Hi, I am in Faro Portugal and have been following your site with great interest. A few queries. I have same PV potential as Perth W.A but am 7 degrees further from Equator. I am very amateur and getting good professional advice here is very difficult. I am consuming c 1000KW pm.
about 80-90% daylight consumption is possible Roof is south facing slope c30D. Roof is 4.8mx5m with a possibility in future to doublet for expansion.I Have been recommended the following. 8 panels 450w amerisol. I 6000w Huawei inverter. that is to allow for addon later. With the bits but without a battery and installation it is costing less than AUD 3,500. What I can’t figure out is what the production will be and I can’t Get a straight answer. Nor can I see the products strongly recommended on your web site. I can get most brands incl fronius which seems to be strongly recommended. I want to max my output also on the 5x4.8m roof. Advice appreciated.
Hi from Canberra
Yes SolarQuotes and Finn Peacock are great
I am neither installer nor engineer, merely a satisfied customer. Our 9 panels face East, 9 face West and 12 face North. With this layout, of my nominal 10.5KW I get up to 8.2KW on the sunniest summer days and up to 5KW on sunny winter days.
I installed 10.5KW to ensure enough power on sunny winter noondays to drive washing machine, oven, lights, computers, clothes dryer. I insisted on 5KW Huawei inverters (two) because (i) I liked that they are fanless, one less point of failure and zero noise and (ii) Huawei had an excellent app, but read on. In mid-2021 Huawei downgraded their app that used to show clearly how much was flowing from panels into inverter and how much flowing out of inverter to be consumed, and how much exported. Now I only see a single figure, the total from panels. Perhaps they only downgraded the app for Australian customers, who knows, but this irks me.
After one year of production, I still pay electricity bills, so maybe I should have installed 16KW with three 5KW inverters (sigh). OR, more north-facing panels. Yes all 30 panels are functional.
NOTE all are backed by micro-inverters which I regard as essential for problem diagnosis.
I already had three-phase power installed, otherwise our grid regulations would have limited my export to grid to 5KW.
I don’t have batteries, too expensive
All the best with your research and installation!
Hi Jim
Thanks for that detailed explanation. Have you done an audit of your usage and installed an energy meter to see what is consuming the most power? You would have to change some of your habits to reduce/eliminate your bills. I am pleased to advise that I get a credit 11 months of the year with a similar system to yours and I use dot have an $1,800 quarterly bill.
Thanks
Ivan
BCuzack
Not sure if the image is visible to you. I am using the PHOTOVOLTAIC GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SYSTEM to carry out your calculation.
You are using 8 No. x 450 Watt peak panels; these are the large panels and will fill your roof space (these large panels can be purchased at a 540 Watt peak which will increase your generation by 20%). Your installation would be described as a 3.6 kWpeak installation. In Faro on a 30 degree pitched roof your annual power generation is likely to be 6204 kWh - average of 517 kWh per Month which should run a home. The actual Monthly figure ranges between 644 kWh in the Month for July and 369 kWh in December. In theory even the 369 is enough to run a home on average but you will find that the grid will kick in if you use lots of appliances at the same time. Of course you will be using the grid during the night time anyway and maybe early morning / late evening in the Winter. Consider adding Batteries and going off-grid with this set-up.
I hope this helps.
Regards
Dick