1, 1.5, 2, 3KW Solar Panel Systems

[crazyhorselady]

Another fabulous upside to having solar panels on the roof is the insulation benefits. We have a solar passive house so half of our roof space is north facing, and 3 quarters of that is now covered in panels. This has reduced internal temps by 3-5 C, we very rarely turn on the air conditioner, so more energy savings!

 

[Pelican3]

A very interesting thread - still getting my head around the techie stuff.

Found a link which may be of interest as it provides state info
http://www.enviro-friendly.com/feed-in-tariff-pv.shtml

 

[Witzl]

Interesting.
Can I see your payback calculation and assumptions on solar electricity generation?

in NSW, grid-connected solar systems are hooked into a GROSS meter system. That means that ALL solar produced electricity is put onto the grid, and you get a credit for it.

Solar irradiation is a pretty consistent number... it is worked out in "peak sun hours".
In Sydney, that is around 4 hours per day, averaged throughout the year. (in winter its about 2.5 hours/day, and 6hours/day in summer)

Thus, working out how much credit you will make per year, on average, is pretty easy.

Size of solar panel array x Avg. peak sun hours x 365days x 0.66c x 0.9(inverter efficiency, panel coefficient losses, etc...)

Thus, with skater's 1.5kW, she should make around $1300/year in credit.

Of course there are other factors such as shading, non-optimal orientation, etc.... but $1200-1300/year is a fair estimate.

 

[BV]

Another fabulous upside to having solar panels on the roof is the insulation benefits. We have a solar passive house so half of our roof space is north facing, and 3 quarters of that is now covered in panels. This has reduced internal temps by 3-5 C, we very rarely turn on the air conditioner, so more energy savings!

Excellent.
I'm looking forward to the additional savings.
How many panels is your system?

 

[skater]

Size of solar panel array x Avg. peak sun hours x 365days x 0.66c x 0.9(inverter efficiency, panel coefficient losses, etc...)

Thus, with skater's 1.5kW, she should make around $1300/year in credit.

Of course there are other factors such as shading, non-optimal orientation, etc.... but $1200-1300/year is a fair estimate.

Thankyou for that Witzl. I'm not much good with the technical side of things, I only knew that I was told around 2 years, but could only look at what had actually been generated since installation.

 

[curriejak]

Lower prices ?

Hi all

Am in SE Qld and have been considering getting a 1.5kW system so this forum has been a great education.

Have a supplier that will fit a 1.48kW system (1.6kW inverter and 8 x 185W panels) for $1,699 - to a high set house. Sounds pretty good and my neighbour across the road is getting his fitted soon, and they have a friend who already has one so supplier is considered reliable.

Still not sure if the 1.48 system will be big enough (can't be added to) though and the 2.04 system is $2,500 more.

Will see how the neighbours turns out and then decide.

Cheers
John

 

[Deena]

This size system will probably only partially off set your electricity prices, so if you are going to be happy with this then go for it. I have about this size panels but can upgrade my system, which one day I will do. Have you enquired how much it will cost to put in an expandable system so you could upgrade it the future, always cheaper at installation time?

 

[lizzie]

a 1.5 will save you around $800/yr off your bills.

personally we're going for a system that covers our bills plus pays some into the pocket. takes around the same length of time to pay itself off if you can afford the up front. also, make sure you get a system that can be added to in the future.

 

[Deve]

Hi

Hoping someone with a bit of electrical nouse will be able to help me with my query.

We've recently had solar PV panels installed on our roof, and are now in the process of having our meter upgraded (so that we can sell excess power back to the retailer).

We would like to upgrade our meter so that we can pay peak tariff (7am-11pm M-F) and off peak at all other times, as well as receiving payment for excess power generated. Most retailers seem to offer plans such as this.

I have been given conflicting advice from different people. Some people say that with a timing switch installed in the meter box, the off peak period applies to the ENTIRE house (ie every appliance that uses power) but others say that this is not correct, and we will only receive the off peak rate for those appliances CURRENTLY metered off peak (ie electric hot water).

