Fitting solar PV panels to wooden frame - options

[nowty]

@Krill, I'm a bit confused about your query's regarding ASHP, as in your blurb you mention an "air to air heat pump" (A2A HP), then you ask a question about a condensate line and a monoblock ASHP.

A2A HP is a split unit with an indoor unit and an outdoor unit with refrigerant lines going through the wall of your house. I put such a system in recently and there is a thread about it here.
https://camelot-forum.co.uk/phpBB3/view ... =17&t=1043

A monoblock ASHP is a single unit with all the refrigerant stuff sealed in a single unit and it simply pumps hot water into the house for radiators, hot water tank or underfloor heating. I also have a thread about a monoblock HP but it is a GSHP rather than an ASHP. They are typically a lot heavier than A2A HPs so almost always they are ground sited outside.
https://camelot-forum.co.uk/phpBB3/view ... f=17&t=487

Maybe the confusion is that there are also some A2A HP monoblocks which are sited inside, with an air inlet and outlet through the wall but I would not recommend them as they are, expensive, noisier inside and are less efficient.

PS - Like the pussys.

[Oldgreybeard]

I installed a monoblock ASHP when building this house and it was dead easy to do, literally just stick the thing on concrete mounts outside, run a three core power cable plus a four core control cable to it, and plumb in the flow and return water pipes. Took around half a day to install, on my own. There is a condensate drain, but it just comes out the base of the ASHP unit and runs to any convenient soakaway (mine just runs to some gravel in between the two concrete mounts).

I also installed an A2A split a couple of years or so ago. Again fairly easy, but a bit more work than fitting the ASHP. Took me around a day to install the A2A, with a fair bit of that time being spent getting the outdoor unit up on to the wall brackets it's fitted to. The condensate line on that is a lot longer, as it runs from the indoor unit to outside. I ran ours to our water butt, so it tops it up a tiny bit in summer.

[Krill]

@Krill, I'm a bit confused about your query's regarding ASHP, as in your blurb you mention an "air to air heat pump" (A2A HP), then you ask a question about a condensate line and a monoblock ASHP.

A2A HP is a split unit with an indoor unit and an outdoor unit with refrigerant lines going through the wall of your house. I put such a system in recently and there is a thread about it here.
https://camelot-forum.co.uk/phpBB3/view ... =17&t=1043

A monoblock ASHP is a single unit with all the refrigerant stuff sealed in a single unit and it simply pumps hot water into the house for radiators, hot water tank or underfloor heating. I also have a thread about a monoblock HP but it is a GSHP rather than an ASHP. They are typically a lot heavier than A2A HPs so almost always they are ground sited outside.
https://camelot-forum.co.uk/phpBB3/view ... f=17&t=487

Maybe the confusion is that there are also some A2A HP monoblocks which are sited inside, with an air inlet and outlet through the wall but I would not recommend them as they are, expensive, noisier inside and are less efficient.

PS - Like the pussys.

Ah yes that is misleading, sorry about that.

I don't have any locations I can fit A2A heat pumps AFAICT, because of both internal wall space, and how to get the lines to the external unit. It's a consequence of how the house was extended. I did read your thread and honestly a lot of that work is beyond my current technical ability. It's a shame given that this is a great incremental way to use additional solar PV output.

Longer term ie when the gas boiler is out of warranty and a bit more knackered, I am more likely to consider an ASHP, but I was not aware of the difference in the pipe access. I may be able to make this work if its just copper pipe to an outside unit by using the rear ground floor roofspace...I'd need to replace a log store though and it would be within 2 metres of a boundary and the rear door.

[Krill]

Great post @Krill. Possibly worthy of its own thread…

So the other questions I have bouncing around my mind are:

1. Are there any issues with the Sunsynk inverter?
2. With a second PV array fitted, what steps would need to be taken now to match a DC charger to any inverter fitted ie communication systems?
3. Given the potential multiple PV arrays, what would be the best string setup given the potential/planned inverter capabilities? (I’ve got some weird ideas regarding this but then I have no clue about all the rules, and this isn’t actually answerable right now, just posting it as a rhetorical question)
4. Longer term, how to fit the condensate lines from a ASHP into the house?
5. Where to actually fit a monoblock AHSP?

To answer your questions:

1. No probs with that inverter. It is a cheap-and-cheerful made-in-China model. However the technology is mature these days so they’re all reliable and efficient. The user interface is a bit rubbish, but they’re all like that.
2. For your addition you can either wire the solar panels into the batteries via a charge controller or wire them into the inverter (assuming the inverter has room for 2x strings and the rooftop array uses only one). If you go the “charge controller” route then its all pretty easy to set up. Just bare in mind you will have 16s batteries whereas most of us lot on here have 15s so any talk of voltages will need the appropriate conversion.
3. “Rules” concern inverter capacity. You can have up to 3.6kW of inverter capacity and tell the DNO (power company) about it afterwards. However if you see a HP in your future then you probably need a 5kW inverter and will have to ask permission. The inverter capacity is how much power can be injected into the grid. There is no problem having much more solar than inverter capacity perfectly sensible to have a 10kWp solar array and a 5kW inverter (for example).
4. Your HP install would probably benefit from a separate thread. However I wouldn’t suggest running condensate into the house. A gutter downpipe would be the first choice, “soakaway” would be 2nd choice.
5. This is tough! In the UK we use every piece of outdoor space, so there often isn’t a convenient unused corner.

Thanks Stinsy.

The way I figure it, get the max dno sign-off for export once and then ignore them until AHSP is needed. Given this would soak up any potential export I don't see them saying no and then the second pv array can be fitted at a time that suits.

ASHP defo gets its own thread.