Solar Panels by a Novice- Too Many Considerations?

stephenc

Agree 100% with you Steve.

blankscreen

Thanks Steve,

At the time you installed yours i'd guess there were fewer options to muddy the waters, there is now four technologies in panels if you count the thin film which atm seems is not viable. Then you look at single inverters with one or two string ability verses micro inverters.

i have no shadow problems, my panels would face almost due East.

Arguments rage, single inverters are far cheaper, micro inverters claim to add upto 25% more efficiency, some state from experience 5%, as they adjust individual panels, not bring everything down to the lowest denominator (reducing the output to good panels), and bypass a faulty panel leaving the remainder producing energy.

Another hat in the ring, a few days ago offered having 16 micro controllers going to a single inverter.

That is the feature i have to say is attractive, the older the system gets the more likely a panel failure, but then there is the argument of 16 more bits to fail, almost doubling the long term risk. So i go from no, yes, perhaps then just as i settle, a counter argument is the panels having micro inverter will be less stressed increasing their life - Aaarrrrrrrrhhhpggghhjhhh!

Add in the passionate differing POV's of the maker fanzines - my brain starts to boil!

so i go back to square one lol!

going with the cheaper system while prommising higher output, has certainly worked for you, if buying today with greater knowledge who's panels and inverters/micro-inverters would you think you'd go for?

Alan

Stuart Wright

This thread should be in this forum Renewable Energy & Energy Saving Forum | AVForums

blankscreen

Hi Stuart, please move it

i chose general chit chat as i could not offer any expertise, this tech seems to attract passionate debate between adversaries, i wanted to avoid that and encourage both the knowledgeable and the novice to post away from the usual 'bun fights'.

Regs Alan.

SteveCritten

Until the technology is such that it is cheap enough to pay for itself without a FIT or the FIT ends then I would go cheapest bang for buck. When I first started looking at panels years ago it was for an environmental reason. When I eventually put them in it was purely greed and financial.

blankscreen

Thanks Steve,
Had Zanusee on today, i'm told work direct to Zanusee. they use a single inverter set up. Might not be the cheapest but they have the clout to backup their systems promtly should i be unlucky,

and in general i usually am .

Alan

neilball

The micro inverter versus single inverter is not too difficult to understand, in that the micro inverter only increases the panel efficiency if you get shading, or a total failure of the single inverter. In full sun there is little or no difference, certainly not enough to justify paying a large extra cost.

If you want a more detailed appraisal of panel types then it may be worth heading over to the Navitron forums where they have a lot of forum members looking at all aspects of renewables.

blankscreen

Thanks Neil,
i get the shading issue which i dont have, if a panel fails or go's below output spec with micro-inverters you don't loose everything. Two variables in play, how reliable are panels and micro-inverters?

neilball

Inverter and panel reliability must be reasonable otherwise there would be a reasonable amount of complaints on the more specialist forums. What would be more of a problem is not spotting when a fault has occurred - I use a monitoring system to record my PV generation and import consumption in real time, uploaded to an online service called PvOutput to allow me to look analyse the historical data too. Without this I could have a fault that went unnoticed for several days/weeks/months as I would rarely need to go and check my system to see how it was performing.

blankscreen

Given we are in the lower daylight producing period, would it make more sense to wait unto March/April before buying?