I have 2 solar arrays. 4.95kw and 1.65kw totalling 6.6kw Both are ground mounted and suffer hard shading from a tree and my neighbours house (couldnt have roof mounted panels as the freeholder refused permission) Whats interesting, my system was commissioned and setup start of sept22 also. The main array was 3.3kw in sept but I added 3 more panels to the string to make 4.95kw at the start of October. Combined solar generation for Sept22: (4.95kwP) 369kWh Oct22: (6.6kwP) 290kWh Nov22: (6.6kwP) 150kWh Dec22: (6.6kWp) 98kWh All panels are south facing, shallow pitch of about 20 degrees. Hard shaded by my flat up till 10.30am, shaded by a tree until 10.45am, shaded by my neighbours house until 1.15pm and then in December only, partly shaded by a willow tree up the road at 2.45pm Shading is a real issue and spending 1k on tigo optimisers for all 12 panels. (12x550w panels) has resulted in 25% higher production on sunny days as the shading really effects output. I fitted the tigo optimisers on Dec 21st 2022. Further info: 4.95kwP system (9x550w panels) connected to Sunsynk 3.6kw Hybrid inverter with 20kwH sunsynk batteries. 1.65kWp (3x550w panels) connected to a 1.5kw Growatt grid tied inverter. The sunsynk inverter can capture spare AC power to charge the batteries... so no export unless batteries are full. I hope this data is useful for comparison, Uk based, Shropshire.
how are the sunsynk batteries? Havent heard of them before, are they holding up ok and what sort of price were they please? Also Why did you choose them over other batteries, was it down to cost or some other factor? Many thanks
@@MrMonero the batteries i have are made by BYD for sunsynk. They didn't suffer a severe charging rate slow down in the cold. LiFePO4 batteries charge slowly when cold. And i have seen a lot of other batteries charging at much slower rates at 10c. Fox ESS batteries and Pylontec batteries are 2 i can remember seeing posts about in the sunsynk forums. In the cold, its the battery BMS that controls charge rate, not the inverter. My batteries were in a small brick enclosure, sat on concrete outside. Even when -8c outside, the coldest they got was 4.9c. At 5c i was still getting 850w per battery charging... 63amps - 3.4kw on 4 batteries. The deciding factor for going with Sunsynk batteries was warranty. 10 year warranty (6000 cycles) The sunsynk inverter has a 5 year warranty... but extends to 10 year warranty when registered with Sunsynk batteries. Price... the price would have changed substantially since August when I purchased them. Back then I paid £7,200 zero vat as part of the inverter/battery install. I believe they are running at £1900each at present (with vat) if you can get hold of them. Sunsynk have been using BYD, CATL and REPL cells. BYD and CATL are the 2 leading battery manufacturers in China. Anyway, the system works well for me. The inverter interface on screen and via the Web or the app is simple to use, laid out well and has all the info needed. I haven't physically touched the inverter to make any changes in a couple of months.
Great thank you. I also have a Solis inverter, E/W roof split and batteries that are awaiting fixing due to a different comms issue. 🤣Small world. Subscribed and looking forward to future episodes 👍 PS I spotted my battery was also slowly discharging. In 3 weeks it fell from its out of the box 50% to 19% today. I isolated the solar PV from the house during this mornings sunshine for a couple of hours, (just switched it off at the house consumer unit), and it charged back up to 42% You may want to try this on yours? I don't think it will cause any damage, as its the first thing the installers do when they come out to work on the system.
My brother had a lot of issue with his pylontech batteries partly due to the fact he had 3 batteries with one firmware and a fourth with different. Eventually i think he had the fourth one replaced. i think its all good now but the issues went on for months.
Hi Keith, I also had this problem, my installer has ensured that Solis has done an update via the internet. The Pylontech batteries could not be charged via the grid and therefore always alarmed. In the dark winter months, the batteries cannot recharge enough. The problem is now solved for me. Good luck.
Hi, found this interesting, thanks. Have you got any southish facing walls? This could provide more power from panels in deep winter than your shallow E/W pitch roofs. I am located about 30 miles East of Greenwich. The calculations I made were from the European research centre and take into account local weather conditions and give average daily generation per month/per day of the month, but I can no longer access this website direct from uk. My 18° pitch roof facing East + 14°. In Dec&Jan gives a quarter of a kw per Kw of solar panel per day, (the wall gave about half. and ideal pitch was about 48°). SOUTH (+14°) Jan&Dec wall gives about 1kw per kw of panels per day. Optimum pitch (D&J) about 18/19°. It should be noted the maximum yearly yield is produced from the pitched roof but it was not by a major amount and my design philosophy is to design for jan and dec and I will have plenty of spare capacity in the summer. To date I have run test panels for a couple of years which seem to verify the calculations. The data base does not give any info north of east west, but if I do the East roof I will fill the west roof with spare (or cheep) panels just to extend power generation longer into evening in summer, (and boost cloudy day generation a little).
