Solar options for home in 2022

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1319 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 446

#3500067 4-Jun-2026 01:31

LightbulbNeil:

Ours has always been quite a big different. They replaced the meters and put in 2 identical meters. After 1 year they were so far apart from each other, that they have recently replaced those pair snd put in a single meter. As I currently don't have a bill , I have not been chasing it. But your post is a very good reminder for me to start looking at the billing data and making a chart or something to align with the billing data times and dates, and then get that data off of the Fronius smart meter. I will look into it on the next account as it will have had a month or two then to get a correct reading with aligned dates and times for our billing period. Thanks for the post and reminder. Overall it looks very close to me, especially the export to he power Co. The import from fronius always seems to be a few kwh less than they say we buy off of them. I'm not sure what the guidelines are for meters to monitor power consumption or export import variations. To me, in our old house that had the spinning disc type of meter, when it changed to a smart meter, our consumption was measured as being quite a bit more. So I'm not sure if the electronic meters are actually more accurate or not. But I don't know anyone who had the spinning disc type meter and their power consumption account was the same or lower after the smart meter was installed.

The spinning disc meters that were replaced will have been pretty old and likely worn out. So I suspect they were not recording as much energy as you were actually using due to the disc not spinning as well as it should (too much drag from the wear and tear and dirt).

mark0x01

35 posts

Geek
+1 received by user: 7

#3503142 15-Jun-2026 14:35

Have had our new AlphaESS system running for nearly a week, connected to Homeassistant via lan modbus.

8kw inverter with 9.8kw PV from 21 panels without battery - used up nearly all optimum roof space.

It was installed by several contractors which seems normal now days, inspite of suppliers claims they use their own staff.

Rate the panel install 3/10 - not all done to panel manufacturers specifications.

Electrician 8/10 good job, hindered by solar suppliers lack of information but resolved between us.

It has generated 115kwh since 10th with a peak of 6.5kw - 80% of capacity which seems good for winter.

Homeassistant tinkerer and vintage computer enthusiast

billgates

4728 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 698

Trusted

#3503426 16-Jun-2026 07:06

@mark0x01 what went wrong around the panel install and not being done to panel manufacturer specification?

I sell RUiXU 16kWh batteries, Victron & Fronius inverter hardware

LightbulbNeil

82 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 27

#3503427 16-Jun-2026 07:19

fe31nz:

LightbulbNeil:

Ours has always been quite a big different. They replaced the meters and put in 2 identical meters. After 1 year they were so far apart from each other, that they have recently replaced those pair snd put in a single meter. As I currently don't have a bill , I have not been chasing it. But your post is a very good reminder for me to start looking at the billing data and making a chart or something to align with the billing data times and dates, and then get that data off of the Fronius smart meter. I will look into it on the next account as it will have had a month or two then to get a correct reading with aligned dates and times for our billing period. Thanks for the post and reminder. Overall it looks very close to me, especially the export to he power Co. The import from fronius always seems to be a few kwh less than they say we buy off of them. I'm not sure what the guidelines are for meters to monitor power consumption or export import variations. To me, in our old house that had the spinning disc type of meter, when it changed to a smart meter, our consumption was measured as being quite a bit more. So I'm not sure if the electronic meters are actually more accurate or not. But I don't know anyone who had the spinning disc type meter and their power consumption account was the same or lower after the smart meter was installed.

The spinning disc meters that were replaced will have been pretty old and likely worn out. So I suspect they were not recording as much energy as you were actually using due to the disc not spinning as well as it should (too much drag from the wear and tear and dirt).

So it seems that they are going to take out the single meter , and maybe go back to 2 meters again. No simple explanation has been given for this change again. It maybe that the previous meter or meters can not do what they are wanting with the next lot of changes to buying and selling of electricity at various times. Wells has also increased the export amount per phase to 10Kw now, up from the previous limit of 5kw per phase.

I am not convinced that these digital meters are actually any good at all.

fastbike

574 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 436

#3503512 16-Jun-2026 12:34

mark0x01:

Have had our new AlphaESS system running for nearly a week, connected to Homeassistant via lan modbus.

8kw inverter with 9.8kw PV from 21 panels without battery - used up nearly all optimum roof space.

It was installed by several contractors which seems normal now days, inspite of suppliers claims they use their own staff.

