Solar options for home in 2022

Forums › Home Workshop DIY › Solar options for home in 2022 - 2026

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87 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 90

#3467317 6-Mar-2026 16:18

richms:

... All those DIY systems you see the people in the US doing are totally not allowed here.

Depends what you mean by DIY. A colleague did a DIY home installation of a grid-connected residential ~5kW solar system including a low voltage battery, here in NZ. He did the mechanical stuff himself (mounting of panels, building a fire-rated wall lining, routing of cables, etc.), and some of the wiring. He used a commercial inverter and battery, both approved for use in NZ. Some of the wiring he did himself and had it checked over by a certifying sparky. Some of the other wiring (upstream of the switchboard) had to be done by the sparky. He did have to look around a bit to find a sparky willing to sign of on his work. He is an electrical engineer, so had a high level of understanding of the principles, even though not a licenced electrician. And he carefully read over the relevant parts of the latest Au/NZ wiring regulations. He also set up an Arduino running Home Assistance to monitor and control it all. It's a cool set-up, but was quite a big project for him.

cruxis

512 posts

Ultimate Geek
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#3467333 6-Mar-2026 18:20

GoodWe inverter (e.g., GW6000-DNS-30) in Christchurch/Orion, Halswell area.

My voltage rises to ~244–245 V on sunny days, triggering early P(U) curtailment at ~242 V and wasting some export and preventing the inverter from slamming into the 6kw Clipping. Should I switch code to Australia A which starts at ~253 V? or tweak the P(U) curve myself. Or don't fiddle, Orion get mad.....Bad things happen.... House burn down...🤣

10X440w panels north, 7x440w east, No shading perfectly sunny today.

Power_Voltage_HomeAssistant

Jase2985

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#3467661 7-Mar-2026 20:28

cruxis:

GoodWe inverter (e.g., GW6000-DNS-30) in Christchurch/Orion, Halswell area.

My voltage rises to ~244–245 V on sunny days, triggering early P(U) curtailment at ~242 V and wasting some export and preventing the inverter from slamming into the 6kw Clipping. Should I switch code to Australia A which starts at ~253 V? or tweak the P(U) curve myself. Or don't fiddle, Orion get mad.....Bad things happen.... House burn down...🤣

10X440w panels north, 7x440w east, No shading perfectly sunny today.

Power_Voltage_HomeAssistant

Check if Orion is happy for you to increase the voltage to +/- 10% for your area. if they are, it would be better to change the country code (vector Auckland) recommend SA Australia. As it's more than just the PU curve that changes.

ScuL

491 posts

Ultimate Geek
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#3469196 11-Mar-2026 21:32

Just came across this which was exactly what I was after

https://youtu.be/Na4LTD1M6nw

Haere taka mua, taka muri; kaua e wha.

cddt

1972 posts

Uber Geek
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#3472465 23-Mar-2026 06:39

New NZ First policy from Winston's speech yesterday: "If you generate power at home like solar, you should be able to sell it back to the grid at the same price you pay for it"

Ge0rge

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#3472466 23-Mar-2026 07:33

I'd be happy if we just switched to net metering. I paid $3.64 to export 1.39kWh last Friday.

kangaroo13

87 posts

Master Geek
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#3472534 23-Mar-2026 11:50

cddt:

New NZ First policy from Winston's speech yesterday: "If you generate power at home like solar, you should be able to sell it back to the grid at the same price you pay for it"

It sounds "fair" - but we know that in practice we benefit from grid connectivity - there is a value associated with it, and costs involved for the retailer to send our generatation to our neighbours.

At the moment, there are plans where the feed in tarrif is quite reasonable - e.g. I get 17c/kWh, and pay $33c/kWh peak (which I buy very little of, in practice, because it corresponds with good solar, at least in summer), and $22c/kWh off peak. The difference between selling at 17c and buying back at 22c is reasonable.

What hurts more is the fixed daily charge, which keeps growing, and requires a lot of extra kWh generation to cover. I think if we moved to net metering, or FiT / buying price equality, then the only option left for the retailers would be to push up the fixed daily charge even further.

