I have long been looking to install solar panels at my place but have never really understood all of the inverter talk, what brand to get and what provider to use. I use on average 15 KWh per day .
Just looking for advice on providers that others can vouch for and ideal systems for my particular usage.
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shaughan12 on 05/02/2021 - 12:34
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I will chec k out the site, I live in Northern Vic if that helps.
THat's what I did. Got 3 referrals and happy with the one I went with (in Sydney)
Had mine installed from these guys and very happy with the value for money
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/deals/facebook.com/sparkinenerg…
I recommend having a look at the solar quotes website. Extremely comprehensive even a dumb dumb like me could understand.
average 15 KWh per day
Look at when the bulk of this is consumed. Like, do you have an electric hot water tank? Type of fridge? tye of cooktop, oven usage, air con usage pattern etc. That will help indirm the ideal system as well.
I don't have the ability to monitor by the hour but to respond to your question I have a solar hot water, A Double Door Fridge, Gas cooktop, overn usage is minimal and aircon is only used sparingly. Assuming I use most of the above during day hours and night usage is minimal what impact does that have?
Interesting. Well the provider would use that information to suggest you an ideal configuration.
If there is no dominant electric appliance that draws most of the power during the day, then you will be relying of the feed in tariff to achieve your return of investment. There maybe little benefit for opting for larger system size at greater cost. In your case your fridge might be drawing about the same power throughout the day, so having a larger system wouldn't save you much from self consumption.
If you say have an electric hot water tank, you can program to eat up the solar energy in the middle of the day to heat the water, then turn it off for rest of day. You can then find a minimum system size to match that peak power draw.
Thinking out aloud on your q about picking ideal system size.
For providers, I'm not local to VIC so don't have a suggestion.
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Well Sol is pretty good, considering Earth's largely uninterrupted existence for over 4 billion years, its ideal conditions for carbon-based lifeforms and the phenomenal evolutionary success of Hominids over the past 2 million years.
Alpha Centauri is about as close as you're going to find, but at 4.3 light years away even that would take you about 78,000 years to reach using conventional rocket propulsion.
The next nearest solar system is Barnard's Star (5.9 light years), however its only exoplanet has an estimated surface temperature of -170C degrees, so unless you like the idea of being snap-frozen upon arrival to be preserved as a monolith for future travelers, I wouldn't recommend it.
Any recommended providers? I've heard some good things about Ra and Helios.
According to the oldest lifetime subscription agreement we can locate (apparently there was a limited sign-up offer on a mountain somewhere a long time ago, a bunch of people didn't read the fine print and now here we all are), we've all been using same service provider since the beginning; unfortunately they do (or claim to) have a monopoly on this market and the last time a customer dared to question the unfair T&Cs imposed on them (he just wanted to ask about a mysterious tree on his nature strip), well it caused all sorts of cosmological, theological and existential problems, not mention a class action anti-trust suit.
Basically the message was clear: you stay signed up with us or you get kicked out, your lifespan shortened, your planet flooded, fire and brimstone rained down upon you and your progeny cursed for hundreds of generations.
So… not much different to a Telstra contract back in the day.
Ra and Helios
They've long since gone out of business but they definitely had strong market share in the pre-monopoly era; it was a more diversified market back then with a lot of competition and fairly good consumer purchasing power.
Goto solarquotes.com.au and you will find answers to all your questions.
Depends where you live.
Also use solarquotes.com.au. Read up lots of articles so you know what's what. Then ask for a couple of quotes. The site has info on what panels and what inverters are better quality and which are worse quality so you can compare quotes easily enough that way.