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1.5kW Solar System from Origin Energy

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Started 2 years ago by Andrewpe
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murcod
Member

24kwh for the week, but a couple of days of rain didn't help things. The other days were also cloudy to varying degrees.

I also have partial shading until 9:30am in the morning, and a now heavily trimmed tree was partially shading some panels in the afternoon (1:30pm onwards.)

In Summer I don't see us paying anything for electricity. I'm not out to totally generate our power, just to put a dent in the bills and do our bit for the environment. This seems to be a good balance for a house that is mostly on gas.

Posted Monday 12 Jul 2010 @ 11:45:27 am from IP #
murcod
Member

Had an all time low today for power generated - only 2.04 kWh. The weather has been shocking - cold and cloud/ rain/ hail/ showers. The sun wasn't out much at all.

Posted Thursday 15 Jul 2010 @ 10:46:42 am from IP #
murcod
Member

And beat that yesterday with thick cloud covering and rain/ showers for the whole of the day - only 0.547kWh. It was the sort of day where you needed the light on inside, it was that dreary outside.

Today, a lot more clear periods and a highest ever of 5.175kWh.

Posted Monday 19 Jul 2010 @ 10:27:14 am from IP #
Russell Moore
Member

murcod, whirlpool forums has a thread site that covers day by day solar outputs that may interest you.
Look under solar output.
Russell

Posted Monday 19 Jul 2010 @ 10:38:10 am from IP #
murcod
Member

Thanks Russell - I'm already a member on there.

I've posted in that thread a couple of times, but there's a lack of SA people to do comparisons with.

Posted Friday 23 Jul 2010 @ 3:27:13 am from IP #
murcod
Member

Last three days:

5.707 kWh
5.171 kWh
5.806 kWh

There's still been a bit of cloud around on those days too. Can't wait for Summer!

Posted Tuesday 27 Jul 2010 @ 12:03:29 pm from IP #
Emuu
Member

It genuinely surprises me that some of the most basic fundamentals seem to get overlooked in the inverter discussions; namely, Australian environmental conditions. Despite the fact that there are some great brand name high quality inverters (and some appaling examples of rubbish), people seem to overlook some basics.

When the tech specs from northern european manufacturers state that the cooling is "Natural Cooling (or Convection Cooling) with fan assist in hot weather" what do you think constitues a hot day in Austria or Germany or Norway?

Personally, I can only recommend units with no fans (with moving parts it's not if but when it will fail)that can comfortably operate in an ambient temperature of 60 degrees C. When the fan fails the unit either shuts down (on the best days for producing power) or eventually cooks. You are no longer replacing a fan but an entire inverter at your own cost as the warranty will state it's your responsibility to make sure that the fan was fixed when it first failed.

I also reject any unit that has its cooling fins running horizontally above gathering dust (and therefor inefficiency) or has them hidden on the back where wasps will block them with nests and void your warranty when it cooks.

The outdoor Auroras (not the indoor models) and Xantrex are two examples of perfect inverters for our climate. There are too many bad examples to list!

Posted Sunday 1 Aug 2010 @ 4:09:32 am from IP #
murcod
Member

Hmmmm.... Seems a bit off topic Emuu? Any system will require some maintenance- and I don't have a problem cleaning the heatsink at the rear of the Sharp invertor every 6mths or so (and spraying the surrounding area with surface spray.)

It's been a month and I've generated spot on 100kW/h.

Posted Thursday 5 Aug 2010 @ 11:17:02 am from IP #
solar
Member

I am in Melbourne and after much investigation ordered the Sharp install offerred by Origin (who offered me a discount as I recommended 14 further "friends" who went ahead also). The system was installed about 7 weeks later and has been operating for 16 days with 51kWhrs so far (average 3.2kWh/day) which I feel is pretty good as we have a small amount of afternoon shading and it is a wetter than average winter here. Maximum instantaneous output I have noticed was 1546W and best day 6.456kWH. Given our household usage is between 9 and 11kWH/day (down from over 30 years ago), I expect with some "time of use" management we could get close to a zero bill if we avarege above 5kWh/day.

