Is this pv system price any good

uklad_2

Just got my second quote for a 4kwp system just wanted some opinions on the price and kit

Kits consists of 16 x et-p660250 250w panels and a fronius tl3.6 inverter, geo solo pv display unit and a charge for upgrading the consumer unit of £150 all total with cat £6349

I have allso had a vague quote elsewhere for 16 x 250w lg panels and a Sma inverter for £9499

I just don't understand such a huge difference in price for the kit what am I missing here

jamesingram

Seems good price , whats the new FITs rate ? dropped end of last month.
Difference in price could be for the more efficient panel. Not sure if LG do them though , so probably just a chancer .
Sunpower and Panasonic (formally sanyo) panels are hybrid and have a higher eff. per m2 , plus they claim potential additional generation per W installed , and as a result can be 2 x price per W for panels only, compared to the cheaper mono/poly crystraline standard kit.

Martyn1981

Hiya uklad, I agree with James, I think that's a pretty good price, you might have trouble doing better. Good 4kWp deals will be high £5k low £6k, and with the extras you're pretty much there.

Other quote probably just trying for a lucky!

New tariff from 1/11/12 is 15.44p/kWh FIT (down from 16p) and 4.5p/kWh export (unchanged) but deemed at 50% of generation. Next revue date currently scheduled for 1/2/13.

Mart.

uklad_2

Looking at the tech spec the et panels are poly and the lg are mono but the efficiency is all most identical I would like to get another quote but I'm sick of sales people at the moment..

jamesingram

See if you can find a local installer , MCS reg. electrician
, less sales, more info.

uklad_2

well thanks for the suggestion did just that and manage to find a top fella no sales just facts and figures "most of witch i already knew" but i could tell he knew his stuff and was not giving sale gumf anyway i now have a quote for 16 Suntech 250w + power One inverter + owl monitoring system and EPC all done for £5,450 very happy

Martyn1981

uklad wrote: »

well thanks for the suggestion did just that and manage to find a top fella no sales just facts and figures "most of witch i already knew" but i could tell he knew his stuff and was not giving sale gumf anyway i now have a quote for 16 Suntech 250w + power One inverter + owl monitoring system and EPC all done for £5,450 very happy

Wow, in fact, have another ... Wow!

Mart.

dc3

Dear All

Newbie to the forum and wondered if I can get some advice about some solar panels. A company came round with a quote of 16x250w noble solar industries panel with involar microinverters that are come with a 25 year guarantee. The panels themselves have a manufacturers warranty for 7 years. The complete quote came to £5400.
Couldn't find much information about the solar panels (except from the nsi website - looks like they come from China) and not much know about the microinverters too.
Is this system any good?
We had another quote for around £6500 but these were for 16x250 suntellite panels and inverter too (cant remember what type but is not the microinverter) and wondered whether the dearer system would be more reliable (ie less likely to need maintainence in the long run). Thanks in advance.

Martyn1981

Hiya dc3. Come up a bit short on that one. Looked at the panel manufacturers site, quite high voltage panels, which would help with multiple strings / MPPT's for shading problems. But only shop I could find selling them had them at £300 each and out of stock. That's a very high price and doesn't fit with your quote.

Don't know much about micro-inverters, I've got power optimisers (PO's) on each panel on my 2kWp system, but these still need an inverter to work. The problem with both ideas is that you have a lot more bits of kit, that could go wrong. My PO's also have 25 year warranties, but the real concern is access if one needs replacing.

I've definitely read about people housing each micro-inverter inside their loft, so each one is wired through the roof skin. That way there is easy access if a fault occurs. No idea if this is a good idea or not, sounds a little scary if done badly.

Time for the big question - are there shading issues with your roof? Not sure why you'd go down this route unless there were. Micro-inverters or PO's might be more efficient (might not) on a standard un-shaded roof, but the extra cost and hassle probably isn't worth it.

Were those quotes from different installers? Hard to imagine how a standard system could cost more. Great quotes though.

Mart.

rogerblack

Martyn1981 wrote: »

Don't know much about micro-inverters, I've got power optimisers (PO's) on each panel on my 2kWp system, but these still need an inverter to work.

What do these do, that a peak power tracking inverter cannot?
They sound at best questionable.

jamesingram

Roger , the power optimisers allow each panel to act as an individual generator with it's own ppt which then sends power back to a dum(ish) inverter (cheaper).
+side ,Excellent for areas with potential shading issues.
-side 'no.' x panels more things to go wrong

they also allow lots of fancy monitoring , but this really would only be of use in larger installations or for the data obsessed amoungst us