Solar panels and battery - any real world reccomendations?

@Alex_L That's incredibly expensive.

  1. 12 x panels = £835.
  2. 12 x Enphase IQ8A = £1615.20

Thats £2450 for the panel and inverters, and I've not even shopped around!

There is no battery included, no scaffold costs included, London or not that's extremely expensive.

Is there any need for micro inverters?
  1. Are the panels on different roofs?
  2. If so how many roofs?
  3. Are there any shading issues?
Is there room to fit more panels?


.
 
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As others have said, incredibly expensive, scaffolders will want another £500-£800 on top of that also.

You should be paying a lot less than that including scaffolding.

12 panels is a one day job for 2 roofers and an electrician if you want to gage labour costs.

Edit:That said dlockers is down in Surrey and just paid £650 for someone to skim his garden office excluding materials…

Edit2: both the Tesla power wall 3 and sigenergy system are both hybrid inverters and want DC directly from the solar panels. You don’t want to be using enphase micro inverters with them, waste of money IMO.

You’ll be better off getting it all installed at the same time. Even now after prices have crashed, there is good margin in installing solar and battery products, you’ll be paying that twice getting it installed piecemeal.

Edit3: a power wall 3 and 12 solar panels should still be a 1 day job for 3 people.
 
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Thanks for the quick replies confirming what I thought given it excludes the scaffolding as we’ve got scaffolding up anyway for the building work.

Re: number of panels - More panels are difficult I think given our roof layout (big front gable + small flat roof above the second floor at the rear) and direction the house faces (garden is north-east facing so panels will be on the front roof). Will ask about the west facing part of the gable to see what’s possible which given the cost of the panels feels a no brainer.

Interesting on Tesla and sigenergy batteries and inverters and getting it done all in one go as well so will bear that in mind. A heat pump will follow at some point when the boiler dies.

Time to find some more London installers to get more quotes - any advice on avoiding cowboys? I’m not looking for absolute lowest cost as I’d rather pay a bit more for a good job but equally don’t want to be ripped off.
 
Alex_L said:
Thanks for the quick replies confirming what I thought given it excludes the scaffolding as we’ve got scaffolding up anyway for the building work.

Re: number of panels - More panels are difficult I think given our roof layout (big front gable + small flat roof above the second floor at the rear) and direction the house faces (garden is north-east facing so panels will be on the front roof). Will ask about the west facing part of the gable to see what’s possible which given the cost of the panels feels a no brainer.

Interesting on Tesla and sigenergy batteries and inverters and getting it done all in one go as well so will bear that in mind. A heat pump will follow at some point when the boiler dies.

Time to find some more London installers to get more quotes - any advice on avoiding cowboys? I’m not looking for absolute lowest cost as I’d rather pay a bit more for a good job but equally don’t want to be ripped off.
Click to expand...
MCS not the be all and end all by any stretch, but its a first basic gateway as right now it remains important.

mcscertified.com

Find a Contractor

Find an MCS certified installer to install your solar PV, heat pump, wind, biomass or solar heating renewable technology.
mcscertified.com mcscertified.com

Octopus are on the expensive end but trusted company as are EON. Not sure if Octopus quote for non customers. But highly recommended anyway if your willing to switch supplier.
They also do heatpumps so could be a way in as well.

EON subcontract out to good installers from what I can tell.
 
I'm pondering adding another 5 panels to my existing 10 although they would have to be wall mounted. Not ideal for Summer although could be helpful for low winter sun. Will set them up with Tigo's to help - anyone tried it?
 
SSE for me, the angle I suspect will be a little limited by the panning permission "must not extend more than 200mm from the wall" maybe? My hope is it should max the inverter in the summer/wring a bit more from the low sun in the winter and cloudy days and help keep the batteries topped off during the day. I just need to figure our the payback period.
 
Alex_L said:
Thanks for the quick replies confirming what I thought given it excludes the scaffolding as we’ve got scaffolding up anyway for the building work.

Re: number of panels - More panels are difficult I think given our roof layout (big front gable + small flat roof above the second floor at the rear) and direction the house faces (garden is north-east facing so panels will be on the front roof). Will ask about the west facing part of the gable to see what’s possible which given the cost of the panels feels a no brainer.

Interesting on Tesla and sigenergy batteries and inverters and getting it done all in one go as well so will bear that in mind. A heat pump will follow at some point when the boiler dies.

Time to find some more London installers to get more quotes - any advice on avoiding cowboys? I’m not looking for absolute lowest cost as I’d rather pay a bit more for a good job but equally don’t want to be ripped off.
Click to expand...

As nobody else has said this yet, do your calcs for every single part of your roof (eg use PVGIS if your installer(s) won't quote for it/try and talk to you out of it). Panels are *so* cheap now that there's no good reason not to fit as many as you absolutely can. You'll be able to fit them to the flat roof as well unless it is really tiny. Even a directly North-facing panel will make 50-60% of a South-facing panel so will very likely generate a ROI unless there's other factors like heavy shading or you live under permacloud.
 
