7.3 kW Bi Facial Rooftop Panels: ~7 year ROI: Fact OR fiction?

Screwdriva

I'm not sure how this thread veered towards the automotive.... I suppose one theme is standing out and that is perspective.

My cars, pictured below, are between 40-45 years old. They both run like new on biodiesel blends, and will outlast their owner. We drive less than 6K miles a year, so an EV makes little sense given their expected life and environmental payback period. (A Chinese EV perhaps less so)

Is a 8-10 year life considered good? Perhaps so today till you realize things were made to last longer not that long ago. 

On the appliance side, apart from countless failures, we've had a Hoover Washing machine and a Hisense OLED TV both catch fire in our home. Replaced by Bosch and LG respectively. Since then, no Chinese device has entered our front door.

arty688

I think you will find that LG tv's have a bit of a track record for catching fire I think.

Screwdriva

arty688 said:

I think you will find that LG tv's have a bit of a track record for catching fire I think.

I can only share that, despite being 5 years old and no longer under warranty, LG replaced the mainboard in my TV, perhaps for this very reason? 

Try getting that level of service from a Chinese company!

arty688

Funny old day I did not get up this morning expecting to defend China.. I have had 2 instances of customer service from Chinese companies for a projector and a chair both have exceeded my expectations so I go as I find. Although the emails can be entertaining probably for both sides...

Probably get back to green issues now though

Martyn1981

arty688 said:

'with far superior alternatives available.'

at the same price point ?

MG vs Tesla is that an example of a far superior alternative ?

I've had no problems with my Hisense TV either or my Tesco Chinese petrol £50 lawn mower refuses to die. If fact I'm struggling to think of something Chinese that I own that has broke? Now British stuff I've had a few problems with .

Having said that it also means I haven't tested the after sale service which has been good on the British stuff that's let me down.

From all my trawling of the net it seems that panels are pretty reliable in general and LG make great panels and are a good choice its just if payback is your top priority premium panels don't increase your generation enough to cover the extra cost.

I'm no fan of the Chinese state and have been trying to avoid Chinese own companies of late just not on quality issues.

Ironically, almost all of the Tesla's coming in now are Chinese made, and are probably a bit better built than the American ones. However, this isn't entirely fair since the Chinese factory is newer and purpose built, but the Chinese do appear to be able to build high quality BEV's.

Regarding PV, well it's a bit of a tricky situation given that most panels are Chinese made, so for most of us, we probably just need to keep our fingers crossed.

Screwdriva

Very difficult to avoid Chinese made. Still easy to avoid Chinese owned brands. The nuance is key!

Screwdriva

2022 is off to a great start - this January was the best one yet with a full 20kWh increase over the previous monthly high in 2020. Also, a new daily generation high of 9.34 kWh and a peak of 1.87 kWh.

 

markin

Did you find a system locally you can compare it with?

And are the number now better for an iboost install?

Screwdriva

markin said:

Did you find a system locally you can compare it with?

And are the number now better for an iboost install?

Sadly, nothing locally that comes close to the performance of this system yet. No iboost justification outside of peak summer months I'm afraid. 

Screwdriva

This year continues to shine! February '22 was the best one yet, yielding an incremental ~9% over the previous years' best for this month. The previous record maximum daily generation was also bested by the 14.2 kWh generated on 27/2. 

In other news, Bulb's tariff was raised by 43% to 29.63p per kWh for electricity and by ~80% to 7.51p per kWh for gas, in line with the revised cap. This would mean that manually engaging our Megaflo tank's immersion heater from 11-1pm, when generation exceeds 2kW, would now make financial sense from an additional savings standpoint (vs. selling that energy to the grid at the depressing fixed SEG tariff of 5.3p per kWh we are stuck with). Switching to Octopus is pointless as we would not receive a SMART meter upgrade for upto a year.