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

Hi,

quick follow up and any feedback appreciated.

New quote:

20x Trina 420w panels

huawei 6kw inverter

2x Tigo optimiser

Slate mounting system

1x Eddi

Smart power sensor

Cabling

Scaffolding for two walls

Total: 14000€ (before grant applied)

They seem high prices compared to what i was getting.

Highest i got for spec mentioned here https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120234719/#Comment_120234719 was about €13k before grand and i got it for 11k before grand in the end so working out at a €9600 for the 16 panels.

Just thinking of the future is it as simple as me buying the mounts and the panels and just daisy chaining them to the existing setup if I wanted to increase the number of panels in a few years time or is it more complicated than that?

I did, but I'm at a roadblock now with regards to my electrical skills. Still haven't connected the battery. Back up box will likely be a big job as my fuse board is in the centre of my house and battery inverter in the attic of 3 storey building

Have you had heat loss calcs done up for the heat pump yet? Using that it will be simple enough to calculate your energy demand.

So you think you can install 35 panels if you wanted to?? most people just say max out all available roof area. But you’re going to be limited to a 6kwh inverter here unless you do a special application. Does the house have 3 phase power?

on a day like today ( it was sunny all day; but it’s still only early March) my 7.4 KWh (18 panel) array was maxed out at 6kwh for 4-5 hours. So it’s really a waste to install more than 18-20 panels unless you also have the capability to go with a bigger inverter also. But i did generate a total of 30KWh of which we exported 16; so if I had a sufficient sized battery I could of filled it.

from my own personal experience; and I don’t have a HP or an EV; I need at least 10kWh of battery (we use an average of 17kwh per day). And then add in the HP id say 15-20kwh would not be wasted on you.

consider how fast you can charge any battery solution your considering. You will likely have a 2-3 hour window each night of low cost electricity and you will want to store as much of that as possible in the months of Nov - Feb. A lot of the battery providers are a bit shady about how fast they can sustainably charge at a given rate from the grid. I would get this in writing from each installer.

It depends if you’re making changes to the electrics or not. But it ends up in you having to pay esb networks for the service alteration and your own contractor; and you also end up paying a higher standing charge I believe. But the advantages would be that you can charge EV’s at 22kwh Vs 7 with single phase. You would also need a 3 phase consumer unit (or multiple single phase units each fed with a different phase). If I was doing a new build and going all electric I would be going down this route. A lot of people will tell this is overkill and maybe you should consider these people point of view too; I like to do things once / as well as it can be done and never have to thing / spend on it again.

you would then be automatically allowed to connect 11kwh of inverters; so you could do a 10kWh 3 phase unit. Or you could do a 6kwh single phase + a 5kWh single phase on two different phases.

This way you could get your roof maxed out and no be wasting too much power at peak times.

you other option is to stay single phase; and go down the nc7 application road which allows you to install up to 17kwh on a standard single phase supply, but this comes with a 1000 euro application fee and may result in you needing to pay esb networks to upgrade their network if you want to go ahead; but they will also tell you how much you can connect without having to pay anything on upgrades. This is a good option; but I used this route only once when the pilot scheme was launching; so I’m not sure if they are actively taking these applications at the moment but it would be worth a phone call. I have the contact details of the people in esb networks that run this scheme if you can’t get the answers you need let me know and I will do some investigations.

I was clipping @ 6kwh yesterday from 11:30 - 13:00 with only 7.2 kw of panels it’s a shame as it’s just wasted potential. And it’s only March.

your better off getting an inverter that’s capable of handling as close as possible the max output of your array in my opinion. It will put less stress on the equipment and hopefully allow it to last longer and you can squeeze every last watt out of your panels.

if it was my house I would attempt the following:

NC7 based on a conversation with a local ESB networks engineer that can advise what the likelihood of it being approved at 0 cost to you is. Hopefully your electrician might have a few of these guys numbers in his mobile that he can give a call to.

32 x 420 W panels. 13.44 kWp. Split this into 4 strings of 8 panels. If you can fit 2 rows of 16 panels if your house is long enough it will look very clean. And leave a nice margin around the edges of the roof.

2 x 6kw huawei sun2000 inverters configured in cascading arrangement.

2 strings into each inverter.

15kwh of Luna battery connected to the master inverter. You can add an additional 5-15 kWh of battery storage as needed based on your usage once you get up and running and truly understand your requirements.

this will give you the ability to supply up to 12kwh of solar directly to your loads in the house when the sun permits. Or also export 12kwh.

You will be able to supply up to 5kWh directly from the battery for the full capacity of the battery. It can spike up to 7kwh for short periods 15 seconds or so to avoid pulling from the grid when motors start up.

you will only be able to charge the battery’s at 3kwh directly from the grid. This is a limitation of the L1 huawei series; but at least it’s documented and supported and understood. A lot of the other Cheeper brands won’t document this spec at all.

With NC7 you will also be putting yourself into the clean export premium category which entities you to 13.5 cent feed in rate guaranteed for 15/20 years. Ok, the 13.5 cent is less than the 21cent people are getting at the moment; but that’s not gonna last forever and you will prob come out ahead in the end. Read this: https://www.gov.ie/en/press-release/bfe21-homes-farms-businesses-and-communities-to-benefit-as-minister-ryan-announces-the-micro-generation-support-scheme/

i would also add the backup box and plan to have some circuits like lights / HP / fridge / internet router & Wi-Fi access points all fed from the backup supply. Again this is less painful if your already planning on doing a significant bit of re wiring.

feel free to use any brand of inverter / battery but pay attention to charge / discharge rates.

