Solar for Beginners [ask your questions here]

James 007

• So the worst case scenario is the following:
• 1no. 6mm sq T&E cable for Inverter
• 1no. 6mm sq T&E cable for Firemans Switch
• 1no. 4mm sq Earth cable for panels
• 1no. 5 to 6mm cat 5 cable for the energy meter
• 4no. 4mm sq DC cables from Firemans Switch to consumer unit

So I should allow for 3no. 25mm wide x 16mm conduits, I would hope that should suffice for now

hexosan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121090159#Comment_121090159

Again you don’t need 6mm Sq 2.T&E for the fireman switch 2.5mm would do. You also can’t run the DC and AC cables in the one conduit. Is this a bungalow or two story.

graememk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121090292#Comment_121090292

1.5mm2 is more than enough. Hell .75 would be fine. It draws practically nothing.

James 007

Thanks for all the advice

• So the worst case scenario is the following:
• Conduit 1 - 1no. 6mm sq T&E cable for Inverter
• Conduit 2 - 1no. 2.5mm sq T&E cable for Firemans Switch
• Conduit 2 - 1no. 4mm sq Earth cable for panels
• Conduit 3 - 4no. 4mm sq DC cables from Firemans Switch to consumer unit
• At Consumer Unit - 1no. 5 to 6mm cat 5 cable for the energy meter

Does anyone have a typical schematic of the setup, it would be useful to picture the runs

hexosan

All cables run from the consumer unit to the fireman switch location in the attic which has to be within 1.5m of the PV panel cables entering the roof space.

if the inverter is going beside the consumer unit the DC cables go to the location of the inverter.

hexosan

You haven’t said where your running the cables but you could just use two runs of 20mm flexible conduit

James 007

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121091125#Comment_121091125

Looking to run the conduits vertically from the stair half landing to the attic floor for now. After that I need to figure out how to route the cables to the front of the house (south facing side). The attic is used as an office. Its a two storey red-brick terraced house.

ebeanz

I’ve just had our system installed a few days ago and it was working fine. We’ve headed away on holiday and I’ve just had an alarm on the Solis app saying “grid over frequency” and an alarm code 1012. Is there anything I can do to put the inverter back on line without being home or will I have to wait until I get back ?

Edited to add that it seems to have rectified its self and is now back on line. Would appreciate any feedback as to what the problem might be and what action I should take if it happens again. Thanks

con747

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121117116#Comment_121117116

Have a read of this thread https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058181184/solis-error-over-grid-frequency

Scoobydoobydoo101

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121117116#Comment_121117116

I was having this issue quite regularly when on standard EN50549IE. I am very close to a transformer which I read somewhere, could be the issue.

I changed the standard to ESB - Micro and haven't had an issue since. (If you dont see it, I had to ask Solis to make the standard available on my inverter)

bullit_dodger

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121132934#Comment_121132934

Distance to the local step-down transformer would tend to be more voltage related, as in you'd be more likely to hit high voltage alarms then someone further away. Frequency tends not to be affected by distance to/from the local transformer.

kaisersose77

If a solar panel height is listed as 1762mm, when 3 are stacked in portrait layout is the total simply 3*1762mm or are there gaps between each panel? Also is the total free space needed just 700mm? (500mm below and 200mm above). Looking to get 3 high if possible but will be very tight. A few Installers are quoting for 3 high but have had nobody actually measure the roof. Google maps doesnt give true distance with slant and would be under going by that. Don't want the case where I go ahead with installation 3 high and then told afterwards oh sorry we couldn't install X panels because there was no space.

10-10-20

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121160396#Comment_121160396

Hmmm - depends on the system and how they are clamped to the rails. If all of the panels are on the same rail then there will be around 20mm for the clamp. So for three panels on the same rail, it would add 40mm for two clamps, plus two-times 5cms over the end of the rails for the end-clamp.

graememk

But if there is 3 sets of rails, (eg 12 panels total, 3 rows of 4) you wouldnt have them touching but would still allow 10mm between the top and bottom

Panrich

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121160396#Comment_121160396

You can get a decent idea on google maps by measuring the roof in total and then using some basic trigonometry to calculate the diagonal if you know the slope. That’s how I initially calculated mine and it’s borne out by the plans when I found them.

