Solar PV (1 Viewer)

[rettucs]

Curious about the low usage. We have a well (needing a pump), a water treatment system, a septic tank, a HRV unit, a fridge and a freezer that run constantly. And then in the winter we have a central heating pump and a boiler that needs a bit of electricity to run the electronics and start each heating cycle. Apart from the HRV unit probably every house in the countryside has all that - I wonder what it all costs to run? We use about 5000 kWh of electricity every year, probably it's a good chunk of that

edit: ah, you probably haven't moved to the sticks yet, so your low usage is in a suburb someplace I guess?

yeah, exactly. We have the gas heating for the radiators, but the electricity for everything else.

Looking at the reading for today (sunny for a few hours) we generated 7kw/h. Of that we exported 4.08. We imported 0, and the total consumption for the day (to the time of writing) was 3.92kw/h.

that would be a typical enough day when we don't use the washing machine, drier or dishwasher.

 

[pete]

yeah, exactly. We have the gas heating for the radiators, but the electricity for everything else.

Looking at the reading for today (sunny for a few hours) we generated 7kw/h. Of that we exported 4.08. We imported 0, and the total consumption for the day (to the time of writing) was 3.92kw/h.

that would be a typical enough day when we don't use the washing machine, drier or dishwasher.

get yourself an EV

 

[rettucs]

Solar generated DC.
We consume 230v AC in a house

Yeah we are getting some module that dumps surplus energy in to a water heater. Forgot about that.

There is no limit on the amount of energy you create that you can use.

yeah I got the AC/DC thing arseways

good news about there being no limit then. I definitely read there was when I was researching before pulling the trigger. Had a quick look around last night and couldn't find anything so I'm happy to be wrong on that one.

 

[rettucs]

get yourself an EV

it would be a good means of using the excess electricity we're generating, but I don't drive nearly enough for that to be a good investment. Plus, I've heard the national charging infrastructure is way behind where it needs to be given the upsurge in people buying them.

 

[pete]

it would be a good means of using the excess electricity we're generating, but I don't drive nearly enough for that to be a good investment. Plus, I've heard the national charging infrastructure is way behind where it needs to be given the upsurge in people buying them.

I haven’t used a public charger in about a year - more probably, last time was when SuperValu chargers were still free. We have (paid) charging in work now and I use that occasionally, only because it’s currently (ho ho!) slightly cheaper than plugging in at home.

But yeah it can be a bit rough out there.

 

[rettucs]

I haven’t used a public charger in about a year - more probably, last time was when SuperValu chargers were still free. We have (paid) charging in work now and I use that occasionally, only because it’s currently (ho ho!) slightly cheaper than plugging in at home.

But yeah it can be a bit rough out there.

it'll be rougher in the sticks. I'll also be leaving my solar behind for anyone who wants to buy my gaff.

 

[ernesto]

yeah I got the AC/DC thing arseways

good news about there being no limit then. I definitely read there was when I was researching before pulling the trigger. Had a quick look around last night and couldn't find anything so I'm happy to be wrong on that one.

There's a limit on what you can theoretically feed back in to the grid I think but I don't think ESB or whoever even allow for that at the minute because you know; less profit for the pricks

 

[egg_]

Don't they only pay you half per unit what you pay for supply? Sure that's a 50% profit for them straight off

 

[magicbastarder]

by the looks of it, it's about 15c per kWh wholesale at the moment anyway - why would they pay a tiny generator like a household more than a large institutional generator, whom they can order to stop producing?

there's a balance to be struck between supporting/endorsing microgeneration (which is not dependable) and supporting base load generation. of course, i have no clue where that balance is or should be.

 

[Deadmanposting]

Seems like if you had the cash and weren't planning to bail to the sticks, that a battery would be a good investment
Hot water all the time, charge your EV for bupkis, have a load of backyard lighting on at night

 

[the_jen]

Wasn't there someone here who got (or at least was looking into getting) solar panels? What set up did you get in the end? Toying with the idea now myself ...

I got solar panels, @egg_ . I have a double roof, south facing. I got 4*400 watt panels on one roof and 3 on the other roof, which is behind and maybe partially sun-blocked by the first roof. I paid 7.5k and the SEAI grant paid another 2.2k. I got a hybrid inverter so that I will be able to connect batteries in the future - that cost about 1k more than an inverter not set up for batteries. Here's what they produced this year. I think the consumption isn't accurate because the app stops logging at night when it's not producing (maybe). I got them late last year so I only have wintery data. Any power we don't immediately use is put into heating water and once the water's hot, is exported.

 

[the_jen]

And here's what they're producing now, on a sunny day.

I went with a full service company, but Solartricity will help you scope your project and find an experienced electrician in your area. I didn't use them but they were recommended by nerds who had undertaken installing pv themselves. By all accounts they seem like good people, if you are self-doing inclined.

