Solar options for home in 2022.

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#2973288 26-Sep-2022 22:10

Thanks @eonsim

Is it true that any solar system installed greater than 10kW of total panels requires approval from your lines company?

Unfortunately, Octopus at this stage is not available to Waipa networks customers so they are out. EK is available but there peak (37 cents) and off peak shoulder (26 cents) is higher than my flat rate of 23cents incl GST with Genesis incl much cheaper daily charge of 63 cents vs 96 cents (EK). EK's off peak rate is cheaper @ 18.5 cents. I will have to run the numbers once again between Genesis and EK once I get the solar to see how my hourly usage is tracking like.

I will ask my electrician when he comes around to do a quote about the 3-phase cable if he did run it. If he did, then I will ask him to balance the load across 3 phases incl ducted aircon as it should not cost a lot of $ for this work. This will give me the benefit of just having to buy a single 3 phase inverter which can be 15kW or 16kW unit. It also means I will be able to export up to 30kW potentially across the 3 phases. If esparky only ran 2 phase cable to the house then I will ask him to load balance everything across 2 phases as I will have to buy 2 inverters anyway on the single-phase connection to support up to 10kW of panels now with potential to add another 5kW of panels later if needed and I will be able to export up to 20kW of power back to the grid.

Edit - I read your second reply re: balanced and unbalanced 3-phase inverter. One option I have to counter act the balanced 3-phase power issue is go with the Fronius 3-phase 15kW inverter and put a Victron MultiPlus II inverter in front of each phase which means 3 Victron's required in total. Victron is $2k cheaper per unit than SMA Sunny Boy Island.

Do whatever you want to do man.

compound

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#2973289 26-Sep-2022 22:18

billgates:

Awesome @compound. Your 11kW setup looks great and generations looks very healthy along with @eonsim 5kW system as well.

Are you happy with the Jinko Cheetah panels and Goodwe inverter? Do you have a battery storage system as well connected? If you don’t mind me asking, how much was your system as I am looking at around 10kW system.

No battery. The panels seem to run fine and the Goodwe inverter has its good and bad points but you really have to see what is going on to appreciate the extra work that is a multiphase setup. It is more than can be explained on the forum.

eonsim

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#2973293 26-Sep-2022 22:46

billgates:

Thanks @eonsim

Is it true that any solar system installed greater than 10kW of total panels requires approval from your lines company?

Unfortunately, Octopus at this stage is not available to Waipa networks customers so they are out. EK is available but there peak (37 cents) and off peak shoulder (26 cents) is higher than my flat rate of 23cents incl GST with Genesis incl much cheaper daily charge of 63 cents vs 96 cents (EK). EK's off peak rate is cheaper @ 18.5 cents. I will have to run the numbers once again between Genesis and EK once I get the solar to see how my hourly usage is tracking like.

Not sure about the 10kW you'll need to have a chat with the installers.

Ouch those EC rates are brutal for Waipa network! Note that the spreadsheet is formula based so you can change the charges and see what happens. Looking around Flick electric's day/night plan would probably be closest or slightly better than your genesis plan. The thing there is that they pay the current spot price for solar you export which sometimes is really good (0.2-0.5) but other times very little (0.01).

insane

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#2973341 27-Sep-2022 09:54

I understand this is not solar advise and may be somewhat unhelpful, but those those ducted aircon power draw figures is the reason I went with high wall units in each room and area so I don't have to heat/cool areas of the house we're not using. I have 7 now, but typically would only every have 2 or 3 on at a time.

My sister in-law had a ducted setup and had the same issue and ended up not wanting to run it the whole time, which somewhat defeated the purpose. Perhaps you could get another single or multi-split unit to heat just the areas that are needed, and save a ton by not needing as large a battery for your solar setup?

Of course you'd have to run the numbers - buy just thinking about alternative / hybrid approaches.

Quinny

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#2973373 27-Sep-2022 11:09

I am gas hot water/massive dual-sided gas fire (plus 4 heat pumps). We are a 2-person high-tech household using about 25kW per day. 2 years ago I put in Solar and Tesla powerwall. Best decision I ever made. You can see the solar profile here https://monitoringpublic.solaredge.com/solaredge-web/p/site/public?name=Quinny&locale=en_US#/dashboard.

I went Solaredge as I liked the app, 6.8Kw array, 5Kw inverter plus powerwall for $36k. 10k interest-free with Westpac. So far, I seem to be saving about 3k plus a year on power bills alone and I had added to house value which they saw as about 40k improvements if sell. I am Genesis 30c anytime and 12c back for feed in.

billgates

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#2973409 27-Sep-2022 12:28

I have found that SOK 48V LifePo4 battery is now available in NZ. They are rated just as highly as BYD LVL 48V but the benefit with SOK is that you can very easily expand 5kWh at a time yourself. It's also quite a lot cheaper to buy the SOK over LVL in NZ.

SOK 25.2kWh (5 x 5kWh) on a rack is $17225 delivered. You can then buy an additional 5kWh for $3500 so you can get 30kWH of storage battery for $20.5k. Set the discharge to 10% and charge to 85% and you have a lot of cycles available with still a healthy amount available for use. The SOK battery system is user manageable/replacable as well.

