ABB inverter and JA solar panels

Solar Quote Reviews
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Hi, We have been quoted for 20 x JA Solar 330w half cell MONO perc panels and 1 x ABB 5kw inverter - $5,500 after STC credit.
I have read over the information on this site and both the inverter and panels seem to read as good quality, in the top 5.
Our house is West facing.
This is our first quote, but just hoping to check that the price seems reasonable and placement on roof is ok?
I have attached images of the quote and roof placement.
Thank you.

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Hi @nburns

A couple of things to note. I don’t think we have put JA in our top 5 favourite panels, but they do get a mention in the article.

ABB (FIMER) are in our top 5 string inverters. Also, see:

Unfortunately you don’t have a very friendly roof for solar. I’m assuming this company didn’t send someone to your house to get on the roof and measure it up. That’s what will need to happen if you want to be confident that you’ll actually receive the system that you have been quoted for. Otherwise, you’ll probably get the installer to come on the day, and they’ll realise there’s no way they’ll be able to configure the system as “designed”, and need to work around, which rarely makes for a happy outcome.

Whilst the price quoted is pretty low, I’d be looking at paying a bit more to have an accredited designer come to the house first and actually design the system. A lot of roofs don’t really need a professional design, they are easy to fit 20 panels on. Unfortunately yours is a bit tricker. If you want 20 panels, you’ll likely need micro inverters, however if you want to pay less up front and go with a string inverter, I’d be surprised if you could get 20 panels.

Either way, I’d suggest getting a few more quotes, from companies with top reviews.

Hope that helps.

Marty

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Solar Power Brisbane

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As Marty said, your roof is difficult and it is best suited to micro inverters.

Also as noted by Marty, the panels look like they only just fit in some locations, so it may be difficult to install as shown. Worst case is the installler might ‘cut corners’ to make the system fit.

However, you can actually have panels on 3 different orientations using a string inverter. For it work they have use the same number of panels on the East and West (this design uses 7 panels on East and 7 on the West so it should work ok.)

This seems like a very good price if they don’t surprise you will any additional costs on the day

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