Solar PV Ordered!

Vendeka

We had a 3kW solar PV system installed on the roof in 2007 and fought our way through the Ofgem quagmire to register and get FIT accreditation. We've reached the final step in the Ofgem process, signing up to an electricity supplier. Other people have obviously got through this already and hopefully have some advice for us! All comments and suggestions are welcome.

Our domestic supplier is EDF so it seems reasonable to go with them. Q1: Should we look around at other suppliers?

The EDF application form mentions an export meter, and we have one on the grid, but the advice received from EDF is to ignore that bit and tick the box to opt in to their export tariff. Q2: Should we opt in, or negotiate a metered rate?

The form asks for the meter reading on the date the application is signed. Q3: How do we claim for electricity generated previously?

Thanks!

mysterons

Spudspud is wrong regarding the supposed limit of 3.7kw. These are the stats for your inverter BobA
Nom AC power 3,300W, Nom AC Current 14.3A, Max AC Power 3,600W, Max AC Current 15.7A
The only thing there to interest any DNO is that the system doesn't feed more than 16 amps back to the grid. Your inverter maxes out aT 15.7 amps making it G83/1 compliant and free fo be fitted without any prior notice to your DNO.

Sharon1985

sb4000tl can work in temps upto 60 oc

zeupater

Sharon1985 wrote: »

sb4000tl can work in temps upto 60 oc

Hi

A little out of the blue ... is this linked to anything in particular ????

Anyway, it can, however, when the internals reach 40C the inverter starts to derate in order to prevent overtemperature component damage. Between 40C and 60C the power derating is effectively a straight-line process in which the unit efficiency at 60C is 60% of that at 40C, therefore being somewhere in the region of 50% efficient at converting the available panel DC to AC. Above 60C the inverter shuts down.

HTH
Z

SpudSpud

mysterons wrote: »

Spudspud is wrong regarding the supposed limit of 3.7kw. These are the stats for your inverter BobA
Nom AC power 3,300W, Nom AC Current 14.3A, Max AC Power 3,600W, Max AC Current 15.7A
The only thing there to interest any DNO is that the system doesn't feed more than 16 amps back to the grid. Your inverter maxes out aT 15.7 amps making it G83/1 compliant and free fo be fitted without any prior notice to your DNO.

Yes your correct i should have read his thread properly and seen it was a 3800
but with these types of units with a high WP thresh hold vs DC conversion would you not be rather annoid having a really sunny month with a 3.96 kw system and only being able to use 3.8 kw losing 200w in the process enough to power a 32" LCD TV or run your fridge?

should have used a fronious of power one instead depending on what panels and mounting angle being used should'nt use these with some poly panels because of the lower voltages

he should still check that its been registered as the amount of unregistered systems outhere is flabbergasting.

and it's only the customer who will lose out in the long run.


Blah!

LydiaJ

Hi Everyone

Does anybody know anything about Solar PVE aka Solar Technology PV Energy Ltd?

I've got a S facing roof at 30 degrees pitch, and am hoping to get a 4kWp system installed soon. So far I've had quotes from Evo Energy and these PVE people. The Evo salesman was very competent - knew his stuff, cottoned on quite quickly to the appropriate level of info for me (ie know some physics but didn't know much about panels), suggested the only way to get a sensible idea of how the various panels work in real life was to read online forums and see what results people were getting with them. He quoted for various different brands of panel - Sharp, Suntech, Solar Century and Sanyo, and I've been surfing around online to see what people make of them.

The PVE salesman was much less confident and didn't know his stuff as fully. However, I want to select on the quality & price etc of the panels, not the quality of the sales patter. What's flooring me is that he said his company install panels made by their parent company, Solar Technology, and I can't find anything online about their real life performance. Even here on MSE, there's only one post that I've tracked down, from some one hit wonder of a poster who registered, logged in, posted a single post saying PVE are wonderful but giving no data, and never returned to MSE again.

I'm intending to get another quote or two before making my mind up, but I thought I'd just ask a quick question and see if anyone has heard of these PVE people, and if so, then what do you know about them?

Thanks.

Cardew

LydiaJ

The important point is that the differences between various makes and efficiencies of a, say, 225wp panel will be their physical size. i.e. under laboratory conditions of sunlight, temperature etc they will all produce 225wp. There may be some minor differences in output with the panels at less than optimum orientation, but it would be extremely difficult to back to back test all the available panels and I have not seen any such test.

Until panels have been in use some years it will also be very difficult to assess their quality, and again unless back to back tests are carried out assess their 'real life performance'.

LydiaJ

Thanks Cardew

The bloke who offered lots of different panels said the Sanyos were better at maintaining performance when the panel heats up, and that this was what made them worth the extra money, because the actual output would be better than with cheaper panels. Do you think there's anything in that, or is he just trying to get me to cough up for the more expensive ones?

I understand that the Sanyos have a higher efficiency and will therefore produce my 4kWp with a smaller roof area, but I have enough roof to fit a 4kWp system with any of the panels quoted, so that's not a particular consideration for me.

Cardew

LydiaJ wrote: »

Thanks Cardew

The bloke who offered lots of different panels said the Sanyos were better at maintaining performance when the panel heats up, and that this was what made them worth the extra money, because the actual output would be better than with cheaper panels. Do you think there's anything in that, or is he just trying to get me to cough up for the more expensive ones?

Really don't know and have seen any data comparing panels from different manufacturers. Perhaps you should ask him for data!

My gut feeling is that it is:

LydiaJ

One of my friends over on the house prices board found this for me. It gives actual annual output from a collection of panels that I believe were nominally the same power rating. With a 10% difference between the max and min, it's significant but not overwhelmingly vital.

Davesnave wrote: »

Here's some info I received recently:
The Photon Field Performance Test measures how many kWh a panel produces in RL conditions in a year. Three modules from each manufacturer were tested outdoors in Germany and the results were as follows:

16 best panels:
Siliken About 1040 kWh
REC
Trina Solar
First Solar
Solarworld
Photowatt
Evergreen
Solarfun
Canadian Solar
Isofoton
BP Solar
Kyocera
Schott
Solar-Fabrik
Sunways
Sharp About 915 kWh

There were another 14 un-named brands below Sharp.
Source: Mole Valley Farmers Newsletter. (Mole Valley supply REC panels)

HTH, though I suspect it might not, as only one panel brand you mention is listed!