It’s a good point and this is one of the reasons that I decided to do ground mount rather roof mounting at home. I have a roof mount system on another property and see the drop off in summer; but from my research I expect this ground mount system will still be capable of consistently generating over the 6kwh that the inverter is rated for. I’ll find out in the summer I suppose.

I have the space to add about another 8 panels without cluttering them on the SW rear roof of the house. I’ll see how I get on after a year of data.

the 18 panels ground mounted are pointing SE.

Tis getting a little complex for neebies here :) I was one not too many months ago.

Max out the South roof (or whatever roof you have). You can typically can go about 1.5 times more on panels than the inverter can handle. As @graememk says, ‘You'll have a 6kW inverter but 9kW of panels. (Which is now about 24panels)’. And you can go possibly go more than 1.5 times if it’s an E / W split as then aren’t all in the sun at the same time. Make sure the installer checks what is the max for your roof that or can kill the inverter. IE, let them design it.

For most houses, the limit is 6kW on the inverter. Most here have that setup. If you pay ~1k you can get a higher inverter limit (17kw re hotswap). That's via the NC7 form and process to the ESB.

If you want to become a suburban mini power stations 😊, or if you’re a really, really heavy user of juice. More than one EV, run machinery….. Note that you pay tax above €200 from FIT. I'd suggest ignore that for now, get solar setup to a decent size and you can decide to extend in time.

@HotSwap (at the risk of talking for him) works in the electrical trade afaik or has more technically competency than me, and most looking for quotes here. For him optimising as much as possible is important and he's the knowledge to do that and did some of the install himself. Hats off! But most here will lean on the installer for all that - I did and worked for me.

I feel your frustration. It's bloody hard to get a decent quote.

There are other options. If doing are not going the grant route, you’ll need roofers and sparks as you say. No idea how you’d get those. But you lose up to 2.4k for the grant. And you’ve no one to contact / take ownership if there are issues.  It’s sadly true the installers have upped prices due to the grant – I have seen that IMO. They would need to know each other, or agree where it all goes, as roofer needs to follow the design from the sparks to connect it all up.

For DIY, look here: Solar PV DIY - Page 2 — boards.ie - Now Ye're Talkin'. A flat roof is perfect for DIY. Still need a sparks to connect, but you could do the labour. See have you a flat roof, that gets summer sun, and measure it. Panels are ~1.7m x 1m.

Or got the most basic DIY route and get a small setup for under a grand. Might give something like 2kWp. @bullit_dodger did that on a shed roof and added the list of kit needed for it somewhere. Doesn’t need a sparks or very little of their time it seemed. Just your time for setup. And beauty of that is you can always take it down and sell it on if going for a larger setup in time. Or pass to a family member. Or keep forever more….

Or go for solar as a service and pay a flat monthly fee for 10yrs. Though that costs a lot now, I got a quote for my folks and was high. Muchhhhh higher than people were getting a year ago before Ukraine stuff kicked off. Payback time is the same but the ‘loan’ is to the solar company as such.

Might be worth asking some that didn’t quote in Nov for a quote now. Last year was a mad year for them, so come Winter I reckon they were done and ignored quote requests.

I’d caution on getting a window company to do solar. A roofing company might be different as they have half the trade. Don’t want them learning on the job on your money. If there’s not much difference for a pure solar company, why take the risk. Ok, if they were way cheaper and you spoke to some reference sites and they confirmed how many installs they have done....

I’d ignore batteries for now. They make it optimal if cost isn’t an issue. I don’t have one, but would like one. 

You mention 'outside their geographical range' for some installers. Wondering if you're on your own plot. Do you have a big garden? If so you can put them on a ground mount and DIY a lot of it. In summer, even a South facing wall will do it. A 90% angle will hurt output in summer (flatter is best in summer as sun is more direct overhead). But could angle from the top of the way down to get a 20+% angle or something like that. Once it's not shaded, the output can be savage as can point due South. Others have done that here.

1118 for the 6kwh huawei here ex vat.

2491 for the 5kWh Luna battery module here. Ex vat.

are the prices including vat??

so inverter is a bit more here; and battery a bit less. Unless the prices are including vat; then they are very good. What kinda shop is it?

I'm in a new build and was trying to get my builder to do it, as the quotes I was getting were stupid. He seemed keen, but seems to have gone cold on it. I've kinda given up for now, in the hope that prices get normal again if Putin stops acting the bollox.

I might even try do it myself/with mates in a year or 2 when I have more time.

no small garden unfortunately so its not an option. Ironically enough though not too far from where I live there are a few planning applications in by local farmers to build solar farms. The land around here is mountainous and only useful for sheep so Im guessing theyve figured they can make a better income per acre by going solar

Thanks for the info on your quotes. I wouldnt be gettng up there myself but if I could find a pair of roofers to install 7 or 8 panels for 1,000 quid Id likely be well on my way to doing it cheaper than the SEAI grant route. I need to sit down and workout all the hardware costs, roofing costs and then a sparks to wire and commission it. I actually wouldnt mind paying over the odds for specialist work like this as it would still likely work out cheaper than some of the quotes Ive been getting

Road Trip or Ferry to France.

Cable tie a solar panel to the EV roof and you'll be grand, sure :)