Solar for Beginners [ask your questions here]

Indeed. My brother in law wanted nothing to do with EVs until a couple years ago, now they are a 2 EV household. He has had many fancy cars like BMW, Range Rover and mostly Mercedes, all brand new. But now he finds his Audi Q8 etron the best car he's ever had

My main family car has been EV for 7 years now, currently we are a 2, or technically speaking 3 EV household ourselves 😁

Tell me about it! I've been playing senior level for quite some time 😁

Looks like this year my total energy bill, so electricity, gas, fuel for both cars, will be about zero. In future with an agile tariff structure, that will be next level of the game, with the aim of having a total bill several thousand € negative.

The "gamification" element is something that people don't quantify when talking about the benefits of domestic solar.

Solar panels change the behaviour of a household to be more energy efficient. A well designed app will facilitate this.

They'll replace bulbs with LEDs. When buying appliances they'll buy the low wattage eco version etc.

Even more so when combined with an EV or a battery even.

I'd like to see more domestic wind turbines if possible. There's interesting designs coming out with kites and whatnot.

They could be solar thermal panels rather than solar PV, @FrozenDriveway?

You can be sure that they’re the cheapest **** possible for the builder to tick the renewable part L box

PVGIS (picking Athlone center of Ireland with 1Kwp) = 909Kwhr/year.

PVGIS (picking Utrecht1 center of Netherland with 1Kwp) = 1038Kwhr/year

But yeah, I'd agree with you on the penetration side.....it's not enough. Still it's pretty much mandated as a part of new builds, so is that 600/week inclusive of new builds? If not, theres another 40K in new builds with solar I'd imagine?

I'd assumed his numbers are based on SEAI grants. That's where the "10,000 last year" figure comes from. I don't think he'd have data for new builds and they don't receive grants from SEAI.

I read somewhere else that 16000 applied for grants last year but 10,000 availed of them.

"In 2022 the SEAI received 16,819 applications to the Domestic Solar PV programme, which resulted in grant support for 10,017 homes, at a cost of €24.4m and a total installed capacity of 46.5 MW. This indicates an average installation size of 4.6kW. This is a huge increase on the numbers from 2021 when 4,077 homes were supported, and 16.3 MW installed. The SEAI maintains data regarding the financing and functioning of this scheme and has facilitated the information in response to your questions below."

4000 to 10,000 to ~30,000

Exponential growth. It'll probably plateau at 1000 installations a week maybe.

It's funny if you read article below, Cavan saw the biggest increase in installations. Tight bastards were biding their time.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.galwaydaily.com/news/massive-increase-in-adoption-of-domestic-solar-panels-in-galway/%3famp

Eamon Ryan is doing great work but he probably won't be in power after the next election.

Well it was your knowledge and advice given on here with any q’s I asked that finally convinced me to go for it.

Have an ~8Kw system on an east west split just being installed this week. Went for a 5.3Kw battery to start, which I think can added to if successful. I’m hoping that over the next few winter months I learn enough about load shifting, setting tariffs etc to be up to speed by the Spring! (And teach the family the same)

Thanks. 👍

Yep, if you have a smart meter. So regardless of how little you can use yourself, you should go for the biggest install possible. The bigger, the shorter the pay back period.

A lot of us get fairly addicted to this stuff. So if you go for a hybrid inverter that can only take a certain battery, that would limit your expansion possibilities. Don't underestimate that!

Thanks So I know Luna is the one I see mentioned everywhere, what's the other type?

Yet you can pick up a very good quality 15kWh self build kit for £2000 in Northern Ireland.

Hi All,

I am new to this and if I say something rubbish please have patience with me as i am trying to get my head around it.

I am declaring first and foremost my reasoning for investing in Solar is purely economic. I am with Electric Ireland and my tariff (smart meter) is 39.7 cent per kw.

I am looking at getting a 6.5kw system installed with eddi - price 7k after grant ( second cheapest after 13 quotes).

I have looked a this thread and it seem a lot of people are getting only 1 to 2kw per day in Nov, Dec, Jan so am i correct in saying that if this is correct

92 days @ 2kw multiply .39 = 72 euro savings for 3 months approx. This would be a bad return on investment

However:

According to "JRC Photovoltaic Geographical Information System (PVGIS) - European Commission (europa.eu)" I should get around Nov 271kw, Dec 196kw, Jan 229kw

696 kw multiply .39 = 271 euro savings for 3 months approx. Is this realistic

For me these 3 months are the dearest every year, this year at 540 euro for a two cycle period. During spring summer this reduces as we dont use the dryer but mostly hang the clothes on the line etc.

Feb 327 multiply .39 = 127 euro

Mar 531 multiply .39 = 207 euro

Apr 691 multiply .39 = 270 euro

May 774 multiply .39 = 301 euro

Jun 733 multiply .39 = 285 euro

Jul 719 multiply .39 = 280 euro

Aug 656 multiply .39 = 255 euro

Sep 557 multiply .39 = 217 euro

Oct 395 multiply .39 = 154 euro

I am trying to make the decision to go ahead and purchase, i use about 5200kw per annum. I would like to put some realism on this, are the figures from the GIS correct or are people getting way less during the darker months. Is the maths i am using here incorrect, i know there are other chargers, standing charges etc. I am trying to simplify it.

Any help with this is very much appreciated and please remember i am only learning. I also got quoted an extra 3,000 euro for 10kw of batteries but financially i dont want to cripple myself. Oh and if i am in the wrong thread, please excuse me.

Kind Regards

Fred