Solar PV + Battery quotes

cool_techie

Hello All,

Apologies for the radio silence from my side. Had a family emergency which required all attention over the last 1 month. 

To summarize, I am left with two quotes now:

Quote 1: 30 x 350W Trina (all Black) panels (10.5kW system) with 2 x 3.5kW pylon tech batteries, 1 Solar Edge inverter, 30 solar edge optimisers and iBoost for £11k. This is from a local installer recommended by a MSE forumite.

Quote 2: 29 x 370W Uleca (all Black) panels (10.73kW system) with 1 x 9.9kW Growatt battery and iBoost for £12.5k. This is from a company called Deege solar.

The costs look competitive to me. However, please do challenge if this is not the case and also if there are any other factors, which I need to consider.

Thanks, CT

cool_techie

cool_techie said:

Hello All,

Apologies for the radio silence from my side. Had a family emergency which required all attention over the last 1 month. 

To summarize, I am left with two quotes now:

Quote 1: 30 x 350W Trina (all Black) panels (10.5kW system) with 2 x 3.5kW pylon tech batteries, 1 Solar Edge inverter, 30 solar edge optimisers and iBoost for £11k. This is from a local installer recommended by a MSE forumite.

Quote 2: 29 x 370W Uleca (all Black) panels (10.73kW system) with 1 x 9.9kW Growatt battery and iBoost for £12.5k. This is from a company called Deege solar.

The costs look competitive to me. However, please do challenge if this is not the case and also if there are any other factors, which I need to consider.

Thanks, CT

Any comments/suggestion please?

Thanks, CT

AntonyTewks

Do you 'need' solaredge? I.e. have you any shading? The internet platform is excellent but the premium seems to be more about dealing with shade and multiple aspects. I'd be minded by the second quote if not, bigger array, bigger battery. Is the 9.9kwh growatt actually useable capacity?

Martyn1981

Looking really good mate, I don't think there is much that can be said (hence the thanks you got, treat them as a thumbs up), good prices and packages. As Antony asks, do you need Solaredge, it works very, very well, but that assumes it has a shading job to do, or multiple aspects, pitches etc etc.

cool_techie

AntonyTewks said:

Do you 'need' solaredge? I.e. have you any shading? The internet platform is excellent but the premium seems to be more about dealing with shade and multiple aspects. I'd be minded by the second quote if not, bigger array, bigger battery. Is the 9.9kwh growatt actually useable capacity?

Yes, shading will be an issue, since the property behind our house has a higher roofline. Also, there is a chimney on our roof, which will shade at least 2 panels.

Are you saying, the second quote is good? Also, did not get your comment about "useable capacity" on the battery.

Thanks CT,
PS: The installer is offering 9.9 kW instead of 7.2 kW for the same price, due to some supply side issues at their end for the lower capacity batteries.

cool_techie

Martyn1981 said:

Looking really good mate, I don't think there is much that can be said (hence the thanks you got, treat them as a thumbs up), good prices and packages. As Antony asks, do you need Solaredge, it works very, very well, but that assumes it has a shading job to do, or multiple aspects, pitches etc etc.

Thanks Martyn1981. Appreciate your inputs, always!

AntonyTewks

Ah ok, I think if you have any shading at all the SE is well worth it, the data is excellent too and they give good warranty.
Some battery manufacturers report total rather than useable capacity. I.e. I fancy a Givenergy battery and they say they do an 8.2kwh, however you can only actually use up to 6.6kwh because they have a buffer either end. It maybe that there isn't a great capacity difference between the pylon and growatt if the growatt is only reporting total capacity and not useable

cool_techie

AntonyTewks said:

Ah ok, I think if you have any shading at all the SE is well worth it, the data is excellent too and they give good warranty.
Some battery manufacturers report total rather than useable capacity. I.e. I fancy a Givenergy battery and they say they do an 8.2kwh, however you can only actually use up to 6.6kwh because they have a buffer either end. It maybe that there isn't a great capacity difference between the pylon and growatt if the growatt is only reporting total capacity and not useable

Thanks for that. Was not aware of the capacity overstating. Cheeky manufacturers!

Solarchaser

Hi there, for me it would be the first system, I've had growatt batteries and pylontech,  I sent the growatt back and bought more pylontech. 
Their charge and discharge rates are not as good, and there was no actual off switch on the growatt (darfon) batteries, as well as being alot larger and much heavier too.
9.9 is a strange number, they generally come in 4.8, so two would be 9.6, which is a useable 8kwh as they only go to 20% discharge. 
The 3.5 pylontech go down to 10% so roughly 3.15 each and 6.3kwh useable.

I'd be interested to know how they plan on the batteries and diverter working together.
Id imagine between them there is £2.5k on your quote.
So you might want to consider that 10kw system at £8.5k as an easier pill to swallow.

Simply because its been pointed out on here that batteries can't wash their face yet and solar diverters will earn you less than being paid for export (if you have gas).
Assuming you are doing this from an economics point of view.

If its a green point of view, keep them both

cool_techie

Dear expert forumites,

A new twist in the tale yesterday. Help and advice needed from your knowledge store/experiences please!

I opted for Installer 1 (30 x 350W Trina (all Black) panels (10.5kW system) with 2 x 3.5kW pylon tech batteries, 1 Solar Edge inverter, 30 solar edge optimisers and iBoost for £11k. This is from a local installer recommended by a MSE forumite.), who filed DNO permission. 

The DNO has now come back saying - maximum export allowed will be 5.6kW and no more. 

I have asked installer, if two separate applications can be filed and the answer is a no. The installer's view is, the installation can still be on 10.5kW and the rest of the electricity can be used by me or stored in batteries.

So my question are:

1. Can we get the DNO to review their decision and get permission for 10.5kW to be exported?

2. Is the installer right in saying " rest of the electricity can be used by me or stored in batteries."? If yes, would i need more batteries to absorb the extra electricity?

Thanks in advance, CT