Solar panels

Astria

dunstonh said:

Solar panels installed by a typical company can cost £6.500 (and upto 10K from some companies),

I would avoid using "upto" as that could confuse some people.   Our installation quote is heading towards £20k and I expect it to end up just over.

What does you installation consist of? I was meaning solar panels on a typical residential property only - no batteries or other kind of smart solutions. 

Considering I can buy solar panels at 33p/watt, it's amazing how high quotes can get.  You can get better panels by paying more, but the cost vs payment dramatically increases. For example, you can pay £4,000 on a 4kW system, but it won't be 300% more efficient than a system that costs £1320 (plus 1K for wiring and equipment, plus 1K for installation unless you DIY)

theshed

Astria said:

dunstonh said:

Solar panels installed by a typical company can cost £6.500 (and upto 10K from some companies),

I would avoid using "upto" as that could confuse some people.   Our installation quote is heading towards £20k and I expect it to end up just over.

What does you installation consist of? I was meaning solar panels on a typical residential property only - no batteries or other kind of smart solutions. 

Considering I can buy solar panels at 33p/watt, it's amazing how high quotes can get.  You can get better panels by paying more, but the cost vs payment dramatically increases. For example, you can pay £4,000 on a 4kW system, but it won't be 300% more efficient than a system that costs £1320 (plus 1K for wiring and equipment, plus 1K for installation unless you DIY)

We have 8 Solar Panels total 260W fitted in 2012 at a cost of £7500

Astria

theshed said:

Astria said:

dunstonh said:

Solar panels installed by a typical company can cost £6.500 (and upto 10K from some companies),

I would avoid using "upto" as that could confuse some people.   Our installation quote is heading towards £20k and I expect it to end up just over.

What does you installation consist of? I was meaning solar panels on a typical residential property only - no batteries or other kind of smart solutions. 

Considering I can buy solar panels at 33p/watt, it's amazing how high quotes can get.  You can get better panels by paying more, but the cost vs payment dramatically increases. For example, you can pay £4,000 on a 4kW system, but it won't be 300% more efficient than a system that costs £1320 (plus 1K for wiring and equipment, plus 1K for installation unless you DIY)

We have 8 Solar Panels total 260W fitted in 2012 at a cost of £7500

Are you sure? That would mean your panels would be 32W each which seems incredibly small. I would expect them to be 100W at the minimum, so at least 800W.

dunstonh

What does you installation consist of? I was meaning solar panels on a typical residential property only - no batteries or other kind of smart solutions. 

Ours is heading towards 24-30 panels (410w) with multiple strings and 8.6kW battery initially.  Plus, not reliant on grid to keep running (being rural, we get up to a dozen power cuts a year).  So, a bit more expense on the invertor there.

They gave me their pricing matrix and a standard 10x410w panels with no battery would be exactly where you suggested it would be at  £6191

Astria

dunstonh said:

What does you installation consist of? I was meaning solar panels on a typical residential property only - no batteries or other kind of smart solutions. 

Ours is heading towards 24-30 panels (410w) with multiple strings and 8.6kW battery initially.  Plus, not reliant on grid to keep running (being rural, we get up to a dozen power cuts a year).  So, a bit more expense on the invertor there.

They gave me their pricing matrix and a standard 10x410w panels with no battery would be exactly where you suggested it would be at  £6191

Thanks for that, so considering you are having a complete off-grid solution, they are probably supplying an inverter which isn't grid tied, so that makes it more expensive, and probably capable of 10KW or so, so yes, that would quite a beast, plus 8.6kW of battery isn't cheap either, that'll probably be about £4,500 alone.

My own DIY solution is off-grid as well, but won't be automatic like yours will be, to use it to power everything I have to basically turn the grid off first, then switch on the battery bank, but power cuts are rare here. At the moment, only select small circuits run from it, as the batteries are not being fully charged.

theshed

Astria said:

theshed said:

Astria said:

dunstonh said:

Solar panels installed by a typical company can cost £6.500 (and upto 10K from some companies),

I would avoid using "upto" as that could confuse some people.   Our installation quote is heading towards £20k and I expect it to end up just over.

What does you installation consist of? I was meaning solar panels on a typical residential property only - no batteries or other kind of smart solutions. 

Considering I can buy solar panels at 33p/watt, it's amazing how high quotes can get.  You can get better panels by paying more, but the cost vs payment dramatically increases. For example, you can pay £4,000 on a 4kW system, but it won't be 300% more efficient than a system that costs £1320 (plus 1K for wiring and equipment, plus 1K for installation unless you DIY)

We have 8 Solar Panels total 260W fitted in 2012 at a cost of £7500

Are you sure? That would mean your panels would be 32W each which seems incredibly small. I would expect them to be 100W at the minimum, so at least 800W.

Sorry I copy and pasted from an Email, Each panel is 260W with total output of 2.08 Kw
Hope that makes more sense.

theshed

Astria said:

dunstonh said:

What does you installation consist of? I was meaning solar panels on a typical residential property only - no batteries or other kind of smart solutions. 

