Solar Panels

[Flying mermaid]

We are putting in a 13.2 kw system next week. Solarhub was recommended to us (it is a national company, so should be in Melbourne as well). Certainly the Canberra office was excellent - very interested and professional - much better than the other lot we tried (and failed) to get a quote from.

Solarhub came out to the house, talked about our current usage, looked at our bills and recommended a system. A lot depends on when you are going to be using electricity, ours is pretty even, as we are home all day.

We considered batteries, but came to the conclusion it wasn’t quite there yet.

Panels were warranted for 25 years, inverters for 12.

 

[samh004]

I forgot to mention my installer, I went with AGL. I was initially going to pay it off over time but getting finance proved to be troublesome so I just paid outright. I did shop around and get my quotes, but they ended up being in the middle though on the higher side. They have been a pleasure to deal with and despite being Melbourne-based they used competent contractors on the Gold Coast.

My only (developing) issue is the other day I got an email advising that they had identified that the DC isolator installed as part of my system has been found to fail in certain circumstances, and that they would need to replace it. Thus, my system is currently turned off, as they have advised me to do for protection. This initially really upset me as my bills have come down nicely and I don't know how long I'm going to be offline, but I kept reading and they said:

Once your DC isolators have been replaced and your solar system is operational, we will offer an amount to compensate you for the duration your system was off. We will estimate this compensation based on your system size and available data.

Thankfully, I've been recording all my data to pvoutput since it was installed, so I can easily show them what I have been generating. It probably won't be exactly what I've lost, but if a company is able to compensate me for lost power generation, it gives me early confidence that I am going to be looked after when/if things go wrong. So I am satisfied at this early stage.

 

[Daver6]

Recently installed a 6.48KW system with a 5kw inverter (Canadian solar panels , Fronius Primo inverter and smart meter)

Normal power bill was in the range of $250-$450, and first full Solar bill was $120

Installed inverter in garage ready for batteries in a few years

What I have learned so far
- inverters in the garage probably not a good idea as they generate noise
- where possibly purchase electrical goods with timers, so you can program them to come on during the day (dishwashers, washing machines etc)

You've got the identical setup to me in terms of brands. I've only got 5.83 KW worth of panels. Inverter also in the garage and its silent. If yours is making noise, you might want to get it checked out?

Did you use Infinite Energy?

 

[maxsaver]

Unfortunately our family is not often home during the day. So wouldn't expect that unless we can install a decent battery system then we wouldn't recoop the costs too quickly. Will monitor the battery pricing and suspect they will improve rapidly.

 

[Flying mermaid]

We will also be monitoring the batteries - don’t think it will be too long before it is worth it - in the mean time we can see what we get out of the system we have in (well half in - rain got in the way, so we currently have 40 panels in the garage).

If anyone is interested this is the system we are putting in

40 x LG Neon2 330w

2 x SolarEdge SE500H (inverter)

Monitoring is via the SolarEdge Portal.

 

[ashleyn]

Love my 7KW system, and those generous FITs. Can recommend REC panels and SMA inverter.... can't help with an WA installer.

Don't bother if your roof hasn't got the correct orientation or the footprint is affected by shade. One panel affected by shade knocks the rest out...

There are now panels that solve that problem.

 

[ashleyn]

Sick and tired of getting ever increasing power bills can any one recommend a good solar panel provider in WA?

Synergy frustrate me, had a conversation with them today and asked them to explain how my bill / number of units I use has increased on the current bill, when the spa and air-conditioning have been turned off for the billing period.

The consultant cannot explain the increase and only recommendation was to test the meter at $200.

Recently got a 3Kw system and happy with all aspects. PM me if yu want the contact details.

 

[samh004]

40 x LG Neon2 330w

Wow, 13.2kW!!

Is this for a business?

 

[Flying mermaid]

Wow, 13.2kW!!

Is this for a business?

no just for our house - we live in Canberra and it gets very cold in winter, plus we have an indoor pool (huge mistake doing that) and it is a real energy gobbler with dehumidifier and pool heater and general heater.

 

[cove]

Had a look at our business electricity cost for the first 5 months of this year. With the recent change of lights to LED as well as the solar systems we are getting much closer to zero with another $7,000 reduction. Of course we probably cannot get to zero but we are much closer now.

