New House Build Considering Solar Power

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aiyaznz

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#1474957 19-Jan-2016 22:12

Mark:

For reference this is what the 3kW Vector SunGenie did for us this month (16 panels on the roof and roughly a 10kW battery in the garage) :

You REALLY need a way to store the power, exporting to the grid is almost pointless now since all the electricity retailers decided together to slash the buy price, take a good look at the Tesla power wall, it's not the highest capacity system you can get but it is quite high tech and doesn't take much space.

edit. It Would help I described the picture :-)

The line is power coming in from the sun, grey is grid power being used, green is solar generated power being used (both from battery and direct from panels to house), blue is power being exported. "Solar usage" is how much power the house used that came from the sun/battery, "Solar Export" is amount of surplus power exported back to the grid, "Total Usage" is how much the house used (solar+battery+grid).

Can you gives details on your battery setup? what did you use and how much it costs? Cost effective? Life span of the battery?

Mark

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#1474977 19-Jan-2016 22:38

aiyaznz:

Can you gives details on your battery setup? what did you use and how much it costs? Cost effective? Life span of the battery?

I rent my system from Vector, cost about $1800 to install and then $90 a month. Seems to be working out OK for us, our main benefit is that it also gives us power during outages and since we live rural we tend to get quite a few when there is anything above a breeze ... now we barely notice they are occurring :-) Electricity savings are a nice plus.

Jase2985

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#1475011 20-Jan-2016 05:47

Mark:

Jase2985:

could you make the picture bigger please @Mark ?

Try now .. it's clickable to the full size image, didn't want to do the full size in the post as it'll put scrolly bars on peoples browser :-)

thanks

aiyaznz

43 posts

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#1475087 20-Jan-2016 09:04

I guess the best option is to have provision for installation of solar power in the future by running the cables for it now. Once tesla and enphase batteries come in I suppose it will be worth looking into it then or some better means of power storage get created. After reading all of this we intend to use the gas provided directly to the house via a line for water heating and gas stove cooking and electric heat pump. Thank you all for your opinions.

richms

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#1475120 20-Jan-2016 09:24

The issue with running cables now is that they have changed the standards with how cables are run for solar so many times if you are going for a high voltage DC installation. Mind you with how many isolators and other switchgear catch fire on the DC installs it is not a surprise.

Richard rich.ms

nickb800

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#1475132 20-Jan-2016 09:39

Provided that you have a ceiling cavity that runs between your north facing roof and garage/closet (for the batteries/inverter/switchboard) then there's no point running cables now, in addition to richms point about cable standards

darylblake

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#1475531 20-Jan-2016 16:29

richms: I calculated 7 years when I did the numbers, but that spreadsheet has been messed with since then so cant re-do it with current interest rates or power prices, but I dont think it would have changed much. My roof is a 45 degree one facing north east. Morning power is more use than afternoon so it pays to think about that.

Yeh worked this out a couple of years ago and it was about a 6-7 year pay off until you broke even. I have not re-worked it out again since. But who knows how long the Inverter will last before it needs replacing. Its a little bit of a fad IMO. If you generate it you will be better off using it than feeding it back into the grid, the credits you get are pretty small. But from an environmental point of view yes its perfect.

Solar panels probably need to halve in price to make me take it up. (3-4 year pay off)

I am doing a new build too, still held up by auckland council.... (dont get me started) and I am considering gas for heating, water and + cooking (hobs only). + mains electricity. I am gonna put in some awesome LED lighting as well. I hope to have the house completed by October/November 2016 it will be my second building project.

Generally heating and electric hot water take up approx 50~60% of your power bill. If you take into account that new houses are warmer & fully insulated, and have good air ducts/circulation when you build it then you save a lot on heat pump running costs/electric heating. With gas you can reduce the other big usage factor as well, but GAS is not an option for everyone. If you throw in LED lighting and a load of new energy efficient appliances and you will find solar may be able to power most of it.

A guy at my work has a solar farm on his property just out of hamilton and his power bill is about $20 per month in the summer. $60 in the winter once all the credits/connection fees are taken care of, he is with meridian energy, he showed me his power bill. :P

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richms

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#1475539 20-Jan-2016 16:32

Im paying more with solarcity nz to get microinverters rather than the one big inverter and high voltage DC that vector sell. Don't want to put a large inverter in the garage, and there are clearances etc needed around it, whereas microinverters are just 240 from a breaker up to the roof and strung along the panels, not limited current high voltage DC so no hassles with conduit and HVDC isolaters etc. And no giant inverter to stick inside somewhere.

Richard rich.ms

darylblake

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#1475543 20-Jan-2016 16:35

I never investigated the price of micro inverters. Does that make it better than 1-2 larger ones? And do they last as long? One thing that put me off solar is after 5-7 years you break even. Then on top of that your inverter equipment is old and probably will need replacing. (the panels will probably still be fine though provided they dont get damaged).

Mark

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#1475752 20-Jan-2016 22:20

richms:

Im paying more with solarcity nz to get microinverters rather than the one big inverter and high voltage DC that vector sell. Don't want to put a large inverter in the garage, and there are clearances etc needed around it, whereas microinverters are just 240 from a breaker up to the roof and strung along the panels, not limited current high voltage DC so no hassles with conduit and HVDC isolaters etc. And no giant inverter to stick inside somewhere.

The battery and inverter box from Vector is quite a large chunk of steel :-) It's built for being outside but we stuck it in the garage.

We tend to use it as a stacking place and thing to lean stuff against .. there was an issue early on where the fans would go nuts when it thought it was a bit warm, but now you can only hear it when it's loaded up and you are standing next to it.

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