Solar Panels

Would welcome thoughts as I am going around in circles
Made my mind up in regards to the inverter, will go with a Fronius 5Kw

Just can't make my mind up with Suntech 330 Watt panels or 330 Jinko Watt Panels

Leaning towards Jinko but any thoughts welcome as part of 6.6 me system for my PPOR

 

Look at solarquotes.com.au for lots of ratings / feedback etc. No affiliation etc.

 

Thanks @craigc went with Jinko panels

 

Went with Jinko & Fronius invertor

Next project is the battery!

 

The first post should have included a google earth pic of your roof.
Maybe then someone with experience could have made suggestions

 

Think carefully about batteries and read various blogs and the solar quotes website mentioned earlier. If you live in areas with a lot of power outages it may be worth it to you but financially, for most people, they don’t make sense yet

 

And most systems need power to use the battery which is slightly ironic. My battery system can't work as a UPS

 

Correct.. The Tesla powerwall 2 can (and I’m sure some others too). In QLD though then you run into issues with (in single phase at least) that you can only pair this with a max 5kw inverter as the 5kw peak output of the powerwall counts towards your max inverter size (10kw on single phase). As such, even if you have 6.66kw of panels on a 5kw inverter (Max Panel output you can go Is 133% of inverter size per CEC to claim STCs) and are a moderate power user you are not going to be able to charge the powerwall that well anyway because most is probably self consumed. There will also be a new enphase battery solution but that’s only for systems that use their microinverters and isn’t released yet. You are still limited to the 10kw rule anyway with these batteries.

with DC batteries you aren’t (I believe) but these won’t run when the power is out so you lose one of the key attractions of batteries

 

I'm thinking of going with this combo as well.
I'm tossing between
Option 1: Honey 6kW String System 1 Phase (20 x Trina 330W) and 1 x SMA SunnyBoy 1P Inverter (5kWAC)
Or
Option 2: Jinko 7.6 KW 3Phase (330W x 23 panels) and Fronius 6KW

Quotes were similar. So leaning towards Option 2.

 

Am assuming you have 3 phase supply (by option 2).
After having a 5kw system, and later upgrading to almost 10kw, I would advise to "buy as much as you can afford", by maxing out any east, north and west roof space available.
The payback times are better than ever, combined with energy efficient appliances and led lighting you can be in front in as little as 3-5years

 

Hi Devank

I was originally quoted a 6.6Kw systems but soon took the approach of Stoffo and filled my roof with panels and ended up with a 9.9Kw system,
The Space Solar rep and Beyond Solar Rep both said I was better to use the $14k i was going to spend on batteries to increase my system size to the max and use the better than average panels.

I have the Trina Honey 315 Panels and Fronius 9Kw Inverter (I have 3 phase) and I also installed the Solar Analytics (SA) monitoring with life time subscription. $8,500 installed.

The idea is these panels will pay for themselves in 3.8yrs according to SA and in about 4yrs from now battery tech should have come along way and I may install batteries then.

I have had Solar and SA Monitoring on since Sept 2019 and I have saved $2008.64 since installation. we have a 19.1Kw Ducted A/C, Pool and only electric appliances in our house, so are big energy users.

Reason against batteries now
1. most days I consume 70% of what I generate
2. the excess I export to the grid I get .20c and its never enough to fully charge the batteries every single day.
3. The payback period takes longer than the batteries are warranted for
4. The batteries cannot supply enough power to run my house at night, so I would be importing power anyway, If I need 6kWh while cooking / heating and batteries can only supply 4kWh or something less.
5. Cost in NSW is about $14k

 

Currently tossing up the pros and cons of 10Kw of panels with either Fronius (8.2-1) or Solaredge (similar size) to avoid a single point of failure/maximise output and I believe can extend to 25 year warranty on Solaredge. For those that don't know most solar systems if one panel fails, or has decreased output, every panel drops to match the output. Solaredge inverters avoid this (along with some other systems). Also the inverter is apparently the most likely thing to fail so extended warranty there is a plus.

The idea of no single point of failure appeals to me, however it seems solar panel failure rates are so low (even on cheaper tier 1 panels) that it doesn't really make sense. So really paying for warranty and avoiding shading/other decreased output issues.

Food for thought if anyone else is looking at solar. Or any experienced feedback appreciated.

 

There are some differences between power optomisers (SolarEdge) and mini-inverters. Bit of a toss up which is better. May come down to price.

The Difference Between Power Optimisers and Micro-Inverters | Infinite Energy

 

From discussions I have had with people involved in solar and the world of batteries, one way of looking at it is to consider the grid as one very large battery and unlikely to disappear. So if it fails on occasions it is usually for a short period (notwithstanding all the brouhaha from vested interests) and during that time power for essentials such as smoke alarms, a couple of lights and power points (to boil the kettle and run the microwave) is all that is required - the fridge and freezer will be good for a couple of days.

So now some are thinking of sizing batteries according to that.

As an alternative, head off to your local hardware store and buy a 2000 watt inverter generator for about $1k. Easily enough power for your computer, kettle and microwave.

 

Microinverters are limited to 21 panels too I believe. 400w panels are available but expensive, 370w are reasonably priced, so if you are after a bigger system then micros might be limiting along with the cost

 

Just boil a kettle and cook dinner on the outdoor gas barbecue.

 

This is incorrect. I have 40 q-cell panels with 40 enphase microinverters. We only got micros because our roof is a difficult configuration to fit 13.3 kw onwith multiple different orientations and panel angles. Our other house with 6.6kw on is a standard fronius string inverter with lg panels.

With solar edge you still have a central inverter and so are limited by the size of the inverter. Enphase don’t have a central inverter. The enphase iq 8 look exciting. They can form a micro grid that allows power to continue to be supplied during a blackout IF the sun is shining.... but who knows when they will be available

 

Thanks. Not sure what the poster was referring to and can't find it to confirm.

 

I'm also planning Jinko 3Phase and Fronius around 10KW, any idea whats the price thanks.

 

Hi @Hodor , which system you ended up going with?
Here is Solar World recommended:-

Panels: 18 X 370 Watt Trina 370w Mono Half Cut Tire 1 Panels.
Inverter: 1 x FRONIUS SYMO 5.0KW 3PH Inverter Wi-Fi, Symo 5.0-3-M
Installation Kit – complying with all local engineering standards. All
safety labels required by Australian Safety Standards (AS4777)
INSTALLATION (by qualified CEC Installer)
Panel Warranty = 25 years.
Inverter Warranty = 5 + 5 = 10 years.
Workmanship Warranty = 10 years