Solar Panel Quotes - Are they more expensive in SE England? 10 November 2022 at 12:08PM in Green & ethical MoneySaving 36 replies 1.4K views

Solarchaser

In terms of officerdibbles comments, I'm glad to hear it's running better and they have gotten rid of the unpredictability of the system, it's nearly 4 years since I made the mistake of buying mine.

However, and apologies if this seems crass, but is it possible that you dont recognise just how slow it is, as you have no other to compare it to?
I'm in the lucky??? Position of having experience of 5 different inverter types/makes and the growatt was not just a bit slower, it was horrendous in comparison. 
Whereas my aurora solar inverter comes out of a cloud and responds within around 2 seconds, the growatt back then would be 30 seconds before showing increased solar output.

In terms of it's hybridity (did I just invent a word??) In response to house demand was sometimes minutes... yeah seriously. 
I had a sofar me3000sp at the same time which responded in a few seconds and it really showed up the growatts deficiencies.

As I said, I hope that's not crass and it's not meant as a put down, perhaps they have improved it now with soft and firmware updates.
The reason I have 22 solar panels on my garage was I based it all around the sph3600 which took a maximum of 6600w, so I built and array of 6600w and was bitterly disappointed in it. And equally so with the quality of the many many engineers, area managers,  service managers... from various countries,  it really was a terrible experience which was only resolved by threatening court action due to fire risk.

Anyway

2 things caught my eye about your quote Dave, which I've circled above.
They seem to have put in panel size, but not inverter size, the sph3600 *should* only be able to out out 3600w, so for me the annual yield is a bit on the high side, id have thought about 4500 would be the max... but I live alot further north than you.

I know prices are high and may get higher, but is 67p/kwh really on the cards?

We who have frequented these boards fir a while are well used to solar companies overestimating the return of solar for a year, perhaps I'm being to quick to jump in here.

Waywardmike

Just to add to the Growatt discussion, I have an AC coupled Growatt (SPA series).  I have a Rasp Pi attached to it running solar assistant which updates ~4s.  If I put on a load I know the inverter/batt responds within that 4s so my inverter response time is <4s. maybe comparing apples to oranges though as it's not a hybrid.  it updates quicker than my smart meter monitor.

Now I could upgrade my Pi to a 4 and reduce that data granularity down to ~2s...  Not sure it's worth it though, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't tempted 

dave64k

Had an LR survey today and installation passed so hoping to have a solar install early in 2023. Thanks for everybody's contribution. Going to start simple with panels only and look at adding a battery later once I see how things work.

jimjames

dave64k said:

That sort says 5000kWh generated across 12 months which covers my annual usage. Just figuring out the 15p going into the grid vs the 35p I will be taking out of the grid when the PV goes dark. Anyone got a little app for that 

In terms of generation our 3kWp panels generate over 3000kWh each year so far, if you've got an unshaded south-ish facing roof you should achieve that sort of amount in Kent. Bear in mind the total isn't spread evenly across the year though.

Edit - whoops, just seen the last post but might be of relevance for someone

Officer_Dibble

Hi Solarchaser - as with Waywardmike I've got a Pi and Solarassistant running (little choice with Growatt as their own reporting is woeful) and can watch the data as the cloud cover changes. Increased generation and charging/switch to PV use is almost instantaneous. It sometimes draws from the grid briefly when you'd think it might use battery when a cloud passes, but it's generally sorted itself out within a few seconds. It certainly doesn't take 30" to get its act together. Their uselessness when it comes to fulfilling the warranty and anything else to do with customer service might still be a big issue with Growatt, but from what I've seen the actual functioning of their inverters and batteries isn't.

Hybridity's a great word. I want to see an official percentage hybridity on all data sheets from now on. Obviously Growatt would claim 110%.

Solarchaser

I'm glad to hear it's much better, seriously. 

I've seen them come up a few times in quotes, so it's good to see people are not buying the lame duck I bought 4 years ago. 

The bit of grid usage before battery response is normal in every system I believe.