RE: Solar PV ?

[Marcus Warrington <marcus.warrington@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Stewart.

Sorry I should really have said that I didn't get an actual quote but
found=
somewhere on the internet that suggested they where selling for =A3200 eac=
h.  Working out the costs from your figures it comes to roughly =A3163
(inc=
Vat at 5%) per module. So for me, with 21 modules it would have been =A334=
23 (not =A34000 as I guestimated), but that's still roughly double the
cost=
of a standard inverter.

I'd forgotten about the wireless side of it. For me personally that was
ano=
ther negative unfortunately.. I tend to find wireless solutions don't have
=
the same reliability as a cabled solution. Its main advantage is, wireless
=
is easier to install, but since in this case I'm paying someone else to
ins=
tall the panels I'd rather have the cable :)

I'm not in any way trying to say your wrong or that they are no good, they
=
just didn't stack up financially for my installation, but I'd love to hear
=
how you do get on with them and how your system performs :)

Cheers

Marcus

From: ukha_d@xxxxxxx [mailto:ukha_d@xxxxxxx] On Behalf Of S=
tewart
Sent: 13 July 2011 10:22
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [ukha_d] Solar PV ?



Marcus,

Don't know how long ago it was that you looked at the prices of
micro-inverters but they must have come down a lot since then.

The quotes I've received price a Fonius TL 3.6 inverter at =A31460 and a 16
module Enecsys micro-inverter package at =A32603, both +VAT. The Enecsys
package also includes a wireless web gateway and repeater for monitoring
th=
e
system.

regards

Stewart

From: ukha_d@xxxxxxx<mailto:ukha_d%40yahoogroups.com>
[mailto:ukha_=
d@xxxxxxx<mailto:ukha_d%40yahoogroups.com>]
On Behalf Of
Marcus Warrington
Sent: 12 July 2011 10:06
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx<mailto:ukha_d%40yahoogroups.com>
Subject: RE: [ukha_d] Solar PV ?

Stewart,

I looked at the micro inverters but the cost (for me) was prohibitive. 21
panels each with its own micro inverter worked out around =A34000 , the
cos=
t
of a single 3 string, transformerless SMA inverter was more like =A31600. I
was looking at the SolarPV as an investment so the bottom line was not how
efficient things would be but how much profit they would earn me over 25
years. I don't believe the micro inverters could ever earn me back enough
i=
n
the 25 year period to pay for the cost differential. Of course if I was
onl=
y
having a few panels then it may work out differentially, e.g a 1.2Kwh array
of 240W panels would only need 5 micro inverters so may well even have a
smaller capital cost than buying a single central inverter.

Having said all that I guess it does depend a lot of the amount of shading
you have, I only have a small localised amount so can work around it by
having the potentially shaded panels on separate smaller string.

Regarging the noise issue, I belive (and hope!) that this is an issue with
the ones that have a transformer in them and that the transformerless ones
do not generate a noise (or at least nowhere near as loud) as well as being
slightly more efficient.

Our fitting date is in two weeks, but I'm still undecided if I should fit
the inverter in the loft, where it will will get hot but have short DC
cabl=
e
runs, or have it in cellar where it will be nice and cool (and easily
accessable) but have a longer (~15M) DC cable run. The installer seems
confident that running 10mm DC cables will limit any ineffeciencies upto
around 25M.

Marcus

From: ukha_d@xxxxxxx<mailto:ukha_d%40yahoogroups.com>
<mailto:ukha_=
d%40yahoogroups.com>
[mailto:ukha_d@xxxxxxx<mailto:ukha_d%40yahoogroups.com>
<mailto:ukh=
a_d%40yahoogroups.com> ] On Behalf
Of Stewart
Sent: 11 July 2011 11:12
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx<mailto:ukha_d%40yahoogroups.com>
<mailto:ukha_d%=
40yahoogroups.com>
Subject: RE: [ukha_d] Solar PV ?

Kevin/Marcus,

Had the chap from Sun Renewable here last week (thanks for the
recommendation Mark and, YES, we did mention your name to Tom) and we're
looking at using Sharp panels and micro-inverters (1 per panel) made by
Enecsys. These micro-inverters fit directly onto the back of each panel and
solve the problem of one shaded panel bringing down the output of the array
and also, as we were worried about the noise generated by a loft mounted
inverter, these will be mounted outside so noise won't be a problem (we
hope!).

The micro-inverters are a recent development so there's no worthwhile
reliability data yet, however, they do come with a 20 year warranty.

regards

Stewart

From: ukha_d@xxxxxxx<mailto:ukha_d%40yahoogroups.com>
<mailto:ukha_=
d%40yahoogroups.com>
<mailto:ukha_d%40yahoogroups.com>
[mailto:ukha_d@xxxxxxx<mailto:ukh=
a_d%40yahoogroups.com>
<mailto:ukha_d%40yahoogroups.com>
<mailto:ukha_d%40yahoogroups.com>]
On
Behalf Of
Marcus Warrington
Sent: 16 May 2011 15:36
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx<mailto:ukha_d%40yahoogroups.com>
<mailto:ukha_d%=
40yahoogroups.com>
<mailto:ukha_d%40yahoogroups.com>
Subject: RE: [ukha_d] Solar PV ?

Kevin,

I think in theory it still does, but you can get panels with built in
bypas=
s
diodes that should mean only those cells (or possibly string of cells)
within the panel that are shaded get affected. I have another installer
coming tonight so I'll be quizzing him a little more about this :)

Marcus

From: ukha_d@xxxxxxx<mailto:ukha_d%40yahoogroups.com>
<mailto:ukha_=
d%40yahoogroups.com>
<mailto:ukha_d%40yahoogroups.com>
<mailto:ukha_d%40yahoogroups.com>
[mailto:ukha_d@xxxxxxx<mailto:ukha_d%40yahoogroups.com>
<mailto:ukh=
a_d%40yahoogroups.com>
<mailto:ukha_d%40yahoogroups.com>
<mailto:ukha_d%40yahoogroups.com>
] On
Behalf
Of Kevin Hawkins
Sent: 14 May 2011 14:15
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx<mailto:ukha_d%40yahoogroups.com>
<mailto:ukha_d%=
40yahoogroups.com>
<mailto:ukha_d%40yahoogroups.com>
<mailto:ukha_d%40yahoogroups.com>
Subject: Re: [ukha_d] Solar PV ?

If you had an array of panels but one of them was in shade , perhaps
from a chimney stack , does this same situation occur ? I'm
assuming not as it must be correctable via electronics but just checking...

K

On 13/05/2011 09:06, Marcus Warrington wrote:
> Since I've now read that output of a string of panels is dictated by
the
lowest producing panel, that's means if I have a string of Sharp panels all
producing +10% but the last one produces -5% then its as though all the
panels are at -5%.
> Marcus
>
>
>

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