Home solar power questions

Signed the contract on Friday. 13kw system going in at the end of the month.

Will be interested to see what the power bills come out at each quarter once the system goes in.

The son's place is now generating twice as much power as it consumes. Will be interesting to see the next bill.

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Originally Posted by Slunnie

Signed the contract on Friday. 13kw system going in at the end of the month.

Will be interested to see what the power bills come out at each quarter once the system goes in.

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Single or 3-phase? My single phase 8kW system gets throttled-back for several hours a day due to the 5kW single phase export limit even at this time of year if the sun is shining.

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Originally Posted by DiscoMick

The son's place is now generating twice as much power as it consumes. Will be interesting to see the next bill.

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So far this month our's has exported more than 3 times the imported power but we're only $7 in front.

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Originally Posted by Graeme

Single or 3-phase? My single phase 8kW system gets throttled-back for several hours a day due to the 5kW single phase export limit even at this time of year if the sun is shining.

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Hi Graeme, it's 3 phase. 13kw panels and 10kw inverter. It shouldn't be throttled. I'm hoping to not be paying for electricity once its installed but we will see.

Do you have 3-phase reverse cycle a/c? No 3-phase here but we went for 8kW as we were considering installing a/c but have since decided to stay with the evaporative cooler for summer and bottled gas for heating.

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Originally Posted by Graeme

Do you have 3-phase reverse cycle a/c? No 3-phase here but we went for 8kW as we were considering installing a/c but have since decided to stay with the evaporative cooler for summer and bottled gas for heating.

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Good question! I think the AC is single phase, it just looks like a standard circuit breaker at least. Interesting with the gas heating! I was looking to change the HWS from heat pump to bottle gas but I think now I will be better off with staying with the heat pump when the current system blows.

My 8kW of panels which can produce 8.3kW has plenty of surplus capacity to heat the 3.6kW electric HWS on sunny winter days where I set the switch-on feed-in to just below the 5kW export limit to maximise feed-in while heating. Off-peak heating is almost always disabled, only having been used twice over winter after a run of cloudy days.

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Originally Posted by Graeme

Do you have 3-phase reverse cycle a/c? No 3-phase here but we went for 8kW as we were considering installing a/c but have since decided to stay with the evaporative cooler for summer and bottled gas for heating.

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The son's place is wired up to power the house first from solar all day and export the surplus to the grid, so that means they can run their reverse cycle aircon for free all day and cool the house, and then turn it off at night and the house stays cool for several hours.