Solar options for home in 2022

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#3356373 22-Mar-2025 21:39

@timmmay and others, could we take the discussion of solar diversion, Shelly's and other things to a different thread and leave this one purely for solar, please.

CYaBro

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#3356379 22-Mar-2025 22:34

Anyone got any experience with Sigenergy?

Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer.

timmmay

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#3356409 23-Mar-2025 08:39

Jase2985:

@timmmay and others, could we take the discussion of solar diversion, Shelly's and other things to a different thread and leave this one purely for solar, please.

Topics often meander and evolve, some are probably interested in this area.

timmmay

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#3356410 23-Mar-2025 08:40

CYaBro:

Anyone got any experience with Sigenergy?

Ours should be installed this week. There's a very active Facebook group here.

fastbike

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#3356444 23-Mar-2025 10:14

timmmay:

CYaBro:

Anyone got any experience with Sigenergy?

Ours should be installed this week. There's a very active Facebook group here.

What spec ? And if you are willing to share, how much ?

Otautahi Christchurch

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#3356541 23-Mar-2025 15:05

Jase2985:

@timmmay and others, could we take the discussion of solar diversion, Shelly's and other things to a different thread and leave this one purely for solar, please.

In that case we'd be better to have a thread that had "2025" in the title ?

Otautahi Christchurch

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#3356614 23-Mar-2025 17:42

fastbike:

What spec ? And if you are willing to share, how much ?

I posted the details here. I don't have component prices, just a package price. Lightforce do Sig Energy as an upgrade / premium product I think.

Separate question: I'm wondering if we should upsize our inverter, which is being installed in a few days, just to provide more solar in winter - summer we'll have heaps. We're getting 9kw of panels and a 6kw inverter, 6.6kw peak. I'm wondering if we should provision for getting more solar panels on the double garage. The garage roof is on a small slope, and it has a big tree just to the west of it that would shade it significantly from about 4pm parts of the year. We could probably fit another 8 - 10 panels on there, 4kw maybe, the panels would have to be installed on brackets creating a bit of a slope.

The 6kw inverter has two inputs for groups of solar panels, the 8kw inverter has 3 MPP trackers. If we pay the $2k or so to upgrade it gives us more flexibility in future to add more panels. My wife isn't convinced. My thinking is power is only ever going to get more expensive... but we may also move at some point. It might also be practical to get another small set of panels with its own inverter and run two inverters in the house, not sure if that's possible.

However, I think a system with over 10kw of panels may make things more difficult with the power company. So I'm not sure if it's worth the bother.

HarmLessSolutions

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#3356621 23-Mar-2025 17:59

timmmay:

fastbike:

What spec ? And if you are willing to share, how much ?

I posted the details here. I don't have component prices, just a package price. Lightforce do Sig Energy as an upgrade / premium product I think.

Separate question: I'm wondering if we should upsize our inverter, which is being installed in a few days, just to provide more solar in winter - summer we'll have heaps. We're getting 9kw of panels and a 6kw inverter, 6.6kw peak. I'm wondering if we should provision for getting more solar panels on the double garage. The garage roof is on a small slope, and it has a big tree just to the west of it that would shade it significantly from about 4pm parts of the year. We could probably fit another 8 - 10 panels on there, 4kw maybe, the panels would have to be installed on brackets creating a bit of a slope.

The 6kw inverter has two inputs for groups of solar panels, the 8kw inverter has 3 MPP trackers. If we pay the $2k or so to upgrade it gives us more flexibility in future to add more panels. My wife isn't convinced. My thinking is power is only ever going to get more expensive... but we may also move at some point. It might also be practical to get another small set of panels with its own inverter and run two inverters in the house, not sure if that's possible.

However, I think a system with over 10kw of panels may make things more difficult with the power company. So I'm not sure if it's worth the bother.

It's going to be cheaper to upsize now rather than later especially if it involves changing out your inverter. I discovered that when we went from 5kW to 8.2kW and had a 5kW inverter made redundant. The economics involved include your self consumption capacity (for best return), your FIT and if a phase cap limits your export.

Have a read of my post above about our coming upgrade in regards to power company limitations. Some retails have a 10kW limit on domestic installations over and above lines company phase caps.

Another thought is that a straightforward larger installation may well be a sales advantage over a patchwork one when it comes to resale of your property. A second inverter may also involve extra expense in order to maintain full communication with the system.

