Some Solar Panel Tips

ccbrowning

ispookie666 said:

The important point should be - get some form of solar in. The prices seem to have gone crazy! A few of the quotes I have seen are way above £2/KWp for a big standard string inverter on a single roof. 

I really like my Enphase systems. I do have split roof install (4 different orientation) and shading. DNO can be an bit of pain, as my installer found out.  The section for inverter/generator for my house has 21 different entries compared to the usual 1-2 🙄

Not just me seeing like £2/kWp then! But will they stay so crazy? There is just no chance that electricity prices keep going up or even stay at current predicted prices for October, January, and beyond - a large portion of the population can't afford that long term. 

Who is doing Enphase? I haven't found anyone in the Northwest offering that, although SolarEdge seems an option. I have shading due to my various roofs being a case of form over function (sounds like yours!).

Our electricity usage is around 7,000kWh / year (GSHP, lots of computers, etc.) with 50% being after the sun has gone down. I guess I could 'pay' battery off in 4 years if prices somehow stayed at £.50.

QrizB

ccbrowning said:

ispookie666 said:

The important point should be - get some form of solar in. The prices seem to have gone crazy! A few of the quotes I have seen are way above £2/KWp for a big standard string inverter on a single roof.

Not just me seeing like £2/kWp then! But will they stay so crazy?

It's a shortage of installers to service the increased demand, rather than an increase in the parts cost.

You can buy a kit of parts for about 70p/watt (OK you need to add mounting hardware, which will add maybe 10-20p/watt to that). Thanks to The Wayback Machine we can see that 18 months ago it was closer to 50p/watt.

So parts inflation has only added 20p/watt to the price. The rest is the installers raising their prices because, well, because they can.

Alfster

Not just me seeing like £2/kWp then! But will they stay so crazy? There is just no chance that electricity prices keep going up or even stay at current predicted prices for October, January, and beyond - a large portion of the population can't afford that long term. 

Yes definitely can’t be sustained. Average monthly DD going to be around £350. There is supposedly 15 million people in poverty in the UK so to give £1000 (which wouldn’t be enough anyway) to each of these would need £15 billion. That’s why, despite a good starting point, a windfall on energy companies netting £4-5 billion tops won’t begin to fix the problem. 

ispookie666

Similar boom and bust happened when govt pulled the FiT scheme generation payments. 

 Boat load of installers shut shop.  In 2015, some company in Essex gave me a quote for 11k, that was £3/KWp installed capacity. I finally installed it for £1.5/KWp. 

Regarding Enphase installers. My installer did initially suggest Solar edge, but I requested Enphase and they came back with a quote. Think it cost me £1.7/KWp. If you press the installers, they might. Else I'd search for installers via Enphase. Enphase is not a cheap system, the micro inverter is probably similarly priced as a panel and you need one for each panel. 

Other than my problems with GivEnergy inverter, things are ticking along. 

The Taiwan strait problems might become a big issue. There are very few manufacturers outside that zone and rest of the world will be chasing those dwindling supplies. If I was you, might even consider asking the installers to procure all the kit and store at your place and install when they can.  

I wound like a prophet of doom 😔

70sbudgie

ispookie666 said:

I wound like a prophet of doom 😔

I'm not sure if this is a typo, because "wound" also works well in the context!