My 16kWp Domestic System

Curious about this myself. The 6kW limit really annoys me. I will have 21kWh of storage and 8.2kWp of an initial array going in. The array is currently 100% S focused so I would be able to draw the full 8.2kW if it werent for silly limits. ( I know I'd need a second inverter as the current one is ~6kW). I have plenty of space on my roof for another 8 S facing panels to bring me to 10.5kWp south and then I would add some E/W in the future.

I looked at the NC7 application form and it's quite daunting, there's not a lot of info out there compared to NC6. How did you find the process, did you do it yourself or did you have a reci etc help

Looks like theres a station right at my house. Makes sense as I'm the only house on the local transformer, or so the ESBn guy said to me when he was repairing it.

Yes but when you have over 8kWp of panels and 21kWh of storage, adding a bigger inverter would be helpful. especially when you can add many more and look to cover winter usage. Having 16kWp for instance like the OP, but being limited to 6kW production would really annoy me.

Yes that's pretty standard for any networks update.

Yes I'm not 100% interested in the math/numbers/finance. I'm going towards self sustainability and off grid ultimately.

Are you suggesting you can configure a series of inverters to max export 6kW but actually generate more? Imagine I have 2 6kW inverters and 16kWp of panels. Can I set to export max 6kW and keep the remaining 6kW assuming peak generation limited at 12kW by 2*6kW inverters? No one has mentioned that to me. My current setup is 8.1kWp with 6kW inverter. That's all S/SE facing and my next plan was to put another 8.1kWp on the N/NW side of the roof along with another inverter. Kinda similar to the OP - which is where my inspiration kinda came into reality.

One difference, I have no interest in exporting anything to the grid. I'd prefer to use the waste energy to connect a few space heaters for the outside or something.

I think in Ireland off-grid isn't a realistic proposition. Leaving aside the fiscal aspects, the physical generation math isn't there in terms of solar generation in December-January. There were days last December where I was regularly <1Kwhr off 5.3kwp in panels, so even with 15-16Kwp in panels, you'll struggle to run the house without some other source of power (wind turbine, small hydro). The alternative would be 40-50Kwp in panels or a huge (huge) battery of 50-100Kwhr or more to ride through the dark days, hoping that you can grab enough on the rare sunny short day to power back up.

Lots of options though if you did want to go that way. You could have a 2nd "off grid" inverter isolated from the main house circuits during the day charging a battery and then say at 11pm have an auto-switch over (of the battery) from off grid to supplying the house. Paralleling inverters like slave1 has done I think another option.

3x phase though and a 3x phase inverter would be the way I'd go if you were seriously considering it and cost wasn't an obstacle. 3x phase would also have benefits of having a more efficient options for heat pumps I believe (not expert there)

Be interested to hear mp3guys thoughts, he's the lad with all the real life system. :-)

You can do off grid in a low electricity use house with a big PV system, but you would at least either burn fossil fuels for heat / hot water and / or have a fossil fuel burning generator to make electricity.

Grid, ladies and gentlemen, grid is good 😂

Even with the silly standing charges we have. They should be free and the cost of that should be in the unit rate. Polluter pays principle.

If those lads can go off grid surely in Ireland it would be easier. You will need wind though and a lot of changes to how you use power not just buying a big-ass inverter and leaving all your inefficient/standby appliances plugged in.

Ohh totally doable lads - totally doable with a big enough system, but I think you mis-underestimate really how poor the generation is in December-January, when the day length is 8-9 hrs long. Here's my own system from last Dec.

Granted I'm a east/west split, so with a south facing system you'd beat that a bit. But Average daily production of 1.88Kwhr in December. I use about 20Kwhr/day - so well short and as unkel says that doesn't even include heating. Couple of those 0.4Kwhr days in a row would errode even a fat battery.

So I'd need about 40-50Kwp in panels. Yeah, you could do it. You'd be a bit bonkers, but technically you could do it. Occam's razor would come into play though I think. All things being equal the simplest solution, and if you have a grid then keeping it for the months that you need it makes sense.

I think the yield for the month is fine mate, if you had a 20Kwp... but the reality is that like today you'll get a mix of nice bright days and then 2-3 dark ones. So while your 20Kwp in the middle of Janurary might be able to knock out 25Kwhr on a good day, if you have 2-3 days in a row of a "beast from the east" or something where it's doing 3-4Kwhr/day, you'll be well short, even with a big battery. My worst generation for last Dec.....a measly 0.4Kwhr.....for an entire day! I did that in 6 minutes this afternoon :-)

Best thing to @ELM327 is to get your 1st array of 8kwp in and look at your actual telemetry for next Jan. See what your profile looks like with your usage.

Aside: I'm rooting for you to get it to work, but sadly I know the math doesn't work in your favour and I think you'd need wind, or small hydro to help you out. Then your looking at backup generators, having diesel onsite, maintenance, etc.

What do you mean what is the setup?

I ordered it through Solarplus.