Posted Thursday 19 Aug 2010 @ 10:03:07 pm from IP #
Jan Hindmarsh
Member

I am in Melbourne also and my father and I had a Schott 1Kw system installed last August so we are coming up for the first year. We also had a 2kw CMS inverter installed. I put mine in my laundry. This inverter costs more because it is a quiet fanless design. It makes no noise whatsoever. I didn't want it put outside and have to pay extra for the weather box. This inverter also shows me at any time what I am producing and the total since the inverter was put in which is up around the 1900Kw in a year.
These panels are great. I would think in the year that I have had them I have probably only had under 10 days that I haven't produced something. Even with a 1Kw system we reguarly produce 6-7Kw a day. The best time for solar panels in Australia is Spring and Autumn. Solar panels are rated at optimum temperature of 25 degrees. So when we have our 30 degree days (which is often in Australia) they are not working to their maximum. It is still good but the days when you see the inverter spiking over 1000Kw is on a day that is around 25 degrees and sunny.
I have an all gas house and work during the day. There is only me in the house now. My father had panels put on at the same time. He lives 2 streets away, the exact same orientation (we both have panels on the back of our houses exactly due north), he lives by himself but is home during the day. He has a credit with AGL at the moment of $285.00.
Now me that's a different story. AGL would have to be the most useless power company that hasn't got a clue what they are doing. My fathers bill is correct but guess what my bill is? I have a credit of $2.00. Remember same panels, same orientation, I work all day, he is at home. Our figures of what we produce are exact (except I make a bit more in winter because he has a next door tree shading him in late afternoon).
I have actually taken this to the ombudsman and they weren't even able to do anything (they were pretty useless if you ask me).
The last bill I got was actually correct so I am just going to have to try and forget about the $200 credit that I should have and go from here.
Another thing about the Schott panels is that they fire up much quicker in the morning than your cheaper panels and keep producing later in the day than most other panels.
We paid $5000 each with the $8000 rebate.
We should never pay another bill again. We also got the 2Kw inverter so that we could put more panels on if needed. Good selling point. And if is always better to have the inverter capacity greater than the panels produce. I have seen my inverter reach 1231Kw from a 1Kw system.

Posted Thursday 19 Aug 2010 @ 11:47:47 pm from IP #
Tacker
Member

A couple of things Jan, be very careful about putting on more panels on the same inverter unless they are EXACTLY the same (same wattage, same Vmp, same Imp etc etc etc.) as your current Schott panels, they also MUST be at exactly the same orientation and tilt. (unless the inverter has two Maximum Power point trackers)

Also the 25c is the cell temperature not the ambient temperature. i.e if it is 20c ambient the cell temp will be at about 45c. Most panels lose about 0.5% per degree above a CELL temperature of 25c.

Do you know why the Schott panels produce more in the mornings and afternoons? There does not seem to be any technical reason I can think of.

Posted Thursday 19 Aug 2010 @ 11:56:57 pm from IP #
ghostgum
Member

Jan, have you got the meter readings for your place and your father's, close to the dates when the distributor read the meters? Do they agree? What do you have turned on in your house during the day? It might be that your daytime power usage is higher and this is the difference, but it might also be that AGL isn't processing the meter data correctly.

As an example, my mother's electricity usage is about half ours, and she is home during the day, while I am at work. She doesn't have a computer running 24 hours a day, and she has far fewer appliances on standby. Our usage has dropped 4kWh per day since replacing the fridge/freezer and making the computer go into standby instead of being on 24/7. The freezer was faulty and consuming 2.5x the expected power, and would have been using about 1kWh per day during the hours that the solar panels were generating power, so the net export would have been less.

