Solar options for home in 2022.

Forums › Home Workshop DIY › Solar options for home in 2022.

1 | ... | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | ... | 98

5059 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#3232885 21-May-2024 09:06

Can I ask, what puts me off is the fact that they have to obviously put holes through your roof to attach the panels. How watertight would these points be?

Buying a Tesla? Use my Tesla referral link and we both get discounts and credits.

HarmLessSolutions

969 posts

Ultimate Geek

Subscriber

#3232887 21-May-2024 09:18

heavenlywild:

Can I ask, what puts me off is the fact that they have to obviously put holes through your roof to attach the panels. How watertight would these points be?

In our case I installed the mounting trusses myself which have rubber washers and sealant at the bolt positions which have proved weather fast so far despite some decent rain events.

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

harmonist

31 posts

Geek

#3232896 21-May-2024 09:54

My install was on May 1st, pretty happy with 560kwh so far, we've had some very nice sunny days in May

dantheperson

174 posts

Master Geek

#3232904 21-May-2024 10:24

heavenlywild:

Can I ask, what puts me off is the fact that they have to obviously put holes through your roof to attach the panels. How watertight would these points be?

What sort of roof?

On mine it's one new hole for each array where the wires come in. On long run corrugated iron roof, the panels attach to long rails, and the rails are attached through the existing holes where the iron is screwed down to the roof truss.

I haven't actually checked but would presume they put the hole in the high point or the corrugation, and that the penetration would be as watertight as any other, e.g. the pipe that comes up from the waster water line to allow air in.

Jase2985

13457 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#3233188 21-May-2024 17:16

HarmLessSolutions:

That's pretty respectable production for an 8kW inverter with EW split arrays.

The east array is not doing much at all at the moment, its lucky to hit 1.5kWh by 1020am in the morning. it gets overtaken by the West array at about 930am and thats peaking to about 5kWh at about 2pm.

Currently at 522kWh for May, which isnt to bad given the direction of panels and as we started in the afternoon of the 1st. Our consumption has only been 811kWh.

I'm going to get a timer for the HWC to move it to the night rate power, and will probably upgrade our 15y old dryer to one with a timer that can take a full load from our washing machine to help shift some more power around.

HarmLessSolutions

969 posts

Ultimate Geek

Subscriber

#3233195 21-May-2024 17:44

Jase2985:

HarmLessSolutions:

That's pretty respectable production for an 8kW inverter with EW split arrays.

The east array is not doing much at all at the moment, its lucky to hit 1.5kWh by 1020am in the morning. it gets overtaken by the West array at about 930am and thats peaking to about 5kWh at about 2pm.

Currently at 522kWh for May, which isnt to bad given the direction of panels and as we started in the afternoon of the 1st. Our consumption has only been 811kWh.

I'm going to get a timer for the HWC to move it to the night rate power, and will probably upgrade our 15y old dryer to one with a timer that can take a full load from our washing machine to help shift some more power around.

I suggest you consider adding a power diverter if you're trying to increase your economics. The ~$1,000 for a Paladin is the best money we've spent on our system. It ensures that no generation is exported until the HWC hits its preset maximum (250L @ 72 degrees for us) which is usually late morning. How much of your overnight consumption rate matches your HWC element rating? Have a play around with the settings on this calculator to see what difference a diverter/or not makes to your ROI.

We've consumed 626kWh which includes 418kWh of self consumption so 67% self sufficiency. More importantly that self consumption is 75% of our 561kWh of generation. We've charged both EVs within that consumption though we do have a log fire so space heating doesn't affect electricity use. Honestly the advantages of use that throttles itself to available generation (Paladin & Evnex EVSE) is a game changer in terms of maximising PV economics.

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

neb

11294 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#3233203 21-May-2024 17:59

HarmLessSolutions: The ~$1,000 for a Paladin is the best money we've spent on our system.

If you're running any kind of home automation like HA you can also just use that to drive a contactor which only runs the HWC during free-power-time if you're on that plan and during peak solar production. The Paladin integrates all of the smarts into the controller itself but if you've already got automation/control systems present you don't need anything that fancy.

