Solar PV + storage advise 15 November 2021 at 5:40PM in Green & ethical MoneySaving 5 replies 202 views

Swwils

Hello, wishing to tap into the solar gurus knowledge.

I've been looking around various installers to get solar pv, but almost all of them seem aware of the agile tariff but don't seem too experienced with it or are just middlemen to the actual installers who cant answer technical questions.

I am in West Yorkshire and have a perfect south facing roof. Ideally I want quite a large system (7kwp+) but I get the feeling I am paying large ticket item % margins when we get into systems that size.  

I am more than happy to add storage to an existing system myself, I am also aware that companies can and will go pop before warranties finish.

I am leaning towards a Jinko tiger + Growatt Inverter + Pylontech batteries unless anybody else tells me different (leaning on sheer quantity rather than perfect quality). I don't get a good feeling from givenergy with the "beta" features that don't seem to have matured over time.

Can anyone recommend a stroage inverter ? I plan on just adding pylontechs myself as required - as an experiment. 

I use around 7000kwh a year, with a base load of about 600w 24/7. Also have a 250L hot water tank and presumably EV in the near future with heat pump in the far future.

Verdigris

Basic PV price should be around £1/Wp from 4 kWp arrays, upward, assuming rail mounted. A bit more for in-roof installations.

I seem to remember some criticism of Growatt inverters, which look good on paper, but the reponse is rather slow, so you can lose a lot of generation in a changeable climate like Blighty.

Remember the VAT on batteries. If it is part of the PV installation it will be 5%, otherwise 20%. I appreciate it is difficult to predict how much storage will be optimal but putting in a base amount and then adding later, if necessary, might be a better approach.

Exiled_Tyke

I would recommend talking to Leeds Solar. (not to be confused with a business of a similar name in Kent!).  I found Gavin (and actually all the team) very helpful.  They retro-installed my battery a couple of years ago. They've been going strong for a good while (certainly ever since I started looking into PV). 

Martyn1981

Exiled_Tyke said:

I would recommend talking to Leeds Solar. (not to be confused with a business of a similar name in Kent!).  I found Gavin (and actually all the team) very helpful.  They retro-installed my battery a couple of years ago. They've been going strong for a good while (certainly ever since I started looking into PV). 

I can't comment on the business as I haven't had any experience of them, but I'll second the comments about Gavin. I used to ask him loads of questions about PV going back to the first half of the 2010's, on another forum. I also asked him for advice, on behalf of many MSE posts, and he always provided a tonne of help, advice and support that I was able to pass on (with acknowledgment to him), and helped me to gain a basic level of PV understanding.

Solarchaser

My experience with the growatt inverter was ill never buy a growatt, id definitely pick another make for inverter.

For storage inverter, the lux tends to be the best around just now, a few of us on the forum have them.

You could combine the two and get a lux hybrid inverter, again there are a couple who have them also

Spies

Solarchaser said:

My experience with the growatt inverter was ill never buy a growatt, id definitely pick another make for inverter.

For storage inverter, the lux tends to be the best around just now, a few of us on the forum have them.

You could combine the two and get a lux hybrid inverter, again there are a couple who have them also

Regarding growatt, are you specifically referring to hybrid vs a standard inverter?