Solar... who's clued in?

Weight and size is not that big a deal for stationary setups. And cost means draw down to only 50% isn't that nasty. Li is superb in mobile applications though. Our 280AH aux in the mucks is 28kg and about the size of a single 120AH AGM. Same capacity in AGM would be nearly 100kg and 3x size.
 
Weight and size is not that big a deal for stationary setups.
Ours weighs about 700 kg but it just sits there and I put distilled water in about twice a year.
 
People get excited about off grid ,it frees up places you can live in the sticks,but mostly you forget its there,never use a gennie , we have had zero problems except to be careful charging a car and I tested the welder recently because people said Lithium wouldnt tolerate that use.
 
shiny said:
Wow. I have had a quote for a 19.6kw Goodwe and is half the cost. I know Fronius is a premium brand but ouch.
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Yeah given the massive price differential, I'm almost tempted to roll the dice. Seen 30kWh systems for $6k - obviously that's likely a BS price without a lot of required inclusions, but still, I was quoted about $1/Wh prior to the grants, this is approaching $0.30/Wh.
 
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There are a lot of dodgy operators out there. With solar cheapest price is not the way to go. Especially if you're getting a battery system. There's a great site that I started with called https://www.solarquotes.com.au/ and I went with 1 of the 3 quotes.

I went with a very local company; AG Solar and got a 20kw system with a 13.5kw battery and replaced the old water heater with a new heat pump (saves about 60% on hot water). Total was just over $24K but my summer time quarterly bills were hitting $1400+!!! The last one was in credit. Just got an email from Energy Australia they're reducing their buyback rate!! They're only paying $0.05/kw and charging me $0.37 if I use any grid power.
 
shiny said:
I know Fronius is a premium brand but ouch.
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Yes well, even at half the cost I don't think it is worth it for me. The main power draw here is the EV and at the new house that will mostly be from excess solar.
I like Fronius stuff... but that battery price....
 
indica said:
Yes well, even at half the cost I don't think it is worth it for me. The main power draw here is the EV and at the new house that will mostly be from excess solar.
I like Fronius stuff... but that battery price....
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My sums say we should have no bills to a possible little bill in winter. The unknown is the EV charging so see how that pans out.

For me Goodwe has been around for a while. Installer I have used prior for solar system and our solar HWS. Online reviews say it’s a good brand and the price seems decent. Not so cheap it raises questions but still not too bad.
 
shiny said:
My sums say we should have no bills to a possible little bill in winter.
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Nice one - previous house we never had a bill - we will be in the new place before Christmas so I'll see what the bills are like with the solar. (13.5kW)
Renting and apparently using 35kWh a day
 
shiny said:
My sums say we should have no bills to a possible little bill in winter. The unknown is the EV charging so see how that pans out.

For me Goodwe has been around for a while. Installer I have used prior for solar system and our solar HWS. Online reviews say it’s a good brand and the price seems decent. Not so cheap it raises questions but still not too bad.
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Fkn lol, long day...

Didn't see the username @shiny and read the opening line as "My mum says...". I was thinking "Righto, it must be school holidays again...". 😅
 
Slowman said:
There are a lot of dodgy operators out there. With solar cheapest price is not the way to go. Especially if you're getting a battery system. There's a great site that I started with called https://www.solarquotes.com.au/ and I went with 1 of the 3 quotes.
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A good measure is to look at energy retailers offering VPP deals and see what they offer in terms of which batteries are compatible with their VPP setup. Reason being, if Origin are willing to have business relationships with these companies then I have a lot more confidence they will be around for warranty support.

For example, orgin: https://www.originenergy.com.au/solar/panels-batteries/virtual-power-plant/byo/

*Edit: Doesn't mean the VPP deal will be best for you.
 
One thing I've recently learned (getting quotes at the moment) is that you need to consider each battery's discharge rate and your max draw, especially if you're charging an ev.
Also some won't do full service in a blackout, only essentials.
 
Ackland said:
One thing I've recently learned (getting quotes at the moment) is that you need to consider each battery's discharge rate and your max draw, especially if you're charging an ev.
Also some won't do full service in a blackout, only essentials.
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What is a good discharge rate?
 
Slowman said:
There are a lot of dodgy operators out there. With solar cheapest price is not the way to go. Especially if you're getting a battery system. There's a great site that I started with called https://www.solarquotes.com.au/ and I went with 1 of the 3 quotes.

I went with a very local company; AG Solar and got a 20kw system with a 13.5kw battery and replaced the old water heater with a new heat pump (saves about 60% on hot water). Total was just over $24K but my summer time quarterly bills were hitting $1400+!!! The last one was in credit. Just got an email from Energy Australia they're reducing their buyback rate!! They're only paying $0.05/kw and charging me $0.37 if I use any grid power.
Click to expand...
We also used solar quotes.

Same sort of scenario as you, routine $1200-$1400 quarterly bills. We ended up with 20kW of panels, 15kW 3 phase inverter and a Catch Power relay for the HWS, total cost around 13.5k. A battery would have added 10k+ as needed to have two inverters for some reason. The numbers didn't work for us. At the moment our bills are pretty much zero in summer/spring, rising to around 800/quarter in winter as we use the ducted ac early in the morning to take the chill out of the house. I haven't done an average over the year but I think it would work out to a couple hundred per quarter. Much better than 1200-1400.

Our feed in has dropped from 8c to 4c, so its not worth even including that in any calculations. During the day, as we are both at home, we use a lot of the power we generate by topping up the EV.
 
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