Solar options for home in 2022.

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506 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3275997 28-Aug-2024 10:03

If you're Auckland based I highly recommend AA Solar in Silverdale, in fact they are on my roof right now installing panels. Their presales was brilliant, not pushy whatsoever which I really liked. I pretty much spec'd my own system and told them what I wanted, they were very flexible. Very reasonably priced too if I compare pricing with others above (a mate used them, so ya get better pricing if you get referred). I'm getting 24 x 440W panels (10.5kw) with hybrid inverter for $25k. I'm providing my own 15kwh battery, with aim to double to 30kwh before winter next year (albeit 80% DoD so 24kwh usable) Ask for Aaron and tell him James in Red Beach referred you :-)

WolfmanNZ

139 posts

Master Geek

#3276051 28-Aug-2024 10:39

HarmLessSolutions:

@WolfmanNZ, Interesting to note that January 7th set a record high for us here in Taranaki but we only managed 63kWh. We've had a few sub 3kWh days over the past few months too unfortunately. Can't do much about the weather.

Your self consumption is just over 52% so maybe some export monitoring tech is needed to avoid all that generation escaping? I'm guessing you don't have batteries but even a HWC diverter may improve things in this regard.

Yeah batteries are in the pipeline though we keep having other expenses slowing that process down.

billgates

4705 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#3276085 28-Aug-2024 12:13

Congrats and very exciting. Post some photos of the install @chimera

What are the make and model of your batteries and hybrid inverter?

Do whatever you want to do man.

chimera

506 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3276138 28-Aug-2024 12:42

billgates: Congrats and very exciting. Post some photos of the install @chimera

What are the make and model of your batteries and hybrid inverter?

440W DASolar panels. Had to go with Deye SUN-8K-SG01LP1-EU hybrid inverter as it was the only Vector approved inverter that fit the bill (eg: specifically 190A charge/discharge rate etc)

Batteries I got via Alibaba, Basen Green Enclosure/BMS with 16 x EVE 3.2V 306ah lithiums (15kwh, 80% dod, 12kwh usable) should be around $4500 landed.

A bit sucky but have just had to reduce system from 24 to 19 panels, not quite enough roof space! Still 8.4kw panels should be adequate-ish if I rejig my energy usage

billgates

4705 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#3276213 28-Aug-2024 13:58

chimera:

440W DASolar panels. Had to go with Deye SUN-8K-SG01LP1-EU hybrid inverter as it was the only Vector approved inverter that fit the bill (eg: specifically 190A charge/discharge rate etc)

Batteries I got via Alibaba, Basen Green Enclosure/BMS with 16 x EVE 3.2V 306ah lithiums (15kwh, 80% dod, 12kwh usable) should be around $4500 landed.

A bit sucky but have just had to reduce system from 24 to 19 panels, not quite enough roof space! Still 8.4kw panels should be adequate-ish if I rejig my energy usage

Nice. Did your lines company asked many questions in there application form or email about which model batteries you are going with? Did they also enforce depending on where your batteries will physically be placed I suppose, to install bollards in front of the batteries so car etc does not crashed into them? You have to in Waipa.

Do whatever you want to do man.

Jase2985

13457 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#3276218 28-Aug-2024 14:10

billgates:

Did they also enforce depending on where your batteries will physically be placed I suppose, to install bollards in front of the batteries so car etc does not crashed into them? You have to in Waipa.

do you have a link to the requiremetns for that?

chimera

506 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3276220 28-Aug-2024 14:14

AA Solar sorted paperwork

I provided them IEC62619:2022 certified paperwork for the batteries and other related material.

I used to have a large marine fishtank in the wall many moons ago, beneath (under house) I built a filtration room with return pump. When I sold the tanks and gave up that hobby the downstairs room became a homebrew room, brewing beer :-) Gave that up too, so its being retrofit into a power utility room. Its well away from anything a car would ever hit, they'd have to take out the houses piles before they could get too it lol

I built a couple shelves for the rack mount batteries. Inverter and associated kit will mount to the wall alongside

billgates

4705 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#3276248 28-Aug-2024 15:18

Jase2985:

do you have a link to the requiremetns for that?

Page 1 but page 2 more specifically where and how it applies. Couple of installers told us that in Waipa, the storage battery cannot be installed in our home on left side wall of our garage because thats considered living as its our home office on other side of the wall. The right side wall of the garage side has a big heavy workbench so we could install it there that is if we remove the workbench or we can install it in the front of the garage wall underneath the PV inverters as the other side of the wall is a laundry which is allowed but you will need to install bollards at this specific wall as cars will come driving in or reverse into this front/laundry wall.

Item 6 (erac.gov.au)

Do whatever you want to do man.

fastbike

212 posts

Master Geek

#3280988 11-Sep-2024 16:18

I'm in the market for a solar PV system here in Christchurch. I have a twenty year old house that I put a lot of sweat equity into to keep costs down (had a good builder) and looking for a similar approach to getting the PV system installed.

Obviously there is certain work I'm not skilled/qualified to tackle but looking for an installer that has a flexible approach so we can meet somewhere so my input saves them time / $$$. For example the walls are concrete block, I have the gear to do core drilling for conduits etc.

Can anybody recommend an installer that works with home owners ?

Thx

Otautahi Christchurch

wellygary

8312 posts

Uber Geek

#3280997 11-Sep-2024 16:30

billgates:

Page 1 but page 2 more specifically where and how it applies. Couple of installers told us that in Waipa, the storage battery cannot be installed in our home on left side wall of our garage because thats considered living as its our home office on other side of the wall.

