Inverter and solar panels - anyone know much about these brands?

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Originally Posted by Tombie

My last power bill was -$1397 [emoji41]
Only a 5kw array, 4° off North on an SMA inverter.

Haven’t actually paid a power bill for about 7 years.

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Over what period was that? Thats bloody stunning if its quarterly!

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Originally Posted by DiscoMick

Now saved 10.8 trees and 184kg of CO2, so that's all good. [emoji41]
More importantly, lots of rain has meant lower yield and revenue (185kW and $29), but today looks like being a good day with lots of sunshine.
I still think long term we are likely to average about $5 a day in revenue.
The son, who has 6.5 kW of solar, got his latest quarterly power bill recently - it was a whole $2!
He's since changed plans and expects to be in credit next quarter.
It's amusing being able to monitor this online. When the solar goes right down, I know it's raining.
The wife laughs at me.

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Trees saved is a good one! Mine reports with the CO2 saved.

I like monitoring it too, I like seeing what it has paid me for the day. Also what the production curve through the day is. Cloud hammers the solar!

https://www.sunnyportal.com/Tools/images/pixel.png

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tombie

My last power bill was -$1397 [emoji41]
Only a 5kw array, 4° off North on an SMA inverter.

Haven’t actually paid a power bill for about 7 years.

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IIRC you're on an early very high FIT that hasn't been available for new installations for several years.

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Originally Posted by Graeme

IIRC you're on an early very high FIT that hasn't been available for new installations for several years.

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On a very nice FIT - $0.54/kWh. [emoji41]
If I was on less I’d throw a heap of extra panels on.

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Originally Posted by Slunnie

Trees saved is a good one! Mine reports with the CO2 saved.

I like monitoring it too, I like seeing what it has paid me for the day. Also what the production curve through the day is. Cloud hammers the solar!

https://www.sunnyportal.com/Tools/images/pixel.png

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Cloud edge effect does good things though [emoji41] punches output right up

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Originally Posted by Slunnie

Over what period was that? Thats bloody stunning if its quarterly!

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That was spring into summer...

We have a 2’ stone walled Bungalow circa 1940. Takes forever to heat up or cool down. Use small AC splits in each room so selectively cool/heat and predominantly use ceiling fans when suitable.

No kids anymore, gas Instant HWS, double insulation in the roof cavity. All lighting is LED, centrally controlled systems that turn off lighting after rooms are vacated as well as online controls that shut down Circuits with voice command [emoji6] a simple voice instruction given turns off much of the house completely.

Our household power consumption is less than that of 1 adult living alone.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tombie

That was spring into summer...

We have a 2’ stone walled Bungalow circa 1940. Takes forever to heat up or cool down. Use small AC splits in each room so selectively cool/heat and predominantly use ceiling fans when suitable.

No kids anymore, gas Instant HWS, double insulation in the roof cavity. All lighting is LED, centrally controlled systems that turn off lighting after rooms are vacated as well as online controls that shut down Circuits with voice command [emoji6] a simple voice instruction given turns off much of the house completely.

Our household power consumption is less than that of 1 adult living alone.

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That's very good.

Our CO2 saving in a week since the upgrade is 210kg, equivalent to 11 trees over their lifetime.
Our SO2 (sodium dioxide) saving is 6.7kg. SO2 makes the atmosphere more acidic, which is certainly a bad thing. We don't want to end up like Mars.

I understand the point about recouping the energy used in the manufacture of the panels, but it doesn't change the result for us.
Also, it is possible the electricity for manufacturing the panels came from renewable sources, as REC panels made in Norway are accepted by the EU as coming from renewable energy.
Anyway, it's all good.

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Originally Posted by DiscoMick

This thread looks like the most suitable I could find in a quick search to share information about solar systems, to help people considering going solar.
We yesterday had our solar upgraded from 2.9 to 6.8 kW with a 5 kW inverter to replace the previous 3kW.
Does it work? It's too early to tell. All I can say is by 10am today our yield for today was 8.3 kW and we had earned $1.34 from our 16 c/kW hour feed in tariff.
Details of the installation.
The panels are REC Twin Peak 2 tier 1 panels. Each panel is actually 2 halves so if one half is shaded the other half still works. There are also diodes on the columns so if some columns are shaded the other columns still function. The warranty is 25 years with an accredited REC installer.
REC is from Norway but is now owned by the giant Chinese Blue star company. It manufactures in both Norway and Singapore. In 2017 it made 1.34 gigawatts of panels, which was more than the entire panels installed in Australia that year.
The inverter in by Sungrow and has a 10 year warranty.
Total cost, including 3.9kW of new panels, frames to elevate the new row over the ridge cap for less shading, the 5kW inverter and installation was $3277 to Megawatts Solar, run by Gary Phillips of Maleny'.
We did get other quotes which were dearer. Gary installed the original panels and wiring for the previous owner. The house has cathedral ceilings, which made the wiring more difficult than normal. Gary was able to use some of the original wiring, which saved time and money.
How long will it take to recoup the cost? That's a bit hard to calculate because our usage patterns are variable, but maybe three years.
So, what can other people share about their experiences?

REC | Solar Panels Review

Sent from my A1601 using AULRO mobile app
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...62373556a2.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...9bc0024f71.jpg

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So, here's a progress report after 22 days since our solar upgrade.
After running the house during the day we have:

Total yield 562 kW
Total revenue $89.66
SO2 reduction 16.87 kg
CO2 reduction 560.9 kg
4892km equivalent

And it's been raining for most of that time, so I'm pretty happy with that.
It's rained most of today, but still made yield of 16.3 kW and revenue of $2.62 so far.

When you say revenue, are you referring to export actual or to calculated from the inverter?

I’m guessing it’s the latter.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DiscoMick

That's very good.

Our CO2 saving in a week since the upgrade is 210kg, equivalent to 11 trees over their lifetime.
Our SO2 (sodium dioxide) saving is 6.7kg. SO2 makes the atmosphere more acidic, which is certainly a bad thing. We don't want to end up like Mars.

I understand the point about recouping the energy used in the manufacture of the panels, but it doesn't change the result for us.
Also, it is possible the electricity for manufacturing the panels came from renewable sources, as REC panels made in Norway are accepted by the EU as coming from renewable energy.
Anyway, it's all good.

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I also have 5kW of the REC panels and haven't had any problems in the not sure how many years that I've had them, could be nearly 10 yrs as I was an early adopter and got the high FIT. My panels were made in Singapore. I have a SMA inverter, also no problems with that. The inverter has made approx. 63 MW and put about 25 MW into the grid. Technically I haven't paid a power bill since install, although I actually did have to pay one or two, when my solar hot water outlet nearly blocked up totally, so I was having to heat the tank up every day to get any useable hot water.