Domestic solar PV quotes 2018

unkel

What's the capacity of your Pylontech battery? The standard US2000 model can only handle 25A, so charging and discharging of the battery is limited to about 1.25kW

garo

Yes it is the 2000. I know the battery can only put out 25A or 1.2kW. But I am suspecting the inverter CT sensor is not measuring grid import correctly. I have seen the inverter saynig is exporting to the grid while the meter is whirring!
Also the numbers from the app are all over the place. Right now they show me exporting 15W and using 250W in the house when I am importing from the grid at 300W based on meter speed.

unkel

garo wrote: »

Also the numbers from the app are all over the place. Right now they show me exporting 15W

Yeah, that is impossible. Sunset was an hour before your post

Time to ring the installers methinks...

Keep us updated!

garo

They have been contacted and acknowledge something doesn't sound right. They should come by this evening to take a look.

PS: in 5 days the panels have generated 90kWh of electricity so very pleased with the contribution to the environment we are making if not to our own pockets.

unkel

My system only went in 6 months ago and I'm already well over 2MWh. Most of it gone to the grid, that's my contribution

Alkers

Has anyone heard about the current SEAI grants ceasing in October (as I was told by an installer today) as apparently this is when the details of the FIT will be announced...

gally74

Alkers wrote: »

Has anyone heard about the current SEAI grants ceasing in October (as I was told by an installer today) as apparently this is when the details of the FIT will be announced...

As expected....

gally74

Alkers wrote: »

Has anyone heard about the current SEAI grants ceasing in October (as I was told by an installer today) as apparently this is when the details of the FIT will be announced...

Budget I expect.

wexfordman2

unkel wrote: »

My system only went in 6 months ago and I'm already well over 2MWh. Most of it gone to the grid, that's my contribution

My full inverter went in 1st of april, and so far has produced 3.3MWh, with 784kwh exported.

So in theory, that's 2.5MWh used, say at 17c per kwh, approx 425 euro saved in just under 5 months. And not a great summer tbh. Happy enough with that

unkel

wexfordman2 wrote: »

My full inverter went in 1st of april, and so far has produced 3.3MWh

6kwp FTW

You will do nicely out of a FIT too...

panman2019

4KW system with 5KW inverter and 5.7KW battery €10k including Vat
Grant back €3800
Cost to house €6200
Hot water diverter €300
PM me and ill get you company, 30yr on panels (85% efficient after 25yr), Alpha Smile 5 battery and inverter

Shefwedfan

panman2019 wrote: »

4KW system with 5KW inverter and 5.7KW battery €10k including Vat
Grant back €3800
Cost to house €6200
Hot water diverter €300
PM me and ill get you company, 30yr on panels (85% efficient after 25yr), Alpha Smile 5 battery and inverter

Is this good or bad?

niallers1

Shefwedfan wrote: »

Is this good or bad?

I paid almost identical figure for for 4.2kw, (14*300w on E/W array) 5kw inverter and 4.8kwh battery

2950 watts produced in 11 months. Should easily be about 3300 watts produced in 12 months. This is in line with expectations for my E/W array.

ECO_Mental

I am planning to build a house next summer and kind of discounted PV but if you are saying that there will possibly be a FIT then it might be worth while. Is there any indications of what level the FIT could be yet.

Balanadan

unkel wrote: »

What make / model inverter are you getting? The old motto that undersizing your inverter gives better efficiency must stem from the olden days of PV. These days inverters reach near max efficiency at about 20% load. In fact at full load they are slightly less efficient than at half load:

Undersizing is done for a number of reasons. Why pay extra for capacity that you will never use? You will almost never hit peak output. Undersizing can result in your PV system starting up more quickly, thus increasing yield. Plus PV panels degrade over time.

air

In my opinion it's madness not to include at least a small PV system in any new build nowadays.
The installation cost should be much lower since scaffolding is in place and trades are on site anyway.
You also have the option of an in roof system which saves on slates/tiles and will look very neat and tidy.

The cost of say a 3kW system without a battery should provide an acceptable payback even without a FIT. If you could split it East/West all the better as it will increase self consumption and improve payback.

ECO_Mental

air wrote: »

In my opinion it's madness not to include at least a small PV system in any new build nowadays.
The installation cost should be much lower since scaffolding is in place and trades are on site anyway.
You also have the option of an in roof system which saves on slates/tiles and will look very neat and tidy.

The cost of say a 3kW system without a battery should provide an acceptable payback even without a FIT. If you could split it East/West all the better as it will increase self consumption and improve payback.

