Greetings from Northumberland

[nowty]

Right - I've pressed the button on Solar PV + battery - ~5.5kW panels with 5.1kW battery & hybrid inverter.
Likely to be 4-6 weeks, have to see how it goes - fingers crossed

What was the spec (brands) and price in the end, if you don't mind ?

My mate had a recent quote for a Sunsynk (never heard of them before) system from a national company.

4kW of panels (JA Solar) and 5.1kW sunsynk battery and 3.6kW sunsynk hubrid inverter for almost £11k. I pointed out to him you could buy the whole lot as a kit with everything except the panel mounting kit and installation for £4.6k (without VAT). I reckoned should of been about 7k or 8k, maybe 9k at a push if scaffolding was required. The quote underpriced the installation costs but wacked 100% markup on everything else.

This is also for JA solar panels (but 5.6kW) and 5.1kW Sunsynk battery & 3.6kW Sunsynk hybrid inverter - £9k fitted including scaffolding

You've done alright then as long as the Sunsynk brand is ok. Even though I had not heard of them, every recent brand coming to the market seems to be ok. Growatt, Sofar, Lux, GiveEnergy, etc.

Slap a couple of pics on here, once they are up, if you can.

I will add you to my secret list of "Camelot Members Annual Green Electric Generation", I reckon an annual 4200 kWh in your neck of the woods on an East / West install.
https://camelot-forum.co.uk/phpBB3/view ... 878#p11878

[richbee]

Still progressing - the surveyor came out last week & didn't think there were any major problems (he drove all the way from Doncaster to Northumberland just to survey our house - obviously they are making a reasonable amount of money out of this!)

They rang yesterday to say that they can come on 14th June to fit the system - but they don't have availability of the SunSynk kit, would I mind an increased capacity Growatt system at no extra charge?! Ok, if you insist!

The only other problem is So Energy - they had booked in to fit a smart meter 2 weeks ago and cancelled at the last mnute - now saying they don't have any installers available in this area - so no feed back into the grid until they sort it out

[Fintray]

Still progressing - the surveyor came out last week & didn't think there were any major problems (he drove all the way from Doncaster to Northumberland just to survey our house - obviously they are making a reasonable amount of money out of this!)

They rang yesterday to say that they can come on 14th June to fit the system - but they don't have availability of the SunSynk kit, would I mind an increased capacity Growatt system at no extra charge?! Ok, if you insist!

The only other problem is So Energy - they had booked in to fit a smart meter 2 weeks ago and cancelled at the last mnute - now saying they don't have any installers available in this area - so no feed back into the grid until they sort it out

It will still feed back into the grid but you won't be able to measure it or get paid for it, do you have a diverter to heat your water tank?

[Moxi]

I wouldn't bother with the smart meter - as Fintray says look for another way to self consume the energy - you will get f=greater overall benefit IMHO
Moxi

[richbee]

Unfortunately we have a combi boiler, so no hot water tank. I'll have to think up ways of using as much as possible

[Moxi]

You can consider pre-heating your combi boiler supply or as others have suggested put an inline heater after the combi to top up the heat content of the water - both discussed elsewhere on the forum - i have a similar issue with DHW myself and will be looking into these and other options.

Storage heaters seem to be making a bit of a return - but not conducive to maximum solar gain although a small aircon unit may be useful - warm air on cooler days and cool air on warmer ones ?

of course the ultimate electron sink seems to be a BEV but thats a very expensive consideration and not for everyone.

Moxi

[richbee]

One step forward - one step back.
Panels and inverter + batteries arrived this morning by courier van, shortly followed by the installation team (both lots driven all the way from Mansfield to Northumberland!).
Only 2 problems so far - the scaffolders didn't bother to turn up yesterday, and the shipment has the wrong brackets and no rails for mounting the panels!!
Ah well...sure we'll get there in the end

[Fintray]

That's a long journey for the installers if they can't now do anything due to the scaffolders not showing up.

[richbee]

I know! They just turned round & went back - sure there will be some interesting discussions with the office when they get back

[richbee]

Installation take 2
Half of the scaffolding went up last week, the other half was DEFINITELY coming yesterday in time for the installation team to come this morning....
Guess what, no scaffolding team!!
But, a delivery arrived with a complete new set of panels and the original Sunsynk inverter and battery and some rails and brackets!!!
Installation team also arrived, started trying to install the panels on 1 side - guess what, the new brackets are still wrong, and the rails are also wrong!!!!
Not sure why this is sooooo complicated, seems like the left had doesn't have a clue what the right hand is doing.

I'm off to bang my head against a brick wall