Jase2985

13457 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#3233220 21-May-2024 18:22

HarmLessSolutions:

I suggest you consider adding a power diverter if you're trying to increase your economics. The ~$1,000 for a Paladin is the best money we've spent on our system. It ensures that no generation is exported until the HWC hits its preset maximum (250L @ 72 degrees for us) which is usually late morning. How much of your overnight consumption rate matches your HWC element rating? Have a play around with the settings on this calculator to see what difference a diverter/or not makes to your ROI.

We've consumed 626kWh which includes 418kWh of self consumption so 67% self sufficiency. More importantly that self consumption is 75% of our 561kWh of generation. We've charged both EVs within that consumption though we do have a log fire so space heating doesn't affect electricity use. Honestly the advantages of use that throttles itself to available generation (Paladin & Evnex EVSE) is a game changer in terms of maximising PV economics.

My sell back (12c) is more than by night rate (11c) so moving it to night is easier/cheaper. so really until I hit my 5kW export limit and i see how things go more towards summer, i couldn't justify the outlay on a paladin.

The Wattpilot EVSE allows me to divert power into the car if i need that, and we have a heated pool which i can also use on the fringe seasons.

HarmLessSolutions

969 posts

Ultimate Geek

Subscriber

#3233223 21-May-2024 18:29

neb:

HarmLessSolutions: The ~$1,000 for a Paladin is the best money we've spent on our system.

If you're running any kind of home automation like HA you can also just use that to drive a contactor which only runs the HWC during free-power-time if you're on that plan and during peak solar production. The Paladin integrates all of the smarts into the controller itself but if you've already got automation/control systems present you don't need anything that fancy.

The important difference between a time based controller compared to one that monitors export and throttles HWC consumption correspondingly is that the timer led one will maintain full HWC element consumption irrespective of cloud caused generation drops. We see this phenomenon with the 'dumb' EVSE we use for our Leaf (3.3kWh input max.) and so avoid using it in questionable weather if we can.

This is a good example of export led consumption. HWC reached temperature late morning and the Evnex had the Polestar2 plugged into it at lunchtime.

ETA. Valid point regarding your low night rate. In our case our FIT is just 1c lower than our night rate but as Octopus have reduced their FIT since we signed up with them we will need to reevaluate things when our contract rolls over in September.

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

LightbulbNeil

57 posts

Master Geek

#3234574 25-May-2024 13:53

In October 23, we went with Harrisons for our solar installation. We went with them, because they were the only ones that were happy to install a 3phase system. The other 2 that we approached were trying to get my house reconnected to be on 1 phase. Neither offered a 2 or 3 phase option. I wanted the 3phase system, mainly for my workshop that has some 3ph hobby machines, and, because it allows for 3x 5kva on the sell back to the grid. However, in our particular case, neither Meridian nor the line company specified a limit for my export across the lines network.

I have a 30 panel system, in 2 arrays. The Centre array that is essentially North facing of 10 panels at 5KW, and the other 20 make effectively 8KW due to the 15 deg pitch of the roof and are a mixture of East and West facing. The panels are the QCell industrial ones, and the Inverter is their Fronius DC to 3phase inverter. So I have a small industrial system installed.

The system has worked very well, and we currently have a credit close to $1300 with last month taking $10 off the credit amassed since Oct28 , the day of the system going live.

Even on an overcast day, between 10am and 3pm it makes more power than we can use, unless we have both ovens going, and at least 3 of the stove tops running along with all the house heat pumps, then it is neutral. I think in June and July, we will only be making per day in the 8kwh to 30kwh a day with the odd sunny day making around 40kwh.

The whole goal of installing the solar, is so that when I retire in 7 or 8 years time, we will have No power bills. In May to August, all we need is enough sold back to the grid to cover off the line charges.