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

timmmay

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#3356637 23-Mar-2025 19:52

HarmLessSolutions:

It's going to be cheaper to upsize now rather than later especially if it involves changing out your inverter. I discovered that when we went from 5kW to 8.2kW and had a 5kW inverter made redundant. The economics involved include your self consumption capacity (for best return), your FIT and if a phase cap limits your export.

Have a read of my post above about our coming upgrade in regards to power company limitations. Some retails have a 10kW limit on domestic installations over and above lines company phase caps.

Another thought is that a straightforward larger installation may well be a sales advantage over a patchwork one when it comes to resale of your property. A second inverter may also involve extra expense in order to maintain full communication with the system.

Yeah it's your post I remember reading. I reckon having more panels and a way to connect them could reduce our power bill in winter, but I'm not sure if it will pay back in the long run given we'd be limited in export. We are higher consumer, we heat a lot in winter and cool a lot in summer, plus working from home. Plus I'm not convinced I can bring my wife around, unless I can demonstrate it will pay for itself.

Is the 10kw limit on panels or inverter?

HarmLessSolutions

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#3356640 23-Mar-2025 20:24

timmmay:

HarmLessSolutions:

It's going to be cheaper to upsize now rather than later especially if it involves changing out your inverter. I discovered that when we went from 5kW to 8.2kW and had a 5kW inverter made redundant. The economics involved include your self consumption capacity (for best return), your FIT and if a phase cap limits your export.

Have a read of my post above about our coming upgrade in regards to power company limitations. Some retails have a 10kW limit on domestic installations over and above lines company phase caps.

Another thought is that a straightforward larger installation may well be a sales advantage over a patchwork one when it comes to resale of your property. A second inverter may also involve extra expense in order to maintain full communication with the system.

Yeah it's your post I remember reading. I reckon having more panels and a way to connect them could reduce our power bill in winter, but I'm not sure if it will pay back in the long run given we'd be limited in export. We are higher consumer, we heat a lot in winter and cool a lot in summer, plus working from home. Plus I'm not convinced I can bring my wife around, unless I can demonstrate it will pay for itself.

Is the 10kw limit on panels or inverter?

From Octopus's website "(for systems with generation capacity under 10kW)" so i'm assuming that would be inverter capacity, which is the limiting factor on your generation but probably wise to check with your electricity supplier for their definition.

Do you have any EV's? They can consume a decent chunk of your generation (like 7kW for an EVSE, preferably on solar diversion) and looking forward may be utilised in a V2G/V2H capacity. The synergy of PV & EVs is definitely worth factoring into your plans.

For economic support we upgraded to 8.2kW (with 9.5kW of panels in mid September 2023 and since then have 'saved' $5,185 ($3,830 self consumption plus $1,355 export). That equates to <9 years payback, and probably less due to rising grid prices. We self consume around 50% during summer and up to around 80% in deepest winter.

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

timmmay

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#3356855 24-Mar-2025 10:55

No EV currently, no immediate plans to buy one either, but it'll happen at some point.

The main question for me is whether it's worth paying the extra $1800 which will give us a bit more peak generation plus capability to add more panels in future. The solar guy says it's too late to get a larger inverter given the install is scheduled for this week, so that answers that question! I'm sure the 9.2kw of panels and 6.6kw peak inverter will do fine.

fastbike

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#3356859 24-Mar-2025 11:01

timmmay:

No EV currently, no immediate plans to buy one either, but it'll happen at some point.

The main question for me is whether it's worth paying the extra $1800 which will give us a bit more peak generation plus capability to add more panels in future. The solar guy says it's too late to get a larger inverter given the install is scheduled for this week, so that answers that question! I'm sure the 9.2kw of panels and 6.6kw peak inverter will do fine.

A colleague just installed 26 panels rather than 18 as the incremental cost was less than the additional low light gains his modelling showed. He's limited to 5kW export - with no battery.

Otautahi Christchurch

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#3356860 24-Mar-2025 11:12

fastbike:

A colleague just installed 26 panels rather than 18 as the incremental cost was less than the additional low light gains his modelling showed. He's limited to 5kW export - with no battery.

We bumped the recommended 16 or 18 panels to about 21 from memory, for $400 per extra panel, fitted. We don't have north / west facing roof space for any more panels unless we use the detached shed which is much more difficult to access. Apparently with the sig energy inverters you can't practically go beyond 13 panels per input due to voltage restrictions, and the 6kw inverter has 2 inputs whereas the 8kw has 3.