Solar... who's clued in?

johnny said:
Turns out the system hadn’t connected to device or net since Nov 2022, took me 3.5 days to download the data.

First day of data under the new owner, aircon switched on at 12. 27 panels each with its own micro inverter. Half on east side, half on west.

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It definitely could be better....

That's not a big output. Though I'd be surprised if any roof area in Canberra could manage more than 2.5 kWh. Especially five years ago...

We've got a 5.something array (let's call it 5.2 kWh) and it's flat out and pinging at 4.8 through a Fronius inverter.

Time to work on the things that avoid the air conditioning...
 
silentbutdeadly said:
It definitely could be better....

That's not a big output. Though I'd be surprised if any roof area in Canberra could manage more than 2.5 kWh. Especially five years ago...

We've got a 5.something array (let's call it 5.2 kWh) and it's flat out and pinging at 4.8 through a Fronius inverter.

Time to work on the things that avoid the air conditioning...
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What is it about roofs in Canberra, especially those from 5 years back that limits them to around 2.5kWh? And sorry, not sure what you mean about avoiding the air con.
 
johnny said:
What is it about roofs in Canberra, especially those from 5 years back that limits them to around 2.5kWh? And sorry, not sure what you mean about avoiding the air con.
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The typical Canberra detached house is a bit smaller than the national average and the panel efficiency wasn't so great either.

As for the air con comment, solar and battery etc is the last step in the efficiency upgrade process. If you make the house itself operate using the least amount of energy input (insulation, good windows, best use of the environment it sits in) in the first place then everything else afterwards comes cheaper...
 
silentbutdeadly said:
The typical Canberra detached house is a bit smaller than the national average and the panel efficiency wasn't so great either.

As for the air con comment, solar and battery etc is the last step in the efficiency upgrade process. If you make the house itself operate using the least amount of energy input (insulation, good windows, best use of the environment it sits in) in the first place then everything else afterwards comes cheaper...
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I'd like to think that solar and a/c comes last but the cost of retrofitting high performace glazing is (at least in Perth) likely to be significantly higher cap ex that solar - A/C probably a given in any case, just have to bump up the system for poor performing house. I put in double glazing anyway but cost benefit ratio is not there - might be different in vic/tassie where heating a bigger factor, maybe Canberra too!
 
im starting to have a think about re-working my current set up.

at the moment i have a 5.22kw on grid set up, and a 4kw off grid backup with 25kw/h of batteries.

with my car been capable of vehicle to load (With it been investigated for vehicle to grid) I'm wondering if it's even worth me having the batteries and if i should just incorporate the panels from the off grid set up into the main set up and add more panels to make up a 15kw system with a 12kw ev charger.

What i would need the inverter to do in the event of a power outage is to have the capability to run the house off solar (Should there be enough) instead of what on grid inverters do whereby the power goes out even during daylight hours.

I'm hazarding a guess the cost of this would be about 8-15k
 
Sky_Collapsed said:
What i would need the inverter to do in the event of a power outage is to have the capability to run the house off solar (Should there be enough) instead of what on grid inverters do whereby the power goes out even during daylight hours.

I'm hazarding a guess the cost of this would be about 8-15k
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It's called a hybrid inverter, one for your needs will set you back about 3 grand.
 
downunderdallas said:
I'd like to think that solar and a/c comes last but the cost of retrofitting high performace glazing is (at least in Perth) likely to be significantly higher cap ex that solar - A/C probably a given in any case, just have to bump up the system for poor performing house. I put in double glazing anyway but cost benefit ratio is not there - might be different in vic/tassie where heating a bigger factor, maybe Canberra too!
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In Perth, based on a lot of what I saw 20 years ago, it's probably be cheaper to just demolish and start again!!
 
downunderdallas said:
I'm not sure Perth is much different to most australian cities, some more older stock in Syd and Melb obvs but that doesn't reflect most of it. The main difference is due to some local materials and clever marketing we have a LOT of double brick houses rather than brick veneer.
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What got me was the use of broken bricks, used condoms and spit to fabricate non load bearing internal walls. Several,places we looked at you could move the wall leaning against it.
 
I've had solar installed for over a year now and my annual bill has dropped from something like $3750 to $661. The first quarter was $0 and this last quarter was $7.43. It's the winter months where the panels don't generate as much power where the grid power gets used.

I went through a site called Solar Quotes to learn about solar power and the options. A local company called AG Solar installed it. If you live in the Sutherland Shire I'd recommend them. They were 1 of the 3 companies that Solar Quotes arranged to give me quotes. Total price was $23,907 but it would have been around $4,000 cheaper if I didn't also install a heat pump to replace the old hot water heater which was still OK but getting on. So I replaced it to get better water heating efficiency, to stretch those panels as much as possible.

System size: 9.84 kWDC (STC)
Estimated annual production: 15,042 kWh
Solar panel
24 × 410W REC Solar Alpha Pure-R Series - REC410AA Pure-R
1,730 × 1,118 mm · Monocrystalline · Datasheet · Warranty
Inverter
1 × Tesla Powerwall 3 · 10000W
Single phase · 97.5% max. efficiency · Datasheet · Warranty
Battery storage
1 × Tesla Powerwall 3 · 13.5kWh
609 × 1,099 × 193 mm · 13.5kWh usable · LFP · Datasheet · Warranty · Safety
Heat pump
1 × Madimack MMESGHW-300 · 300L
664W · 4.18COP · Datasheet · Manual

Overall really happy with the bottom line, it will have paid for itself in 8 years. The financial benefits are obvious but there are a couple of other advantages, because you have a battery backup, if there is a power blackout it acts like a UPS and you don't lose power. Even better still if there is a storm the system will start charging the battery up in case of a power loss from the grid, so you have the maximum amount of time possible in reserve.
 
So I signed up for a big battery, any tips on utilising the load? Got 7.7kW on the roof

So far I have:
- Convert gas heating to AC. I already have AC any experiences turning this into refrigerated coolingheating? Ducts,cables etc. and stuff are there so I amagine it should cost a lot less than a full new system?
- Thinking of some cheap panel resistance heaters for the bedrooms to use in winter.
- EV is on the way which should soak up a fair bit.

During summer is when I need to really dump energy. Air con stays on but for mild days that don't need air con there is not much else to utilise, we do a lot of washing and that uses a fair bit, considered heat pump water heater, but to be honest a full electric one is probably less fuss, cheaper and won't cost me any more to run.
 
indica said:
How big? How much power do you use at night?
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40kWh, Maybe 200w continuous overnight, air con is drawing about 4-5kW if it's summer for about 2 hours after the sun goes down. Nothing else running overnight but soon probably EV charging.

indica said:
Leave the windows open when the aircon is on.
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Wife already on to it. Has been doing this since forever. Wants fresh air but also conditioned...fml.

indica said:
Grow hydro. Although with the price of medicinal it would hardly be worth it.
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Thinking aquarium, heated tropical fish. Second fridge/ freezer - a cheap nasty inefficint one, leave the door open on 40C days. Few bunnings resistance heaters scattered around the house.
 
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