Going Solar PV

The inverter unfortunately will give up the ghost in about 4 years.

That is the only problem with these solar panels. (It's not covered by any warranty)
 
The SolarEdge inverter I have chosen has a standard manufacturer-backed warranty of 12 years, and the per-panel power optimisers of 25 years.
 
that's why i think solar electric for current home standard is fundamentally compromised. It needs to change DC to AC at the socket and then individually back to lower voltage DC for devices and appliances. Which introduce two layers of inefficiencies, things like LED bulbs die are more likely because the micro DC-AC transformer dies before the LED itself burns out. Extra points of failure that also reduce efficiency. New homes should carry a new DC circuit although I can understand how it will be confusing and you'd still want to be connected to the grid. Then Solar generated electricity can be stored in batteries during day time and release on a simple DC circuit sans inverters. So even homes lacking an energy store like a hot water tank, don't have to sell back to the grid.
 
Adrian888 said:
Forgive me for seeming to rain on your parade however a few thoughts! First of all I would guess the panels are made in China, 2) have they given you figures for how much the efficiency of the panels deteriorates over time? 3) what happens when a panel fails? Who pays for its replacement? 4) What happens if the electricity generation/output forecast is not met? 5) The subsidies are paid by everyone which puts already poor people who cannot afford such devices ever deeper into fuel poverty, now there's a moral dilema! I have no problem with the concept of PV's, solar water heating etc and have long supported the idea of any energy production which is intrinsically 'free', I just have a problem with subsidising it and especially by (hidden) surcharges on the bills of people who can ill afford to. If it is such fantastic tech it wouldn't need any subsidy and if it didn't come with a subsidy artificially inflating the price paid would anyone be installing PV's?
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What should happen is that every home should be able to purchase a fixed number (same for all homes) of gas & electric units at a base price over a certain period. Above that the unit price should rise steeply, thereby encouraging conservation, even for those that can afford to be wasteful. That would get rid of all subsidies so that poorer people who cannot afford it do not have to subsidise those who can. It would also encourage people to sell solar electric to the grid (at a realistic price), instead of using it to heat hot water and being paid to do so, when there is a much cheaper option to heat water.

RAB
 
20121118_102140(NXPowerLite).jpgWell, my install happened yesterday. They arrived at 8am and were done by 2.30pm.
I'm currently generating 1.1Kw of power which is rather good for 10.30am on a cold November morning :)

The photo is the panel of my SolarEdge inverter. The figure top right is the instantaneous power generation figure! My system has a theoretical 2.18kw peak output, so given it's early in the morning with the sun still very low, that's good in my view.

I have 10 panels, all working correctly according to the box.
Figure top left is incoming mains AC voltage. On the next screen if I scroll through it would also show me the incoming mains AC frequency in Hz which is what the National Grid keeps a very beady eye on!

I would happily recommend the company I used to anyone here who might be considering a solar PV install. PM me for details.
You've got about 8weeks until the next feed-in-tarrif drop...

Only downer on the day is that the Immersun unit couldn't be installed. Turns out the plumbers who did my boiler/mains pressure hot water install a few years back bodged the wiring for the electric immersion heater. Instead of it having it's own circuit into the consumer unit, they cut a spur off the socket ring. If I had installed the Immersun in its current configuration, I would have lost all use of the sockets in the house unless I was generating electric! Will be getting an electrician back in next week to sort that, then I can start heating my hot water with the excess solar.
 
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Mine are 10x Hyundai 218watts peak. Was the best I could do given the extremely tight space on my roof. I did have an option for 9x SunPower 260watt panels but they were so much more expensive would have required a mix of landscape and portrait and would only have given a few more watts peak didn't seem worth it.
 
As much as i can see this maybe the future but -- am i the only person that sees these solar panels as a hideous blight ? do you need planning permission to "improve" your roof?
not for me thanks and hopefully my neighbours feel the same ! cheers mike (flame suit on)
 
Mike - I know what you mean but I think it's a familiarity thing- I used to not like them either but now I have them and they're generating power I think they look great :)
You generally don't need planning permission unless you're in a conservation area or have a listed building or something like that.
 
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Mike, I agree with the aesthetics side of things but it is more because the house were not designed to have these when they were built and the panels look so aftermarket on traditional roofs. The panels look far more at home if you live in a Foster designed building though. Imagine installed panels on a thatched roof ...
 
