Solar options for home in 2022

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#3481395 16-Apr-2026 21:51

If you are re-roofing rather than adding it to the horrid fake tile roof, get specs on where they want the purlins from the solar guys, because depending on where they are they may not be able to get the coverage that you want, since they determine where the brackets can go, and the last thing you want it to have to have vertical rails.

Richard rich.ms

Stu1

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#3481534 17-Apr-2026 10:55

CokemonZ:

CokemonZ:

Huh, So looking back, last time I tried to get a quote was late 2020. Harrisons was one of them.

Yours looks good.

I'll be getting in touch with harrisons and rheem. Solarman seems to be Wellington only.

And someone else - anyone have any north shore Auckland recommendations for a metal tile (decromastic) roof?

@Stu1

I've had two quotes now, and the Gerard roof brackets seem to add quite a lot to the install. That looks like what you used.

30 panels, split across two roof surfaces, 10kw inverter, $31k.

Approx 6k is the roofing brackets.

How much did you spend?

@timmy did you have rails on your install?

snowfly

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#3481633 17-Apr-2026 15:57

richms:

If you are re-roofing rather than adding it to the horrid fake tile roof, get specs on where they want the purlins from the solar guys, because depending on where they are they may not be able to get the coverage that you want, since they determine where the brackets can go, and the last thing you want it to have to have vertical rails.

@richms - excuse my ignorance, but what do you mean by "last thing you want to have is vertical rails"?

Do you mean having the rails (which the panels mount to) running vertically up the roof (e.g. parallel to the long run corrugation?)
Or do you mean something else?

As wouldn't the rail orientation change, depending on whether you were having the panels orientated in landscape, or in portrait layout?

richms

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#3481643 17-Apr-2026 16:15

Yes, going up and down means more needed as it's on the short side.

If you do landscape panels then it can go either way but if the purlins are in the right spots then it will let the panels have the brackets spaced better and not too high or low on the roof.

Might mean one or 2 more purlans but that will mean better places and attached solar.

Richard rich.ms

fastbike

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#3481719 18-Apr-2026 07:48

richms:

Yes, going up and down means more needed as it's on the short side.

If you do landscape panels then it can go either way but if the purlins are in the right spots then it will let the panels have the brackets spaced better and not too high or low on the roof.

Might mean one or 2 more purlans but that will mean better places and attached solar.

I'm not following the reasoning.

I drew up both landscape and portrait for our roof. The layout was a bit tricky as we have a large skylight in the center so had to work around that.

The roof is mono pitch but curved in the direction of the slope, so to avoid curved rails require for landscape we ended up with rails running along the pulling, and portrait orientation.

Otautahi Christchurch

BuzzLightyear

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#3481723 18-Apr-2026 08:18

snowfly:

I've also been quoted an extra $5k to install a 13-14kW panel system on a metal tile roof using the Gerald brackets (when compared to install cost on standard longrun roof)
Was told a lot of extra labour and parts, to manually lift each tile (removing old nails/screws), mount the Gerald bracket, and then re-screw down with new screws the whole tile again.

Hence we're now looking a new longrun colorsteel roof, as our tin tile roof is over 25 years old, and needs some slight work anyway (to address other issues).

For what’s it’s worth I got Gerard roofing directly to tidy up my roof and install the brackets coordinating with Harrisons. Really happy with the outcome and cost was reasonable. The brackets aren’t cheap but very high quality. Took about an hour to install.

edit I paid $1950 for the solar brackets in 2024

richms

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#3481892 18-Apr-2026 12:11

fastbike:

I'm not following the reasoning.

I drew up both landscape and portrait for our roof. The layout was a bit tricky as we have a large skylight in the center so had to work around that.

The roof is mono pitch but curved in the direction of the slope, so to avoid curved rails require for landscape we ended up with rails running along the pulling, and portrait orientation.

That is the ideal situation, as the brackets resist up and down movement more than left to right so you get a more solid rail when along the purlin and perpendicular to the ridges in the roofing. Landscape panels normally happen when the purlin spacing doesnt allow for portrait, and means you need a lot more short rails, and fewer mounts per rail mean that they are not as sturdy. Sometimes they will even specify 3 rails per panel because of this.

Never seen anyone have curved rails. That would be an engineering nightmare. Have you considered removing the skylight as they tend to just be things that leak and dont provide much useful light compared to what you can get from a light running off the solar that would take the place of it?