Thanks David - glad you found the video interesting. Our entire gable end faces south - but we do not have any wall space to hang any panels, and they'd have to be hung vertically. I'd probably only get one or two at most.
Thanks for the video. Good info. I have recently ordered a solar panel system that is due to be installed in late Feb 2023. Did I see on your spreadsheet that you are using octopus agile? As your battery is not working is that proving expensive? I too will be looking to join agile once I am up and running. Keep the videos coming. Cheers.
Thanks Russell! So I'm on their Flexible Octopus Tariff - so I'm effectively paying their standard tariff and my import costs per unit don't change. What I added was Agile Outgoing Octopus - which is the dynamic pricing for export payments - so I get paid a variable rate for the units I export back to the grid where the pricing is defined by demand. Octopus agile is the dynamic import pricing - where it's at a flat price off peak for import - and dynamic pricing at peak times.
I am thinking about getting solar, i am also east to west facing and i am trying to work out the size of inverter i will require. at 12pm what level of generation are you getting over all of your panel i.e. if you had 4kw on each roof would you expect 6kw due to none ideal orientation or ?
Thank's Sean. It's an interesting question - as dependent on the time of year 12pm will either solar Noon or before or after. For me it's around Midday between December to March - but from April through to October its around 13:00. But as an example - for the best day of solar generation I've seen - on 17th September 2022, at the Solar noon (around 13:00 I peaked at 3.45 kWh for the entire system (and generated 24.6kwH that day). But last week on a clear day I peaked at 4.7kwh at 11:20 (so before Solar Noon). In terms of Inverter size - I'm not the best person to ask as I'm not a Solar installer, just a consumer. Our installer only offered the Solis 5G Inverter, but I had more flexibility on the number of panels/battery's. In my opinion you'll get more benefit with battery storage, but make sure that you have a outgoing payment tariff with your energy provider so if you panels are generating more than you can use and store - at least you will get payment when it goes back to the grid.
I take it everything was working fine so why did you need a firmware update? Did they ask your permission? Did they tell you why it would be of particular benefit to your system because if it wasn't why update the firmware? How do you know that the malfunction hasn't had a detrimental impact on say the life of your batteries? I had east-west solar installed last July, 6 kW panels and 3.5 kW SunSync inverter. I don't know if Solis have the same attitude as SunSync who consider the final customer, you the user, as inconsequential, and will only deal with their primary customer the installer. I have had backup from neither and from being a total solar dummy, have had to program the inverter myself after referring to UA-cam videos as it was left in factory default settings following installation. Where was the tried and tested program for running the PV solar? I found it only needed one simple program for all year round running so why all the third party, free access, internet connectivity when the only person who should be accessing your inverter is you!
Hi Alistair. All of the Solis frontend is in the cloud - and according to my installer they put out firmware updates over the air. Not normally a problem apparently, but for this particular combination it's been a significant issue. The Inverter and panels integration has been performing fine, it's just been frustrating at the amount of time it's taken to resolve.
I do have a south east facing roof which have 2 gable on it which will cause shade and limited space for 8 panel ? Should i still install panel on it?or focus on the north west roof which could provide enough space for holding 18 panel
Unfortunately I'm not an installer so the only comment I can provide is that you'll probably get more benefit from the south east facing than the north west. And it really does depend how much your pitches face south east and north west. Technical my east pitch is veering towards East North-East, our ridgeline is about 10% west of north. I think the EON website has a tool that allows you to do a simple calculation using google earth.
Do you not have LFPO4 Batteries. I Looked at November and see your battery problem commenced in November. Is not being discharged for such a long period damaging the batteries. LPO4 BATTERIES, (well virtually all rechargeable batteries) do not like being stored when discharged. Are those at fault with the faulty settings going to replace your damaged batteries? I would not be happy if my suppliers/installers trapped me in a situation where my batteries were discharged. Your battery manufacturer could not reasonably be expected to take responsibility for batteries left in a discharged state, I would suggest this responsibility has to rest with your instalker/supplier who does not appear to care. Given that lack of care do you even have confirmation that you are on the list for the updates? Sorry for being so negative but you do not appear to realise this is a problem.
I have 2 solar arrays. 4.95kw and 1.65kw totalling 6.6kw
Both are ground mounted and suffer hard shading from a tree and my neighbours house (couldnt have roof mounted panels as the freeholder refused permission)
Whats interesting, my system was commissioned and setup start of sept22 also. The main array was 3.3kw in sept but I added 3 more panels to the string to make 4.95kw at the start of October.
