Solar panels and battery - any real world reccomendations?

Personally (as someone who has on-roof PV), if I was re-roofing I would 100% without a doubt opt for an in-roof integrated solution.
I would also get both roof pitches panelled as well (made the mistake of only having the SSE side panelled) and as large an inverter as possible.
 
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Eh? You can use the same panels, why do the warranties all of a sudden become shorter? You do know you don't need in-roof specific now and there are many in-roof tray manufacturers.
I'm basing this on what I've read on the following pages. The latter link references how certain in roof installation systems can use any type of panel, whereas some use specific types of panels specific to in roof installation.


 
Some companies are now starting to create specific in roof panels claiming much closer to parity (last I think I saw was 2% lower)
They aren't using trays as such but slightly different mounting with like double gaskets between the panels.

I know its subjective but I cannot think of a single in roof I have seen thats been beaten by an on roof (from looks point of view)
The only ones that come close effectively seal in the panels anyway so the cooling effect of a draft under the panels has also been removed.
 
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Eh? You can use the same panels, why do the warranties all of a sudden become shorter? You do know you don't need in-roof specific now and there are many in-roof tray manufacturers.
Look at the small print, it's there, I've seen it, minimum space requirements, can't remember the specific working, but it was probably in relation to JA Solar, or Longi panels. You may have to read both the installation manual and warranty, if not installed online with manufacturers installation instructions then the warranty could be void.

Personally not something I'd be concerned with.

As for aesthetics, go black roof tile, and black panel in roof and they look far better than on roof, even if the tiles aren't black they look better in my opinion.
 
Some companies are now starting to create specific in roof panels claiming much closer to parity (last I think I saw was 2% lower)
They aren't using trays as such but slightly different mounting with like double gaskets between the panels.

I know its subjective but I cannot think of a single in roof I have seen thats been beaten by an on roof (from looks point of view)
The only ones that come close effectively seal in the panels anyway so the cooling effect of a draft under the panels has also been removed.
Look at the small print, it's there, I've seen it, minimum space requirements, can't remember the specific working, but it was probably in relation to JA Solar, or Longi panels. You may have to read both the installation manual and warranty, if not installed online with manufacturers installation instructions then the warranty could be void.

Personally not something I'd be concerned with.

As for aesthetics, go black roof tile, and black panel in roof and they look far better than on roof, even if the tiles aren't black they look better in my opinion.
i was on the city plumbing website yesterday and they have an in roof panel thats 70mm deep rather then the normal 30mm. but it also costs more than the same size/type of 30mm panel...
 
Octopus and electricity usage has anyone else had disparities between what their system says they used and what Octopus or your supplier says?

Examples:
24/11 Octopus says we used 78.38 kWh. Mysigen app shows the total from the grid as 37.83 kWh.
29/11 Octopus = 68.29, mySigen = 17.67
7/12 Octopus = 57.7, mySigen = 31.81
10/12 Octopuis = 55.79, mySigen = 24.2
15/12 Octopus = 56.09, mySigen = 32.3

the difference is huge for some days then similar for others. Obvs will be querying it.
 
There's always a little bit of difference, my Victron system reports about 5% higher than my Smart Meter, but as yours is significantly different something somewhere is wrong.

Just a thought, do you have an EV charger? Perhaps Mysigen isn't taking that into account, otherwise it may discharge the batteries to charge the EV.
 

18th Nov 2024 - 16th Dec 2024​

There's always a little bit of difference, my Victron system reports about 5% higher than my Smart Meter, but as yours is significantly different something somewhere is wrong.

Just a thought, do you have an EV charger? Perhaps Mysigen isn't taking that into account, otherwise it may discharge the batteries to charge the EV.
actually this might be it. The EV charger is separate from the batteries etc. I have found some issues with accurate reporting as well in the sigen community, but the EV charging makes sense as would be the typical days we charge on. So it is EV plus battery charging I would assume. Going to look back and size the charging usage separately to see if the difference makes sense.
 
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City plumbing got the 425w panels back in stock, currently collection only due to xmas….. so will get 4 ordered up for delivery as quick as they will allow.