Ours is heading towards 24-30 panels (410w) with multiple strings and 8.6kW battery initially.  Plus, not reliant on grid to keep running (being rural, we get up to a dozen power cuts a year).  So, a bit more expense on the invertor there.

They gave me their pricing matrix and a standard 10x410w panels with no battery would be exactly where you suggested it would be at  £6191

Thanks for that, so considering you are having a complete off-grid solution, they are probably supplying an inverter which isn't grid tied, so that makes it more expensive, and probably capable of 10KW or so, so yes, that would quite a beast, plus 8.6kW of battery isn't cheap either, that'll probably be about £4,500 alone.

My own DIY solution is off-grid as well, but won't be automatic like yours will be, to use it to power everything I have to basically turn the grid off first, then switch on the battery bank, but power cuts are rare here. At the moment, only select small circuits run from it, as the batteries are not being fully charged.

I would like to have batteries installed but the companies I have contacted have either given quotes more than the cost of the whole installation or have been 'unable to quote'.
Guess there is more profit in a full system ?
I would install batteries myself but there are too many variables in the system for me to be confident.

Astria

theshed said:

Astria said:

dunstonh said:

What does you installation consist of? I was meaning solar panels on a typical residential property only - no batteries or other kind of smart solutions. 

Ours is heading towards 24-30 panels (410w) with multiple strings and 8.6kW battery initially.  Plus, not reliant on grid to keep running (being rural, we get up to a dozen power cuts a year).  So, a bit more expense on the invertor there.

They gave me their pricing matrix and a standard 10x410w panels with no battery would be exactly where you suggested it would be at  £6191

Thanks for that, so considering you are having a complete off-grid solution, they are probably supplying an inverter which isn't grid tied, so that makes it more expensive, and probably capable of 10KW or so, so yes, that would quite a beast, plus 8.6kW of battery isn't cheap either, that'll probably be about £4,500 alone.

My own DIY solution is off-grid as well, but won't be automatic like yours will be, to use it to power everything I have to basically turn the grid off first, then switch on the battery bank, but power cuts are rare here. At the moment, only select small circuits run from it, as the batteries are not being fully charged.

I would like to have batteries installed but the companies I have contacted have either given quotes more than the cost of the whole installation or have been 'unable to quote'.
Guess there is more profit in a full system ?
I would install batteries myself but there are too many variables in the system for me to be confident.

From my limited knowledge of what companies have been installing, it seems that adding batteries to an existing system could be a challenge as they'll typically use a grid-tied all-in-box box for ease of installation, which means adding a battery could be difficult and even if you did add it, you couldn't use it in a power outage as the inverter requires the grid power to be there so it can ensure it's in sync with it. A lot of companies won't want the hassle and will simply prefer not to accept the job as there's plenty of installs going around for full systems.

I certainly wouldn't attempt to install batteries myself to a system I know nothing of. 2KW of electrical energy is sufficient to give a nasty bite.

My system actually lives in the detached garage, started off as a learning exercise and have gradually grown, with a 20A cable back to the house. I wanted it in there in case of 'accidents', plus didn't really want holes in my house roof to install panels, and was a bit cautious of having massive batteries and high power equipment in an area rarely visited.

DeeQS

theshed said:

Astria said:

dunstonh said:

What does you installation consist of? I was meaning solar panels on a typical residential property only - no batteries or other kind of smart solutions. 

Ours is heading towards 24-30 panels (410w) with multiple strings and 8.6kW battery initially.  Plus, not reliant on grid to keep running (being rural, we get up to a dozen power cuts a year).  So, a bit more expense on the invertor there.

They gave me their pricing matrix and a standard 10x410w panels with no battery would be exactly where you suggested it would be at  £6191

Thanks for that, so considering you are having a complete off-grid solution, they are probably supplying an inverter which isn't grid tied, so that makes it more expensive, and probably capable of 10KW or so, so yes, that would quite a beast, plus 8.6kW of battery isn't cheap either, that'll probably be about £4,500 alone.

My own DIY solution is off-grid as well, but won't be automatic like yours will be, to use it to power everything I have to basically turn the grid off first, then switch on the battery bank, but power cuts are rare here. At the moment, only select small circuits run from it, as the batteries are not being fully charged.

I would like to have batteries installed but the companies I have contacted have either given quotes more than the cost of the whole installation or have been 'unable to quote'.
Guess there is more profit in a full system ?
I would install batteries myself but there are too many variables in the system for me to be confident.

I think you also pay VAT on a battery addition, and you don’t if it’s installed as part of the solar system.

BossBob

Even if you have batteries fitted they need to be cut off from the grid in the event of a power cut to safeguard the workers who are working on the fault. If you want power from the batteries during the power cut then that is another matter and you’ll have to have a circuit dedicated to battery power.
I’ve just had 8 x 415W solar panels, a 3KW inverter, 10 KW of batteries, switching box, consumer unit, smoke alarms and a dedicated battery circuit for freezers and the like. There is no mention of VAT paid on the invoice.