Domestic Solar PV Quotes 2020

Don't really go out of date but it's only worth considering if you're car is routinely at home to charge using excess production during daylight hours.

Otherwise a waste of money really.

11500 is about a 1000 too high tbh.

As stated earlier I can't get the figures to stack up other than going with a company doing the whole lot.

Best quote I have got for a 6.8kw system (20 panels) with 5kw battery is €7600 after grant fitted. If I go on to solartricity or midsummer and put that sort of system together the figures work out at approx. €6800 + vat then the cost of fitting them and an electrician to connect and check everything. I could probably haggle a few euro off that price but realistically not enough to warrant doing it myself. Even if fitting myself with zero cost there is the time involved in doing the job (and I love doing jobs like this) and the electrician which would probably be €150-200 assuming it is a straight forward job for him.

You would at least want to knock 1k off getting everything yourself to start seeing any savings.

I came to the same conclusion "the alm". Different people will of course have different viewpoints here. While I'm know my way around a multimeter, and I'm sure I could have done it, the bottom line to me was "Do I want to be going up on my roof multiple times drilling holes for the first time into the very structure which protects my house?". Probably not the project to be "learning as you go" :-)

As for the "they wouldn't fit more than 20 panels", there could be a number of reasons for this. The planning permission exemption for solar installations is not more than 50% of the surface area of your roof and/or not more than 12m2. A stupid rule really that many/most people here will skirt or break, but in terms of the SEAI folks approving the grant the companies don't want to flaunt it too much.

The other reason is (probably) that most inverters have a max dc input of around 600volts. Different inverters have different limits. Depends on your configuration of course, such as if your panels are south or east/west etc you may be limited by this and to go more than 20 panels you may require a 2nd inverter or a higher power rated one.

If it's not too nosey, what's your usage? Anything above 5Kwp is "getting serious" :-) While I think getting as many panels as you can is generally good advice to everyone, you don't want to be paying needlessly to supply the grid 80% of the time either.

An SEAI inspection?

Do they have a limit of the number of panels?

Planning aside.

I dont think installers or the SEAI look at the planning side at all. Its an unwritten rule that it can be ignored. Many here have systems 4-6kWp which would break those planning rules and SEAI grants were provided.

The 20 panel limit doesn't exist afaik.

The 12m2 of 50% of the total roof area is a planning limit. SEAI inspections won't fail for that limit afaik.

Yeah, my own installation only last week would flaunt that 12m2 limit. 14 panels at a rough approximation of 1m2 each (they are bigger than 1m2 each) puts it over that 12m2. I'd probably be ok on the 50% side though as I've a one story extension out the back so if counting that roof space I'd be fine.

When i mentioned inverter rating, it wasn't so much the wattage, but the voltage. The panels are usually connected in series, and they have I believe an internal voltage about 38-40V, so stringing 20 of them together could give you 750-800V. Now that's a theoretical max, in reality if you have a east/west split for example you wouldn't see that. Even if all south facing, they'd probably split them into 2x strings of 10 each. But while your inverter might be able to take the watts, it might be limited on the voltage if they went more than 20 panels and it would either require 2 inverters or a higher rated one (more cost). What I don't know is if inverters have 2 strings and is the limit of say 600V per string, or the combined. Dunno.

Perhaps someone more knowledgeable than me can educate me/us.

Is the voltage by string displayed on the Solis app?

Its the inverter that limits it to 6kw not the amount of panels.

Single phase 6kw (mainly domestic dwellings)

3 phase 11kw (mainly commercial)

Have a look

Hi guys,

Got the following quote following recommendations from some of you good folk on here and about to pull the trigger. Just wanted to run it by some of you first. I have an EV but no hot water cylinder as we have an oil combi boiler. The optimisers have pushed the price up obviously but due to trees they are necessary.

Quotation for 6.1kwp system on the house Description of Goods and Services Quantity Remarks Modules- 340w JA Mono panels with 25- year efficiency warranty and 10-year manufacturer’s warranty 

18x 340w JA panels Monocrystalline = 6.120kwp system 18x optimisers for the shading of the panels. 

Inverter –RHI-5K-48ES Solis hybrid MPPT comes with 5-year warranty 1x Solis hybrid inverter Comes with dongle for online monitoring Mounting Kit- 

Renosol roof mount All Required Check Meter- Emlite M19 1 x Check meter Records all power generated by the solar panels 

Scaffolding As required All required Electrical Work 1x DC isolators 1x AC isolator 1x Shut of switch 

Batteries- pure drive 1x 5kwh Pure drive battery Solar Switch- for heating hot water through the solar panels with surplus power N/A 

EV Charger- Zappi 1x Zappi 7.2kw charger Hub and CTs to link up to solar. 

All required Paperwork Included 

Customer to get BER done Installation 

Time Approx. 2 days Depending on weather 

Grand Total (including VAT) €13,500.00 - €3,000.00 (grant) = €10,500

Thanks in advance