Free solar panel discussion

Equaliser123

furndire wrote: »

Evo Energy provided me with a remote monitor. Not good reading today though, as its very cloudy

As a rough estimate, what would you produce on a 100% cloudy day? 10% of peak? Less?

furndire

A lot less!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gizmosmum_2

Equaliser123 wrote: »

Thanks for that. I've got a spare electricity consumption monitor - I guess that will do?

They've not mentioned about the meter - only the inverter. Presumably I will need a meter in order to claim the FIT. To be honest, I had assumed that this would just be from the inverter.

Your generation meter will be what you use to claim the feed in tariff, it's standard procedure to fit one next to your consumer unit (Building regs from 1st october). If you want to watch what you're generating and try to match use in your home you'll need a wireless monitor that links to your inverter this will tell you what you're generating at the time you're looking at it and will also provide historical figures.

http://www.sma.de/en/products/monitoring-systems/sunny-beam-with-bluetoothr.html

There's probably another version available but SMA are one of the most common inverters used.

energysavingexp

Equaliser123 wrote: »

That's what I thought. But then they do effectively gauge the power going through the cable so I wonder if it would do....

it shoud do because if you are using say 3kw and the panels are producing 2kw your monitor should show 2kw output
and the monitor on the grid tails should show 1kw

Jon_Tiffany

You can use a cheap OWL type remote monitor to measure the output from pv system. Just clip the sensor clamp around the wire somewhere between the inverter and the connection to the first point of use.

The tricky part is that the clamp must go around only one of the wires, the cables form the inverter will have both live and neutral inside meaning the monitor will not work.

I was lucky enough to have a junction box big enough to take the clamp where the wires were seperated.

energysavingexp

I was told by mypowerstation that they do not fit the inverters in the loft as it gets to hot in summer
and trips the inverter
and this is when you are producing most eleccy.

energysavingexp

Jon_Tiffany wrote: »

You can use a cheap OWL type remote monitor to measure the output from pv system. Just clip the sensor clamp around the wire somewhere between the inverter and the connection to the first point of use.

The tricky part is that the clamp must go around only one of the wires, the cables form the inverter will have both live and neutral inside meaning the monitor will not work.

I was lucky enough to have a junction box big enough to take the clamp where the wires were seperated.

yes i totally agree with you

i would have thought they would have used tails and not cable
but as you say you must only clamp one of the wires for it to work

zeupater

energysavingexp wrote: »

I was told by mypowerstation that they do not fit the inverters in the loft as it gets to hot in summer
and trips the inverter
and this is when you a producing most eleccy.

An installer talking sense, next you'll find that they'll tell someone that undersized inverters usually run hotter ..... ..... then again, some fit undersized inverters in the loft !! ..... wonder what the inverter specifications say about temperature ??

The argument always seems to be DC cable length losses v AC cable length losses ... should it really be .... Suitable DC cable cost v AC cable cost ?? ...... would investing a few extra pounds in heavier gauge DC cable up front in order to mount the inverter in a cooler location extend the life of the inverter without power loss, hope so

energysavingexp

zeupater wrote: »

An installer talking sense, next you'll find that they'll tell someone that undersized inverters usually run hotter ..... ..... then again, some fit undersized inverters in the loft !! ..... wonder what the inverter specifications say about temperature ??

The argument always seems to be DC cable length losses v AC cable length losses ... should it really be .... Suitable DC cable cost v AC cable cost ?? ...... would investing a few extra pounds in heavier gauge DC cable up front in order to mount the inverter in a cooler location extend the life of the inverter without power loss, hope so

I would rather spend more on proper sized DC cable and place the inverter some where cool rather than risking damaging the inverter.
loss of production due to tripping the inverter due to over heating
and putting my roof at risk of setting on Fire.
also there should be min loss on the AC cable due to the voltage/ampage:xmassign:

ilovegreen_2

Jim02 wrote: »

Isis have contacted me to explain that my property isn't suitable because they want "one or two story properties with near due south facing pitched roofs of 30m² or larger."

Well, the rear of my pitched roof faces due South and is easily 30 sq.m (although not 30m² as this equates to 900 sq.m and I would need to live in a castle to achieve this. I assume this 'requirement' is down to Isis' lack of knowledge of area notation!).

I replied to their email setting them straight, but have heard nothing since.

Has anybody else had this 'fob off,' or do you think it's a genuine error?

J

I got the same reply back from isis and a few days later got this reply from krish at homesun....


Thank you very much for your interest in HomeSun and the Free Solar offer you saw advertised.