Obviously if we can receive an off peak rate for everything in the house during those night hours, that would be preferable.

One person from our current retailer said that we would need to have a timing switch installed prior to the meter being upgraded in order for us to receive a peak and off peak tariff. We had this done, however the electrician has installed this timing switch onto the current hot water circuit only.

Does anyone know for sure (or at least let me know who does) if we can change from just having electric water metered off peak to the entire house being metered off peak (at night) with an upgrade to our meter box? And secondly, if we have a timing switch connected to an electric hot water (off peak) meter, will the supplier (when doing the meter upgrade) be able to give us what we are after, or will the timing switch need to be changed in some way?

Hope this makes sense! Is there something in particular we should be instructing the supplier to do re this meter change?

Cheers
Steve

 

[BV]

Attn NSW residents.

If you're about to sign up to buy a solar system do it today.

It looks like we had it too good in NSW because in a shock announcement a few hours ago the NSW Govt has stated that the generous solar bonus scheme of 60-68c will be closed to all customers who haven't purchased their systems by midnight tonight.

So the bonus for new purchases will be reduced to 20c tariff.

 

[HiEquity]

Live by the subsidy, Die by the subsidy...

 

[jrc77]

Link to SMH.

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/bid-to-put-brakes-on-runaway-electricity-prices-20101027-1732h.html

Too slow - I had someone booked in on Monday to do inspection and quote.

Jason

 

[BV]

Live by the subsidy, Die by the subsidy...

Mine is up and running producing clean power

 

[skater]

Mine is up and running producing clean power

Mine too.

 

[nww]

Got my first bill a few days ago with only a 1kw system and it was $25.35
for the quarter so I'm very pleased.
Smart meters not as bad as the articles have made out if you watch what
your doing.

 

[HiEquity]

I was referring to the poor buggers who tried to set up a business on the back of the original policy. It was always far too good to last with rich people's solar panels being paid for by poor people's rising power bills and now we will have the vast majority of this fledgling industry out of work.

Another example of very poor govt policy - all this was very predictable and for that matter, predicted...

 

[lizzie]

i paid my deposit 4 weeks ago, so i'm safe ... phew. thank goodness i convinced hubby in time.

 

[BV]

Got my first bill a few days ago with only a 1kw system and it was $25.35
for the quarter so I'm very pleased.
Smart meters not as bad as the articles have made out if you watch what
your doing.

Did you have to tell your electricity provider that you've added a solar system?
The grid in my area is managed by Integral Energy so the connection permit was issued by them but my electricity provider is AGL.

 

[Francesco]

I just had my 1.5 kW PV system installed by O'Donnell Griffin, the installer of Origin. After all-in costs of a bit under $3500 and about 7 months wait, the system of Sharp panels and Aero-Sharp inverter is doing its thing of producing solar power about 6 kWh a day translating to income of a bit less than $3 a day. Hopefully, it will continue to provide this cashflow and trouble free for 20 years.

 

[Pa1nter]

I just had my 1.5 kW PV system installed by O'Donnell Griffin, the installer of Origin. After all-in costs of a bit under $3500 and about 7 months wait, the system of Sharp panels and Aero-Sharp inverter is doing its thing of producing solar power about 6 kWh a day translating to income of a bit less than $3 a day. Hopefully, it will continue to provide this cashflow and trouble free for 20 years.

Until your house catches on fire and the firemen stand there watching it burn because they wont put a hose on a house with panels on the roof,for risk of electrocution.

If you receive a hole in the roof from a storm,the SES wont even get up on the roof to put a tarpaulin on it for risk of electrocution.

This is information I have just been informed about,

I have a house myself with a 1.5KW on the roof and I am thinking about getting it disconnected.

Another issue is in Europe, insurance on a house with these panels on them are not being honored,I haven't been able to find proof of this,but I believe it to be so.

What makes it worse is these fires are actually being started by these panels