Combined solar generation for
Sept22: (4.95kwP) 369kWh
Oct22: (6.6kwP) 290kWh
Nov22: (6.6kwP) 150kWh
Dec22: (6.6kWp) 98kWh
All panels are south facing, shallow pitch of about 20 degrees.
Hard shaded by my flat up till 10.30am, shaded by a tree until 10.45am, shaded by my neighbours house until 1.15pm and then in December only, partly shaded by a willow tree up the road at 2.45pm
Shading is a real issue and spending 1k on tigo optimisers for all 12 panels. (12x550w panels) has resulted in 25% higher production on sunny days as the shading really effects output.
I fitted the tigo optimisers on Dec 21st 2022.
Further info:
4.95kwP system (9x550w panels) connected to Sunsynk 3.6kw Hybrid inverter with 20kwH sunsynk batteries.
1.65kWp (3x550w panels) connected to a 1.5kw Growatt grid tied inverter.
The sunsynk inverter can capture spare AC power to charge the batteries... so no export unless batteries are full.
I hope this data is useful for comparison, Uk based, Shropshire.
how are the sunsynk batteries? Havent heard of them before, are they holding up ok and what sort of price were they please? Also Why did you choose them over other batteries, was it down to cost or some other factor? Many thanks
@@MrMonero the batteries i have are made by BYD for sunsynk. They didn't suffer a severe charging rate slow down in the cold. LiFePO4 batteries charge slowly when cold. And i have seen a lot of other batteries charging at much slower rates at 10c.
Fox ESS batteries and Pylontec batteries are 2 i can remember seeing posts about in the sunsynk forums.
In the cold, its the battery BMS that controls charge rate, not the inverter.
My batteries were in a small brick enclosure, sat on concrete outside. Even when -8c outside, the coldest they got was 4.9c.
At 5c i was still getting 850w per battery charging... 63amps - 3.4kw on 4 batteries.
The deciding factor for going with Sunsynk batteries was warranty.
10 year warranty (6000 cycles)
The sunsynk inverter has a 5 year warranty... but extends to 10 year warranty when registered with Sunsynk batteries.
Price... the price would have changed substantially since August when I purchased them. Back then I paid £7,200 zero vat as part of the inverter/battery install.
I believe they are running at £1900each at present (with vat) if you can get hold of them.
Sunsynk have been using BYD, CATL and REPL cells.
BYD and CATL are the 2 leading battery manufacturers in China.
Anyway, the system works well for me.
The inverter interface on screen and via the Web or the app is simple to use, laid out well and has all the info needed. I haven't physically touched the inverter to make any changes in a couple of months.
@@davespages thanks for a quick reply. I will take a look into them. Much appreciated 👍🏼
Great thank you. I also have a Solis inverter, E/W roof split and batteries that are awaiting fixing due to a different comms issue. 🤣Small world. Subscribed and looking forward to future episodes 👍 PS I spotted my battery was also slowly discharging. In 3 weeks it fell from its out of the box 50% to 19% today. I isolated the solar PV from the house during this mornings sunshine for a couple of hours, (just switched it off at the house consumer unit), and it charged back up to 42% You may want to try this on yours? I don't think it will cause any damage, as its the first thing the installers do when they come out to work on the system.
My brother had a lot of issue with his pylontech batteries partly due to the fact he had 3 batteries with one firmware and a fourth with different. Eventually i think he had the fourth one replaced. i think its all good now but the issues went on for months.
Hi Keith, I also had this problem, my installer has ensured that Solis has done an update via the internet. The Pylontech batteries could not be charged via the grid and therefore always alarmed. In the dark winter months, the batteries cannot recharge enough. The problem is now solved for me. Good luck.
This is why I firewall any internet connection to stop this
Hi, found this interesting, thanks.
Have you got any southish facing walls? This could provide more power from panels in deep winter than your shallow E/W pitch roofs.
I am located about 30 miles East of Greenwich. The calculations I made were from the European research centre and take into account local weather conditions and give average daily generation per month/per day of the month, but I can no longer access this website direct from uk.
My 18° pitch roof facing East + 14°. In Dec&Jan gives a quarter of a kw per Kw of solar panel per day, (the wall gave about half. and ideal pitch was about 48°).
SOUTH (+14°) Jan&Dec wall gives about 1kw per kw of panels per day. Optimum pitch (D&J) about 18/19°.
It should be noted the maximum yearly yield is produced from the pitched roof but it was not by a major amount and my design philosophy is to design for jan and dec and I will have plenty of spare capacity in the summer.
