Solar PV quotes - could you sense-check and advise on Sofar vs Growatt

ggmf

Screwdriva said:

I would caution against Chinese inverters. Yes, they're cheaper but the catch always comes later in the product's life.

Here is Growatt's warranty policy

https://www.ginverter.com/list-19.html

Not sure what your point is? 

My Growatt Warranty states - "For the inverter(s) you purchased, you will receive a Growatt factory warranty valid for 10 years referring to product warranty card, from the date of installation and for no more than ten and a half years from the

delivery date from Growatt New Energy Technology Co., Ltd, whichever is shorter. The standard 10

years factory warranty can be extended to 15 or 20 years."

Website confirms:

My only issue with Growatt, as I have advised the suppliers, installers and Growatt themselves is availability access to my raw data, rather than have a view on a Chinese webserver.

@tomkaier - "How would one program one of these systems for octopus agile" - The Growatt's have a web interface where you can amend the inverters settings along with off-peak charging dependant upon you tariff. 

2nd_time_buyer

Yeah I am also a bit uneasy about condemning products because they are Chinese. I can see valid ethical reasons why you might not want to buy Chinese. However, in terms of production line technology, they are way ahead of the West in many areas.

In any case, most products  in the technology sector are made in China or other parts of the far east regardless where the manufacturer's headquarters are. I admit that claiming on a warranty 10 or even 25 years might be harder on a Chinese company but likewise I would not have a high degree of confidence that any of the manufacturers today will still be around in 25 years. 

tomkaier

Screwdriva said:

I would caution against Chinese inverters. Yes, they're cheaper but the catch always comes later in the product's life.

Here is Growatt's warranty policy

https://www.ginverter.com/list-19.html

Your point being there is no publicly accessible warranty? 

tomkaier

So judging by the comments, and just to summarise:
1) Undersizing is frequently done, and is more readily justifiable in setups where there are no optimizers. One has to bear in mind that most quotes for an optimized system with SolarEdge are 2-4k more expensive than the Chinese hybrid inverter-based quotes. Not sure that wins the argument in a location such as ours, where shading is not of great/any concern.
2) Sofar is out given that you cannot remotely program off-peak charging etc
3) Some concerns re warranty with Chinese brands, but Growatt does not seem to get an awful lot of flack otherwise?
4) Another quote I had was for GivEnergy, reasonably competitive at 9k for 5.2 kW battery, 11x 405W panels and 5kW hybrid inverter. Interestingly, here the hybrid inverter is sized larger than the panels. Go figure!

2nd_time_buyer

Good summary. 

P.s. FWIW Givenergy are British owned

Officer_Dibble

Very happy so far with my Growatt battery and inverter, though it's only been 3 weeks. Yes, the documentation and app aren't great (it would be nice if the numbers for generation/charging/usage/export actually added up), but it's basically doing its job and you get a fairly decent overview of what it's doing. If I'd bought something less Chinese sounding for a lot more, it would probably have been made in the factory down the road in Shenzen.

I've got a 3.6kW inverter for 4.7kWp of panels. The original spec was for the 4kW version, but the semi-shady installers decided to install the smaller one and hope I wouldn't notice. Apparently (no idea if it's true or not) the 4kW one isn't available at the moment. It can certainly handle more than 3.6kW of generation, divvying it all up neatly between battery charging, usage and export (though when the installers will sort the paperwork for export I've no idea) but doesn't seem keen on allowing consumption or charging of more than 3kW from battery alone (though I think the total of those can be higher than 3kW)

The Growatt does, as has been said, allow preset time periods for charging from or discharging to the grid, but I'm not sure it would be easy to get it to work well with agile - you can program the times ahead, but there's no easy "Export/Import NOW" function.

No knowledge at all on the Sofar. but it sounds like it's already ruled out, so that's OK!

Officer_Dibble

By the way Tom, our installation was very similar to your 1st quote, but around £3k less. Not the perfect installers, but they got the job done (apart from paperwork). I don't think you're a million miles away, judging from your Lat/Long. Let me know if you want to know more.

tomkaier

Officer_Dibble said:

By the way Tom, our installation was very similar to your 1st quote, but around £3k less. Not the perfect installers, but they got the job done (apart from paperwork). I don't think you're a million miles away, judging from your Lat/Long. Let me know if you want to know more.

Very interested to hear who you've used. I've been looking around more locally too now and requested some quotes. Thanks for the feedback on the Growatt! 

Magnitio

tomkaier said:

4) Another quote I had was for GivEnergy, reasonably competitive at 9k for 5.2 kW battery, 11x 405W panels and 5kW hybrid inverter. Interestingly, here the hybrid inverter is sized larger than the panels. Go figure!

A benefit of the larger inverter is that you can provide up to 5kw to the house from a combination of solar and battery. How much of a benefit this is depends on how often your load in the house exceeds 3.6kw during a sunny day. The Givenergy solution is limited to 3.6kw when your only source of power is battery.

It's not an easy process working out what each solution offers and how you are going to best utilise it once installed.

tomkaier

It’s not helped by the fact that most sales guys that ring you up have very little idea as to how the devices they sell actually perform in real life, clearly haven’t seen any of them close recently (do they make noise? Was a simple question I asked recently and the answer was…underwhelming), and don’t know how to operate them in day to day life. I got some screenshots from an iPhone app that were supposed to convince me you can do everything you want on there. But technically it was just an energy readout. Hence forums and Threads like these are immensely helpful.