My only objection to solar panels is the disgusting appearance of them. There was a huge poliferation of them in my part of the world when 'Homesun' and John Sargent were advetising on the tele (I even applied but missed out on the free fit as by the time they replied the offer had ceased) It seems every council house has them, but worse many attractive georgian and trad cottages sprout these vile looking monstrocities. I understand that they dont actually have to be shiny black to work, its just the easy option. Now if they came in matt grey or terracotta there would prob be a much greater market for them. Best of luck with the install, hope they dont show from the road so as to annoy you when you arrive home. Cheers Colin.
 
Well beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I can't really agree with you that a flat panel is a "vile looking monstrocity".
The Feed in Tarrif is still available by the way, and as the cost of the hardware and installations have fallen so much this year the systems are actually more cost-effective and cheaper to acquire than they were when the FiT was higher.
I won't be looking at my roof when I'm inside the house. My roof looks no worse than my neighbour's house where half his slates are falling off, or the neighbour a few doors up who has built an against-regulations full-width, stone-clad extending dormer to the front of the house, or the house with a hideous pink render on it. At least my roof is doing something useful And why would they annoy me? I chose to install them.
 
Late to this thread: I enjoy seeing many forms of technology on display, rather than hidden away inside factories. So that possibly makes me in the minority where I like the look of wind turbines, hydro-electric dams, solar panels et al.

Well done Dan for making the investment.

In the same spirit where I measure my A2's fuel economy I also measure my energy usage at home, oil and electricity. It's good to know some hard numbers for when people debate energy usage. Knowledge is power (pardon the pun). Dan: It'll be good for you to look at your past electricity bills - then you can compare the energy consumption with/without solar.

One aspect that stops me from going solar, apart from the capital I don't have, is that teh house is empty during the day. So 99% of the energy generated from solar would be sold back. OK, nice money for sure. But I see the real savings in using the generated energy and therefore noting having to buy it at a higher rate. I guess this suits more those who work from home, housewives or the retired.

Good luck with it all.
 
Will - I agree, I actually would much rather see some wind turbines than a belching coal-fired power station.

My wife and I do both work from home various days of the week, and of course with the children we generate a lot of stuff that needs cleaning and washing - so the easy behaviour change for us to make is to always make sure we run the big consumer items like the washing machine and the dishwasher during the day, and timed so that they run roughly when we are at peak production.

My solar system has an online monitoring platform so I get live output stats updated every 15minutes so I can see what I'm generating right now, on my phone!
I certainly expect to see a reduction in both my electricity and my gas consumption - the second part of that is explained by the Immersun unit I've also got - it actively diverts the excess power generation vs. baseline to my hot water tank's immersion heater - effectively storing the excess as hot water - thereby ofsetting my gas burn requirements. That's the theory anyway.
 
dan_b said:
the second part of that is explained by the Immersun unit I've also got - it actively diverts the excess power generation vs. baseline to my hot water tank's immersion heater - effectively storing the excess as hot water - thereby ofsetting my gas burn requirements. That's the theory anyway.
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I like the idea of that water storage. Just make sure you've plenty of lagging around your tank :) I doubled mine last year for the grand investment of £10.

My parents have solar PV and solar hot water. Even on a fairly mixed day the amount of hot water generated is impressive - on a nice summer's day too much heat is generated and has to be vented - the power of nature.

http://www.withouthotair.com/ If you've not already read this book I can highly recommend it. It's available online as well as paperback.
 
I've put an extra lagging jacket on my tank (£10 from Homebase!) which had the factory-sprayed foam layer on it originally. I've also foam-covered all of the exposed hot water and central heating pipes that snake around in my cellar (which is where my hot water tank is located) and I've already noticed a drop in temperature in the cellar as a result.

I was originally going to go with solar hot water, but the cost and complication of needing to engineer a heat dump for excess summer production, plus how to retro-fit a solar coil into my 4-year old pressurised tank meant that I came round to Solar PV with the Immersun device. I may still one day go for solar hot water as well but this is a good solution at the moment.
 
Colin Shurvell said:
(I even applied but missed out on the free fit as by the time they replied the offer had ceased)....... It seems every council house has them, but worse many attractive georgian and trad cottages sprout these vile looking monstrocities.
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Just a bit of a conflict here, I think!

RAB
 
dan_b said:
I was originally going to go with solar hot water, but the cost and complication of needing to engineer a heat dump for excess summer production, plus how to retro-fit a solar coil into my 4-year old pressurised tank meant that I came round to Solar PV with the Immersun device. I may still one day go for solar hot water as well but this is a good solution at the moment.
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You can now get panels with blinds.

RAB
 
I saw those just the other day - quite expensive but would be ideal. I may yet return to solar hot water; I have a west-facing roof on my rear addition which could be suitable for evacuated tubes...

RAB said:
You can now get panels with blinds.

RAB
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