Roof and Panel advice needed.

lstar337

Nick_Dr1 said:

lstar337 said:

Netexporter said:

I too would be interested in an elaboration of that comment relative to seeing an estimate of power produced per annum vs installation cost.

In my original post I referred to getting more output in winter. A northish facing roof won't generate more, in total, over a year, but it will generate more when it is is most needed/export prices are most favourable. Similarly, a steeper roof pitch will have benefits in winter and at each end of the day. A south facing roof just produces far more than you need at the time you don't want it (unless you have air-conditioning).

The above needs to be thought about in conjunction with battery storage and what prices can be obtained on export tariffs, especially TOU export.

Solar isn't as simple as it used to be in the FiT days.

I think I am getting something wrong in PVGIS, because it is showing (for equivalent kWp) that the north'ish roof would be very poor in winter months.  

I think thats right? Very low sun in the winter (and only available for short periods) and the roof is facing the wrong way!

Got it. I was only expecting a better result because I though further back somebody had said roof 5 would be good in winter. I went back and re-read and I can see nobody has said that so I must have read something incorrectly from the start.

It looks to me that Roof 5 is more or less a bust, and simply wouldn't be worth the extra investment.  It does seem like 1-4 with the use of optimisers might be fairly productive, and maybe more so if the saving from not doing roof five allows for investment in a battery.

How effective are the optimisers though?  I read about them years back when they were fairly new, and concluded that they were designed more to separate people from their money.  But then I usually come to that conclusion when somebody calls something an "optimiser". 

Screwdriva

Optimizers work wonders on multiple aspect roofs like yours (and mine). When compared to a micro inverter, they are a relatively simple, inexpensive piece of kit. 

If you have a heat pump, invest in a 13.5kW battery at a minimum. My top recommendations are the All in One, Powerwall 2 or Libbi.