Off grid batteries NZ | SOK 25.6 kWh Lithium House Battery (sokbattery.co.nz)

1st plan of action looking right now on single phase connection is 2 x 5kW inverters with 12kW of solar panels and load balance circuits evenly across 2 phases to be able to output twice to grid as allowed due 2 phases. If 3 phase cable is already in house, then get that connected and circuits also balance across 3 phases. Go with a 3-phase inverter around 15kW size and get 15kW of solar panels.

If budget still left, then add an Island inverter and 25kWh battery setup and slowly start adding more 5kWH battery packs over time

Now to wait for installers to come this week and give me prices.

Do whatever you want to do man.

Quinny

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#2973462 27-Sep-2022 12:55

Sounds like an amazing system. I do know of someone with a 50kW system in Chch a friend has been and seen. Still trying to manage an invite to look.

Im a bit unsure of this bit. One thing with the Powerwall over others for me was Peak load. For the Powerwall it was 7kW meaning I could turn on whatever wanted even an oven. I choose with the full house system, how I use it and how long it lasts in a backup situation. I found these but not sure I have converted right. An off-grid system is very different (Powerwall has only recently been changed to allow off-grid setup).

Backed by the Tesla name, the Powerwall 2 is a 13.5 kWh capacity rechargeable lithium-ion battery that boasts 7kW peak and 5kW continuous power.

SOK SK12V100 LiFePO4 · Specifications. Weight: 27 lbs. Capacity: 1280 Wh. Continuous Output: 100A. Peak Output: 200A (3 seconds) · Features. Series Connect up to .

billgates

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#2973566 27-Sep-2022 15:09

Quinny:

SOK SK12V100 LiFePO4 · Specifications. Weight: 27 lbs. Capacity: 1280 Wh. Continuous Output: 100A. Peak Output: 200A (3 seconds) · Features. Series Connect up to .

The one I am looking at is their 48V battery. The one you have referenced is their 12V which is prob more popular with RV and Marine market. 48V is popular in the Solar PV market. Because I will stack the batteries together, the peak output will be much higher than 5kWh. The 2 big reasons for not going Tesla PW2 was the price per kWh and the peak power out of 5kWh as our ducted aircon at it's peak that I have noticed in the Genesis usage app can suck between 5kWh to 7kWh alone on a very cold or hot day.

Do whatever you want to do man.

Quinny

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#2973576 27-Sep-2022 15:23

billgates:

The one I am looking at is their 48V battery. The one you have referenced is their 12V which is prob more popular with RV and Marine market. 48V is popular in the Solar PV market. Because I will stack the batteries together, the peak output will be much higher than 5kWh. The 2 big reasons for not going Tesla PW2 was the price per kWh and the peak power out of 5kWh as our ducted aircon at it's peak that I have noticed in the Genesis usage app can suck between 5kWh to 7kWh alone on a very cold or hot day.

Yeah, I tried to find the right one and obviously not :( but it was one thing I know people get wrong so wanted to check. The PW2 is an eye-watering cost and off-grid a stack system seems a great choice.

guest777

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#2973707 27-Sep-2022 17:55

As all others said - we were with Genesis before, moved away from them to Octopus - we have 12 kW system and Powerwall, sorry no PVOutput configured

Even first month with Octopus got us our 150NZD "fine" for early termination back. Due to the Octopus rate structure - we charge battery overnight and mostly export during a day.

Last August bill was only 95 NZD, compared it to almost 400 from Genesis before - its pretty much a better deal

Jase2985

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#2973854 27-Sep-2022 20:25

billgates:

the peak output will be much higher than 5kWh.

Can you explain how you plan on accomplishing that?

billgates

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#2973866 27-Sep-2022 21:08

Jase2985:

Can you explain how you plan on accomplishing that?

A single SMA Sunny Boy Island 8.0H does 6kW continuous with 8kW for up to 30 minutes. You can add a second smaller Island unit if you want and the total peak output is combined of 6kW + whatever second Island unit power output. If you have 2 x 8.0H units, you have 12kW continuous power with 16kW for up to 30 minutes. If you go with Victron MultiPlus II then they have a unit that does 8kW continuous. Combine the 2 and that’s 16kW continuous.

Do whatever you want to do man.

Jase2985

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#2973868 27-Sep-2022 21:15

how do you plan on doing that from one rack battery of 25.6kw when the continuous output it rated at 100A at ~51.2V?

you are forgetting your limited by the output from the batteries

billgates

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#2973882 27-Sep-2022 22:01

I see what you mean for the SOK battery setup. The amps for the SOK battery are 48V @ 100amps. BYD LVL 15.4kWh battery setup is 51.2 amps @ 250 continuous providing 12.8kWh so there is that option. I will check with the vendor regarding SOK if there 100amps figure on the combined 25.2kWh pack is correct. Both BYD and SOK are using 48V LifePo4 batteries so would expect similar amps output as well.

https://bydbatterybox.com/uploads/downloads/Premium_Datasheet_LVL%20V1.1%20EN-5ebcbeddb3624.pdf

Do whatever you want to do man.

Jase2985

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#2973909 28-Sep-2022 05:25

it will be down to how the battery are arranged in the modules

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