To date I have run test panels for a couple of years which seem to verify the calculations.
The data base does not give any info north of east west, but if I do the East roof I will fill the west roof with spare (or cheep) panels just to extend power generation longer into evening in summer, (and boost cloudy day generation a little).
Thanks David - glad you found the video interesting. Our entire gable end faces south - but we do not have any wall space to hang any panels, and they'd have to be hung vertically. I'd probably only get one or two at most.
Thanks for the video. Good info. I have recently ordered a solar panel system that is due to be installed in late Feb 2023. Did I see on your spreadsheet that you are using octopus agile? As your battery is not working is that proving expensive? I too will be looking to join agile once I am up and running. Keep the videos coming. Cheers.
Thanks Russell! So I'm on their Flexible Octopus Tariff - so I'm effectively paying their standard tariff and my import costs per unit don't change. What I added was Agile Outgoing Octopus - which is the dynamic pricing for export payments - so I get paid a variable rate for the units I export back to the grid where the pricing is defined by demand.
Octopus agile is the dynamic import pricing - where it's at a flat price off peak for import - and dynamic pricing at peak times.
Haha..."incase u cant see, the white ball is next to the reds"
I am thinking about getting solar, i am also east to west facing and i am trying to work out the size of inverter i will require. at 12pm what level of generation are you getting over all of your panel i.e. if you had 4kw on each roof would you expect 6kw due to none ideal orientation or ?
Thank's Sean. It's an interesting question - as dependent on the time of year 12pm will either solar Noon or before or after. For me it's around Midday between December to March - but from April through to October its around 13:00.
But as an example - for the best day of solar generation I've seen - on 17th September 2022, at the Solar noon (around 13:00 I peaked at 3.45 kWh for the entire system (and generated 24.6kwH that day). But last week on a clear day I peaked at 4.7kwh at 11:20 (so before Solar Noon).
In terms of Inverter size - I'm not the best person to ask as I'm not a Solar installer, just a consumer. Our installer only offered the Solis 5G Inverter, but I had more flexibility on the number of panels/battery's. In my opinion you'll get more benefit with battery storage, but make sure that you have a outgoing payment tariff with your energy provider so if you panels are generating more than you can use and store - at least you will get payment when it goes back to the grid.
@@East2WestSolar thanks you for the comprehensive response and examples I really appreciate it!
What size solar array do you have?
I take it everything was working fine so why did you need a firmware update? Did they ask your permission? Did they tell you why it would be of particular benefit to your system because if it wasn't why update the firmware? How do you know that the malfunction hasn't had a detrimental impact on say the life of your batteries?
I had east-west solar installed last July, 6 kW panels and 3.5 kW SunSync inverter. I don't know if Solis have the same attitude as SunSync who consider the final customer, you the user, as inconsequential, and will only deal with their primary customer the installer. I have had backup from neither and from being a total solar dummy, have had to program the inverter myself after referring to UA-cam videos as it was left in factory default settings following installation. Where was the tried and tested program for running the PV solar?
I found it only needed one simple program for all year round running so why all the third party, free access, internet connectivity when the only person who should be accessing your inverter is you!
Hi Alistair. All of the Solis frontend is in the cloud - and according to my installer they put out firmware updates over the air. Not normally a problem apparently, but for this particular combination it's been a significant issue.
The Inverter and panels integration has been performing fine, it's just been frustrating at the amount of time it's taken to resolve.
I do have a south east facing roof which have 2 gable on it which will cause shade and limited space for 8 panel ? Should i still install panel on it?or focus on the north west roof which could provide enough space for holding 18 panel
Unfortunately I'm not an installer so the only comment I can provide is that you'll probably get more benefit from the south east facing than the north west. And it really does depend how much your pitches face south east and north west.
Technical my east pitch is veering towards East North-East, our ridgeline is about 10% west of north.
I think the EON website has a tool that allows you to do a simple calculation using google earth.
Do you not have LFPO4 Batteries. I Looked at November and see your battery problem commenced in November. Is not being discharged for such a long period damaging the batteries. LPO4 BATTERIES, (well virtually all rechargeable batteries) do not like being stored when discharged. Are those at fault with the faulty settings going to replace your damaged batteries? I would not be happy if my suppliers/installers trapped me in a situation where my batteries were discharged. Your battery manufacturer could not reasonably be expected to take responsibility for batteries left in a discharged state, I would suggest this responsibility has to rest with your instalker/supplier who does not appear to care. Given that lack of care do you even have confirmation that you are on the list for the updates?
Sorry for being so negative but you do not appear to realise this is a problem.