Solar panels and battery - any real world reccomendations?

Oh, forgot to say, my other issue is we have had pigeons under there. They've been well gone and no problems for months with the panels, but I know they'll attribute it to that. There is evidence under there, twigs etc...
Also had pigeon proofing put on, they'll blame that too.
 
I got my Tigo monitoring setup yesterday (bar two panels where I need to recheck serial #s) and have been really impressed with it, although now wondering why south facing 410w rated panels are not getting above 350w on a perfect summer’s day in July.


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rodders said:
Project solar UK, stay well away. I was stupid to use them, but it was close to the last FiT payment closure date, so I rushed it, silly boy I am.
TBH I don't want them round, but if it saves me money....the install lads weren't actually too bad, just everything else was!

Edit - my inverter is Solax, which I understand is a good brand.
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We had project solar come and give a quote. 7k higher than local installers. Not entirely sure why they're so expensive.
 
SBo said:
I got my Tigo monitoring setup yesterday (bar two panels where I need to recheck serial #s) and have been really impressed with it, although now wondering why south facing 410w rated panels are not getting above 350w on a perfect summer’s day in July.
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How many strings of panels have you got going into the inverter?
 
Another month with the DIY setup.

The 20 hour peek rate from 4.30 am to 00.30 next day, for 30 days.......total cost £0.27p in electric use for that period :).
Time shifted most use now. cheap rate for the other 4 hours is washing machine and immersion use.

Edit to add, for 6 days we were away in Scotland in that billing period.

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Could someone in the know please comment on these prices?

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

Option 2
  • 14 x JA Solar 405W or Canadian Solar 410W Mono solar panels
  • 1 x Growatt 6kW Dual tracker inverter
  • 14 x Schletter on-roof mounting kit (2 x 7 in portrait would need 7.8m width x 4m height)
  • 1 x All cables, clips, generation meter, AC/DC isolators
  • 1 x Installation & commissioning
  • £6,195 inc VAT
Scaffolding not included in quote. There's an installation fee of £200 if I go for battery systems, which are quoted as follows:

  • GivEnergy 5.2kWh Lithium Ion Battery Storage System - £3,595
  • Alpha ESS 5.8kWh Lithium Ion battery Storage System - £3,695
  • Fox 5.2kWh Lithium Ion battery Storage System - £3,495
  • SolaX 5.8kWh Lithium Ion battery Storage System - £3,895
  • Zappi 7kW Tethered EV car charging station - £995
  • iBoost / Solic200 Solar Immersion Controller - £295

If I go for the most expensive options it'll be around £11,500 and at the current cost of gas/electric for us being £168/month that would take 6 years to recover - in the unlikely event it would completely cover all of our electric requirements (I know it won't). A very crude calculation I know as we would use gas for cooking, energy costs could change and whatever, but it's an incredibly rough guideline for me. I hope we're not still here in 6 years. Does solar add any value to a property?
 
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If you're not going to be there for the period of payback - which your calculation appears to have got massivley wrong then economically it's not worth it, so it comes down to if you want to minimise your impact on the environment. Unlikely to add anything to your property value.
 
SoliD said:
If you're not going to be there for the period of payback - which your calculation appears to have got massivley wrong then economically it's not worth it, so it comes down to if you want to minimise your impact on the environment. Unlikely to add anything to your property value.
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Yeah I thought I'd be well out. Thanks for confirming my suspicions.
Will keep learning though as it might be viable for the next house
 
My panels are throttling themselves to around 90% of expected output at the moment, although there's a decent breeze the air itself is extremely warm so not cooling enough to maintain peak output.
 
Cadder said:
Could someone in the know please comment on these prices?
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Not too bad actually considering the comical prices out there. Who's that with?

As an example, trade price for some 405/410W JA solar panels is around £122-125 and the public can access those prices.

It's the markup, silly install costs and high battery costs/install that really are ruining it atm if you want a system installed that's grid-tied.
 
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SBo said:
Todays Southern England Agile export prices..! £££££££

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At those kind of prices it might be worth going solar panels only route? Like if your roof can handle 6-8kwh of panels might be better doing that than as it could be cheaper to install and you benefit a lot more in winter? Could go for maybe a small battery perhaps just to have it topped up for the night like a 2-3kw one maybe.
 
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