Had we gone to other companies for the solar, we would only be allowed an export rate of 5Kva for one or 2 phases, making a max export rate of 9.33kwh . With that limit applied in summer, we would only be getting a max of 70kwh peak sold on a summers day for a 2phase system. in December and January we saw some days exporting 110kwh.

The Harrisons estimate is that we will average 55kwh per day, and I am estimating it will be closer to 38kw/day. The revision down grade is due to the unexpected shading that has occurred from tree growth that we have no control of.

The 31k of the system costs, is about 7 to 8 years of power bills, from October estimates.

We can clean the panels without needing to climb up onto the roof. It needed a good clean in December due to the pollen that was stuck on the tiles that the rain had not lifted. I got an extra long, house cleaning brush and did that with the house water, no soap or chemicals . The next day we had quite a good rain to wash away any residue from the town supply water used.

Long term, we will install a battery in about 5 or so years. Only so that if there is a power cut , we will still have power.

Neil

dantheperson

174 posts

Master Geek

#3234630 25-May-2024 15:36

We just got a 5kw system installed by Harrisons (Julian). Installers turned up last Thursday. I did have to check they weren't wagging from school, but otherwise the install all went smoothly :)

Inspected this Thursday, and then the meter reconfigured Friday. So all up, 8 days elapsed. Pretty satisfied with that.

Generating 2 days in, pretty satisfied so far, getting allot more peak production than i expected this close to the solstice. \

Is it just the less hours of daylight rather than less strength of the sunlight that affects production in winter? Otherwise my modest 400w overbuild is gonna be clipping all summer long.

HarmLessSolutions

969 posts

Ultimate Geek

Subscriber

#3234631 25-May-2024 15:47

dantheperson:

.....

Is it just the less hours of daylight rather than less strength of the sunlight that affects production in winter? Otherwise my modest 400w overbuild is gonna be clipping all summer long.

Less daylight hours but also suboptimal solar angle. Panels will generate best when incoming light is at 90 degrees to them so ~40 degree sloped (North facing) panels are optimised for midday production around the equinox. Morning and late afternoon generation will be compromised by even lower sun azimuth at these times into winter.

Also worth noting though that in high summer the sun rises south of East and sets south of West so will shine from behind the panels at these times which will only result in generation if the panels are elevated bifacials.

Don't be too worried about an 'over panelled' system as this will gain by reaching inverter peak capacity for longer during the day. In our case we have about 9.5kW of panels, with 4.5kW of those being bifacials, feeding an 8.2kW inverter which seems to perform well. Best generation day so far was 63kWh which had some clipping due to the 'excess' generation being limited by a 5kW phase cap.

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

neb

11294 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#3234635 25-May-2024 16:12

dantheperson:

We just got a 5kw system installed by Harrisons (Julian). Installers turned up last Thursday. I did have to check they weren't wagging from school,

Ah, a variant of the older "you know you're old when the police look young" :-).

neb

11294 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#3234636 25-May-2024 16:14

dantheperson: Is it just the less hours of daylight rather than less strength of the sunlight that affects production in winter? Otherwise my modest 400w overbuild is gonna be clipping all summer long.

You can never overbuild too much, and 400W is pretty modest. Imagine a succession of heavy overcast winter days, cold so you're running the heat pump a lot more, and you'll wish you'd put in even more excess capacity.

LightbulbNeil

57 posts

Master Geek

#3234641 25-May-2024 16:22

This is the layout we used. Inverter is on the outside wall by the back door to the cloths line.

They are quite noisy during the day, and being outside , does not effect us. The sound level at the fence is lower than the noise of the neighbours heat pump unit when it is going. So was happy about that. East and West facing panels are in 7 and 3 split arrangements. The group of 8 and then 2 below, are North facing. At 4pm today it is only making 1kw with no clouds, but is being shaded by the house next door. The centre set of 10 panels, could have been elevated to being at 35deg with a 20 deg frame, but I was more concerned about what would happen in a rare very high wind situation. The installation went very well and was installed in 1 day. Everything was done very neat and tidily as well.

Hopefully the picture is available for all to see.

1 | ... | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | ... | 98