Yeah thinking about it again I will look into it. My mantra was to keep things simple build an air tight well insulated house with an air-to-water and HRV and I shouldn't need much heating and complications after that. But I think we will all be moving to EV's soon and was thinking myself of getting one in the next year or two anyway and having PV could help in charging this. If the FIT is any good then its a no brainer.

air

ECO_Mental wrote: »

Yeah thinking about it again I will look into it. My mantra was to keep things simple build an air tight well insulated house with an air-to-water and HRV and I shouldn't need much heating and complications after that. But I think we will all be moving to EV's soon and was thinking myself of getting one in the next year or two anyway and having PV could help in charging this. If the FIT is any good then its a no brainer.

Well PV is totally in line with keeping things simple.

You're going to be using plenty of electricity anyway with the ASHP, HRV & normal consumption & as you say EVs are inevitable.

Shefwedfan

ECO_Mental wrote: »

Yeah thinking about it again I will look into it. My mantra was to keep things simple build an air tight well insulated house with an air-to-water and HRV and I shouldn't need much heating and complications after that. But I think we will all be moving to EV's soon and was thinking myself of getting one in the next year or two anyway and having PV could help in charging this. If the FIT is any good then its a no brainer.

You will regret it everyday if you don't do it now, the wiring etc shoud all be cheaper than a retro fit so I would put in as much as possible now......

Coltrane

ECO_Mental wrote: »

Yeah thinking about it again I will look into it. My mantra was to keep things simple build an air tight well insulated house with an air-to-water and HRV and I shouldn't need much heating and complications after that. But I think we will all be moving to EV's soon and was thinking myself of getting one in the next year or two anyway and having PV could help in charging this. If the FIT is any good then its a no brainer.

PV->EV charging will work well for you. I have it myself and haven't used the grid to charge the car at home (where I mainly charge) since March. V2H, the ability to use your EV's battery for your house, should also become a reality in the next 3-5 years.


One point to bear in mind when sizing your PV-array is that currently EVs (at least those charged by the CCS-standard, like mine) will only start charging at 1.4kW. You won't be able to trickle-charge with less. You'll therefore need a larger array, and even at the current ESB-limit of 6kWp you'll struggle in the winter to both run your HP and charge your car. Whatever I produced from my 5kWp array in January was soaked up by my HP. Exported only 1kWh that month and don't think I got any charge for the car.

Shefwedfan

Coltrane wrote: »

PV->EV charging will work well for you. I have it myself and haven't used the grid to charge the car at home (where I mainly charge) since March. V2H, the ability to use your EV's battery for your house, should also become a reality in the next 3-5 years.


One point to bear in mind when sizing your PV-array is that currently EVs (at least those charged by the CCS-standard, like mine) will only start charging at 1.4kW. You won't be able to trickle-charge with less. You'll therefore need a larger array, and even at the current ESB-limit of 6kWp you'll struggle in the winter to both run your HP and charge your car. Whatever I produced from my 5kWp array in January was soaked up by my HP. Exported only 1kWh that month and don't think I got any charge for the car.

If you have a heat pump then I would expect you to need a massive installation of PV to try and drive it plus electric car. It would be one or the other for me.



Use the PV for electric car during summer and for HP during winter, night rate to charge the car.

unkel

Balanadan wrote: »

Undersizing is done for a number of reasons. Why pay extra for capacity that you will never use?

Your opinion is based on outdated information. I know it's a mantra that a lot of people who were involved with solar PV a long time ago have maintained ever since. But it simply no longer holds true. A higher capacity inverter costs virtually the same as a lower capacity one

Solis 3.6kW hybrid - €1,258 + VAT

Solis 5kW hybrid - €1,298 + VAT

If you go for an undersized inverter and later add more panels, you are screwed as you will have to change your inverter

There are no longer any good reasons for undersizing

wexfordman2

If I was building from scratch and wished to cater for a future solar Pv, I would nearly consider installing just the panels and wiring, but out in 6kwp of panels.

Also, the design of the house if you've not finalised it should allow for max number of panels on a south facing roof.


Say7ng that again, the cost of putting in the full Pv system would not be much more, and tiny relative to the cost of the overall build.

Maybe another drawback is if you put the panels in, and dont fully deploy until 5 yes or more later, warranty, degradation etc would be whittled down.

unkel

wexfordman2 wrote: »

If I was building from scratch and wished to cater for a future solar Pv, I would nearly consider installing just the panels and wiring, but out in 6kwp of panels.

