📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!

Considering solar PV installation

Options
245

Comments

  • One of the drivers for us opting for Solaredge is the transparency of knowing each individual panel output in real time. Should a panel or optimiser go down then it will clearly show up and it's identity known.. Without this system all that is known is that output is less than it might be, but as to which panel/optimiser it is remains a mystery. Each would have to be tested by the installer clambering up on the roof before identifying the culprit. In the case of Optimisers these are behind the solar panel which would need removing in order for access to be gained.
    Having said all that it is unusual for them to fail, but it can occur and I'd prefer to know sooner rather than later armed with the additional knowledge of which panel or optimiser might be the culprit. But I appreciate it may not appeal to everyone.

    East coast, lat 51.97. 8.26kw SSE, 23° pitch + 0.59kw WSW vertical. Nissan Leaf plus Zappi charger and 2 x ASHP's. Givenergy 8.2 & 9.5 kWh batts, 2 x 3 kW ac inverters. Indra V2H . CoCharger Host, Interest in Ripple Energy & Abundance.
  • Yeah "piece of mind" is a good reason right enough 👍
    West central Scotland
    4kw sse since 2014 and 6.6kw wsw / ene split since 2019
    24kwh leaf, 75Kwh Tesla and Lux 3600 with 60Kwh storage
  • JKenH
    JKenH Posts: 5,138 Forumite
    Seventh Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    One of the drivers for us opting for Solaredge is the transparency of knowing each individual panel output in real time. Should a panel or optimiser go down then it will clearly show up and it's identity known.. Without this system all that is known is that output is less than it might be, but as to which panel/optimiser it is remains a mystery. Each would have to be tested by the installer clambering up on the roof before identifying the culprit. In the case of Optimisers these are behind the solar panel which would need removing in order for access to be gained.
    Having said all that it is unusual for them to fail, but it can occur and I'd prefer to know sooner rather than later armed with the additional knowledge of which panel or optimiser might be the culprit. But I appreciate it may not appeal to everyone.

    One of the two identical strings on my west roof is consistently 10-15% down on the other which suggests something is amiss with one of the panels. Without SolarEdge it’s going to be an expensive job finding out which one it is. It’s costing me about 4% of my output, so around 240Wh a year - about £17 a year in lost FiT and I’ll have to buy in probably £10 a year of extra electricity. I am just leaving it for now until something else goes wrong as the cost of getting someone in to investigate will probably outweigh the benefit. 

    I do wish I had gone with SolarEdge from day one as I am convinced that even on an unshaded roof the output is better (and I would know where my problem was). To add it retrospectively would be expensive as presumably one would need to change inverters, so if you are thinking about Solar Edge I would say do it as if you don’t you’ll always wish you had. 
    Northern Lincolnshire. 7.8 kWp system, (4.2 kw west facing panels , 3.6 kw east facing), Solis inverters, Solar IBoost water heater, Mitsubishi SRK35ZS-S and SRK20ZS-S Wall Mounted Inverter Heat Pumps, ex Nissan Leaf owner)
  • ASavvyBuyer
    ASavvyBuyer Posts: 1,737 Forumite
    Fifth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    edited 20 November 2020 at 6:30PM
    If we have another system installed, we would have Solaredge+Optimers again without hesitation. When you check the tolerance on the panel outputs some makes can vary by 10%. Therefore, if on a string, every panel is limited to the worst performing panel. With Optimisers you get the most out of each panel.
  • Hexane
    Hexane Posts: 522 Forumite
    Sixth Anniversary 500 Posts Name Dropper
    One of the drivers for us opting for Solaredge is the transparency of knowing each individual panel output in real time. Should a panel or optimiser go down then it will clearly show up and it's identity known.. Without this system all that is known is that output is less than it might be, but as to which panel/optimiser it is remains a mystery. Each would have to be tested by the installer clambering up on the roof before identifying the culprit. In the case of Optimisers these are behind the solar panel which would need removing in order for access to be gained.