I think the price for installing a car charger was 1.4k, with a grant of 600 available at the time.

 

[Deadmanposting]

I got solar panels, @egg_ . I have a double roof, south facing. I got 4*400 watt panels on one roof and 3 on the other roof, which is behind and maybe partially sun-blocked by the first roof. I paid 7.5k and the SEAI grant paid another 2.2k. I got a hybrid inverter so that I will be able to connect batteries in the future - that cost about 1k more than an inverter not set up for batteries. Here's what they produced this year. I think the consumption isn't accurate because the app stops logging at night when it's not producing (maybe). I got them late last year so I only have wintery data. Any power we don't immediately use is put into heating water and once the water's hot, is exported.
View attachment 16902

Holy heck, that's fantastic

 

[ernesto]

And here's what they're producing now, on a sunny day.

I went with a full service company, but Solartricity will help you scope your project and find an experienced electrician in your area. I didn't use them but they were recommended by nerds who had undertaken installing pv themselves. By all accounts they seem like good people, if you are self-doing inclined.

I think the price for installing a car charger was 1.4k, with a grant of 600 available at the time.
View attachment 16903

'think the price for installing a car charger was 1.4k, with a grant of 600 available at the time.'

That's a fucking scandalous price.
It would have to be a premium product for that price. And they're still charging €600 for half a days work if it's a simple job and they don't have to dig up your path etc.

An example of a company just putting prices up because they're getting grant money

Having said that. If you want a top tier company that are good to deal with and you don't have any problems sometimes it's worth the extra to avoid the cowboys out there just throwing the equipment up and fucking off and leaving it looking shit

 

[the_jen]

'think the price for installing a car charger was 1.4k, with a grant of 600 available at the time.'

That's a fucking scandalous price.
It would have to be a premium product for that price. And they're still charging €600 for half a days work if it's a simple job and they don't have to dig up your path etc.

An example of a company just putting prices up because they're getting grant money

Having said that. If you want a top tier company that are good to deal with and you don't have any problems sometimes it's worth the extra to avoid the cowboys out there just throwing the equipment up and fucking off and leaving it looking shit

850 euro for the equipment itself from Solartricity.

 

[rettucs]

And here's what they're producing now, on a sunny day.

I went with a full service company, but Solartricity will help you scope your project and find an experienced electrician in your area. I didn't use them but they were recommended by nerds who had undertaken installing pv themselves. By all accounts they seem like good people, if you are self-doing inclined.

I think the price for installing a car charger was 1.4k, with a grant of 600 available at the time.
View attachment 16903

this is my view as well. I use that SolisCloud app and I'm fairly addicted to looking at it.

I suppose the difference is that the bottom-left never shows 0% for me as I do have the battery. You are exporting a shit-tonne of electricity.

Just for those not familiar with the app, when the top-right shows as blue, that means you are exporting to the grid. It shows red when you are importing. My setup would route power to the battery before it exports and, unless I'm not at home, I'm not exporting that much. I think the most I ever exported in a day was 4kw/h.

Yesterday was a half-sunny/half-overcast day. My yield was 10kw/h and my usage was 12kw/h. Of that I imported 3kw/h and used the rest, either directly, or pumped it into the battery. I'm still putting the heating on for an hour in the morning and another in the evening, so haven't really started to use it for the water yet.

 

[ernesto]

850 euro for the equipment itself from Solartricity.

Installers get them for cheaper than that.

Also, shop around;

Single Phase Zappi 7kW V2.0 Untethered BLACK EV Charger – No HUB - VEEP ENERGY

Single Phase Zappi V2.0 - 7kW Untethered EV Charger - Black

www.veepenergy.ie

Also The €600 grant price is for having it installed by a company.
I'll be installing one eventually myself.
Those Zappi look to be great

 

[the_jen]

You are exporting a shit-tonne of electricity.

Yes, we didn't think we'd produce much excess because we could get so few panels on our small roof. I'll be looking for a battery this week.

 

[rettucs]

Yes, we didn't think we'd produce much excess because we could get so few panels on our small roof. I'll be looking for a battery this week.

the only other thing to keep in mind is that you won't really draw much from the battery during daylight hours. And, at the moment, with the longer days, you'll only really use it during the night (and for water) when electricity is cheaper anyway. I'm still not convinced having the battery was a great investment. Originally I thought it would be good in the case where there's a power cut, but as we all know, if the power goes out, thats that.

 

[ernesto]

the only other thing to keep in mind is that you won't really draw much from the battery during daylight hours. And, at the moment, with the longer days, you'll only really use it during the night (and for water) when electricity is cheaper anyway. I'm still not convinced having the battery was a great investment. Originally I thought it would be good in the case where there's a power cut, but as we all know, if the power goes out, thats that.

Surely you could use the solar directly during the day, battery in the evening and top up the battery with cheap night-rate electricity.
That's our plan anyway