Now that we have the jurisprudence that you can put up as many panels as you like anywhere on your property without planning permission (lady with front, road facing, roof plastered with panels who never applied for planning permission and was refused retention permission and was told to take down the panels, won case at the highest level) I wonder when the next hurdle will fall (ESB networks limit of production of 6kW of PV)

Seems like an arbitrary limit anyway.

eamon_l

Just received a quote for a 4kw Tier 1 system with the following system specification for an east/west split installation; The system comes with panel optimisers with 20yr guarantee, 4kw Inverter, 4.8kw Pylon battery and a smart immersion for hot water.
Price quoted is €15,450 less grant €3,800 = €11,650 including VAT. 20yr guarantee on everything except the battery (10yrs)
Reading most of the 2019 posts this seems a little expensive even if it is top of the range?

wexfordman2

eamon_l wrote: »

Just received a quote for a 4kw Tier 1 system with the following system specification for an east/west split installation; The system comes with panel optimisers with 20yr guarantee, 4kw Inverter, 4.8kw Pylon battery and a smart immersion for hot water.
Price quoted is €15,450 less grant €3,800 = €11,650 including VAT. 20yr guarantee on everything except the battery (10yrs)
Reading most of the 2019 posts this seems a little expensive even if it is top of the range?

Absolute RIP off imho.

KCross

eamon_l wrote: »

Just received a quote for a 4kw Tier 1 system....

lol lol lol.... whats a "Tier 1" system when its out?

Thats just their way of saying we are going to ride you on price and they are!

wexfordman2

unkel wrote: »

wexfordman2 wrote: »

If I was building from scratch and wished to cater for a future solar Pv, I would nearly consider installing just the panels and wiring, but out in 6kwp of panels.

Now that we have the jurisprudence that you can put up as many panels as you like anywhere on your property without planning permission (lady with front, road facing, roof plastered with panels who never applied for planning permission and was refused retention permission and was told to take down the panels, won case at the highest level) I wonder when the next hurdle will fall (ESB networks limit of production of 6kW of PV)

Seems like an arbitrary limit anyway.

Is the esb limitation not based on network limitations ? Ie they cant have too much power being fed back to local transformers ?

Alkers

wexfordman2 wrote: »

Absolute RIP off imho.

Agreed, I think the optimisers and e-w split add to the cost but otherwise almost double what you'd expect to pay

eamon_l

panman2019 wrote: »

4KW system with 5KW inverter and 5.7KW battery €10k including Vat
Grant back €3800
Cost to house €6200
Hot water diverter €300
PM me and ill get you company, 30yr on panels (85% efficient after 25yr), Alpha Smile 5 battery and inverter

With a battery installed did you not get the €1000 grant for that too?

CiaranIRE

KCross wrote: »

Yes, the new smart meters will do away with the need for the import/export meter... thats what ESB told me anyway.

Would you have that in writing by any chance?

I spoke to the ESB and they told me the smart meter wouldn't do export metering. I was then put onto someone more senior who confirmed '100%' it won't do export metering and I would need to pay the €340 for a separate meter.

I've sent them an email just to clarify it again(with a few links to documents saying otherwise). Waiting to hear back from them.

KCross

CiaranIRE wrote: »

Would you have that in writing by any chance?

I spoke to the ESB and they told me the smart meter wouldn't do export metering. I was then put onto someone more senior who confirmed '100%' it won't do export metering and I would need to pay the €340 for a separate meter.

I've sent them an email just to clarify it again(with a few links to documents saying otherwise). Waiting to hear back from them.

It was actually the CRU told me, not Eirgrid. I'd be surprised if it didnt support import and export. They are literally spending billions installing these so to leave out the ability to monitor export would be ridiculous.

Anyway, this is the email I got from them

From: Customer Care <CustomerCare@cer.ie>
Sent: Tuesday 21 August 2018 10:14
Subject: RE: Smart meter rollout and import/export meters for SolarPV


Thank you for contacting the Commission for Regulation of Utilities.

The smart metering upgrade is to be carried out in three phases between 2019 and 2024. The first smart meters will be switched on at the end of 2020. The smart meters will be able to measure the amount of energy imported and exported to the grid. Additional functionality will be delivered at the end of 2024, whereby the smart meters will be able to communicate with separate metering where it is installed on site for microgeneration. This will allow for the generation from a specific micro generator (say a solar pv panel) to be measured, rather than just the overall amount of energy exported to the Grid.