    I think this may be missing the point - without SolarEdge there aren't optimisers behind every panel, so owners of a non-SolarEdge system don't need to worry about this. Admittedly a SolarEdge system would be useful for fault-finding any problems with the panels/cables, but under normal circumstances such problems should be extremely rare. I've seen none so far - hopefully not jinxing myself here!
    7.25 kWp PV system (4.1kW WSW & 3.15kW ENE), Solis inverter, myenergi eddi & harvi for energy diversion to immersion heater. myenergi hub for Virtual Power Plant demand-side response trial.
  • Hexane
    Hexane Posts: 522 Forumite
    Sixth Anniversary 500 Posts Name Dropper
    edited 20 November 2020 at 2:45PM
    JKenH said:
    so if you are thinking about Solar Edge I would say do it as if you don’t you’ll always wish you had. 
    I think if the cash for it is available and the long-term cost effectiveness/payback time is not a major priority, then this is good advice. On the other hand, after nearly 2 years with my system, I'm not at all wishing I had gone for a SolarEdge system.

    (I have two very dissimilar strings, so maybe it's a case of ignorance is bliss and one of my panels is underperforming without me knowing about it - but there almost always seems to be plenty of power.)
    7.25 kWp PV system (4.1kW WSW & 3.15kW ENE), Solis inverter, myenergi eddi & harvi for energy diversion to immersion heater. myenergi hub for Virtual Power Plant demand-side response trial.
  • JKenH
    JKenH Posts: 5,138 Forumite
    Seventh Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Hexane said:
    JKenH said:
    so if you are thinking about Solar Edge I would say do it as if you don’t you’ll always wish you had. 
    I think if the cash for it is available and the long-term cost effectiveness/payback time is not a major priority, then this is good advice. On the other hand, after nearly 2 years with my system, I'm not at all wishing I had gone for a SolarEdge system.

    (I have two very dissimilar strings, so maybe it's a case of ignorance is bliss and one of my panels is underperforming without me knowing about it - but there almost always seems to be plenty of power.)
    Apologies for taking the thread off course but was just wondering about your set up.  Presumably you have the two roofs on different strings of one inverter. What size is your inverter? I have wondered if my system would work better with just a single inverter.
    Northern Lincolnshire. 7.8 kWp system, (4.2 kw west facing panels , 3.6 kw east facing), Solis inverters, Solar IBoost water heater, Mitsubishi SRK35ZS-S and SRK20ZS-S Wall Mounted Inverter Heat Pumps, ex Nissan Leaf owner)
  • gm624
    gm624 Posts: 12 Forumite
    Fourth Anniversary 10 Posts
    Interesting discussion. All three companies seemed keen on SolarEdge, and there is a bit of shading on our roof. With a difference of £50-70 per panel, it adds perhaps 15-20% to the total cost, so like others I wonder about the payback. That's a big difference to recoup!
    On the other hand, the warranty on the inverter is 12 years (extendable to 25), versus 5 years on a typical string inverter - that's a big potential saving in years 6-12. There's also the monitoring via the app, which is less easy to put a value on, but does appeal to me. That, plus perhaps a reasonable guess of a 5%+ increase in output, seems like it might be worth the difference, at least for me personally. Plus the third company quoted for panels with SolarEdge optimisers at a price per kW similar to the standard system prices quoted by the other two (and couldn't quote for a system without SolarEdge).
  • Petriix
    Petriix Posts: 2,297 Forumite
    Ninth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    My very cheap Growatt inverter has a 10 year warranty, although I've heard anecdotal reports that their customer service is a bit lacking.

    If you have mains gas then an Iboost will actually cost you money so, thrown in or otherwise, I wouldn't recommend one on a post FIT installation. I'm not sure why people keep recommending them.
  • gm624
    gm624 Posts: 12 Forumite
    Fourth Anniversary 10 Posts
    Yes, one of the companies included an iBoost in the quote, but it's pretty clear that (post-FIT) it makes neither financial nor environmental sense, as long as the SEG price is higher than the cost of gas, and the grid relies on fossil fuels.
Meet your Ambassadors

🚀 Getting Started

Hi new member!

Our Getting Started Guide will help you get the most out of the Forum

Categories

  • All Categories
  • 351.1K Banking & Borrowing
  • 253.2K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
  • 453.7K Spending & Discounts
  • 244.1K Work, Benefits & Business
  • 599.2K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
  • 177K Life & Family
  • 257.5K Travel & Transport
  • 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
  • 16.1K Discuss & Feedback
  • 37.6K Read-Only Boards

Is this how you want to be seen?

We see you are using a default avatar. It takes only a few seconds to pick a picture.