Solar panels and battery - any real world reccomendations?

Hodders said:
We signed up to a Wiltshire council "Solar together" scheme. Basically they auction off batches of people interested to get a low bid for the work.

We've been offered:

12 Panels "Canadian Solar". 1.7m x 1.1m 435W with a 10 year guarentee
Fox ESS F series invertor 10 year warrenty
4.7kWh battery storage Fox ESS EP5 (90 % discharge)
Myenergi Zappi EV charger

Total: £7922 including installation and scaffolding.

Thoughts as to brands and overall value?

They are suggesting a 8 year payback period.
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I think it will be a Fox H1 inverter as the F series are solar only. If you can, make sure it is the 5kW version as those batteries are capable of 5kW charge/discharge rates and it'll be a much better fit with your 5.22kW of panels.
 
@Hodders They've quoted for 12 panels, is that all that can be fitted on the roof?

Often they will fit a 3.6kW inverter because the DNO paperwork is easier, and quicker, and fit a token amount of panels, and token battery.

One thing I have seen on here before about the "Solar Together" scheme is the quality of workmanship varies wildly, presumably you have no idea who the installer is, so are unable to check reviews?

What's your usage, and what's your aims?
 
Hodders said:
We signed up to a Wiltshire council "Solar together" scheme. Basically they auction off batches of people interested to get a low bid for the work.

We've been offered:

12 Panels "Canadian Solar". 1.7m x 1.1m 435W with a 10 year guarentee
Fox ESS F series invertor 10 year warrenty
4.7kWh battery storage Fox ESS EP5 (90 % discharge)
Myenergi Zappi EV charger

Total: £7922 including installation and scaffolding.

Thoughts as to brands and overall value?

They are suggesting a 8 year payback period.
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It looks about right considering the Zappi will be a £1k install as a standalone job. Things like bird protection will be an expensive adder on solar together schemes so watch out for that. Likewise anything which isn't a 'standard install' will come with additional cost added.

How much energy does your house consume and do you have an electric car already and can you access a time of use tariff like Octopus Intelligent Go?

I ask this because your battery storage is quite small, it may be beneficial to add more. Batteries come into their own in winter when combined with time of use tariffs like Intelligent Go. You charge from the grid overnight on cheap electric for 7p for use when solar is low. You can currently export for 15p so it is actually beneficial to charge from the grid year round at the moment and export all excess solar.

As @Ron-ski said, check which inverter is being fitted, make sure its the 5kw version and they do the G99 paperwork. Likewise, its usually better to fit as many panels on your roof as possible - the install cost is more than the panels cost these days so going back and adding more isn't financially viable. Battery storage can be added after the fact with sensible install costs for as long as they still make those batteries.
 
Hodders said:
Really useful.

We've got a couple of days to decide so one question is cost. Does the quoted figure look like a bargain or "about right"?

Appreciate the help!
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It's far from a bargain, it's OK to bad.

They are cheap £50 panels, and n cheap (likely 3.6Kw inverter) ~£500, an over priced small capacity battery with 90% DoD, whoop you are getting a decent charger. Check out the pricing here and that isn't a special bulk buy scheme.
 
@Hodders My installer should cover Wiltshire.

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Same battery you are quoted, the larger 10kw battery is an extra £1330. Panels are 440w Jinko.

10 year panel warranty on those canadian solar ones is very short. Usually its 25 years standard now.

I found the solar together scheme anything but competitive, my Hampshire quote was one of the most expensive and they offered zero flexibility on the components of the system.
 
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Plenty of helpful info in this thread! It’s time I look to invest in panels and a battery so will give Spectra a shout and see what they recommend. Any other recommendations? I’m based in North West Leicestershire right on the Derbyshire border.
 
Canadian solar panel warranty is 25 years.
I have them. It was changed in something like 2020.

Well strictly speaking its 15 or 25 years.
15 for manufacturing defects and 25 year performance guarantee.

