells from China(AliExpress) I'd wait for their 11th November sale, big savings to be had.

I picked up 8x280Ah Brand new tax paid delivered to my door, just under £650.
Same cells out of the sale period over a grand.(waiting for the sale again to get another set of 8.

I can message you who I bought from on AliExpress, I had good cells from them and I'll be buying again from them.

Also bought 8X105amp just to have a pack to play with in the 11-11 sale, from a different seller listed as new but they were repackaged cells,
but so cheap @£172 tax paid and delivered.

One thing to note is they will take 2 months to arrive with little/no tracking before they land in Europe..
 
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