Solar PV - no roof space

[Solar powered]

It's 140 feet long former commercial poultry shed and now my giant man cave. My point was more about being put off by any negativity. There's people near me that have panels on steel frames along the bottom or side of their gardens. You don't even need a building!!

 

[Archev]

It's 140 feet long former commercial poultry shed and now my giant man cave. My point was more about being put off by any negativity. There's people near me that have panels on steel frames along the bottom or side of their gardens. You don't even need a building!!

Just feel the jealousy my friend ??

 

[Les burrows]

Just feel the jealousy my friend ??

Yeh me two very jealous I have 16 panels 3.84 kw but could get 4/6 more up there but FITS payments Restrict me to 4 kw but when it ends then the array will be extended if I’m still here.
Les

 

[Solar powered]

Mine is a rent-a-roof scheme and my good friend who was director of a big business importing solar panel equipment at the time provided the kit and I installed it myself. We actually got signed into the scheme 1 week before the limit dropped to 4kw. So he gets the FITS payments, called ROC payments here in Northern Ireland, and I get the savings off my electricity bill. I think I'm restricted to 6.5kw by the previous limit, but my inverter hits maximum at 5.5kw. That's its limit. Not sure if more panels could be added, putting the generation over the limits though. My readings are given in every quarter. How would they know if a few more kws a quarter are being exported? ??

 

[Archev]

Mine is a rent-a-roof scheme and my good friend who was director of a big business importing solar panel equipment at the time provided the kit and I installed it myself. We actually got signed into the scheme 1 week before the limit dropped to 4kw. So he gets the FITS payments, called ROC payments here in Northern Ireland, and I get the savings off my electricity bill. I think I'm restricted to 6.5kw by the previous limit, but my inverter hits maximum at 5.5kw. That's its limit. Not sure if more panels could be added, putting the generation over the limits though. My readings are given in every quarter. How would they know if a few more kws a quarter are being exported? ??

Excellent stuff there. I was also a bit envious of your wee potting she’d there. I’ve been thinking of some panels on frames along the garden fence line but never yet gone any further.

 

[Hotlush]

So deposits have been paid, for the building and solar installer.

Solar installer will be doing the building electrics too so that's one less tradesman I needed to find and avoids any "they did this wrong, you'll have to get them back in"

PV will be 12 x 390W JA Solar panels, Solis hybrid inverter and 2 x 5KwH Puredrive DC batteries.

Given a build date for end of July so I should, hopefully, be back with some production figures beginning of August.

Part of me keeps thinking it would be a good idea to have more battery storage, as winter production is going to be poor, but the rational part tells me to wait and see how poor it is.

 

[Solar powered]

So deposits have been paid, for the building and solar installer.

Solar installer will be doing the building electrics too so that's one less tradesman I needed to find and avoids any "they did this wrong, you'll have to get them back in"

PV will be 12 x 390W JA Solar panels, Solis hybrid inverter and 2 x 5KwH Puredrive DC batteries.

Given a build date for end of July so I should, hopefully, be back with some production figures beginning of August.

Part of me keeps thinking it would be a good idea to have more battery storage, as winter production is going to be poor, but the rational part tells me to wait and see how poor it is.

Be careful you don't end up with all the gear and no idea, as I almost have. Getting loats of batteries could be like putting a V8 engine in a mini!! Not very practical! ?
I've just got a Sunsynk battery system around a week ago and still learning to fly it to it's best capabilities. 5kw inverter charger and 1 x 5.6kw battery.
At the moment I'm charging the battery on E7 and using it from tea time through the evening until just after our E7 switches back in at 2am.
Surplus solar in the daytime is covering the house baseline of 0.4kw and the battery is covering our evening 0.4kw, also surplus solar is topping up our MG ZS with once or twice a fortnight big charges on E7. With my setup the last thing I'm looking for right now is more batteries. But I might rearrange the whole system at some stage so the equipment needs could change.
I'm not saying don't buy more batteries, just keep in mind how you'll charge them and use them through the winter, and on days of low solar.
I'm am electrician and have installed all of my own kit so if you want any real world advice without me trying to sell you something, just shout.

 

[Hotlush]

Be careful you don't end up with all the gear and no idea, as I almost have. Getting loats of batteries could be like putting a V8 engine in a mini!! Not very practical! ?
I've just got a Sunsynk battery system around a week ago and still learning to fly it to it's best capabilities. 5kw inverter charger and 1 x 5.6kw battery.
At the moment I'm charging the battery on E7 and using it from tea time through the evening until just after our E7 switches back in at 2am.
Surplus solar in the daytime is covering the house baseline of 0.4kw and the battery is covering our evening 0.4kw, also surplus solar is topping up our MG ZS with once or twice a fortnight big charges on E7. With my setup the last thing I'm looking for right now is more batteries. But I might rearrange the whole system at some stage so the equipment needs could change.
I'm not saying don't buy more batteries, just keep in mind how you'll charge them and use them through the winter, and on days of low solar.
I'm am electrician and have installed all of my own kit so if you want any real world advice without me trying to sell you something, just shout.

I'm pretty certain during late spring, summer and early autumn I'll more than cover the base load.
Winter is where generation will drop like a stone but it's difficult to get a decent prediction with it being a relatively unusual setup.

I can see now that very first thing I get a fair bit of shading on where it will be for about an hour but after that it's completely shade free all day so not worrying about optimisers yet.

During winter though, with the sun being much lower, there's a chance the house itself may cause it to be partially shaded.
Once it's been running a while I'll have a much better idea of if it needs tweaking.