Rate the panel install 3/10 - not all done to panel manufacturers specifications.

Electrician 8/10 good job, hindered by solar suppliers lack of information but resolved between us.

It has generated 115kwh since 10th with a peak of 6.5kw - 80% of capacity which seems good for winter.

Although as far as the sun is concerned you are generating 6.5/9.8 = 66% of the installed PV :)

What was the issue with the install: rails and mounts, the panels, or the wiring and general compliance ?

Otautahi Christchurch

dantheperson

241 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 68

#3503517 16-Jun-2026 12:56

LightbulbNeil:

So it seems that they are going to take out the single meter , and maybe go back to 2 meters again. No simple explanation has been given for this change again. It maybe that the previous meter or meters can not do what they are wanting with the next lot of changes to buying and selling of electricity at various times. Wells has also increased the export amount per phase to 10Kw now, up from the previous limit of 5kw per phase.

I am not convinced that these digital meters are actually any good at all.

Odd that you are having so much trouble for what should be a very straightforward situation in this day and age. They just reconfigured our meter when we had solar installed, i don't even think they had to do a visit. There was a visit around that time but that was to replace the modem for the 2g/3g switch off.

mark0x01

35 posts

Geek
+1 received by user: 7

#3503568 16-Jun-2026 15:50

billgates:

@mark0x01 what went wrong around the panel install and not being done to panel manufacturer specification?

I haven't looked in detail at how other panels actually get mounted, so don't know how common this is.

The manufacturer specifies mounting point to be 390-490mm from the end (K).

When the rails must follow the iron roof's nail lines, this is not achieved for the majority of the panels.

Some panels have the nearest support for one corner over 900mm away, which might cause damage to the panel in high winds as it can flex.

Homeassistant tinkerer and vintage computer enthusiast

fastbike

574 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 436

#3503598 16-Jun-2026 18:09

mark0x01:

I haven't looked in detail at how other panels actually get mounted, so don't know how common this is.

The manufacturer specifies mounting point to be 390-490mm from the end (K).

When the rails must follow the iron roof's nail lines, this is not achieved for the majority of the panels.

Some panels have the nearest support for one corner over 900mm away, which might cause damage to the panel in high winds as it can flex.

Our TW panels (1762mm long) specified the mounting points to be 1/4 of the length +/-50mm (i.e. A/4 +/- 50mm where A is as marked on your diagram)

Luckily the purlins were on 900mm centres so we could get the two rows onto 4 adjacent purlins and stay within the specs. I made a template out of some alloy RHS and marked the allowable mounting zones as the rails were mounted onto our curved roof :)

Otautahi Christchurch

sen8or

2038 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1532

#3503710 17-Jun-2026 10:51

is there a limit to the level of power that can go from solar or grid to charge a battery? If we have a 10kw inverter and are getting 10kw of energy from solar, if the house is using minimal, can the battery take all 10kw (Sig inverter / battery)?

Not so much a problem at the moment in Christchurch, but just curious in an ideal situation how fast the battery could charge from flat.

We are with Genesis and on a few occasions, I have used our free power shout hours to take on the normal day time load (dreary / rainy day so virtually no solar), import peaked at around 9kw, 4.4kw to the battery, 5 to the house) so its taking 2 to 2 1/2 hours to charge the battery. Could good solar do it quicker?

Jase2985

13831 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 6296

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Lifetime subscriber

#3503730 17-Jun-2026 11:49

sen8or:

is there a limit to the level of power that can go from solar or grid to charge a battery? If we have a 10kw inverter and are getting 10kw of energy from solar, if the house is using minimal, can the battery take all 10kw (Sig inverter / battery)?

Not so much a problem at the moment in Christchurch, but just curious in an ideal situation how fast the battery could charge from flat.