Item 6 (erac.gov.au)

According to the link provided 6mm Fibre cement sheet will get you over the "living space" wall problem... likely much cheaper and easier then the other options....

2.4m*1.2m = $60 at Bunnings...

fastbike

212 posts

Master Geek

#3281116 11-Sep-2024 16:53

fastbike:

Can anybody recommend an installer that works with home owners ?

I should add a bit more info:

house can fit around 4 rows x 6/7 panels. For some of the 440W panels from Longi / Trina that would be up to about 26 * 440 = 11.4kW
we have 3 phase power. On the Orion network who will allow export connections up to 15kW.
roof faces 14 degrees off true north. NIWA solarview shows it has good potential (mostly no shading apart from about 4pm in winter when insolation is weak)
we have detailed real time consumption data, including a consumption meter on the heatpump
typical weekly use is from around 150kWh in summer to 400kWh in winter
two heats pumps (8kW + 5kW), heating season from very late may to early Aug, so about 10 weeks
ability to store heat in thermal battery (lots of well insulated concrete in the house) so some time of use load shifting will be required
currently no car, and probably 5 years away from requiring one
solar hot water provides most domestic hw for 8 months, immersion element on timer supplements
cooking is double electric oven across two phases, gas hob (3 x9kg cylinders of LPG annually)

Otautahi Christchurch

fastbike

212 posts

Master Geek

#3281692 13-Sep-2024 13:00

I've done a bit more digging and am about to model the energy generation and consumption of the house. I had a real time consumption meter installed last year for the 3 supply phases (at the meter box) and also another for the 2xheatpumps (running off a single outdoor unit). I've also been in contact with a gz member who has kindly shared the orientation and tilt of their solar PV and they are located within 20km, so I can use their actual production figures over the last year (adjusted to reflect my azimuth and tilt, and planned installation size) with my consumption figures.

From this I can do a comparison for as-is energy use, and plug in my current tariff rates and the export rate my retailer buys at. This should give me a do-nothing comparison.

From there I can play around with some load shifting, and different tariffs to see how that pans out.

I will then model adding batteries of various sizes / coupling, and some of the tariffs that provide free power at certain times, to see what my power bill would have been in an alternative universe !

But still looking for recommendations of installers that are happy for the home owner to contribute via sweat equity.

Otautahi Christchurch

peng1nz

41 posts

Geek

#3281908 13-Sep-2024 21:34

fastbike:

But still looking for recommendations of installers that are happy for the home owner to contribute via sweat equity.

Have a chat to Will at Grenz Electrical. I've not personally used his services but have heard good things. He should at least point you in the right direction.

fastbike

212 posts

Master Geek

#3281996 14-Sep-2024 10:06

peng1nz:

Have a chat to Will at Grenz Electrical. I've not personally used his services but have heard good things. He should at least point you in the right direction.

Thanks, just been poking around their web site so will give him a call on Monday. Did you have friends that used him, or is he a mate etc ?

In the meantime I've built a basic spreadsheet model with consumption data for the house for the last year (actual measured data from 5th Nov 24, and approximated for the previous two months based on March/April this year). I've added in real time solar PV production from the nearby site adjusted for small differences in orientation and tilt; and for size/output. The great thing about having access to the solar generation data is it a good proxy for what my theoretical installation from last year would have performed rather than relying on averages.

This has enabled me to show a payback of $1833 for the year just past if I'd had the panels installed and made no other changes. I will now tweak the model to account for some reasonable load shifts to increase self consumption / limit export, as the tariff I'm on charges 28 cents between 7am and 9pm, then 14 cents off peak. It only credits 8c for exported power so anything that can be moved from the night rate to soak up excess day time power effectively doubles the value of that power.

The annual production is about 20% greater than consumption, so in an ideal world with an infinite battery I'd never need to import anything from the grid. However time of use (both within a 24 hour period, cloudy periods like the 3 days we're in the middle of, and the summer/winter imbalance between generation and usage) and the lack of such a battery forces me to live in a less than ideal world so I will look at some alternative tariffs and also look at adding various battery sizes to get a better idea of what I need to specify.

Otautahi Christchurch

HarmLessSolutions

969 posts

Ultimate Geek

Subscriber

#3282053 14-Sep-2024 10:57

@fastbike, I'd be looking at more solar friendly supply plans if I were you. Our 9.5kW of panels feeding an 8.2kW inverter with HWC diversion and EV charging with solar diversion (Evnex) has given us over $3,300 return in the 12 months since we've had our solar operating at the present capacity. That is $2,500 of offset cost by self consumption plus $800 of export (Octopus @ 17c/kWh, which is due to revert back to 15c/kWh for us in the next few days). Those payback values are taken from our Solar Analytics dashboard so account for time of day variations for self consumption values over the three import price levels from Octopus.

From our experience and with our efforts at optimising our consumption and export both via diversion and manual management we cannot make the addition of batteries economically viable. Having said that Octopus are offering some generous peak time export rates which would require a battery (or V2G) to gain ability to benefit from. Another export option is Meridian's solar plan @17c FIT, if they're still accepting 5 year contacts in order to access this. Meridian's solar plan doesn't suit us as the higher supply rates for EV charging (other than by solar diversion) negate any benefits from the high FIT for us, and there is no crossover between Meridian's solar and EV plans.

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

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