My Panels Not performing as well as neighbour

[Vegelen]

Living close to the Peak District we get lots of overcast weather, wind and rain helping keep our panels cool.
The weather here is very different to that found in the Midlands / Greater Manchester.
I wonder what people further north are observing?
Do Sanyo HITS outperform in Scotland in lower light / temperature v other panels?

 

[Earthstore]

What has happened to he op?

 

[Mainman]

Q/ I own a Lotus car. My neighbor has a Ferrari - his car accelerates faster than mine and does a couple more miles to the gallon.

My question is:
Can I, should I change my Lotus for a Ferrari?
Would it be worth it, given his car accelerates marginally faster than mine and does more miles to the gallon?

A/ Yes you should, you cant afford to loose face with your neighbour.

Put common sense on the back burner, empty your wallet, spend lots of cash and make sure you buy something far superior to his - to regain your rightful standing in the neighbourhood.

:auto:

Why break you neck to try and get up to their level - bring them down to yours and torch his car / throw stones at his panels

 

[Earthstore]

Why break you neck to try and get up to their level - bring them down to yours and torch his car / throw stones at his panels

Or do what I have done on a holiday at a caravan park, throw bread on the roof next door at night, made our holiday more fun, and what goes in must come out, bird do do drops performance even on Sanyo's..

 

[Vegelen]

What has happened to he op?

Swapping his systems DC cables with his neighbours in the dead of night... :46:

 

[ian.settle1]

What has happened to he op?

Probabily got the hump, he sounds a bit of a minge bag

 

[mdovey]

What has happened to he op?

Well, the first few posts answered his question (viz sanyo will have a better output on hot sunny days, but also come as a cost which hits ROI in the first 10-20 years; making any changes will be costly and reduce the FIT). Recent posts have been mocking the OP, so it isn't surprising he's taken his answer and gone away.

 

[Worcester]

There have been some sensible suggestions
1) He can't change his panels without redcing his FiT so a sensible ROI on the total investment (changing panels) will never be achieved
2) He should check his current ROI and so long as he paid a sensible price and wasn't taken for a ride in the first place - he will generally have a better short term ROI than his neighbour.

- the only things that he can do without affecting his feed in tarrif relate to optimisation:
2) If going single inverter has he got the best matched one to his panels / string configuration / location / orientation / elevation
3) he MAY be able to improve output using panel based optimisation e.g. Solar Edge / Tigo - he can do both of those without affecting his FiT payments however it will require scaffolding and all the panels to come off the roof and be resinstalled.

The bottom line is he made his decision with the best information available to him at the time - based on the time and effort he put into the research he did himself at the time.

SO get on with it

It is a classic case of the grass is always greener / buyers remorse - it may not be a term you have heard of before, i can GUARANTEE that YOU have felt it at some time though!


Buyer's remorse - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Home Buying - How to Avoid Home Buyer's Remorse
Avoid Buyer's Remorse - AskMen

 

[liquidity]

I reckon it'd be interesting to actually monitor the panel temperatures through the year to see what proportion of the generation is produced above and below 25 degrees panel temperatures in the UK. Unfortunately this is a bit hard to achieve on a working system as any probe attached to the front of the panel would cause shading and output loss on the panel, and the rear of the panel is a lot cooler than the front in full sunlight. I might have a go at this though as we've got a solar water heating monitoring system running on our house which has spare sensor channels I could use.

I had a play last summer with a temperature probe underneath the panel and an IR thermometer from above - there was no discernible difference. Not much of a surprise really; the panels are quite thin.

 

[SpitfireW'sale]

Hi

I have a system fitted 18 months ago SMA 4000 inverter and 16 Sharp 250 panels. My neighbor has Sanyo panels - they are smaller but he gets more KW's than i do and we have identical roofs and face the same way

My question is can I change the existing panels for Sanyo - I was told this would invalidate my Feed In Tariff

Thanks for any help

The output of the system depends on the efficiency of the inverter, panel, sizing factor and installation. As long as everything else is the same but efficiency of the panel, it makes sense that the two systems have different output.

Sharp module has 15.2% efficiency.
Sanyo module has 18% efficiency and therefore higher price.

Bear in mind that your neighbour's capital cost was higher and the payback period will be slightly longer.

 

[FB.]

Yes you would lose your FIT if you changed your panels as a new MCS certificate would need to be produced meaning you'll be put on the currrent 15.44p/kWh.

So does that mean any system which needs repairs of any kind will automatically drop onto the then-current FiT band?

If so, there will be a lot of people who get a far lower total payback than they were led to believe - some may not break even.

 

[Earthstore]

So does that mean any system which needs repairs of any kind will automatically drop onto the then-current FiT band?

If so, there will be a lot of people who get a far lower total payback than they were led to believe - some may not break even.

My take on this is if you changed your panels, IE you bought cheap wing wong ping tong panels, then decided to change them at a later date to something decent this would mean a new MCS certificate would need to be produced.

As to the rest of the system IE inverter/wiring/switches etc, these are not included on certificates so could be changed.

I am unsure on the legalities if you were unfortunate and had a panel go faulty and it had to be replaced with a like for like.

Maybe if changing any panels for any reason then "silence is golden" would be the best rule to use, if you system still performs within the FIT generators tolerance who would ever check? Would EDF/EON/British Gas install scaffold and climb on your roof to remove the panels to check?

 

[whinmoor]

So does that mean any system which needs repairs of any kind will automatically drop onto the then-current FiT band?

If so, there will be a lot of people who get a far lower total payback than they were led to believe - some may not break even.

Panels are unlikely to fail if they have been installed correctly. Vandalism or "acts of God" are another issue and may be covered by the householder's insurance.

Replacing a panel with another of the same make and model should be ok (assuming they are still available). Actually, it may be better in 10 years to install a panel with 5w less to account for the slight degradation of the other panels in the string.

 

[Vegelen]

I wonder what the situation would be if someones panels set on fire and their whole system went up.

Would your FIT payments be lost when the new system was installed with a completely new set of panels?

 

[FB.]

Panels are unlikely to fail if they have been installed correctly. Vandalism or "acts of God" are another issue and may be covered by the householder's insurance.

Replacing a panel with another of the same make and model should be ok (assuming they are still available). Actually, it may be better in 10 years to install a panel with 5w less to account for the slight degradation of the other panels in the string.

Does that mean a secondhand panel of the same type would be acceptable as a replacement? Or do the replacements have to be new and fully documented?