Yours sincerely,

Seamie Lyons

CiaranIRE

KCross wrote: »

It was actually the CRU told me, not Eirgrid. I'd be surprised if it didnt support import and export. They are literally spending billions installing these so to leave out the ability to monitor export would be ridiculous.

Anyway, this is the email I got from them

From: Customer Care <CustomerCare@cer.ie>
Sent: Tuesday 21 August 2018 10:14
Subject: RE: Smart meter rollout and import/export meters for SolarPV


Thank you for contacting the Commission for Regulation of Utilities.

The smart metering upgrade is to be carried out in three phases between 2019 and 2024. The first smart meters will be switched on at the end of 2020. The smart meters will be able to measure the amount of energy imported and exported to the grid. Additional functionality will be delivered at the end of 2024, whereby the smart meters will be able to communicate with separate metering where it is installed on site for microgeneration. This will allow for the generation from a specific micro generator (say a solar pv panel) to be measured, rather than just the overall amount of energy exported to the Grid.

Yours sincerely,

Seamie Lyons

Thanks,

I've sent 6 or 7 links to them in an email, one was from the CRU website, another from their own website, a couple more from oireachtas.ie, all state the smart meter can do export metering.

Of the 3 people I spoke to, none of them seemed sure if the meter even done day/night metering.

I was originally calling in regards to requesting priority installation, but was told that wasn't done either.

The senior person was also quick to shoot down any mention of a feed in tariff being announced soon.

I'll update when I hear something back.

unkel

CiaranIRE wrote: »

Of the 3 people I spoke to, none of them seemed sure if the meter even done day/night metering.

Hahaha!

It can't measure import / export and it only has one tariff (full day rate)?

You should have asked him how come it's called a smart meter then?

Evd-Burner

A few years ago in a previous company we worked with smart meters. The ones we worked with were extremely versatile and could take in a multitude of feeds separate to their main metering. They could connect with other MBus, ModBus, Zwave and simple pulsing meters and export that data.

They recorded every 30 minutes how much watts went in each direction (import and export) and they could be updated remotely. You could have a sim card in each meter or connect them together via a mesh and have 1 or 2 with sims that could upload all the data.

There was a relay to switch on and off the power and there were controllable contacts to both control external relays and for tamper proofing switches etc.

They could be programmed to even work for prepay customers.

thos

Coltrane wrote: »

PV->EV charging will work well for you. I have it myself and haven't used the grid to charge the car at home (where I mainly charge) since March.

Sounds impressive.

Can you share some further details? What car, mileage and how much kWh or range are you typically adding? Presuming no other domestic battery setup?

I'm at odds with EV charging off solar. I've got a domestic DC battery which takes priority, so power only goes to the EV after the battery is charged, with the times of day we use the car I've really only seen 20km/5kwh added to the car. Great to ensure I'm getting 'something' for the power and not exporting for nothing, but using the battery to hep offset daytime use and then night-rate for EV charging seems most cost effective for me.

I've dropped the Zappi to about 70% solar to have it kick in once there is at least 1kw being exported.

Gumbo

eamon_l wrote: »

With a battery installed did you not get the €1000 grant for that too?

€3800
Is the max grant inclusive of the battery.

unkel

thos wrote: »

I've really only seen 20km/5kwh added to the car.

What EV is that? I get at least double that range from 5kWh in Ioniq in summer

thos

unkel wrote: »

What EV is that? I get at least double that range from 5kWh in Ioniq in summer

Model X.

Double as it's probably half the weight.

Coltrane

thos wrote: »

Sounds impressive.

Can you share some further details? What car, mileage and how much kWh or range are you typically adding? Presuming no other domestic battery setup?

I'm at odds with EV charging off solar. I've got a domestic DC battery which takes priority, so power only goes to the EV after the battery is charged, with the times of day we use the car I've really only seen 20km/5kwh added to the car. Great to ensure I'm getting 'something' for the power and not exporting for nothing, but using the battery to hep offset daytime use and then night-rate for EV charging seems most cost effective for me.

I've dropped the Zappi to about 70% solar to have it kick in once there is at least 1kw being exported.

It's an i3, doing about 7,000km per annum, at the house quite a bit during the day and only really charged at public chargers during trips out of Dublin. The array is an east-west 5kWp. I've no battery, but a heat pump which soaks up a bit of PV during the day at this time of the year heating the hot water, and lots of the PV during the rest of the year heating the house. Self-consumption this year to date is 66%, much higher during the darker months, >95% in December and January.


