Solar for Beginners [ask your questions here]

Solar newbie doing some research, so this is probably best place for a question.

I'm building a new house which thankfully (not by design) will have a large enough roof which is almost due south facing and I'm right on the south coast of Ireland, so in theory, a perfect location and orientation for solar. Due to the lack of a grant and high cost of initial build I'm unlikely to add solar to my house initially. My house will have ground sourced heat pump so I also maybe wanna wait a year to see my yearly consumption and then make a solar decision.

Coming to my question, I also have a garage with a due south roof, this is separated from the house by about 10 meters.

So given there is large south facing space for solar long term I think it makes sense to fill both those roofs with solar.

From a building perspective is there anything I need to do now to ensure I could have panels on both locations and them connected to the 1 inverter? Or is that even possible

I assume some type of duct between buildings would be key, but would that duct need to actually go from my attic to garage? Or what sort of specs on that duct should I talk to my builder about?

Appreciate any feedback and thoughts.

I recently sized a system for a relation right on the most south-easterly point and I was pretty jealous of the expected gain given their unbroken view of the sea. So lucky you! 😀

If the main roof is Southerly then you might consider having differing aspects on other available locations so that your coverage across the solar-day is optimised.

If the roof is eventually going to support the bulk quantity of panels then for reasons of less copper-cost, it could be a plan to run the smaller count of shed panels DC feeds back into the house rather than running the house panels out to the shed, if you get me. But for space reasons it might be better to run it all as con747 says, but out to the shed. All depends on your AC electrical layout and whether you have the capacity planned for the shed. That will tell you whether you need the duct running right up to the attic or not.

Plus try visualise the main loads and plan whether either the house or the shed gets the sub-board... you might find now with EV's, batteries and heatpumps that the shed should be where the ESB initially runs to and that the house is actually the sub-load.

I've just completed building my own house. Its east west facing and to simplify the DIY install (and maximise efficiency) I installed a ground mount array with the inverter installed in the adjacent shed. A duct runs from there into the utility about 5 metres away.

If you do nothing else be sure to have a duct running between the house and the garage (my electrician ran a 16sq cable to the shed as that's where the inverter is and future proofs). The father accidentally blocked mine without realising it was meant to remain free for future requirements [facepalm] so be sure to let anyone working around the house know that the duct is not to be blocked.

Thanks, much appreciated 👍

if you can fit 10 just get them.

You'll end up adding them later

Hi lads.

Can anyone tell me what the expected yield of 2 south facing 405watt panels on a day like today would be? They are on microinverters so I have no visibility over them. I am looking at getting something set up soon.

My 4 east facing 405w panels have yielded 2.5kws today.

Any help appreciated.

Thanks

Enter the details into this calculator. https://re.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pvg_tools/en/tools.html

Mine went offline at 16:50 today (Dublin), so if it was around that time then it was offline due to the darkness.

The inverter doesn't like being disconnected during production, it goes into a isolation mode for a period after the power is restored, so try again tomorrow and give it some time to come online. The cable won't matter in a test environment now, the load will be low, voltage drop insignificant.

A spurious brand from Frugo... on a 15kWh battery? No way. See my post some pages back about isolator fires in the UK and the recommended changes there. Best fit a known brand if you fit one at all.

The guidance is that if its specifically recommended by the manufacturer then go ahead. The protection mentioned is probably provided by the BMS within the battery and may not indicate that an isolator is fitted.

Id have more faith in the isolator in the link provided than the previous.

Those aren't the ones to use. There is a different design which is a pan-head and is better rated and designed for the job. You can get them from midsummer.ie or from Wurth. I'll find the specs later today.

Just got my solar and battery in. (5kwh Weco). I am going to charge on my cheap 4 HR window at night. Yesterday was very cold so the charge limit for the battery said 010.0A. So I set it all up at that and it charged to around 50% last night. Today is much warmer so it is saying 100A charge limit. So I have reset the limit for that.

My question is do I need to remember to turn it back down if the weather gets cold or will the battery's BMS look after that for me and I just leave it at 100A ?

Thanks

Wurth's bolts:

That's probably the cause then. Unfortunately not looking good for today and tomorrow. Might get some sun on Monday. How many panels did you install?

Bad day again.

Checked with shorter cable 2/3 meters.

Reading only .2 amps x 33 volts 6watts and hoymiles blinking red. I wonder what the min value is before invertor kicks in

Just read that it has to be at least 20w been produced

Fingers crossed