Solar options for home in 2022.

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#3057353 31-Mar-2023 22:39

Thats great news @PolicyGuy

I am going to chase up the Home Generation team mid next week if I have not heard back from them. All they are now waiting on is the metering company to tell them how much I have exported back to them and to change the parameter of the meter remotely so that Genesis is able to see what I am selling back to them. You would think that this should be straight forward with no physical changes required at customer's end.

I thought if customer is not GST registered aka a business, then Genesis will only pay 12c? It's awesome news though if they are indeed paying 13.8c/kWh. Good thing with Genesis is that you can cash out the credit back to your bank account via there app.

Do whatever you want to do man.

HarmLessSolutions

969 posts

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#3057376 1-Apr-2023 09:37

Interesting to follow your struggles with the PowerCo. In our experience Wells have a monopoly on meter installation and their level of service is lax to put it mildly. It was months before we got our export meter fitted due in part to COVID issues but the communications with Wells were shambolic and their scheduling unreliable.

https://www.harmlesssolutions.co.nz/

joemate

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#3057875 2-Apr-2023 17:00

March is over, so it is time to look at the numbers of the previous month. Unfortunately my invoice date is halfway through the month so I have to keep a separate spreadsheet for the finances.

Below is the report of the PV system (Huawei) + the one from Contact energy. There's a slight discrepancy between the two meters, but I don't worry about that.

billgates

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#3058980 4-Apr-2023 13:27

Things are looking better with Genesis. I did not have to chase them up and they sent an update today via email stating below. Hopefully very soon once the below issue is resolved, I will get back a big fat credit from Genesis for past exports and also moving forward.

"We apologise for the delay, we are still troubleshooting some data issues with the Meter Owner in regard to your meter communicating remotely. Once we have received this data, we will calculate a resolution credit with the exported data we received from the meter owner."

@joemate 52.2% self-consumption is good. Can the Huawei portal show your battery self-consumption use as well as I dont think the 52.2% is taking battery use during evening/nighttime outside of the 3 hours of free power from Contact. Is Contact paying you 8c for exports or 8c + GST (9.2c)?

Do whatever you want to do man.

joemate

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#3058991 4-Apr-2023 14:02

I'm not using the battery during 21-00, just charging it. I am not sure I understand your question, sorry.

Contact is paying me plain 8c/kWh.

billgates

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#3058996 4-Apr-2023 14:11

From the screenshot you posted above, it shows 484.30kWH 'From PV'. I take it that is your Solar arrays consumption figures during the day when sun is out. Can you see how much consumption house has using the battery during evening and early mornings? i.e is your total consumption figure using the batteries higher than 927.47kWH as shown in screenshot below?

Do whatever you want to do man.

joemate

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#3058999 4-Apr-2023 14:22

Here's a screenshot from the portal, showing yesterday.

billgates

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#3064768 18-Apr-2023 10:10

Received an update today from Genesis Home Generation team. Looks like by early next week, we should be seeing a big FAT credit come back our way. From the export stats I can see on our PV system, it should be around $650 for last 4 months @ 13.8C (12c + GST). We are now seriously looking at getting an EV so will be investigating EV chargers and this should speed up ROI on the Solar PV system as well.

Do whatever you want to do man.

No4

19 posts

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#3065765 19-Apr-2023 17:17

neb: AC Solar recommended PowerTech and Reid Technology so I'll ping them tomorrow.

How is progress with identifying useful suppliers/installers?

I'm also on North Sore of Auckland and am in the process of building a frame for a 10kW solar system. No battery initially (I already have a generator for comms/refrigeration) but I want to allow for it, maybe with a V2L EV once they start doing station wagon formats. I got preliminary quotes a year ago when I started looking but like you have found it difficult to assess quality. I'm in a similar boat to you I think in that I'm very interested in getting the details right for a very long term solution, not being fobbed off with the deal of the day style thinking.

I was initially looking at REC Alpha panels for the lifetime performance but am still learning my way around the options. This thread came along at the perfect time!

neb

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#3065792 19-Apr-2023 18:58

No4:
neb: AC Solar recommended PowerTech and Reid Technology so I'll ping them tomorrow.

