Solar panels and battery - any real world reccomendations?

Has anyone with the Huawei kit found away to get the actually production for the day? It seems to use some strange calculation for the figure on the main page, a figure which actually drops as the evening goes on due to draining power from the batteries to run the house etc! Even using the PV yield figure in the report, it still isn't accurate... well unless somehow my system can produce a PV yield of 2KWh, while charging my battery 2.5KWh (grid charging turned off).
 
Freefaller said:
You're right - it was just a thought.

Panels are getting better and better all the time. Panels from 10 years ago could only produce 50% of the energy panels can produce now. They're still not THAT efficient unfortunately, which is why I personally would recommend fitting as many as you can sensibly add (as long as the roof gets sunshine).
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I was told that the maximum theoretical efficiency for a solar panel is around 28%. Achieving this looks no more likely now than 10 years ago. Our original panels which were the best at the time (Sanyo HIT 235's) are still performing exceptionally well. I definitely subscibe to the theory that money spent on panels is never wasted and all compromises should be made elsewhere.
 
Peteronthesouthcoast said:
I was told that the maximum theoretical efficiency for a solar panel is around 28%. Achieving this looks no more likely now than 10 years ago. Our original panels which were the best at the time (Sanyo HIT 235's) are still performing exceptionally well. I definitely subscibe to the theory that money spent on panels is never wasted and all compromises should be made elsewhere.
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Most panels are around 28% now and some a bit above.
There have as ever been efficiency improvements, if forget the name of the substance but there was something late last year that they said could boost that by another 10% or so.
 
katie279 said:
Cool! Assume gen 2 inverter? (Suspect in summer you'll be going over max usage/charge a fair bit otherwise!)
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Yes, gen2 kit. The 3.5kw rate limit on the battery should be fine for our needs once the house drain is knocked off.

The panels are east west so you don’t get that big mid day peak of production like you would on a south but they will start earlier and end later which is helpful. Our EV is also parked on the drive during the week to lap up any excess. I just need to work out how to stop the hypervolt charger rinsing the batteries on octopus intelligent without me manually blocking discharge at the random times the car wants to charge.

Anyone got any experience with the givenergy car charger and if it integrates properly to stop that happening?
Kill_Phil said:
If it's eon it probably will be. Seems they are being given priority for gen2 kit
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We didn’t go with Eon, we have used first4solar. The price was right but obviously it is not installed yet so I can’t give a recommendation.
 
b0rn2sk8 said:
We didn’t go with Eon, we have used first4solar. The price was right but obviously it is not installed yet so I can’t give a recommendation.
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Be warned that first4solar use sub contractors on jobs only, and if you have any install issues getting them back will be like pulling teeth unless you are lucky to get a good subby. I assume you'll pay a chunk on credit card for section 75 protection.
In their quote breakdown, how much have they listed as the G99 application charge? I have seen it very massively from the quotes I have seen from them. If they are charging for it, you could do the application yourself now, and ask them to knock it off the total invoice as well.
 
Journey said:
Be warned that first4solar use sub contractors on jobs only, and if you have any install issues getting them back will be like pulling teeth unless you are lucky to get a good subby. I assume you'll pay a chunk on credit card for section 75 protection.
In their quote breakdown, how much have they listed as the G99 application charge? I have seen it very massively from the quotes I have seen from them. If they are charging for it, you could do the application yourself now, and ask them to knock it off the total invoice as well.
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I figured they would be using subcontractors, it’s the only way to get national coverage. Always pay on credit card ;) preferably an Amex, points mean prises!

The G99 wasn’t costed separately but as a package, they were more where I was expecting price wise and in line with prices being posted in here.

The local quotes were very expensive by comparison, the first quote I got was £7k more expensive for the worst system on offer (dumb inverter, pylontech batteries). They could fit in 4 weeks, I’m not surprised given the price…

The price from the company MKW used was more reasonable and the best of the locals but the difference was still material enough to discount them over a national.
 
b0rn2sk8 said:
The G99 wasn’t costed separately but as a package, they were more where I was expecting price wise and in line with prices being posted in here.
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Did you accept their first quote, or did you call them back and barter? They seemed very open to re-doing a quote, with a clear breakdown of the costs included when challenged, and it came back as a better price when I was helping out a friend.

Out of interest what is the total installed cost, for the system you are getting?
 
Welshman said:
if octo is your main supplier, then stick with them as you will get 15p/kwh on export, the rest around 3 or 4p
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Cant, im on go so limited to the 4.1p one

Peteronthesouthcoast said:
I can only find panels going up to 22.8%
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Doh sorry your right i was multitasking and messed up the number in my head :)

This is what i was alluding to. They mention 33% being the theoretic cap for traditional solar, and having maxed so far at 27.

As ever I guess its the lag in lab vs production.

www.cei.washington.edu

Perovskite Solar Cell - Clean Energy Institute

What is a perovskite? A perovskite is a material that has the same crystal structure as the mineral calcium titanium oxide, the first-discovered perovskite crystal. Generally, perovskite compounds have a chemical formula ABX3, where ‘A’ and ‘B’ represent cations and X is an anion that...
www.cei.washington.edu www.cei.washington.edu
 
Journey said:
Did you accept their first quote, or did you call them back and barter? They seemed very open to re-doing a quote, with a clear breakdown of the costs included when challenged, and it came back as a better price when I was helping out a friend.

Out of interest what is the total installed cost, for the system you are getting?
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I did have a bit of back and forth with them over the two systems they offered but to be honest, I didn’t have much to barter with.

Their quote was just under £15k, the next cheapest quote I had was £17k, the most expensive was 21k for functionally the same system.

To be honest, my main focus was getting a sensible headline price amongst what seems to be rabid profiteering on solar in east anglia.
 
Peteronthesouthcoast said:
I was told that the maximum theoretical efficiency for a solar panel is around 28%. Achieving this looks no more likely now than 10 years ago. Our original panels which were the best at the time (Sanyo HIT 235's) are still performing exceptionally well. I definitely subscibe to the theory that money spent on panels is never wasted and all compromises should be made elsewhere.
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Yes sorry I wasn't clear. I meant panels from 10+ years ago are around 50% as efficient as today's panels.
 
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