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

What do people think of this quote

Non-Battery System 

5.25kWp of modules

12x Bisol Premium 445w Monocrystalline modules (All black modules)*

Bisol Mounting system on a *Slate Roof (*Price may vary on roof type)

1 x Projoy Fire Safety Switch

AC Switchgear

Sofar 5kWp Inverter 

Costing

€8,750 (inclusive of VAT)

-€2,400 (SEAI Grant)

€6,350Final cost after grant incentive

1st quote for us:

Battery System (Alpha)

4.5kWp of modules kitted to 10.1kWh battery storage

12 x Bisol Premium 375W Monocrystalline modules (All black modules)*

Bisol Mounting system on a *Slate Roof (*Price may vary on roof type)

1 x Projoy Fire Safety Switch

AC Switchgear

Alpha 5kWp Inverter kitted to 10.1kWh storage capacity

Costing

€13,900 (inclusive of VAT)

-€2,400 (SEAI Grant)

€11,500 Final cost after grant incentive

OPTIONAL EXTRAS

1. Warranty extension for the Alpha Inverter from 5 years to 10 years (Recommended): €350
2. Change Over Switch: €1000 (To facilitate the use of the battery system to run your house during a power outage)
3. Eddi Hot Water Diverter: €650
4. Zappi Car Charger: €1450

I'm presuming it does. Getting back to them again next week so I'll check then.

@HotSwap Thanks for the help.

Firstly, yes my roof is all over the place! This image is from a new quote and the pic is oriented with North at the top.

4.4kw (11 panel) Solar Panel System with a 3.6 kwh battery. Canadian Solar all black 400w panels.

The inverter we supply is the Solis 3kw Hybrid

The Battery we will supply is called Dyness, this is a 3.6kwh with a 10-year warranty and 6000 cycles at

90% DoD.

The total cost of the system is €12462.3

€10062 after grant.

Do you have significant shading issues; are they putting panels pointing in multiple directions? You would be getting a class setup with quote one; but it’s clearly expensive. You will get panel level data about your system; and the battery has great performance in terms of discharge rates (up to 7kwh for short periods of time). Ask for them to specify the capacity of the inverter.

As I mentioned I have rooves in all directions! I'll ask for the capacity of the inverter :)

By the looks of it the second quote is from the same supplier? And I note they have not specified the huawei optimisers; so I assume they are not needed on this install. Get them to give you a price for a 10kWh battery. The huawei battery expands in 5kWh modules. So you can expand it easy in the future if you leave enough space. The main difference between the SolarEdge price and this will be that the SolarEdge requires each panel to have an optimiser; where as with huawei it’s optional. Get the price for 10kWh and then at least your comparing like for like. Your discharge rate from the huawei will suffer if you only have a single 5kWh module. Just fyi.

It is the same supplier. The info I was given is they dont sell optimisers for Huawei but you are saying Huawei panels dont need them?

3rd one seems like a different supplier? If they can fit more panels on i’d also be asking quote 1 and 2 to match that number of panels; you want to max you your roof if possible / what you can afford. But they are matching a 3KW inverter with 5.4 kWh of panels; so prob best to avoid them as they seem a bit stupid. For the minor cost increase of going from 3kwh to at least a 5kW or 6kw (you might as well max out your allowance). Your discharge rate would be limited to 3kwh here; which is a major limitation. I’d ask them to up the quote to a 10kWh battery and a 5kW inverter. And then you can compare like for like.

Thanks for the advice here. I wasn't aware the inverter was wrong for the job! I'll do as you say and see how I get on :)

PV crews typically have professional roofers do the roof frame installation so they'd be well placed to advise but any work wouldn't be included in PV quote of course, but maybe they could do any necessary repairs off their own bat with the agreement of the main contractor.

Thanks, pretty much guessed no overlap. Just thinking ahead of potential things I'd have to get looked at in advance so not to be going back on myself in a year or 2.

Opinions please...