Richard rich.ms

LightbulbNeil

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#3482181 19-Apr-2026 15:33

So I was looking through our system history, and found 1 near perfect day for the solar generation, back on the 24th of Dec 2024.

You can see in the plain picture, the shading from the Council verge trees, shading the roof and panels. They won't do anything about the very tall tree outside what so ever.

The MMP1 is the East West array 5kw East,5 kw West, and the MMP2 is the North array of 5kw of panels.

Our system to today has generated a total of 50.56 MWh since the 28th of October 2023.

The best part is we have not had a power bill to pay, since November of 2023.

As I was talking to friends , looked to see how bad an East West array is compared to North only array. Looking at a bad day in July, the east west is doing very well in the overcast Waikato weather.

Morgenmuffel

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#3482183 19-Apr-2026 15:36

Ok our roof probably needs replacing so we thought we would get solar at the same time.

Its long run roofing and we are in the South Waikato

However my Wifes been ringing around, none of the local companies do both, and has apparently been told putting solar panels on, will void the warranty of the roof, so my question is how in gods name do you get both done.

We do need a carport, so perhaps a solar carport but they seem to be ridiculously expensive just on their own

Thanks

'We love to buy books because we believe we’re buying the time to read them.' WARREN ZEVON

lxsw20

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#3482186 19-Apr-2026 15:49

An electrical company does the solar, a roofer does the roof. We were told on our new build solar would not affect the roof warranty unless the solar install directly damaged the roof.

LightbulbNeil

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#3482198 19-Apr-2026 16:08

Morgenmuffel:

Ok our roof probably needs replacing so we thought we would get solar at the same time.

Its long run roofing and we are in the South Waikato

However my Wifes been ringing around, none of the local companies do both, and has apparently been told putting solar panels on, will void the warranty of the roof, so my question is how in gods name do you get both done.

We do need a carport, so perhaps a solar carport but they seem to be ridiculously expensive just on their own

Thanks

In our case, the installers use the same roofing holes done by the roofers. The only entry points they did was for the cables for the power, and they have a sealed boot system. Our roof still has it's 25 yr warrenty .

We have long run colour steel roof corrugrated , the extra thick metal with the upgraded coating like what is used at ocean side residencies.

fastbike

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#3482222 19-Apr-2026 17:38

Make sure the roofer is a member of a trade body then the work will be done above warranty standards . So warranty becomes a moot point .

Otautahi Christchurch

billgates

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#3482588 20-Apr-2026 16:48

I have decided on the Victron gear for my battery inverter now that SMA has pulled out of Australia for there residential products so SMA Sunny Boy and Sunny Island's are no longer available to purchase except for the whatever leftover stock that may be left in the AU/NZ market. I have decided on the batteries as well but thinking do I go 3 x 16kWh or 4 x 16kWh. I am 2 phases and one the benefits of Victron Quattro's over SMA Sunny Island is you can share 1 big battery bank across 2 phases with Victron unlike SMA where you would need 2 different sets of battery banks for 2 phase setup.

Current Setup without the battery inverter and battery

New Setup with battery inverter and battery

Do whatever you want to do man.

CokemonZ

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#3482686 21-Apr-2026 09:09

BuzzLightyear:

snowfly:

I've also been quoted an extra $5k to install a 13-14kW panel system on a metal tile roof using the Gerald brackets (when compared to install cost on standard longrun roof)
Was told a lot of extra labour and parts, to manually lift each tile (removing old nails/screws), mount the Gerald bracket, and then re-screw down with new screws the whole tile again.

Hence we're now looking a new longrun colorsteel roof, as our tin tile roof is over 25 years old, and needs some slight work anyway (to address other issues).

For what’s it’s worth I got Gerard roofing directly to tidy up my roof and install the brackets coordinating with Harrisons. Really happy with the outcome and cost was reasonable. The brackets aren’t cheap but very high quality. Took about an hour to install.

edit I paid $1950 for the solar brackets in 2024

Was that for the brackets, fitting and tidy up, or just brackets?

That will save a lot so will give them a call directly.

BuzzLightyear

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#3482835 21-Apr-2026 18:26

That was just the solar brackets installed. I had them replace some tiles and recoat to a new colour as well on top of that.

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