"FIFTEEN (15) YEAR LIMITED PRODUCT WARRANTYSubject to the exclusions contained herein, Canadian Solar warrants to the original buyer (the “Buyer”) of theProducts that the Products shall be free from defects in materials and workmanship which have an effect onProducts functionality under normal application, installation, use, and service conditions as specified in CanadianSolar’s standard product documentation such as the installation manual and its annexes.Claims under this warranty will only be accepted if the Buyer can prove that the malfunctioning or nonconformity of the Products results exclusively from defects in materials and/or workmanship under normalapplication, installation, use and service conditions specified in Canadian Solar’s standard product documentation.This Limited Product Warranty does not warrant a specific power output of the Products, which shall be exclusivelycovered under the Limited Performance Warranty elaborated below.

TWENTY-FIVE (25) YEAR LIMITED PERFORMANCE WARRANTYCanadian Solar warrants that for a period of twenty-five years the Products will maintain a level of performance asset forth below:• During the first year, Canadian Solar warrants the actual power output of the Products will be no less than97.5% of the labeled power output.• From year 2 to year 25, the actual annual power decline will be no more than 0.6%; by the end of year 25,the actual power output will be no less than 83.1% of the labeled power output.The actual power output of the Products shall be determined for verification using Standard Testing Conditionsonly. The actual power output measurement is either carried out by a Canadian Solar facility or by a Canadian Solarrecognized third-party testing institute. Testing equipment uncertainty will be applied to all actual power outputmeasurements"
 
Had my old panels removed and redone into the roof. Wasnt the slickest process in the end but got there. Just Velux to be done now. Had to lose 8 panels for the visual benefit and the lack of friendly bird families.

Quite happy now, the kit instructions were wild for the roofer to work out, it was 50 pages of madness, so ended up being rescued by the guy who installed the standard panels last time.

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darkblade said:
How soon are you guys getting your DNO letters (typically used by energy suppliers to sign up for export tariffs), once the system is installed?
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My DNO are taking their sweet time. Application went in on 27th April... still waiting. So much for a 45 day SLA.

It grates on me that I am heating up the power cable in the road for free, there is only so much excess power I can fit in the car.
 
darkblade said:
How soon are you guys getting your DNO letters (typically used by energy suppliers to sign up for export tariffs), once the system is installed?
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I emailed Scottish Power Energy Networks on 29Nov last year and received an email back the same day to say that they don't issue DNO letters and to use the email I received in which he stated the G99 had been processed, there were no outstanding fees or actions to be taken. They had received the commissioning documents and were totally satisfied.
I forwarded that to Octopus but still had to wait until the 8th December for SPEN to create an export MPAN. By the 16th Dec. my meters were up and running and I was live with Octopus export rates.
 
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darkblade said:
How soon are you guys getting your DNO letters (typically used by energy suppliers to sign up for export tariffs), once the system is installed?
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I had my G99 approval/letter in about 7 working days iirc. Export MPAN took a week as well. That's with SP Energy Networks (ak SP Manweb). Interesting that they didn't issue one for Pyr0 but did for me!
 
Looking at solar as part of a renovation project (scaffolding in place) and been quoted the following (architect uses them regularly so trust they’ll do a high quality job):

Solar Photovoltaic Panels – Eurener
• To supply and install 12 x 430W Eurener All black mono solar panels with
Enphase IQ8A microinverters,
• To supply and install all mounting system items, mechanical fixings, brackets,
isolators and meter,
• Connection, isolation, metering of full system ready to connect to CCU,
• Carry out full design, commissioning and certification,
Total £8,136.18 + 0% VAT. Scaffolding excluded.

We’re based in North London so I expect we’re paying a postcode tax to some degree but interested in whether this is hugely expensive or not?

My reading suggested the panels and microinverters were good options but from some rough maths on panels and inverters seemed to come to about £3.5k which suggests a colossal cost of ancillaries and to install and commission - am I being unfair?

I’m also interested in adding a battery at some point, potentially a power wall 3 (we have a Tesla) or sigenergy (friend had one put in recently and rates it). Would this setup be compatible with it?

Finally - any recommendations for companies in north London to get some other quotes?
 
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