The team here has now carefully reviewed your application and, unfortunately, it appears that your roof is shaded for part of the day. ‘Shading’ is often a surprise – many of us would not think of our homes being shaded but trees, other buildings, chimneys and even telegraph poles have an impact. Because of the way solar panels are set up, just 3% of shading can reduce efficiency by a massive 25%.

As a guide, roughly 20%-30% of all the roofs that are ‘right’ for solar, are also right for HomeSun’s Free Solar i.e. they face due south, have no shading and around 30m2of free area for the solar panels. Because of the shading I’m afraid that your roof doesn’t fall into that category. We also looked at your roof for SolarShare™ - although there is a cost to this of £500 and £5 per month for an £11k solar system and 25 years maintenance. SolarShare™ is for slightly smaller roofs (20m2, unshaded) facing southeast to southwest. But I am afraid that your roof does not appear to fall into this bracket either – again, the shading means that your roof will not generate sufficient electricity to reduce your bills significantly and enable us to provide a low cost system installation.

I’ve said ‘doesn’t appear’ because our team are using on linemapping tools to assess your roof. Sometimes that information is out of date – a tree that was causing shading has disappeared, for example, or you have extended your property which has created more space for the panels. If you think we have got it wrong and your roof is perfect for solar, please send us an email () explaining why and attaching:

·a satellite image e.g. Google Maps or Bing Maps showing clearly the location of your home/roof
·a photo of your south facing roof
·a photo taken with your back to the south facing roof (so that we can estimate shading).

Our call rate currently is extremely high, so any follow up is solely by email only I’m afraid.

If you are committed to solar and we can’t help with either Free Solar or SolarShare, we do, of course, also sell solar installations. But if your main objective is to save money, we wouldn’t be advising that you buy if our own assessment has shown that your roof is not optimally suited for solar PV.

Although we may not be able to help on this occasion, we are investigating other renewable energy and energy-saving technologies like air source heat pumps – and our plan is to find ways to make these more accessible and affordable, just as we have done with solar. We will be able to do that if Government keeps true to its stated intention to support renewable energy generation from homes, and sustains strong Feed-in Tariffs.

So, if you don't mind, we'll keep your contact details on our database and we will contact you when we havenews that may be of interest. If you'd prefer not to hear from us again, just email (), and we’ll take you off our updates list.

Thanks again for your interest in HomeSun.

Krish Patel
HomeSun Customer Team

NOTE: Please do not reply to this e-mail. Replies to this address are not monitored or reviewed.

HomeSun Limited | 1 Olympic Way | Wembley | Middlesex | HA9 0NP | United Kingdom |()| Registered in England 07301516

Disclaimer: This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the sender immediately at ().

......... after i called krish and once he was satisfied with the info i gave him he sent me this....... (I have been happy with homesun so I didn't bother chasing isis) :cool:

We offer all our applicants the option to provide more details to us in the event their initial submission is declined. In your case my initial decission was made due to the large tree that was causing shading on your roof which was evident from the Google Image. In any event I would like to thank you for taking the time to contact me today in response to my email and i’m glad that you did as I would have never known that the tree has been removed and in light of this new information you provided, I am glad to say that your property maybe eligible for Solar PV.

‘Free Solar’ is a 3.5kWp solar PV system, installed and fully maintained for 25 years. The key criteria include: south facing roof; no shading; around 30m2 of clear area.

If you fall outside this scope, all is not lost! ‘SolarShare’ is an equally ground-breaking scheme for smaller roofs with a different orientation. The solar system size is 2.6kWp and criteria include: southeast to southwest facing roof, no shading and around 20m2 of clear area. As with Free Solar, SolarShare includes the system, installation and maintenance for 25 years. The only difference is cost: for SolarShare there is a one-off fee of £500 and £5 per month for SolarCare.

Don’t worry about these measurements – they’re for your information only. When our Solar Specialist meets with you, he will do a further assessment of your roof and, if you decide to go ahead, our technical survey team at Eaga will finalise the details.

If you’d like to know more about us, how we work and what happens along the installation ‘journey’, then please have a browse through our website (). Our philosophy is to keep things easy and straightforward, provide great service and expert teams. After all, it’s exciting to be able to produce and use your own ‘clean’ renewable energy – getting it installed is part of the process, and it should be enjoyable.

As agreed, I have passed your details on to one of our Solar Specialists who is working in your area and he will contact you in the next seven working days to arrange a time to meet.

Thank you for coming to HomeSun.



Krish Patel
HomeSun Customer Team
0844 824 0000



NOTE: Please do not reply to this e-mail. Replies to this address are not monitored or reviewed.

HomeSun Limited | 1 Olympic Way | Wembley | Middlesex | HA9 0NP | United Kingdom | () | Registered in England 07301516

Disclaimer: This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the sender immediately at ().