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

Also if you want to run an emergency power supply from them if you get a battery it costs more for the extras needed whereas with the likes of Solis and other hybrid inverters there is a EPS already on the inverter to power a double socket or connect a low usage circuit to power stuff in power cuts.

Looking at the wholesalers Livoltek is expensive kit as well, the prices are ex vat retail. I didn't check the spec sheet to see how compatible they are with other brands. https://midsummer.ie/buy/livoltek You would possibly get the same sized system with a battery for the difference in those brands against alternative brands. Get more quotes and see.

Page 4 here mentions it if any use. https://www.revenue.ie/en/tax-professionals/tdm/value-added-tax/part03-taxable-transactions-goods-ica-services/Services/solar-panels.pdf Bottom line is if you ask 4 installers they will all give a different answer.

A lot of companies have minimal office staff if any and a lot are family businesses so they are swamped and booked out for months. It is just something you need to persevere with. I spent over 6 months getting quotes, being ignored and constantly let down by no show site surveyors but eventually got a good installer at a good price.

I’ve had trouble too. People saying they’d call out and I never heard from them again

Just about to pull the trigger. I have got a few quotes from companies recommended here and on the Facebook page . I ran the numbers through the calculator and there not far off

I am trying to decide about the battery option. one company charging 2k (5.1k) dryness battery and the other 2.5 k (4.8k) dryness battery. I know a spark who now works for a solar company. He done all my home wiring and odd jobs in the past . Is there much to wiring a battery into a system. Would I be better buying batteries down the line and getting wired independently or does that price sound ok for batteries and obviously the benefit of warranty and dealing with one provider if anything goes wrong .

Thanks c

Theory: you pay the cost of the install, less the grant. Installer gets the grant from SEAI.

Practice: you pay the full cost of the install, as quote is inflated by an amount equal to the grant. Installer gets the grant from the SEAI as a bonus.

About grants I can say this much, if I am not mistaken installer can't submit for the grant, only customer can, installers may help. I have to pay in full and wait for the grant myself.

Some clearance stock at this wholesalers all ex vat prices and if you can get an account opened will get trade discounts if you know a sparky to open one. https://midsummer.ie/buy/clearance

As I said in my post "all ex vat prices".

In fairness there is the cost of wages for at least 2 lads and a sparky. Also there would be ancillary costs like office support, pensions, van and that big one insurance. And if I was an installer I would expect to make a profit.

It is the ones actively pulling the piss on the profit side are the ones you need to avoid.

The analyser is based on economies of scale. The bigger the system the closer it will get to €1000 per kw, the smaller the system the more expensive it is. When you take all the overheads into account, ie 2 men on roof, scaffolding, travel, insurance etc the cost will be the same for 4.3 or 10.3 system so per kw 4.3 will be more expensive than 10.3. Maximise your system now (more panels and maybe battery) to get the benefit

New ESB rules came in to effect last May, limiting the size to 5kw.

I suppose the question you're asking is why you can only push 5kva onto the grid. If you take 25A as the current, current limit, then the inverter might well be pushing 5.75 Kva onto the local grid if it is generating this maximum current to the grid at full mains voltage of 230V. If you have the panel capacity to exceed this, the only routes for excess are hybrid with battery storage, or wired off grid backup circuits, where some self consumption is not directly being pushed onto the grid.

The reality is of course the utilities don't want your variable unreliable solar excess, at least the don't want to pay much for it, especially if a whole neighbourhood of unoccupied homes are pushing out 5kw in the afternoon and there's very little local consumption. They can buy reliable steady state input for 10c / per kwh, so there's little incentive to let too much feed in to the grid for anything above this rate. Its probably partly the reason they wish to maintain such huge margins between wholesale and retail energy, with a markup of over 300% on daytime consumption.

A lot of the inverters being sold as 5kw have differing amounts of actual capacity due to the fact that they can simultaneously supply batteries, and in some models, supply back up or virual off grid circuits (Sungrow models). Look at the Solis range of 5kw models, they specify their 5kw model, S5-EH1P5kL as 25A current to the grid or 5KVA. I'm not certain if this current is limited by the inverter measuring grid voltage such that only 5kva is delivered, i.e, if your local grid voltage was around 230V, it would only push 21.7 A to the grid to limit the power delivered to 5KVA, but if you have any kind of local consumption dropping the mains voltage, it can safely increase this current marginallly to 25A, if the local voltage was as low as 200.

I don't know how truly smart the smart meters are when it comes to measuring FIT, whither they will cap the measured FIT reported to 5kva even if your inverter is pushing more back onto the grid. We're not at the stage here where ESBN can talk to inverters (unlike Australia), and remotely drop their on grid contribution to avoid grid overvoltage when there is insufficient demand for solar peaks The inverter in itself will do that, it will only push so much current to its grid connection without increasing the voltage past the limit. I'm surmising that there are times the grid doesn't soak your excess up to the 5kw limit, and perhaps times it takes more up to the 25A limit at 230V as non resistive loads such as motors will not actually consume 5kw when drawing 5kva, volts multiplied by amps, due to 'power factor', but thats another discussion entirely. You don't pay for and won't get paid for that portion of kva consumption from or delivery to the grid that is not 'in phase', which could be 20% of your feed in.

I wouldn't sweat about any of this. There will be minimal times when you have panel capacity over 5kw not being collected. Batteries at current prices make only marginal economic sense when their contribution is calculated over life span and when factoring in inefficiency losses and also maintenance/failure risks as a real cost. Going off grid with some of your own load is really the only other way to use peak capacity above 5kw, and have an inverter (or two) to utilise panel max. This might not save you very much though given the added cost.

Ultimately, oversizing is the most beneficial addition you can have, provided you're not being fleeced for the additional panels. It allows you to have a reasonable output either side of peak daylight and midsummer, where otherwise you might struggle to run the house lights, let alone boil the kettle. Max output of panels is only for a few hours of a few days of the year, the bulk of the time it is a trickle.

Thanks for that, I don't know if I fully understand it all but I think I get the most of it. I suppose I was asking really if there was a 6KVA 25amp inverter available would that be the optimum inverter for the best return with an oversized panel array or would it make much of a difference to getting a 5KVA one? Thanks again and sorry if I am slightly going off thread topic.