Hope the Zappi is working well enough with your DC battery, I had heard there was an incompatability.

Coltrane

Shefwedfan wrote: »

If you have a heat pump then I would expect you to need a massive installation of PV to try and drive it plus electric car. It would be one or the other for me.



Use the PV for electric car during summer and for HP during winter, night rate to charge the car.

Right, that's pretty much how it works. I get close to nothing into the car during the winter. The heat pump takes it all. So I've a large export during the summer (263kWh last month), but fairly low energy bills during the winter and a house which is decarbonised (if you disregard how the grid operates).


The unpaid export doesn't bother me too much as its value is very small compared to...well lots of things including some of the renewables I've bought and the financial and other risks of climate change. Its a carbon-free contribution to the grid, which the grid seems able to handle for now.



My perspective is that I'm not going to second-guess the science that we have a serious climate emergency and want to do everything that I can to mitigate now before it's too late.



What more can I do: use the car less and the bike more, diet, more insulation for the house (looking at externally insulating period facades), more PV when the ESB limit is raised.

thos

Coltrane wrote: »

It's an i3, doing about 7,000km per annum, at the house quite a bit during the day and only really charged at public chargers during trips out of Dublin. The array is an east-west 5kWp. I've no battery, but a heat pump which soaks up a bit of PV during the day at this time of the year heating the hot water, and lots of the PV during the rest of the year heating the house. Self-consumption this year to date is 66%, much higher during the darker months, >95% in December and January.


Hope the Zappi is working well enough with your DC battery, I had heard there was an incompatability.

Nice. While I'm only getting a small solar charge to the car, it's massively rewarding knowing you're driving on pure self generated power, getting that much usage from yours must be very nice.

Zappi works ok with the DC, on Eco+ there is an 'export margin' which ensures it's only using pure export and not eating into the battery.
The battery takes priority from a charging perspective, so Eco+ only kicks in after the batter is full, or if I've got enough excess above the battery's charge rate (2.4kw), so from my 5.2kw arrange I need to be generating 3.8kw + house load to start charging the car, which is a small window.
Doing a full 'boost' charge will of course consume the battery if it's there, but at present the timer only comes in after 1am at which point the battery is usually depleted anyway.

What heat pump have you got and is it doing any smart EDDI-like charging? I'm still trying to get my Daikin heat pump setup to use excess solar, but not there yet.

Coltrane

thos wrote: »

Nice. While I'm only getting a small solar charge to the car, it's massively rewarding knowing you're driving on pure self generated power, getting that much usage from yours must be very nice.

Zappi works ok with the DC, on Eco+ there is an 'export margin' which ensures it's only using pure export and not eating into the battery.
The battery takes priority from a charging perspective, so Eco+ only kicks in after the batter is full, or if I've got enough excess above the battery's charge rate (2.4kw), so from my 5.2kw arrange I need to be generating 3.8kw + house load to start charging the car, which is a small window.
Doing a full 'boost' charge will of course consume the battery if it's there, but at present the timer only comes in after 1am at which point the battery is usually depleted anyway.

What heat pump have you got and is it doing any smart EDDI-like charging? I'm still trying to get my Daikin heat pump setup to use excess solar, but not there yet.

Thanks, and yes I used the export-margin function on my own Zappi because while using an earlier version of its firmware it was dipping a bit too much into grid-power even though on eco+, 100%. A firmware upgrade using Zappi’s new hub fixed that.

I’ve a NIBE2040 and also UFH and had hoped I could use the UFH and cylinder as batteries using an accessory sold by NIBE for exactly that purpose. But the accessory doesn’t work. So all I can do is use IFTTT to activate the HP to heat the hot water when the generation hits a big (gross-disregarding consumption) production number. Disappointing. Seems to me that HPs should these days and with their extremely expensive pricing be able to do this.

Would you think of adding more ‘islanded’ PV (connected only to your battery, not the grid, so as not to breach the ESB 6kW limit) to charge your X? Think it’s poss but I’m no electrician.

niallers1

Coltrane wrote: »

Hope the Zappi is working well enough with your DC battery, I had heard there was an incompatability.

I have a DC Pylontech battery and it generally works fine with the Zappi.

I normally only charge with it on eco or eco +during daylight hours.
Eco+ will only charge on if there is at least 1400w from solar ( set up with small margin like somebody said earlier). Eco needs 1400w and will use a mix of solar pv, battery or grid if battery is depleted.
Fast charge will take from Solar/Battery or grid to get +3000w.

thos

Coltrane wrote: »

Thanks, and yes I used the export-margin function on my own Zappi because while using an earlier version of its firmware it was dipping a bit too much into grid-power even though on eco+, 100%. A firmware upgrade using Zappi’s new hub fixed that.