Alex_L said:
Thanks for the quick replies confirming what I thought given it excludes the scaffolding as we’ve got scaffolding up anyway for the building work.

Re: number of panels - More panels are difficult I think given our roof layout (big front gable + small flat roof above the second floor at the rear) and direction the house faces (garden is north-east facing so panels will be on the front roof). Will ask about the west facing part of the gable to see what’s possible which given the cost of the panels feels a no brainer.

Interesting on Tesla and sigenergy batteries and inverters and getting it done all in one go as well so will bear that in mind. A heat pump will follow at some point when the boiler dies.

Time to find some more London installers to get more quotes - any advice on avoiding cowboys? I’m not looking for absolute lowest cost as I’d rather pay a bit more for a good job but equally don’t want to be ripped off.
Click to expand...
If you want a Tesla power wall go direct to Tesla, they’ll link you with local installers.

Not sure about the Sig system, it’s serious wonga. I’d expect they’ll have an installer list.

GivEnergy also publish their certified installers on their website, although the Tesla Power wall is now a better product than their ‘all in one’ system (I have this). I’d go Tesla over Giv if I was installing today, it’s slightly more expensive but worth it.
 
Mercenary Keyboard Warrior said:
MCS not the be all and end all by any stretch, but its a first basic gateway as right now it remains important.

mcscertified.com

Find a Contractor

Find an MCS certified installer to install your solar PV, heat pump, wind, biomass or solar heating renewable technology.
mcscertified.com mcscertified.com

Octopus are on the expensive end but trusted company as are EON. Not sure if Octopus quote for non customers. But highly recommended anyway if your willing to switch supplier.
They also do heatpumps so could be a way in as well.

EON subcontract out to good installers from what I can tell.
Click to expand...

Thanks. Will do some reading and fire off some request for quotes. I assume most places estimate remotely using Google earth and firm up with a visit?

Octopus interestingly suggests a 12 panel install would be 7-7.8k which is still cheaper than the quote I’ve got. £13k with a powerwall 3 so worst case I’ll go with that assuming they’ll install it.

DRZ said:
As nobody else has said this yet, do your calcs for every single part of your roof (eg use PVGIS if your installer(s) won't quote for it/try and talk to you out of it). Panels are *so* cheap now that there's no good reason not to fit as many as you absolutely can. You'll be able to fit them to the flat roof as well unless it is really tiny. Even a directly North-facing panel will make 50-60% of a South-facing panel so will very likely generate a ROI unless there's other factors like heavy shading or you live under permacloud.
Click to expand...

Ok. Thanks for that. Will see how many we can get up there. I reckon using the back roof and gable we could get 20-25 panels having looked at the measured drawings we’ve got of the house.
 
My install of 23 panels (on 2 different roof's) plus Powerwall3 was all done in a day.
A long day mind, they didn't leave until it was getting dark.
b0rn2sk8 said:
If you want a Tesla power wall go direct to Tesla, they’ll link you with local installers.

Not sure about the Sig system, it’s serious wonga. I’d expect they’ll have an installer list.

GivEnergy also publish their certified installers on their website, although the Tesla Power wall is now a better product than their ‘all in one’ system (I have this). I’d go Tesla over Giv if I was installing today, it’s slightly more expensive but worth it.
Click to expand...
I originally went straight to Tesla, they linked me with a horrible 'hard-sell' company, based down south, but they do have an office in Yorkshire.
Find your own reputable company is my advice, Spectra Solar were very good, knowledgeable and not pushy at all.
 
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So I now have a revised quote for 16 panels plus PW3 and a comparison quote from another London installer + an estimate from Octopus:

Quote 1: £16.5k
Quote 2: £15.5k
Octopus: £16-16.8k estimate

Getting all three out to fully survey but suggests the London tax is real / I need to start negotiating on pricing assuming there is a massive margin built into all three quotes.
 
I have a naive question but with solar panels being so cheap these day. I've seen figures of £60 a panel. (is that right?)
With enough panels and extras would it be possible to do a DIY setup for only a few thousand.

Am I wrong to believe that a lot of the cost stopping people from having solar panels is the installation cost.?

How much work is involved that could be done before a professional is need to wire it into the house.
 
ChroniC said:
I have a naive question but with solar panels being so cheap these day. I've seen figures of £60 a panel. (is that right?)
With enough panels and extras would it be possible to do a DIY setup for only a few thousand.

Am I wrong to believe that a lot of the cost stopping people from having solar panels is the installation cost.?

How much work is involved that could be done before a professional is need to wire it into the house.
Click to expand...

There is quite a lot more than just the panels.
Take a look at one of the DIY sites they will sell you the whole lot.
You need an inverter, various switches, cabling, roof/ground mounts etc even a sticker pack.

Yes you can do most of the work, but finding a spark to certify and connect up isn't always that easy.

For sure you can save yourself a load of money.
I am sure what puts most people off most is the working at height.
 
I've seen full kits, inverters etc for a little over 2.5k.. Are batteries worth the extra or is the storage capacity to low for the cost? Is a 10kw battery going to sod all to warranty the cost?
 
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