 

[clazman]

You've got the identical setup to me in terms of brands. I've only got 5.83 KW worth of panels. Inverter also in the garage and its silent. If yours is making noise, you might want to get it checked out?

Did you use Infinite Energy?

Yes I used Infinite Energy, i was concerned by the noise, but checked out two others and they make the same noise

Will asl Infinite energy

 

[Daver6]

Yes I used Infinite Energy, i was concerned by the noise, but checked out two others and they make the same noise

Will asl Infinite energy

You can tell them that mine is silent. Be interested in to hear how you go.

 

[Flying mermaid]

Solar system connected up on Saturday and is generating away. I have the solar edge app on my iPad and it is quite addictive to check it and see what is happening. At the moment we are covering all our usage from about 6am to 7pm and sending a lot off to the grid (yesterday around 69.6 kWh). Once we turn the floors on in autumn, we are pretty sure we will consume everything, but it is going to be fun to monitor.

 

[LadyC]

We have our solar system going in on Thursday. Got rid of the gas a few weeks ago - completely electric at our house now.

 

[samh004]

Solar system connected up on Saturday and is generating away. I have the solar edge app on my iPad and it is quite addictive to check it and see what is happening. At the moment we are covering all our usage from about 6am to 7pm and sending a lot off to the grid (yesterday around 69.6 kWh). Once we turn the floors on in autumn, we are pretty sure we will consume everything, but it is going to be fun to monitor.

While even I acknowledge that batteries are too expensive right now, have you considered what storing energy in some batteries might do for you in the future, particularly in cooler months?

 

[Flying mermaid]

While even I acknowledge that batteries are too expensive right now, have you considered what storing energy in some batteries might do for you in the future, particularly in cooler months?

yes we are going to monitor it - we looked at it this time but it just didn’t make sense even with the subsidy we would have got (ACT is subsidising batteries). Also in winter we will use pretty much everything we generate, so there wouldn’t be anything going into a battery.

Mr FM gave me some more info on our configuration. Apparently our roof is east to west and very steep, so in order to get a decent amount of energy throughout the day we needed 40 panels, split on either side of the roof. So while in theory it is a 13.2 kw system, we never actually get all of that. About 8kw is the best we do in the middle of the day at the moment.

I am doing a few things like running the dishwasher in the morning, rather than at night and things like that, that can be modified without impact. I did suggest to Mr FM (a bit tongue in cheek ), that maybe we could have our Dinner at 4:30 instead of 8, so we were cooking while the sun was shining, but somehow he didn’t like that idea.

 

[love_the_life]

yes we are going to monitor it - we looked at it this time but it just didn’t make sense even with the subsidy we would have got (ACT is subsidising batteries). Also in winter we will use pretty much everything we generate, so there wouldn’t be anything going into a battery.

Mr FM gave me some more info on our configuration. Apparently our roof is east to west and very steep, so in order to get a decent amount of energy throughout the day we needed 40 panels, split on either side of the roof. So while in theory it is a 13.2 kw system, we never actually get all of that. About 8kw is the best we do in the middle of the day at the moment.

I am doing a few things like running the dishwasher in the morning, rather than at night and things like that, that can be modified without impact. I did suggest to Mr FM (a bit tongue in cheek ), that maybe we could have our Dinner at 4:30 instead of 8, so we were cooking while the sun was shining, but somehow he didn’t like that idea.

Did you also suggest that you should go to bed when the sun goes down so you don't need to use power. Don't think he would've been keen on that either

 

[Flying mermaid]

Did you also suggest that you should go to bed when the sun goes down so you don't need to use power. Don't think he would've been keen on that either

didn’t think of that one . But then we are total night owls and always have been - turning off the light before 1am is a rare occurrence.

 

[jb747]

Energy Australia have just announced a 15% price rise for 2018. That has the effect of taking a year off the pay back period of my installation. It also confirms my intention to add some more panels. I’ve been running a spreadsheet which allows me compare the actual data with the extra production from various numbers of extra panels. More doesn’t always seem to be better, with 6 extra looking to be the most cost effective.

A quote for batteries was too expensive...my three phase catches me here as I need a setup that operates over all three phases. At this point more panels are still more effective. Once Enphase comes out with a bigger battery than their current offering, I might revisit it.

 

[cove]

Yes I was hoping battery pricing would halve but it hasn't happened so far.