solar grrrrr

[r3ckless]

Great post. Thanks. Yes i am hunting around on whirlpool but it looks like there are many small companies trying to reign in on the solar parade.

Yes the tenabts will be consuming power during the day. And the tv/ps3 will be on literally from 7am-1030pm at night. 60year old man loves the ps3!


Once we settle i will begin a solid month of monitoring usage between daylight hours to gauge an understanding of power consumption. I will go out and collect many quotes. From getting quotes i should know how bug of a system is required. In terms of budget im happpy to spend up to $10k. Definutately keen on the reliable/long lasting systems over the cheap and nasties.

There could potentially be some shading. The lot next door is basically a truck drivers parking groubd. Mind u its a surbaban area but i think two houses down they own their house and the lot in bewtween us and thry park their trucks there. Anyways thefes a few large trees on tbis lot which could provide some shading on my new house ... Will look into that more

 

[r3ckless]

Again my knowledge is very basic. But i was considering to also get some batteried to store the power too as i know the fit (feed in tariff) is not worthwhile now. Any further comment to batteries? Based in nsw too

 

[womble66]

Again my knowledge is very basic. But i was considering to also get some batteried to store the power too as i know the fit (feed in tariff) is not worthwhile now. Any further comment to batteries? Based in nsw too

This will be out of most peoples price range as a battery PV system cost over $30K and somewhere closer to $50K to achieve what you think you want to achieve that being to reduce your grid consumption to NIL by storing power for night time usage.

Its the batteries that cost a fortune and they only have a limited lifespan so need replacing eventually. The SME say in 5-10 years battery technology will have progressed enough to reduce this current high setup costs for a battery PV system. At the moment the experts say to only go batteries if you cannot get grid power or the costs to get grid outweigh the cost of batteries.

Read about a bloke in CBR that runs a current PV system and is going to add/integrate a ~1kw small wind turbine system to reduce some of his night power consumption. Some company somewhere if offering this setup.

I will whim you some details of the Sydney company I used for my install in the Illawarra. No association other than being a happy customer but they were great, cost competitive and offered equipment to suit all budgets. Just remember the knowledgeable people in WP also say its not all about the panels or inverter but important to select your installer carefully and check the quality of the racking/parts they use as installer can sell you OK major stuff but cut corners in labour and use other low quality stuff that to reduce costs.