1st quote:

10 * 415 Watt panels - Tiger Neo N-type 54HL4-B 400-420 Watt All Black

Inverter - Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. - 4 kW Total Inverter Rating - 1 x SUN2000-4KTL-L1

Eco-Smart Energy Diverter - 3.68 kW eco-smart energy diverter, 230V AC Single Phase, Rated Current - 16A, Standby Power Consumption - 3W, Weight - 4.3 kg

1 x Eddi

€9,850.00 before grant

2nd quote, different supplier from up north, €9,600 - DavidHunt.ie's site says it's "at the upper end" and should be about about €7900 using the rule of thumb calcs. Any opinions?

10 x 400w JA panels = 4kwp system

Inverter –Solis 5kw hybrid

Mounting Kit- Renosol roof mount As Required, Check Meter- 1x check meter, Scaffolding, All required Electrical Work

1x DC ISOLATOR, 1x AC ISOLATOR, 1x Fireman switch

Batteries- Dyness 1 x 5kwh Dyness

Solar Switch- for heating hot water through the solar panels with surplus power

1 x Eddi

Customer to get own BER

Grand Total (including VAT) €12,000.00

Installer will claim the SEAI grant. (€2,400.00)

Net €9,600.00

Without battery: €8,100 (ie €1,500 for the battery)

On the battery - I think I've seen someone else ask but without an answer. At the start of this thread it says batteries are no longer recommended due to feeding back into the grid, but people seem to be choosing night rate electricity to charge their batteries to use during the day, which seems like a good idea to me. What's the general opinion now - battery or not?

Thanks.

@HotSwap The lower roof would spend too much time being shaded by my neighbours I feel. Maybe in the future.

on that new quote again it’s madness not matching the output of your array with the capacity of the inverter. It’s tiny money to upgrade from 3KW to 4kw to get closer to the capacity of the panels.

I asked that question and this is what I got back:

If all panels were on the same roof, yes. However, you are spread over three roofs and will never hit 4.4 at the same time.

Is there an inverter you would recommend to allow 3 different strings? Most of the suppliers have recommended optimisers for my setup however the fitter who said Huaweii don't sell them maybe has none in stock and is trying to get me to buy their Solar Edge setup. I am learning that all the fitters I talk to are trying to sell me the system they want rather than the one I need. And all the fitters are the ones recommended on this forum!

I'm trying to judge between 5 quotes I've had for Solar PV over the past month. I thought they might be useful for others to see the variance in quotes also.

I've had varying proposals (including batteries and not). I've tried to balance them out by adding in BER and Eddi even though some suggested it and others didn't. I've allowed €300 for BER and €700 for an Eddi.

This take's no account of quality of equipment (I wouldn't be qualified to judge this). I also haven't made any allowance for install date (varying from 2-6 months)

What else is there to consider in judging these quotes? I'm happy to hear any suggestions on them. Thanks for any input.

(Edit - Updated with column headers)

Cheers Hotswap. I've updated that with column headers.

Some details below :

Typical usage is around 5,000 kW/h per annum.

Considering an Eddi but could get by without it. House is currently oil heated. Unlikely to ever be suitable for a heat pump as it's an old house and renovation costs would be far too high.

Likely to be converting a shed into a living space heated with electrical heating over the next 1-2 years.

No EV currently but an EV charger in place (Zappi).

N.B I've allowed €300 for BER and €700 for an Eddi as some installers included these in price while others didn't. To balance across the the options I've included those.

A -

• Denim Glass to Glass, Mono Crystalline 400w PV Module

• SolarEdge Inverter

• SolarEdge S440 Power Optimiser (with Arc protection)

[No battery]

B -

No specifc details offered other than cost and number of panels

[No battery]

C -

Longi 410W Panel

Solis Hybrid 6KW Inverter

Weco 5.3XP Battery

D -

Tiger Neo N-type 415 Watt Panel

SolaX Power 6.0 kW

SolaX Power 5.8 kWh

E -

370w JA Mono panels

Solis 6kw hybrid

5.1kw Dyness battery

How come they arnt all suggesting 18 panels? Are they all on one roof or split in different directions?

Some were suggesting 12 panels, others 15 or higher. The more expensive the quote the fewer panels they suggested from what I could see.

All panels to be fitted on one one part of the roof. It's a bungalow roof with plenty of room. The house is not overlooked and that side of the house is well oriented.

Yes