In my case the tiled roof is about 6.5 m so I’m very hopeful that I’ll get 3 rows up there.

micks_address

had an another inverter rcbo trip yesterday evening - first time since new hager rcbo was fitted few months ago. Conditions were pretty wild at the time with wind/rain.. it reset fine so hard to know what caused it. Guess will keep eye on it going forward - no water in and around the inverter etc - might have been a flicker of the power caused the fireman switch to cut off and that killed the inverter power supply... not sure.. will get the fireman switch rewired in next month or so from the inverter backup power supply

MacDanger

Hi All

Have followed this thread for a good while and we're now almost at the stage where we're ready to do an install ourselves. It's a new build so not eligible for the grant unfortunately and obviously we don't really know what our usage profile in the new house will look like. The house is 215m2 and the roof orientation is E-W, no chimney or velux windows so there should be no shading. We have a heatpump and an A2W system so should have no need for an eddy. The calculated roof area is ~ 44m2 each side so ~88m2 in total

I'm meeting a supplier this afternoon on site and I'm just wondering if there's anything other than the below I should ask about:

• size of install - I'll look for the max possible, maybe 18-20 panels?
• inverter - hybrid inverter as we'll go with a battery at some point; what capacity should we be looking for here? Anything else that I need to ask about?
• battery - may not be able to afford it but I'll get it quoted for anyway, 5kW & 10kW

Anything else I should ask about?

Edit: No EV yet so no car charger installed

10-10-20

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121167997#Comment_121167997

Hi!

size of install - I'll look for the max possible, maybe 18-20 panels?

inverter - hybrid inverter as we'll go with a battery at some point; what capacity should we be looking for here? Anything else that I need to ask about?

battery - may not be able to afford it but I'll get it quoted for anyway, 5kW & 10kW

Size:

Oversize the panels as much as possible on each of the cardinal orientations into separate MPPT's.

https://energyd.ie/dc-over-sizing-pv-solar-in-ireland/

https://www.greentechrenewables.com/article/solar-inverter-string-design-calculations

Inverter:

Hybrid of between 5kW and 5.7kW to meet the 25A limit. Choose an inverter which does not tie you to a battery vendor. ESBN NC6 submitted to match.

Battery:

Even a small 3 or 5kW would be beneficial initially. You can always add on.

MacDanger

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121168241#Comment_121168241

Great, thanks for that. One question on this "Hybrid of between 5kW and 5.7kW to meet the 25A limit" - what does the 25A limit refer to?

graememk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121168529#Comment_121168529

It's the inverter max AC output allowed by the nc6 form. (Works out at about 5.75kw, but they don't make inverters of that size so 5kw is often used)

There is an nc 7 that allows greater than 25 amps but costs €1000 and no guarantee, there's only a few that's done it yet so it's still fairly new

2smiggy

Have put in a solar PV system with a battery. Early yet, but as the battery is charged for the evening, and using the solar power for much of the day, it would make sense to more to a electric plan with a cheaper night rate (11pm-8am) and slightly more expensive day rate ? I also have air to water and underfloor heating, so that will be working over these cold winter nights to come.

Dozz

Hi all.

Question for you. My solar system has a puredrive battery with a double socket off the Solis inverter. Was able to run my WiFi, TV and a light off this system during a previous electricity outage however we had another outage this evening and I couldn't run anything off it (20% in battery).

Any ideas why this might have happened?

con747

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121186278#Comment_121186278

It's probably on factory settings that stops it going below 20% discharge. You can safely set them to 10% discharge under warranty. I set mine to 30% in the winter due to power cuts so I can use the 20% left after resetting it if a power cut happens.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dKxiKcOS5o

Ha Long Bay

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121186278#Comment_121186278

Is your battery SOC settings set to 20%?

Here is a quick video on how to check the settings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=5dKxiKcOS5o

Dozz

Thanks @Ha Long Bay & @con747 will give that a try.

Unfortunately I won't know until the next powercut.

Cheers

askU

Online tool to calculate rooftop PV potential.

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2023/10/04/ireland-introduces-online-tool-to-calculate-rooftop-pv-potential/

Ginger83

When do you guys set your battery to charge at night? Average day today

15kWh generated,13.6kWh consumed,2.5kWh imported,6kWh discharged

Battery discharges to 20%

graememk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121216426#Comment_121216426

Now that smart meters are out(or will be very soon).

And you have night rate.

The easiest option is charge to full around now.

If you do get a good day it will just be exported and you get paid for it.

Ran the numbers a bit ago, there is a slight edge for partial charging but it's a lot of faff if there is no automation/remote control.

unkel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121216877#Comment_121216877

Yep, my cars were charged 100% from my solar PV since the start of May, but are now 100% charged from 5c night rate. PV is almost all going to the grid directly now.

Agreed that you could milk the system more by charging up your battery as much as you can at night and then dumping excess to the grid in the evening, before charging up again. Makes a lot of financial sense if you pay 5c and get paid 28c. I can do it with a couple of clicks in my inverter app, but will hopefully get this automated next

Ginger83

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121218673#Comment_121218673

You send power from your battery to the grid?