Solar quote, Norwich area. Help!

darknite1

Hi Mart

Yes, yes and yes. The company explained to me this morning that there is no panel limit. But systems over 4kw have to be approved, as you said. So final quotes from this company as as follows.

11x LG panels SMA inverter, £5850 3.3kw (nice black panels)
16x250watt sma inverter £4750 - £5400 4kw system depending on scafold required (silver edge panels)

Going to see 1 more recommended company then decide from there.

Just wanted to say many thanks to everyone on here to guide me in a better direction. So far raising this here could save me £1800+ and generate me more cash. A 3.3kw system vs 2.75kw.

Cheers all

darknite1

Just updating, moving this on. Hoping for a bit more advice. I've had 3 company look at my roof now and seems I can get a max of 14 panels on the house because of its shape. So my question is this:

What are the best 280/285watt panels?

The company are suggesting the following
14x 270w Trina panels with solaredge optimizers and inverter £5950 (before any haggle)

They are checking to see what 280/285 panels they can get. Though my gut says the extra 10watts per panel will make them vastly more expensive.

So if anyone has a panel suggestion please?

I do have 1 last survey this week, then its decision/haggle time.

Martyn1981

Morning darknite. Glad you're getting somewhere.

Have a look at this shop (not a recommendation), I've gone to the Trina 270Wp panels.

You'll see the retail price is 52p/Wp (+VAT). Then backtrack through the solar panels page (under the heading solar pv equipment). Some examples Yingli 275Wp 52p, BenQ 285Wp 53p, Canadian Solar 265Wp 50p (yes they're smaller, but an example of a cheap all black panel, if that floats your boat.)

This may be useful as a guide to compare some panels and models, but there will be many more. However, actual offerings by installers may differ considerably depending on what their supplier has in stock on any given day/week/month. But at least you'll have some idea of what might be out there.

Mart.

ed110220

I don't think any one panel is better than another, at least not in any significant way if you compare one 285W panel with another... They are both 285W panels.

Where they do differ is in size, which may mean you can fit some but not others depending on your roof dimensions. For us, 14 panels would go in two rows portrait layout and the most restricted dimension would be the length of the rows. Only the narrowest of the 285W panels I could find might fit, at a squeeze. Those were BenQ 285W at 983mm wide on the short side. On the other hand an installer quoted for Seraphim 285W which are 1064mm wide and clearly wouldn't fit.

But if you could fit either of them, I don't think one would be significantly better than the other and price would be the most important issue.

Ed

darknite1

Hey Ed

Doesn't the efficiency of the panel matter? I've got 2 panel data sheets infront of me a saraphim 285watt which is 16.7% efficient and a LG 290watt which is 17.7% efficient. Physical difference is 65mm. The saraphim are bigger. So efficiency only effects physical panel size?

And thanks Mart! I'll take a look.

Cheers

Martyn1981

darknite1 wrote: »

So efficiency only effects physical panel size?

Yep. Wp is what they'll pump out, but efficiency will dictate how much space is needed. Try this thread for more info and co-incidentally Seraphim panels:

Seraphim v Hyundai

Mart.

kevbrown1980

We're also in the Norwich area and recently had a company called Sands provide us with a quote. They would supply 11 2.75 kWp panels at a cost of £4305. Sound reasonable?

Martyn1981

kevbrown1980 wrote: »

We're also in the Norwich area and recently had a company called Sands provide us with a quote. They would supply 11 2.75 kWp panels at a cost of £4305. Sound reasonable?

Hello and welcome.

I think that sounds reasonable (not cheap, not expensive) compared to the quotes/deals being posted this year.

Apologies for the pedantry, but reasonable for 11 275Wp (0.275kWp) panels. For 2.75kWp panels it would be outstanding! welcome to the world of kW's, kWh's, Wp's, kWp's etc etc.

Presumably roof space is limited? Are you able to consider higher efficiency panels to squeeze more Wp's on (but they will cost proportionately more) or are you able to use any other roof?

Mart.

kevbrown1980

Thanks.

Yeah the world of kW's, kWh's, Wp's, kWp's etc etc is a little beyond me but I'm getting there!!

The 11 panels is due to roof size. We do have a small roof that we could potentially put some panels on but Sands and a second company we had look didn't mention using this roof so I'd imagine it's unsuitable. The second company we had look would supply kWp panel but the cost was around £12000, I won't be paying that much!!! They could come down to around £7000 but I'm still not sure it's worth it.

Kev

tunnel

Why not post your roof orientations on here and let us decide if it's worth looking at using the smaller roof?
It's surprising how many "installers" flat refuse to consider rooves that are anything but perfect or a little more brain challenging, luckily for you, you found this place where everyone will try to help/advise you to get a cracking deal, whether that's on one roof or multiple rooves