Solar PV

[irishchris]

Great to have another site to keep the solar PV love going

Turning out to be a cracking week weather wise here in the west. So far got 40+kWh all week and should be clearing the 50+ later in week

[Dave Hedgehog]

Forgive the ignorance but I know nada about solar energy. Im currently in the final stages of planning a self-build and should be commencing works in the next few weeks. We are going the air to water and MHRV set up for heating but am curious about solar. From a cost vs benefit perspective, is it worth it? Ie, at what point to you begin to profit from having solar installed?

[irishchris]

Solar PV is massively worth it and if having an air to water system even more so. From Feb - November it covers majority of electricity use and since march I have used no units whatsoever. With the constant increasing price of electricity (going up about 9% again next month) it should be a necessity for all new builds and existing homeowners.
Air to water when compressor running can be quite heavy on electricity and can be used by having summary of and completely free heat and electricity.

[nimrod86]

I've been looking into the idea of Solar PV panels for my house since the start of the year, all seems very interesting, but I'm not sure what's the best way to go about it all.

Living alone and working long hours, my electricity usage is minimal (living here 9 months and my calculations are I'm using half the national average), so the concept of getting solar panels and effectively having no electricity bill really appeals to me! Seems all the best grants for panels are tied to getting a battery storage system though, and the grant for them is... not great to put it nicely

Suppose I need to try see what the best solution for me long term is. The house is currently heated primarily by the oil boiler (2003 built house and oil boiler so efficiency isn't as good as can be). Ideally I'd love to replace it down the line with a heat pump system (air to water?), though I'm not sure if a house this old would be suited to retrofitting with the air tightness requirements.

[irishchris]

I got my first install of 3kw done by solar as a service company where you pay 20e a month for ten years. However after having that installed I opted to self install another 3.6kw of panels on a wooden ground mount and a battery. Was fairly simple and fun to do but provides all of my daily electricity needs for most of the year and all of my hot water for march to October. There is a payment (feed in tariff) coming later in the year where you will get paid the wholesale cost of any electricity you give back to the grid too which should help with payback.

[Hairy-Joe]

I'm another that's debating on getting PV panels. What's holding me back is that I use a lot less than the national average and I think I would be a net exporter to the grid.

Am I correct in saying that if I generate excess that I don't get credit for it?

If I do decide to get them, it will be after I redo the roof. There's not much point in putting them up only to take them down to get the roof redone. Knowing my luck, they would break when taken down!

[kadman]

Something I have been thinking about for a while too, from a selfbuild point of view.

Is it possible to dip your toe into the water, so to speak on solar panel, and add as you go.

Or is it all or nothing from the start

[cathaldublin]

I got my first install of 3kw done by solar as a service company where you pay 20e a month for ten years. However after having that installed I opted to self install another 3.6kw of panels on a wooden ground mount and a battery. Was fairly simple and fun to do but provides all of my daily electricity needs for most of the year and all of my hot water for march to October. There is a payment (feed in tariff) coming later in the year where you will get paid the wholesale cost of any electricity you give back to the grid too which should help with payback.

I'm going to avail of this same deal but wanted to add the immersion controller myself, are they alright with doing that and what type of inverter are they using? Thinking down the line maybe 4 more panels on my shed too.

[cathaldublin]

I'm going to avail of this same deal but wanted to add the immersion controller myself, are they alright with doing that and what type of inverter are they using? Thinking down the line maybe 4 more panels on my shed too.

To update, they told me on the phone they had no issue with me adding additional panels myself but they would obviously prefer I bought from them.
As the panels are over 2 sides of the roof they are installing micro inverters, 1 per panel, it is an additional 50cent/panel/month on top of the €19.99/month
I can't really complain with that as that works out at €60/inverter over the lifetime of the loan/payments

[Avion]

I got my first install of 3kw done by solar as a service company where you pay 20e a month for ten years. However after having that installed I opted to self install another 3.6kw of panels on a wooden ground mount and a battery. Was fairly simple and fun to do but provides all of my daily electricity needs for most of the year and all of my hot water for march to October. There is a payment (feed in tariff) coming later in the year where you will get paid the wholesale cost of any electricity you give back to the grid too which should help with payback.

What's the company?

[Avion]

What's the deal with buying out the Solar as a Service (SaaS) installation. Is there a big penalty?

I am trying to figure how the SaaS manage to be so much cheaper than traditional installations. Where is the profit for them?

[irishchris]

What's the deal with buying out the Solar as a Service (SaaS) installation. Is there a big penalty?

I am trying to figure how the SaaS manage to be so much cheaper than traditional installations. Where is the profit for them?

You can buy it out no problem off them without penalty. They aren't cheap as such as still make a tidy profit. Panels can be bought for 110+ vat each off solartricity. The goodwe inverter they use can be got for 400-500 euro depending where you purchase. Railings and fittings are 150. The 4mm solar cable is 30 euro for two 25m roles. The Ac cable is 20€ for 10m. The fireman switch is just short of 200 euro. Total price is 1670 but will be less for them as will get trade 20% discount so nearer €1300.
Now you pay €20 X 12 months X 10 years. = €2400 + 1800 grant = €4200.
€4200 - €1300 = €2400 profit. Not bad for 4 hours work.
Now I'm not knocking them as think it's great and was perfect for me when I signed up. The water heater (eddi) option is very expensive through them though and you would buy 3 of them over the ten years for the price so best to buy one and fit yourself which is very easy to do
Once realising the price of the parts I bought them myself direct this year and installed another 4.2kwp of panels and a 3.6kw inverter and installed myself on a wood post ground mount. Started with few panels in January and added on during the year. Picked up some practically new batteries off someone on boards so have 7.2kw batteries too.
But would still recommend SAAS if not confident about doing it yourself. They are cheaper than most out there but hopefully you see why they do it as there is a large profit still to be made from what they do.