I suspect to cover the winter issues a I might need to look at a 5kw battery upgrade and possibly some optimisers but then again I might be pleasantly surprised and it'll need nothing extra at all.

 

[Robf]

Something to think about

If you are getting a LR then you will have a 70 odd kw battery sitting at the side of the house with capability to give you 3kwh back into the house. There is already a seperate thread on this.

 

[Hotlush]

So a partial update; the building is up, just some minor finishing the builders will be doing tomorrow.
Majority of cabling and the inverter are in place and the electrician will be connecting the grid feed up tomorrow.

The only problem; the wholesalers sent the wrong fittings for the PV rails so the panels won't be going on until next week now.

Don't know if, given that, they'll install or hook up the batteries tomorrow. If they do it would be interesting to see if we can have the inverter/batteries running over the weekend, charging them with octopus go until the PV is up and running.

 

[Hotlush]

So turns out no batteries either as they've not arrived...

The building itself is complete, as are the non-PV electrics.
Regretting not getting the builders to paint the internal cladding; with just a primer it looks a bit scruffy but that's something we can sort ourselves when we're ready.

Fitted the TV, sky Q mini, smoke alarm and a Ring alarm system.

Just a bit of flat pack furniture to assemble tomorrow and we'll probably shove the sofa out of the conservatory in there until we sort out some proper furniture for it.

 

[Gomev]

So turns out no batteries either as they've not arrived...

The building itself is complete, as are the non-PV electrics.
Regretting not getting the builders to paint the internal cladding; with just a primer it looks a bit scruffy but that's something we can sort ourselves when we're ready.

Fitted the TV, sky Q mini, smoke alarm and a Ring alarm system.

Just a bit of flat pack furniture to assemble tomorrow and we'll probably shove the sofa out of the conservatory in there until we sort out some proper furniture for it.

We need pictures

 

[Hotlush]

We need pictures

 

[Bluesparky]

Wouldn't pay out for batteries, wait till all Evs can feed the juice back to your house, you will then not only have an electric car, you also have a portable battery pack for your house, win win.

 

[Les burrows]

Wouldn't pay out for batteries, wait till all Evs can feed the juice back to your house, you will then not only have an electric car, you also have a portable battery pack for your house, win win.

Blue sparky is dead right more and more cars are now coming with V2L nowadays, so why would you buy a battery when you could already have some 50 plus KWs sat on the drive or in the garage, there was a podcast 20th June iast all about this very subject of solar and batteries I said there I’m waiting for a new car with V2L before I look at buying home batteries, at this time the new MGzs and the forthcoming MG5 & MG4 all now come with V2L, not a lot at around 2.3KWs but things will get much better in time I’m sure of that and I can see the day where 5KW will become the norm from the car.
I have not seen this myself but I have read some where there is a very strong market for damage EV or older Nissan leafs to provide home batteries 24KWs in an old leaf, 13.5 in aTesla powerwall but what a price I bet the conversation only costs a couple of hundred quid.
Les

 

[Gomev]

Blue sparky is dead right more and more cars are now coming with V2L nowadays, so why would you buy a battery when you could already have some 50 plus KWs sat on the drive or in the garage, there was a podcast 20th June iast all about this very subject of solar and batteries I said there I’m waiting for a new car with V2L before I look at buying home batteries, at this time the new MGzs and the forthcoming MG5 & MG4 all now come with V2L, not a lot at around 2.3KWs but things will get much better in time I’m sure of that and I can see the day where 5KW will become the norm from the car.
I have not seen this myself but I have read some where there is a very strong market for damage EV or older Nissan leafs to provide home batteries 24KWs in an old leaf, 13.5 in aTesla powerwall but what a price I bet the conversation only costs a couple of hundred quid.
Les

V2L isn't much use really apart from in emergencies at home such as a power cut you could run a few things off it with an extension lead.
Not many cars about yet with V2H(ome) or V2G(rid) to replace grid power usage as in home batteries.
You could be waiting forever if you are always waiting for the next thing. If you want it now, get it now.

 

[Gomev]

View attachment 9960

Looking good so far, keep us updated. Always enjoying watching people work.

 

[Hotlush]

Spoke to PV installer this morning, the rail fittings should be here next week but they're fully booked up.

They are going to try and get someone over to get the rails done and, if they have availability, they'll try and get the rest of the install done.
Only problem will be that if it doesn't get finished next week we're away on our hols so will be pretty much September before it's done.
My spreadsheet is ruined, ruined I tell you

Saving grace is that if it is in that first week it's just before my new, more expensive, Go tariff kicks in.

 

[Hotlush]

No progress this week.
A few niggles with the building, nothing major and the builders are going to pop over while we're away and sort them
A bit of reinforcing of the canopy supports and making sure they're secured to the floor.
More to reassure the solar installers that it's not going to collapse under them, or blow away when the wind gets up

So booked in for the end of August to fit the PV.
Hopefully they'll also have the batteries in stock by then and can get it all done ready for my electricity tariff tripling...

 

[Hotlush]

Realised I'd not given an update.
Holiday was great, bit too hot to be honest.

Anyway, PV progress;
Everything is in and up and running.

No issues with the physical installation. Generating nicely, 40 kWh over the 2.5 days it's been running.
Was originally set up incorrectly for overnight top up of the battery but that was soon sorted.
Only issue is with monitoring. First day the grid import value was -4 kWh, yesterday grid export was -49 kWh and today it's not showing any self usage.
Might be a faulty data logger so going to chase it up next week if it doesn't sort itself out over the weekend.

(Tried uploading images but looks like forum is playing up)