Domestic Solar PV Quotes 2022 - No PM requests - See Mod note post #1

Hi all,

I am looking at getting a Solar PV system along with a EV Charger, and I would be grateful if someone could suggest a Cork area installer that they have had a good experience with.

Thanks

Ok Thanks for that.

Just make sure its a Puredrive you get and don't get fobbed off.

Why 70C though?

Even if it's cheap'ish, unless you have a need for 70C water, why spend energy heating that water up to that temp? All your doing is denting your wallet and using energy which, to be fair, most at night time does come from renewables from the grid....but it seems a bit pointless. No? And if it wasn't from renewable then you'd be increasing your CO2 footprint.

Most people take showers at 40-45C water temperature, so you could target 55C and you'd still have to mix cold water at the shower rose, or it'd be too hot? Probably save yourself a few quid too over the year and not even notice the difference in temp.

The water is heated to 70 at the night rate. It comes out of the two shower etc at lower temp as you said giving you more usable volume of heated water. The heat pump coil is toward the top third of the tank. So you end up with enough hot water heated at the night rate to last the full day further supplemented by the solar tubes weather permitting is the logic of the high temp heat pumps as I understand it. If we heated to 60 at the top we’re likely to need to boost it in the afternoon on the much more expensive day time units. Those are Daikins recommended settings. I’m sure the tech has improved in the last number or years split systems etc but that’s the reason for 70

I have done this over the phone. 5 minutes and old application have been canceled and after that I could go online to do new application.

Just got quoted for optimisers for 80 euro each if i extend and add panels to all 3 roofs, reading on here that price sounds a bit high?

Just to be clear - you have shading on some/all of your panels, right? People, sometimes mistakenly think that optimizers will improve panel efficiency irrespective of what else is going on.

You may know this, and if so....sorry for stating stuff you already know, but optimizers will only improve production on panels which are shaded, and for that you only need to install optimizers on the actual panels which are shaded. If you have a panel which has a clear unobstructed view of the sun all day long you don't need to install optimizer on that panel. It would be unusual to need optimizers on every panel - but not unheard of

Yup maximizing your roof with panels is invariably a good strategy. I'm not seeing from your answer though why you need optimizers on all your panels though. Assuming no chimneys in the mix (etc), you have

String1: East facing roof (no optimizers)

String2: West facing roof (with optimizers) + south facing roof (with optimizers)

This would mean that you save a few quid by not having optimizers on your east roof. Adding them would be pointless, in fact it may even slightly lower generation by 1-2% if you did install them where they were not needed.

Sorry newbie question:

In your example above there are optimizers on the west and south facing roofs. Is this because they are on the same string and will be getting different amounts of sunlight depending on the time of day therefore either aspect will be shaded at times?

Correct. You can think of different aspect facing roofs as equivalent to "shading" in essence. Basically without getting too technical, the internal electrical resistance of a panel changes with the amount of sunlight on it. When all the panels are facing the same way and all have the same amount of light landing on them, they all behave the same.

If however, you have a panel with some shade on it (Chimney/tree/etc) then because it doesn't have the same amount of light falling on it, it won't have the same internal electrical resistance and the production is reduced. UNless you have an optimizer on that panel, it will also drag all the panels in that string down with it.

Championc above gives a very good (but little used) solution. You can wire different roof aspects in parallel. You have to have the same number of panels, and also the same type, but you could put 4x panels on "roof x" wired in parallel with 4 panels on the "roof y", and doing that would enable you to not use optimizers.

There's was a recent thread on shading - have a read

Solar PV - Effects of Shading — boards.ie - Now Ye're Talkin'

Thanks for that ill get back to them with this info see what they say

Right just chatted and adding in 3 panels, so 15 total and 8 optimisers brings it to 10790 after grant, im wondering if its worth it to bother for just the addition of 3 panels even if they will be south facing