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Forum Index : Solar : grid connect quote

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Disco Stu
Newbie

Joined: 13/12/2009
Location:
Posts: 16
Posted: 10:14pm 05 Feb 2010
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hi guys
was looking at the grand parents in law's qoute for a grid connect system the other day

6 190watt solar fun panels and a pve 1200 inverter
however the system was quoted as a 1.5KW system if im correct this will be just under 1200 watts.

can anyone worl out why they would call it a 1.5KW system???

cheers Stu
 
KarlJ

Guru

Joined: 19/05/2008
Location: Australia
Posts: 1178
Posted: 10:12am 06 Feb 2010
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I'd call it an 1140 W system myself.

need 8 panels to call it a 1.520KW system.

get them to revise the quote
Luck favours the well prepared
 
GWatPE

Senior Member

Joined: 01/09/2006
Location: Australia
Posts: 2127
Posted: 11:27am 06 Feb 2010
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Normally 6 panels are 1kW system, and 9 panels for 1.5kW with mono cells.

The PVE1200 would probably be an 8 panel system, with normal 175W Mono panels.

Many companies use more panels, and slighly overpower the inverter. Most of the time the inverter is not running full power, and derates when more power is available.

Gordon.


become more energy aware
 
AMUN-RA

Senior Member

Joined: 10/03/2007
Location: Australia
Posts: 144
Posted: 11:46am 06 Feb 2010
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on this subject my neighbour wanted a quote for solar power to reduce his bill but after looking at his average daily kwh ????? what do you think
tarrif 11 33kwh per day
tarrif 33 32.5kwh per day
65.5 kwh per day
says he wants to do his bit for the enviroment
Every day the sun shines
& gravity sucks= free energy.
 
KarlJ

Guru

Joined: 19/05/2008
Location: Australia
Posts: 1178
Posted: 11:47am 06 Feb 2010
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would not be a good match for the PVE as
Solarfun recommends 1.25x the open circuit voltage for calculating inverter size 44.8V open circuit
thus 56V per panel. (factoring for more than 1x sun and / or cooler temperature)

- theoretically done the warranty on the inverter before you even start
Thus 2 panels in series and 4 strings =19.44A at 72V (MPPT)

Any more than 100V will smoke the PVE thus in my mind poor panel / inverter combo.

Oh and you only end up with 8 panels and 1400W not the 1500 to get the best rebate you can.

Easy way would be 56x9 =504V making the Fronius IG15 with max DC of 500V a better choice to avoid series/parallel hookup.

Theoretically even the sunnyboy SB1700 is no good as its only rated to max input of 400V but lots of guys are doing it!!!!

Shame on them!

Good luck with the warranties down the track, looks to me like getting burned!
Luck favours the well prepared
 
Dinges
Senior Member

Joined: 04/01/2008
Location: Albania
Posts: 510
Posted: 03:18pm 06 Feb 2010
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Know what you mean, Amun-Ra...

Friend of a friend showed me his place about 1/2 a year ago.

When we got to the meter cabinet my mouth fell open... he used 69kWh/day (averaged over the 8 months that he lived there). This is just a single man and his two teenage children; the father is hardly ever at home.

He asked if that was a lot... I said I use 1/15th (on a per-person basis) of that... Said he didn't care much, as long as he could pay the bill.

That's why I say that energy is not nearly expensive enough for people to start changing their behaviour.

Recently, he asked for help in selecting a diesel generator, so he could get off-grid.... I think he did that because he can no longer pay the bills. But that's just my suspicion.

To the OP: if the system can not develop 1500W, it's not a 1500W system. Seems there are two bottlenecks here: the inverter, rated at 1200W, and the PV panels, at 1140W. The PV panels will, in practice, likely never even come close to their rated 1140W either.

I guess most people can'd do the math and he normally can get away with that. Seems like an unfair business practice to (seemingly) be cheaper than his competition.

Ask for an explanation from the company and perhaps consider reporting to the fair-trade commission or the local chamber of commerce.

Peter.
 
Disco Stu
Newbie

Joined: 13/12/2009
Location:
Posts: 16
Posted: 12:59am 07 Feb 2010
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thanks,
thought it didnt add up 1.5kw through a 1.2kw inverter, but then i added up the pannels and it came to under 1.2kw any way

will have to get them to look into it they are in a retirement village, so who knows how many others are getting this system installed????
cheers stu
 
clong

Newbie

Joined: 30/01/2010
Location: Australia
Posts: 3
Posted: 05:30am 12 Feb 2010
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I know there is a company from Qld that are providing free solar electric and hot water to retirement villages, and they then get half the feed in tariff for so many years to pay it off. It maybe an offer like that and they see a better ROI on 1200 instead of 1500w.
 
KarlJ

Guru

Joined: 19/05/2008
Location: Australia
Posts: 1178
Posted: 11:01am 12 Feb 2010
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All depends onthe price of the equipment, even the humble PVE 1200 is now good for 1500W max input power -(it will never deliver that to the grid but still meets the criteria for the rebates.

Inverter choice now has so many variables, takes twice as long for the sparkie to connect parallel strings than just in series and adds more complexity. If it takes the sparkie another 2 hours then an inverter worth a couple of hundred more that runs all in series and is a plug in deal may make sense.

Although some of the other brands have some great features, like tapping on the box for figures, these things are not really required and I like australian made.

Off topic but regarding aussie made

I once bought a Modena engineering dog box for a WRX,
dog box

I took it into work to show off to the boys what $10,000 worth of engineering looked like, and made right here in Frankston. Incidentally I found the noise to be music to my ears, nothing like a howling wastegate screamer pipe, a quick gearchange with blow off valve screaming, a flame and pop out the back and a screaming set of straight cut gears to set your hair on fire -better than you know what I reckon!

But it all beggs the question what will be of our manufacturing industries if we cant support guys that do it here?

No more panels made here, factory making massive windturbine blades here in Vic now gone.....
Luck favours the well prepared
 
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