This quote look ok?

thorn22

Hi everyone,

Like a lot of people I'm looking at a solar panel system...I'm a bit clueless.
Does this quote look about right:

22 x JA Solar (380 watts)
22 x Tigo Optimisers
1 x GivEnergy battery with BMS (8.2kwh)

£13,000


We use about 6500kw per year and have a southish facing roof, no shade

Thanks in advance

2nd_time_buyer

Price looks around the going rate. Perhaps it could be around £1k cheaper? 

Couple of notes:
1) Check availability on the battery. There are reports on here of difficulty getting stock. Maybe consider Pylontech instead (?)

2)the Tigo optimisers wouldn't be much benefit with no shading issues. Unless you want to monitor panel performance, in which case it is worth getting the Cloud Connect

1961Nick

The price looks slightly on the high side of ok... but still ok.

I'd be tempted to ditch the optimisers if you don't have any shading & spend the cash on a bigger battery... 3 x 5.2kWh or 2 x 8.2kWh.

thorn22

1961Nick said:

The price looks slightly on the high side of ok... but still ok.

I'd be tempted to ditch the optimisers if you don't have any shading & spend the cash on a bigger battery... 3 x 5.2kWh or 2 x 8.2kWh.

I like the idea of seeing how each panel is doing. I was told if I don’t go for that you can’t tell which panel is faulty etc

Verdigris

I was told if I don’t go for that you can’t tell which panel is faulty etc

Or it could be interpreted as making life easy for the installer, should a panel develop a fault, at your cost.

Verdigris

With no shading I think I might consider two inverters. With two strings each, that would be a maximum of 6 panels on a string. It would still make it easy to identify a faulty panel and not lose too much energy whilst you're waiting for it to be fixed. Assuming that was cheaper, spend the difference on more batteries, as previously suggested.

1961Nick

The chances of a panel becoming faulty are slim, but if it did happen, you'd be able to narrow it down to one string (11 panels). Hire of a scaffold & the cost of the replacement panel would be a very large proportion of the cost. Knowledge of which panel out of the 11 is faulty isn't going to save a great deal.

More battery storage will probably earn enough to pay for an unlikely faulty panel.

2nd_time_buyer

thorn22 said:

1961Nick said:

The price looks slightly on the high side of ok... but still ok.

I'd be tempted to ditch the optimisers if you don't have any shading & spend the cash on a bigger battery... 3 x 5.2kWh or 2 x 8.2kWh.

I like the idea of seeing how each panel is doing. I was told if I don’t go for that you can’t tell which panel is faulty etc

The flip side of this is you are adding another 22 things to go wrong on your roof. The jury is out on whether optimisers are more or less likely to go wrong then panels.

Spies

From one quote I had, I was steered away from them because of that very reason.

Verdigris

Yes, panels are pretty reliable but at least a conventional inverter goes wrong somewhere reasonably accessible!

2nd_time_buyer

2nd_time_buyer said:

thorn22 said:

1961Nick said:

The price looks slightly on the high side of ok... but still ok.

I'd be tempted to ditch the optimisers if you don't have any shading & spend the cash on a bigger battery... 3 x 5.2kWh or 2 x 8.2kWh.

I like the idea of seeing how each panel is doing. I was told if I don’t go for that you can’t tell which panel is faulty etc

The flip side of this is you are adding another 22 things to go wrong on your roof. The jury is out on whether optimisers are more or less likely to go wrong then panels.

Sorry to quote myself. I should add that I went for optimisers on our panels. The only shading is from the roofs of houses as the sun sets/rises. But I was keen to geek out on the data 

I have been amazed how much difference there has been between the highest and lowest positioned panels on the roof this winter. Without optimisers the string would be dragged down. I reckon they have have increased output by about 20%. I expect the difference will be less, for the rest of the year, with the sun higher in the sky.