Spooked …….. ?

uk1

Good morning all …..

I hope others find it tolerable to post a general rather rambling  philosophical question.  I’m acutely aware that this is a purchase where very few really fully understand what it is that they are buying and therefore asking more is better than asking less in order to avoid the inevitable misunderstandings and subsequent disappointments.  If you get my drift. So please be patient with me. 
 
I’m approaching the moment when I’m about to get all sweaty and appoint an installer and have the system installed.  It looks increasingly to me that component shortages realistically mandates a January or later instal date.  I’m focussing increasingly more on the installer than the price. So.   It’s sort of pointless asking for views on the quotes etc because the struggle to find an outfit who seems ok has taken so much of a toll and I’m so battle worn that I’m concluding that I know that I’m going to be shafted but it’s just a matter of by how much.  But the cost isn’t the main issue.  I’m asking for help with understanding how to optimise and achieve maximum  stress reduction on install. It seems to me to be only intuitive to buy  main components from a single manufacturer because I’m naively  presuming they will invest to make the components optimised and developed to be maximally compatible thus reducing one possible stress point. Will stuff work together in a nice friendly manner. 

 But reading the various forums it’s difficult not to get the impression that everyone has problems.  So my question is I know that “no one knows”  but there are some here who are either installers or have a wider view and my question is how many installations as a percentage of all of them do you think works from day one and are virtually problem and stress free?  

For what it’s worth I’m considering a Givenergy system with JA 405 panels and Givenergy 5kw inverter and Givenergy 8.2 unlimited battery with optimisers on each panel because there is some shading on the lower 8 panels of a 14 panel array.  So obviously interested in the wider question of how reliable generally is most people’s experience when these systems are installed ie do they install, take the scaffolding down and how often does it all work … and if there are real balanced concerns specifically about Givenergy then I’d appreciate reading that as well. 

I suspect that these issues are on many people’s minds so hope it’s of general interest for general debate and for some patience for being so completely clueless but enthusiastic to learn.

Thanks muchly. 

paul991

i think you can get the impression from these forums that a high percentage of people have problems , i think that is not true mine for example is now 8 years old has run trouble free even though at the time the  installers told us we would be lucky to get 5 years out of the inverter. I have  not meet anyone in real life who has had a problem .

uk1

Thanks .

Misslayed

paul991 said:

i think you can get the impression from these forums that a high percentage of people have problems , i think that is not true mine for example is now 8 years old has run trouble free even though at the time the  installers told us we would be lucky to get 5 years out of the inverter. I have  not meet anyone in real life who has had a problem .

People generally only post when they're having a problem. I've had mine for 8 years and have had no problems of any sort. No inverter, microinverters in each panel.

ispookie666

For the solar side - I have had Enphase system since 2015 and have had my second system using their micro inverters. I personally do not believe panels make a huge difference. 

Coming to batteries - given the choice, I would never go with GivEnergy. They are a new company and there are a lot of problems.  A measure of a great company is- how it deals with faults and breakdowns. Givenergy is rubbish in customer service department, they are quick to blame on everything including Russia for their product failures 🙄. 

If you find an installer for Victron- go with it.

nologo

My system has run without any faults since august 2021, its all made in china, the chaps that installed it lives within 4 miles of my house.
The scaffolding went up on thursday the panels on friday, the wiring next day, very neat & tidy, scaffolding away two days later,
the sparkys also fixed one of my 2 way switched light for nothing as it annoyed them!      6000 kw generated .

my only small complaint......one of the of the scaffolders left a sandwich wrapper on the grass I picked it up myself.