I’ve a NIBE2040 and also UFH and had hoped I could use the UFH and cylinder as batteries using an accessory sold by NIBE for exactly that purpose. But the accessory doesn’t work. So all I can do is use IFTTT to activate the HP to heat the hot water when the generation hits a big (gross-disregarding consumption) production number. Disappointing. Seems to me that HPs should these days and with their extremely expensive pricing be able to do this.

Would you think of adding more ‘islanded’ PV (connected only to your battery, not the grid, so as not to breach the ESB 6kW limit) to charge your X? Think it’s poss but I’m no electrician.

Daikin has similar 'add on' for solar, but they seem to know little about it, and none of the installers seems interested in helping with just an add-on. I'm going to attempt DIY install, but the unit itself needs a firmware updated which doesn't look user friendly at all.

I'm looking at the HP add-on first, and possibly more panels and battery next year depending on pricing, doubt I'd go as far as dedicated solar for car. I'd rather better API control over the batteries to help build my own crude prioritisation of DC battery vs car. The odd time I've manually switched off the batteries to get some charge in the car (knowing the car is there in the morning but won't be in the afternoon, and knowing good forecast will let battery charge up later in the day). I'm playing with the Tesla and MyEnergi API's at the moment to build some better monitoring, and at the moment have my GivEnergy data + Efergy data (HP dedicated) on 1 dashboard, so will be adding the others soon to give me better visibility of everything all together.

Coltrane

thos wrote: »

Daikin has similar 'add on' for solar, but they seem to know little about it, and none of the installers seems interested in helping with just an add-on. I'm going to attempt DIY install, but the unit itself needs a firmware updated which doesn't look user friendly at all.

I'm looking at the HP add-on first, and possibly more panels and battery next year depending on pricing, doubt I'd go as far as dedicated solar for car. I'd rather better API control over the batteries to help build my own crude prioritisation of DC battery vs car. The odd time I've manually switched off the batteries to get some charge in the car (knowing the car is there in the morning but won't be in the afternoon, and knowing good forecast will let battery charge up later in the day). I'm playing with the Tesla and MyEnergi API's at the moment to build some better monitoring, and at the moment have my GivEnergy data + Efergy data (HP dedicated) on 1 dashboard, so will be adding the others soon to give me better visibility of everything all together.

Sounds like lots of geeky-green fun!


If you're in a period house and managed to do something with the facade insulation, I'd be really interested to learn from your experience. It's my next major step. The main impediment for me now is the overloaded construction market in Dublin. But I'd love to do it.

air

You could just connect a second identical string of PV in parallel to an existing inverter within the overall 6kW limit with no risk to the ESB network peak export will still be capped by the inverter capacity. Use string diodes if the inverter doesn't include them.
You'll have peak output clipping of course but predominantly when you're likely to have more energy than you need anyway.

thos

Coltrane wrote: »

Sounds like lots of geeky-green fun!


If you're in a period house and managed to do something with the facade insulation, I'd be really interested to learn from your experience. It's my next major step. The main impediment for me now is the overloaded construction market in Dublin. But I'd love to do it.

Sorry, new timber frame build in 2014.

air wrote: »

You could just connect a second identical string of PV in parallel to an existing inverter within the overall 6kW limit with no risk to the ESB network peak export will still be capped by the inverter capacity. Use string diodes if the inverter doesn't include them.
You'll have peak output clipping of course but predominantly when you're likely to have more energy than you need anyway.

I've got 16 panels at present south-facing, which are split over both string inputs on the inverter.
I'd like to add some panels on my west-facing side. I'm thinking ~6 panels <2kw, as a boost in the afternoons/evenings where I need it most.
Can I daisy chain off the existing strings?

air

Would depend on the inverter, most likely you could put 8 on the West side and parallel those with one of the other inputs without issue. You should put a series diode in line with both the 8 South facing ones and the 8 new ones. Buy exactly the same model of panels for best performance.

thos

air wrote: »

Would depend on the inverter, most likely you could put 8 on the West side and parallel those with one of the other inputs without issue. You should put a series diode in line with both the 8 South facing ones and the 8 new ones. Buy exactly the same model of panels for best performance.

GivEnergy 5kw hybrid
https://www.lvprenewables.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/GivEnergy-Hybrid-Data-Sheet-1.pdf