Solar Panel Price Check and Advice

QrizB

pramsay13 said:

Here is the photo of the proposed layout from the salesman. South is to the bottom of the photo.

Looks quite a tidy set-up that should give you some generation for most of the day. I'd assume two separate strings, given that you've been quotyed conventional inverters.

I'm guessing the second installer would be putting 500W panels on your right-most, SW-facing aspect and 400W on your left-most, SE-facing one? Could he fit 9x 400W in the same pattern as the first guy?

Martyn1981

pramsay13 said:

Thanks for your comments everyone. I'll work through them and ask questions.

We do have 2 roofs. I've attached the picture from the fancy sales pitch showing a suggested layout. One roof faces south east and one faces south west so both will get the sun most of the day. There are no shading issues.

10000 kWh is probably fairly accurate. We have a hot tub which means it is higher than it should be and that's what prompted us to look at solar panels. 

Sorry if this comment sounds a bit silly, but I've always thought that if I had the choice, or was having a house built, then I'd want roofs that are SE + SW. South facing maximises your annual gen, but SE/SW would give a wider spread of generation through the day, and two roofs may mean you can install more PV, just like using both roofs of an E/W conventional roof, v's only using the S roof of a similar building.

As I said, silly comment, but you really do have great potential from those roofs.

pramsay13

QrizB said:

pramsay13 said:

Here is the photo of the proposed layout from the salesman. South is to the bottom of the photo.

Looks quite a tidy set-up that should give you some generation for most of the day. I'd assume two separate strings, given that you've been quotyed conventional inverters.

I'm guessing the second installer would be putting 500W panels on your right-most, SW-facing aspect and 400W on your left-most, SE-facing one? Could he fit 9x 400W in the same pattern as the first guy?

The second installer is proposing 8 X 400w in a row under the velux windows. He could add 3 more between the windows to give a 6.5kW system but it wouldn't look as neat and the 5.7kW system should be plenty. 

Spies

If they're all black panels or will look fine with those 3 between the velux

Hexane

pramsay13 said:

QrizB said:

pramsay13 said:

Here is the photo of the proposed layout from the salesman. South is to the bottom of the photo.

Looks quite a tidy set-up that should give you some generation for most of the day. I'd assume two separate strings, given that you've been quotyed conventional inverters.

I'm guessing the second installer would be putting 500W panels on your right-most, SW-facing aspect and 400W on your left-most, SE-facing one? Could he fit 9x 400W in the same pattern as the first guy?

The second installer is proposing 8 X 400w in a row under the velux windows. He could add 3 more between the windows to give a 6.5kW system but it wouldn't look as neat and the 5.7kW system should be plenty. 

If it were me I would definitely go for the extra 3 panels. I think the old wisdom still holds true, if going to the trouble of installing a solar PV system, make it as big as will sensibly fit. After all, it is going to be generating power for you, potentially, for 20 to 25 years. Or more!

phil1352

Hi, I am looking at solar panels and wondered if the price is about right. We are looking at 46 x 415w all black Trina panels with solar edge optimisers and a 10kw solar edge inverter. Comes in at £24700. It sounded a lot but then it’s a lot of panels. We have an East, South and West even split so should be a good supply through the day. Going to use a relay for underfloor heating and an immersion heater. 

2nd_time_buyer

phil1352 said:

Hi, I am looking at solar panels and wondered if the price is about right. We are looking at 46 x 415w all black Trina panels with solar edge optimisers and a 10kw solar edge inverter. Comes in at £24700. It sounded a lot but then it’s a lot of panels. We have an East, South and West even split so should be a good supply through the day. Going to use a relay for underfloor heating and an immersion heater. 

My inclination is that this it quite high but I don't have any experience of systems that size. However, I would have thought £1/kw should be achievable. I presume you have at least tacit approval to connect that much to the grid(?)

ABrass

phil1352 said:

Hi, I am looking at solar panels and wondered if the price is about right. We are looking at 46 x 415w all black Trina panels with solar edge optimisers and a 10kw solar edge inverter. Comes in at £24700. It sounded a lot but then it’s a lot of panels. We have an East, South and West even split so should be a good supply through the day. Going to use a relay for underfloor heating and an immersion heater. 

You do know that'll do very little to provide electricity over winter? 

ecraig

ABrass said:

phil1352 said:

Hi, I am looking at solar panels and wondered if the price is about right. We are looking at 46 x 415w all black Trina panels with solar edge optimisers and a 10kw solar edge inverter. Comes in at £24700. It sounded a lot but then it’s a lot of panels. We have an East, South and West even split so should be a good supply through the day. Going to use a relay for underfloor heating and an immersion heater. 

You do know that'll do very little to provide electricity over winter? 

Would be lovely to have a nice warm floor in the summer though.

2nd_time_buyer

ABrass said:

phil1352 said:

Hi, I am looking at solar panels and wondered if the price is about right. We are looking at 46 x 415w all black Trina panels with solar edge optimisers and a 10kw solar edge inverter. Comes in at £24700. It sounded a lot but then it’s a lot of panels. We have an East, South and West even split so should be a good supply through the day. Going to use a relay for underfloor heating and an immersion heater. 

You do know that'll do very little to provide electricity over winter? 

I guess it depends a bit on perspective. If you were looking at going carbon and cost neutral over the year then this might be possible with that kind of output as you would be exporting a shed load over the summer. Although, it would be easier to be carbon (and maybe cost) neutral to heat with a heat pump rather than an immersion heater and boiler.

If I could install a 19kw system, I probably would, just for the hell of it.