Tumbleweed....

[SibertSolar]

My god, it's been quiet on the forums! How is everyone doing? Anything to discuss/chat about? Any questions or insights? I'm heading to Intersolar tomorrow for the day, will see how the land lies over there...


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[Marvo]

Yep, it's been quiet on the Solar parts of the forum. Not sure why, hopefully everyone's so busy making money they have no forum time available.

 

[Gavin A]

Yep, it's been quiet on the Solar parts of the forum. Not sure why, hopefully everyone's so busy making money they have no forum time available.

yes, I'm sure that's it.

actually we've just got busy again, although it's much easier to be busy when we've got a lot less staff.

Now looking like we need more staff again..... ... grrr sodding solarcoaster.

 

[SibertSolar]

Never easy eh Gav?! Glad you're seeing an upturn, we've seen the same over the last month


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[Energetic]

Things are picking up for us, although us isn't what it used to be, i am now with a bigger regional installer and my small business is being wound up.

 

[The Solar King]

Still here, being sustained by Solar Thermal maintenance contract, new build, and clearing up other peoples messes.

Also now a Tesla Authorised Reseller. First install completed.

 

[Worcester]

Busy as ... just taking on more staff ..
However it is complete solutions, i.e. our work is major refurbs or large custom builds and it comprises a blend of all of our certifications - heat Pumps, Biomass, Thermal, PV etc if we had to rely on solar PV, we'd still be making a living though we'd be charging a lot less just to keep busy.

 

[whinmoor]

Very little happening on domestic except for repairs for people left in the lurch.

Picking up on commercial with a couple of schools signed up for the summer hols. Hoping the G59s go thru ok.

Tried our first Delta 50 kW inverter recently. Massive price difference (£500 ish) between Segen & Baywa.

Baywa have since hiked the price by nearly £150 (about 5%). Possibly due to Sterling fall after Brexit.

Just bought a flat to renovate over the summer but now gonna have to work evenings and weekends to squeeze the DIY work in.

 

[SibertSolar]

Sounds good Worcester, glad you're keeping active.

Whinmoor - let me know if you need any support with the G59 projects, from a grid-protection or monitoring/public display point of view (schools often specify monitoring/display requirements)

 

[SibertSolar]

Still here, being sustained by Solar Thermal maintenance contract, new build, and clearing up other peoples messes.

Also now a Tesla Authorised Reseller. First install completed.

Nice one Peter, how did the Tesla install go? Is the unit solely connected on the DC side, or is there a direct grid-connection to it too?

 

[The Solar King]

Is done with Solaredge so DC side. Relatively straight forward. Next shipment of units will come pre-wired which will make life even easier.

Downsides? Hard wiring the incoming grid supply monitor back to the Storedge control unit. (CU and grid meter in the house, everything else in the garage). We will also need to buy one of those sack barrows with a lift on. The bloody thing weighs more than 100Kg. Won't always have two strong lads with large gonads to do the lifting available.

Currently no direct grid connection. Am on a Tesla/SMA training course tomorrow on the SMA AC side kit which should prove interesting. My main question is why the SMA box is limited to 2.5kW when the Tesla will charge/discharge at 3.3kW. Solaredge have just launched an AC side box as well, but rated at 3.3kW.

Understand LG are about to launch a high voltage battery pack compatible with the same kit as the Tesla. Still awaiting to see the offering from Fronius for the Tesla.

It is early days as far as performance of the battery is concerned, but looks promising. Am hoping for 70% contribution to annual energy use of 4000kWh in the property.

Solaredge monitoring is not 100% accurate (maybe 95%), but also have a Geo Solo 3 which is. However, the latter cannot differentiate between direct power from PV and indirect power from battery. All it sees it what runs through the generation meter. It does give 100% accurate use of grid electricity as well plus import export balance.

Will keep you posted as the thing is in my garage!

 

[SibertSolar]

Thanks, I've heard rumours that SE are promoting the old "charge from grid at night" line, via an AC connection to the Tesla battery unit - let me know if you hear the same tomorrow?

For monitoring, you'll need SolarLog to give you all the info required


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[The Solar King]

Had a look at the Solarlog website but cannot see anything that would do the job with a Dc side connected battery. Am I missing something?

 

[SibertSolar]

Sorry Peter, I meant that SolarLog is more comprehensive than something like the Geo unit....hence the wink

SolarLog does actually have storage monitoring capabilities, and load management, but I am not au fait with the specifics. I'll get the detail and report back.

What do you mean by the SE monitoring not being accurate?


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[whinmoor]

Am on a Tesla/SMA training course tomorrow on the SMA AC side kit which should prove interesting. My main question is why the SMA box is limited to 2.5kW when the Tesla will charge/discharge at 3.3kW. Solaredge have just launched an AC side box as well, but rated at 3.3kW.

Nice to meet you in Manchester!

I think the answer to this was that SMA plan to make it compatible with other batteries in the future. Perhaps they are also trying to minimise production costs as well.

 

[The Solar King]

Whinmoor

Wish you had introduced yourself earlier. Caught me just as I was about to leave taking one of the Tesla guys to the airport. Would have been good to have lunch together. Another time.

Apparently part of the reason, as I alluded to for the 2.5kW size is the German market. I understand this to be an export limit meaning the thing can be set up without all the bells and whistles needed that the SMA guy was describing. Suspect the thing is repackaging of existing bits from their current inventory. Would have been easy to design a unit where capacity could be adjusted through firmware to better match it to different batteries. Have to say the whole thing looked expensive as a retrofit solution.

Interesting that the question of G83/G59 is still open to so much uncertainty. I phoned a contact at the National Solar Centre on Monday to try and get a definitive answer. Their opinion was G59 was not required, which is different to the position previously reported. If devices are working as either/or and both are G83 compliant, I cannot see there is an issue, which is a point Gavin made some months ago. It is probably a case of watch this space.