We are with Genesis and on a few occasions, I have used our free power shout hours to take on the normal day time load (dreary / rainy day so virtually no solar), import peaked at around 9kw, 4.4kw to the battery, 5 to the house) so its taking 2 to 2 1/2 hours to charge the battery. Could good solar do it quicker?

depends on the battery and the inverter.

billgates

4728 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 698

Trusted

#3503733 17-Jun-2026 11:57

Hi @sen8or how many batteries you have and what brand/model and what size are they? Batteries have a C rating which in most cases is 0.5C (in most cases) so if you have the 9kWh sigenergy battery which is 8.77kWH usable, your max peak output from that battery will be 4.3kWh roughly. If you have 2 batteries then its 4.3 x 2 = 8.6kWh

I sell RUiXU 16kWh batteries, Victron & Fronius inverter hardware

fastbike

574 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 436

#3503745 17-Jun-2026 12:46

sen8or:

is there a limit to the level of power that can go from solar or grid to charge a battery? If we have a 10kw inverter and are getting 10kw of energy from solar, if the house is using minimal, can the battery take all 10kw (Sig inverter / battery)?

Not so much a problem at the moment in Christchurch, but just curious in an ideal situation how fast the battery could charge from flat.

We are with Genesis and on a few occasions, I have used our free power shout hours to take on the normal day time load (dreary / rainy day so virtually no solar), import peaked at around 9kw, 4.4kw to the battery, 5 to the house) so its taking 2 to 2 1/2 hours to charge the battery. Could good solar do it quicker?

The inverter has two processing paths:
AC - which is power to from grid and the house load
DC - which is the battery and the PV

Converting power between will be limited by the inverter rating.

When charging from the grid it will also be limited by the AC capacity of the inverter. Our Solis has a 10kW rating, we can charge our battery(s) at 10kW although our configuration also has a hard limit of 30A so when they are flat it's probably a little less than 10kW. Also depending on the BMS you'll probably see some tapering off of the charge rate as they get close to a full charge.

When charging from PV, the rate is limited by the BMS and the PV output. But we rarely get above 10kW of PV output so an academic question in our case.

Otautahi Christchurch

sen8or

2038 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1532

#3503752 17-Jun-2026 13:32

Thanks all for the replies, its an interesting journey learning the ins and outs of solar, what works for our house / location / configuration etc.

The heating of HWC from 11am - 4pm seems to work well, theres only been a handful of days in the last 6 or so weeks that we've drawn from the grid during this timeframe (granted, Christchurch seems to be having a sunny/dry Autumn/winter) and then the battery is lasting through until 7 - 8pm or so.

Our daily power use seems to be around 50-60KWh, roughly 1/2 of that is coming from Solar, 1/2 from the grid. Given the expected power bills with the new pricing, I'm pleased with the savings from Solar so far. This daily average is broadly similar to last year even though we've changed the settings on our heating (now on 24/7 rather than cycling on at 5am and again at 3pm weekdays) and I have no doubt we'd be in for some $400+ power bills in the next few months before temps start to rise again.

Benoire

2902 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 709

#3503756 17-Jun-2026 13:48

sen8or:

Thanks all for the replies, its an interesting journey learning the ins and outs of solar, what works for our house / location / configuration etc.

The heating of HWC from 11am - 4pm seems to work well, theres only been a handful of days in the last 6 or so weeks that we've drawn from the grid during this timeframe (granted, Christchurch seems to be having a sunny/dry Autumn/winter) and then the battery is lasting through until 7 - 8pm or so.

Our daily power use seems to be around 50-60KWh, roughly 1/2 of that is coming from Solar, 1/2 from the grid. Given the expected power bills with the new pricing, I'm pleased with the savings from Solar so far. This daily average is broadly similar to last year even though we've changed the settings on our heating (now on 24/7 rather than cycling on at 5am and again at 3pm weekdays) and I have no doubt we'd be in for some $400+ power bills in the next few months before temps start to rise again.

We're consuming something similar if I guestimate the HWC usage - our current bill for last month is now ~$470 and this month is expected to be closer to $500... I want to get solar (ideally 15Kw panels + 20KWh battery) but we've only got another year or so in the house before we have to move due to its size so its probably not worth it :-(

Paul1977

5285 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 2247

#3503760 17-Jun-2026 13:53

mark0x01:

I haven't looked in detail at how other panels actually get mounted, so don't know how common this is.

The manufacturer specifies mounting point to be 390-490mm from the end (K).

When the rails must follow the iron roof's nail lines, this is not achieved for the majority of the panels.

Some panels have the nearest support for one corner over 900mm away, which might cause damage to the panel in high winds as it can flex.

@mark0x01 Are you saying K is over 900mm in some spots? That'd be halfway down the panel, wouldn't it? What is the measurement of A?

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