So i now got the timber for the framing, the metal box steel for the roofing….. so will start the build as soon as they take the tree down.
 
I got onto the solar company that did mine about the damage to my tiles, they asked me to send photos and apparently the damage didnt match up to ones they had taken so they blamed it on the scaffilding company.

Not to worry though they would send a roofer out to repair it and would send the bill onto the scaffolders.

When he got up the damage was actually allot worse, they had broken a bunch more tiles and attempted to stick them back together with silicone adhesive. Still tried to say it was the scaffolders that did it though and they must have glued them. Thing is though the tubes of adhesive they used had been left on the scaffolding for months so I saw them plenty enough looking out of my bedroom window.

The roofer replaced them all though so all good now.

They had also left the usb wifi adapter for the inverter ontop of it so I dont need to buy one of those like I initially thought.
 
Glad its sorted, does make you wonder if anything else is amiss though. Sticking tiles back together with mastic is pretty cowboy like, OK as a temporary fix, whilst they arranged for new tiles, but not permanent.

They can blame the scaffolders all they want, I presume they organised the scaffolding, so its down to them regardless.
 
Likewise how would scaffolders break the tiles? They don’t normally step foot on the roof, there generally isn’t and need to.
what caused the hold up with my job was they said the roof was too steep so they needed a barrier to go up the middle between mine and my neighbours like they had on the gable end. Where one of the most noticable missing tiles was locared was that area.

The other weird thing was the stop ends from my guttering had been removed. It was brand new guttering I only had installed in Aug. Luckily the roofer spotted it so I had to go buy some more of them and he installed them for me.
 
Anyone have givenergy stuff and like it?

I have a givenergy AC coupled inverter and battery, and its just rubbish.

I havn't been messing with it much, just left it on eco mode, and it mostly works, all be it, its quite slow to react.

Anyway, I have started getting octopus power up sessions, so obviously trying to make the most of those by forcing the battery to charge from the grid during those times, should be easy right?

Wrong.

You set the timed charge on the battery, request timed out.... 3 times later it finally does it, wait for the next day, watch the battery....nothing.

OK, so, ill try a firmware update as it was quite out of date, 3 attempts, first two failing after about 30 minutes, third time works, dont do anything different on the 3rd time....

Set up the timed charge again.

Check this morning, battery starts charging, all be it 1 hour earlier than it should do, checked time setting is correct, yes correct, but data output is an hour later (or course!?!) so that part at least I can factor in for tommorow by setting it 1 hour later.

Even then, I am checking the battery and its charging at 1.6kw, why? Surely it should just charge up as fast as it can?

The thing literally seems to have a mind of its own.

Be interested to see now what happens when this power up session (and therefore the timed charging) ends in about 10 minutes, will it just go back into eco mode as normal? Who knows?

Honestly its junk, also my 5.2kwh battery has no where near the correct capacity, according to the data, its at 100%, charge today 2.6kwh.......
 
I have a given 9.5 ac coupled. Its been flawless really. From what I see on the givenenergy Facebook etc 90% of issues are down to the installers not setting something up correctly.

It will go back to eco after the charge period unless you have it set to discharge at certain times.
 
My AIO is fine and aside from the occasional SOC tracking issue, it seems to behave itself.

Isn’t the 5.2 an 80% DOD product? So circa 4.1 usable.

Are you controlling it via the web portal, via the app or locally via home assistant?
 
My AIO is fine and aside from the occasional SOC tracking issue, it seems to behave itself.

Isn’t the 5.2 an 80% DOD product? So circa 4.1 usable.

Are you controlling it via the web portal, via the app or locally via home assistant?

Web portal. I have the app as well but I just use that to keep an eye on it.

I don't have home assistant.

I suspect the 2.6kwh is because it's cold, but honestly no idea really.

At least it seems to have gone back to eco mode after the timed charge.
 
Web portal. I have the app as well but I just use that to keep an eye on it.

I don't have home assistant.

I suspect the 2.6kwh is because it's cold, but honestly no idea really.

At least it seems to have gone back to eco mode after the timed charge.
On the app you can just press the play button and select a button to discharge/charge etc it's far easier doing that for the saving sessions and free electricity for me.
 
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