How is progress with identifying useful suppliers/installers?

PowerTech sounded good on the phone and were pretty responsive initially but mentioned they were rather snowed under, they estimated two weeks just to do a proposal and it's now been over a month, pinged them again a few days ago. I got the impression Reid were really more larger-scale commercial stuff, and given that they came out of David Reid Electronics I wasn't overly enthusiastic about them to begin with.

No4

19 posts

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#3065805 19-Apr-2023 20:00

billgates:

If you are not strictly budget and space constrained then the best setup IMO is a string inverter from the likes of SMA or Fronius connected to a battery charger inverter via AC coupling from the likes of SMA, SelecTronics or Victron which then connects to your 48V battery like BYD LVS or LVL for e.g.

Would the string inverter choice change if the plan was to put in a grid tied system now and in the future add a V2L capable electric vehicle as the battery in case of power outage? I'm presuming the battery charger inverter mentioned above would be replaced by an appropriate EV charger.

I'm contemplating this as being a high power user (50-60 units/day across the year), my self-use would be high and batteries aren't really going to be economical on an ongoing basis (yet) but the backup capability would be nice. I have a generator at present but could see a future EV might serve dual purposes.

billgates

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#3065849 19-Apr-2023 23:36

No4:

Would the string inverter choice change if the plan was to put in a grid tied system now and in the future add a V2L capable electric vehicle as the battery in case of power outage? I'm presuming the battery charger inverter mentioned above would be replaced by an appropriate EV charger.

I'm contemplating this as being a high power user (50-60 units/day across the year), my self-use would be high and batteries aren't really going to be economical on an ongoing basis (yet) but the backup capability would be nice. I have a generator at present but could see a future EV might serve dual purposes.

String inverter choice would not change for me. We just purchased an EV today knowing well that it does not have V2L capability as being a good family car that rides well was the first priority. I am a firm believer of seperate battery for Solar PV setup as most V2L vehicles has power rating limitation of around 3kW to 3.5kW output max which is not enough to run our home. Solar PV batteries specked with correct C rating so you can get the correct amount of kW rating delivered per hour is more important to me hence BYD LVS batteries along with SMA Sunny Island is still in the project for us.

Do whatever you want to do man.

Newtown

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#3067902 25-Apr-2023 17:05

@billgates – Which EV did you get? Also, are you still planning to go with the SMA EV Charger? I see that Evnex released a new charger, but seems just to be a new case design more than anything.

billgates

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#3067903 25-Apr-2023 17:15

@Newtown we have purchased a BMW iX1 but it's going to be minimum 4 months wait from production to delivery if our May build slot has been secured else we are looking at 6 months wait. I am going to Auckland tomorrow to drop off the Mazda CX-5 to the BMW dealer as we traded it in and got a good price for it. BMW also threw in their Wallbox Gen 3 charger which can do both 22kW three phase and 7.2kW single-phase charging but not 2 phase unfortunately. NZ spec of iX1 does comes with 22kW AC charger built in as well which is handy for AC chargers when travelling as I have seen quite a few that do 22kW AC.

The SMA EV charger will cost around $3k excl install. The BMW Wall box Gen 3 freebie we have secured as part of the deal is worth around $1800 excl install. I dont think I will be able to sell it quite easily so I am thinking of getting the BMW wall box installed for now inside garage on 1st phase and when we go for the SMA Sunny Island with BYD LVS batteries then also buy the SMA EV charger at that time as cabling for the BMW EV charger will already be there and then move the BMW wallbox charger outside of the garage on 2nd phase so we have 2 EVSE. Both SMA and BMW EVSE are outdoor rated so this would provide flexibility of charging inside or outside the garage.

Do whatever you want to do man.

Newtown

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#3067910 25-Apr-2023 17:46

@billgates – Nice car! I don't think you'll need SMA's charger now. I had a quick look at evcc.io, and it seems to support your car and wallbox out of the box. So, it'll read the SoC and do solar charging. Shame about the wait though.

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