LightbulbNeil

71 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 16

#3472539 23-Mar-2026 12:09

I see what is happening in Australia, and can only think the reatilers here will want to maximise profits like the Australian companies are doing. They will never agree to what Winston has said. In the very early days of grid tied solar, every KW you exported came off your meter directly. It simply spun backwards if you were sending to the grid, and spun more slowly with sun shining and you were using all of your generation. That all stopped with the smart metering and the analog meters were all replaced. Since we have had our solar in place, October 2023, the meters in our meter box have now been changed out 3 times already. No real reason has been given. At one stage, we had a pair of identical meters supossedly. After 6 months, they drifted apart quite a lot in their readings. I don't think the the digital meters overall are as accurate as they are claiming, or why else would we be on our 3rd set of meters. These were all changed at the request of Wells.

Getting off topic , but I think we will see more regulation and tighter restrictions coming, not the other way around. I think that in the future, Batteries will become mandatory to be used a soaks to reduce the spikes in exported generation to make life easier for the system monitors of the grid network.

The regulations are there to protect the network.

Neil

kangaroo13

87 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 90

#3472545 23-Mar-2026 12:21

LightbulbNeil:

, Batteries will become mandatory to be used a soaks to reduce the spikes in exported generation to make life easier for the system monitors of the grid network.

The regulations are there to protect the network.

Battery is necessary. MPPT inverters can simply move their operating point to limit output at any given moment, if that's what is needed by the grid.

Same - when some Aussies complain about the 'negative' FiT at certain times of the day - i.e. paying to export to the grid : easily avoided with a modern inverter.

fastbike

448 posts

Ultimate Geek
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#3472547 23-Mar-2026 12:26

cddt:

New NZ First policy from Winston's speech yesterday: "If you generate power at home like solar, you should be able to sell it back to the grid at the same price you pay for it"

Winston has a habit of making promises he can't keep. This sounds like another, has he discussed it with his coalition partners ?

One problem in the NZ electricity sector, amongst many, is that gentailers hold too much market power which enables them to lockout competition - we see repeated instances.

I want a return to all generation over a certain threshold to be owned/operated by an NZED type entity.

Otautahi Christchurch

HarmLessSolutions

1230 posts

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#3472548 23-Mar-2026 12:28

kangaroo13:

LightbulbNeil:

, Batteries will become mandatory to be used a soaks to reduce the spikes in exported generation to make life easier for the system monitors of the grid network.

The regulations are there to protect the network.

Battery is necessary. MPPT inverters can simply move their operating point to limit output at any given moment, if that's what is needed by the grid.

Same - when some Aussies complain about the 'negative' FiT at certain times of the day - i.e. paying to export to the grid : easily avoided with a modern inverter.

Our situation can't really be compared to Australia's. Their baseload generation is largely coal which can't be throttled or halted as our hydro can so restricting solar input to protect their grid from overload is their only real option.

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

richms

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#3472552 23-Mar-2026 12:49

The grid operators are in the best place to put in large scale batteries to deal with this if they are concerned about it. The high daily charges we pay should be covering the gear needed. Mandating a battery in peoples houses then leads to them expecting to be able to control the battery like they want to with peoples car chargers.

Richard rich.ms

HarmLessSolutions

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#3472556 23-Mar-2026 12:57

richms:

The grid operators are in the best place to put in large scale batteries to deal with this if they are concerned about it. The high daily charges we pay should be covering the gear needed. Mandating a battery in peoples houses then leads to them expecting to be able to control the battery like they want to with peoples car chargers.

They already have large scale grid batteries, in the form of hydro dams, or at least they would have if they used our generation capacity to best effect.

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

dantheperson

226 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 63

#3474171 26-Mar-2026 21:16

I've got a solar system installed by Harrisons in 2024. With the regulation changes last year, i'm keen to get the inverter setup with the increased voltages Vector now allow. Im seeing constant output drops due to high voltages on sunny days. Harrisons have been basically unresponsive to my requests over several months.

Given the grid related settings on fronius gear cannot be altered by the end user, does anyone have an idea what i'd need to do to get another company to take over support of the inverter? Anyone been in a similar situation? Guess i'd just have find another solar company and pay for the time taken to chase approval from Vector and login to the UI and click a few buttons?

MadEngineer

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#3474172 26-Mar-2026 21:20

So, what's everyone's total SQM of panels? Is it over 40sqm? Did you get an engineer's report for the load capacity of your roof?

You're not on Atlantis anymore, Duncan Idaho.

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