[silverbirch]

You can buy it out no problem off them without penalty. They aren't cheap as such as still make a tidy profit. Panels can be bought for 110+ vat each off solartricity. The goodwe inverter they use can be got for 400-500 euro depending where you purchase. Railings and fittings are 150. The 4mm solar cable is 30 euro for two 25m roles. The Ac cable is 20€ for 10m. The fireman switch is just short of 200 euro. Total price is 1670 but will be less for them as will get trade 20% discount so nearer €1300.
Now you pay €20 X 12 months X 10 years. = €2400 + 1800 grant = €4200.
€4200 - €1300 = €2400 profit. Not bad for 4 hours work.
Now I'm not knocking them as think it's great and was perfect for me when I signed up. The water heater (eddi) option is very expensive through them though and you would buy 3 of them over the ten years for the price so best to buy one and fit yourself which is very easy to do
Once realising the price of the parts I bought them myself direct this year and installed another 4.2kwp of panels and a 3.6kw inverter and installed myself on a wood post ground mount. Started with few panels in January and added on during the year. Picked up some practically new batteries off someone on boards so have 7.2kw batteries too.
But would still recommend SAAS if not confident about doing it yourself. They are cheaper than most out there but hopefully you see why they do it as there is a large profit still to be made from what they do.

Very useful info. What about the option of getting an installer to install the same equipment? Total cost would then be well under 2k?
Not sure if you have the panels long enough to know what your annual energy yield is in terms of kWh per kWp installed? Once the FIT is available I assume the battery option would make less sense? Perhaps hot water would also make less sense than selling to the grid?

[irishchris]

Very useful info. What about the option of getting an installer to install the same equipment? Total cost would then be well under 2k?
Not sure if you have the panels long enough to know what your annual energy yield is in terms of kWh per kWp installed? Once the FIT is available I assume the battery option would make less sense? Perhaps hot water would also make less sense than selling to the grid?

2,280kwh produced since last October on my solar as a service router.
1930kwh produced in my self install since march but would have been done in stages since then in terms of ppanels.

Fit is expected to be small about 5c. In winter batteries maker more sense as can be charged on cheaper night rate such as electric Ireland night boost plan of 6c per unit and then discharged during day and peak hours when electricity units are 20c+

[silverbirch]

2,280kwh produced since last October on my solar as a service router.
1930kwh produced in my self install since march but would have been done in stages since then in terms of ppanels.

Fit is expected to be small about 5c. In winter batteries maker more sense as can be charged on cheaper night rate such as electric Ireland night boost plan of 6c per unit and then discharged during day and peak hours when electricity units are 20c+

That's great. So about 1000kWh per kW per year perhaps. More than half our electricity use is for EV on the night rate. I guess for us a cheaper install without battery and without hot water option would make the most financial sense. Do you know if it's possible to set up an EV charger so that it only charges from the solar panels during daylight hours and switches to mains electricity at night?

[irishchris]

Yep you can install a charger called a zappi Grimm a company called myenergi. Uses only excess solar which you aren't using and sends it to your car. You can control it through their app and you can also set up for it to charge from grid at certain times etc

[SouthWesterly]

Interesting look at the costs of DIY Chris.
Did you install a 2nd inverter for your new panels or just increase the size of the original. Can't remember.
May be a project for next year.

[kadman]

So where is the best source of information for this. And as regards the panels and batteries, is there an irish supplier.

And what existing hot tank ect has to be changed.

[SouthWesterly]

So where is the best source of information for this. And as regards the panels and batteries, is there an irish supplier.

And what existing hot tank ect has to be changed.

Check the quotes thread on boards. Renewable energy forum

[irishchris]

Interesting look at the costs of DIY Chris.
Did you install a 2nd inverter for your new panels or just increase the size of the original. Can't remember.
May be a project for next year.

I got a second inverter as located at other end of house but in process of moving it out to a shed in garden and splitting the panels into two strings on the ground. I initially had bought a non hybrid inverter but after few months decided to go battery route and sold that inverter to fund a hybrid inverter.

[irishchris]

So where is the best source of information for this. And as regards the panels and batteries, is there an irish supplier.

And what existing hot tank ect has to be changed.

Yes solartricity or midsummer are the two Irish wholesalers and prices are very cheap compared to resellers. Next day delivery from both of them too.

[SouthWesterly]

I got a second inverter as located at other end of house but in process of moving it out to a shed in garden and splitting the panels into two strings on the ground. I initially had bought a non hybrid inverter but after few months decided to go battery route and sold that inverter to fund a hybrid inverter.

Thanks
I got 9 panels facing west but didn't get a diverter.
Some of my group are now getting a local company to install an iboost for 435€. I'm not convinced there's enough excess on 8 pv south or 9 west to justify it. Will happily be proved wrong at another's expense.

Might go the DIY route next year and get extra panels

[irishchris]

I have 9 SW facing panels installed by SAAS also and fitted an edii myself a couple weeks after they installed. Plenty excess on that for my hot water in October and spring before I increased my capacity. Obviously now since then have never not had hot water. You do have to write Nov, Dec and Jan out for that though