Posted Friday 20 Aug 2010 @ 12:24:30 am from IP #
Jan Hindmarsh
Member

To answer Tacker first, the only thing I can tell you about the Schott panels is apart from obviously the supplier telling us that they were better, is my father talks to other older people that got panels of the Chinese variety and their panels are not producing power half and hour or more difference from my fathers.
If I ever put more panels on they would be more of the same. We have left space for more on the roof. I have 6 x Schott Poly170 panels. The inverter is a CMS2000.
To answer Ghostgum, when we had the panels put on you have to have a new smart meter put in if you want to be paid the 68cents that AGL pay for your excess power. Therfore I know exactly what is going in and out of my house according to the meter. I can also read my inverter. I keep records every day at 7am before I go to work, 4pm when I get home and sometimes when I think about it at night.
The first thing I did back when it was all put on was disconnect the freezer that was using 1kw a day. Therefore the only thing in the house that is going when I go to work is the fridge, the clock radio next to my bed, the clock in the stove and microwave. Since the kids have left I only turn my computer on once a week to do the footy tips and check my emails. I turn all appliances off at the wall. Anyway this is not the problem. It was AGL. For the 3 months of November 2009 to January 2010 because I had the ombudsman onto this problem, AGL sent me 3 different bills for that time period. The first one said that the 4 days before 1 Novemer (when net tariff had to be paid to us) I had used 1115Kw. That is impossible in 4 days. They would not change their minds. The first bill was for $254.00, the next one came for $2.00 and the next one was $96.00. They just kept changing the amound of usage. But it was never correct because they wouldn't budge on the 1115Kw I had supposedly used in 4 days.
The other thing that we have all been slapped with is once you get the new smart meter, then they charge (in AGL case) Peak 3pm - 11pm Monday to Friday @ 29.8cents, Shoulder 11pm - 7am Monday to Friday @ 21.2cents and off peak 11pm Friday to 11pm Sunday @8.2 cents. Therfore I do all my washing at night time on the weekends. Any long cooking in the oven is weekends etc. I try not to use the power during the day and let as much power go into the grid as I can.
Even today in Melbourne where it was only about 13 degrees and the ice was coming out of the Antartic my inverter read 1344 at 4pm yesterday and 1347 tonight at 4pm. And that is the great thing about solar panels, you don't have to have sun, just brightness.

Posted Friday 20 Aug 2010 @ 9:17:56 am from IP #
Gruen
Member

Jan, thanks for sharing your experiences. It sounds like you are being particularly frugal with your power usage without necessarily impacting your lifestyle too greatly. I've heard many comments on the forum predicting that smaller capacity systems will be inadequate, but increasingly households such as yours and mine will be in the majority as our population ages. The beauty of generating your own power is that you are much more likely to pay attention to how you use the precious resource that is energy. If only we all took our appliances off standby and thought some more about how much we are really saving with that big chest freezer then our environment would be much the better. I might just dust off the Fowler's vacola in the back shed and ditch the freezer myself.

I'm sorry that you did not have a happy experience with AGL and that the ombudsman did not assist you. You must have been one of the first to get a smart meter. We must instal an interim meter with our solar system as Jemena refuses to install smart meters to solar customers in advance of their roll out. It seems like you are more than capable of articulating your issue to both parties and I worry that there are many who are not as able are being ripped off by the energy companies with no recourse. My mother also had an issue with AGL last year and was close to tears after receiving a 7-day demand for six months of power which was entirely their fault and not hers. We changed providers as as result. I'd suggest you wait until the end of the contract and move to Origin or one of the other generators. I wonder if any of the Essential Service Commission legislative changes on smart meters would have effected your issue with AGL.

Posted Tuesday 24 Aug 2010 @ 3:22:51 pm from IP #
cyclingkarin
Member

I just got an offer from Nu energy for 2099 AUD for a 1.5KW solar power system. Did anybody buy from this company and where you happy?

Posted Wednesday 25 Aug 2010 @ 6:45:42 am from IP #
lolwat
Member

There is no mention on the Origin System being available to non grid tied homes.
It would be quiet easy to ad deep cycle batteries + solar regulator to this 1.5km system.

Posted Thursday 26 Aug 2010 @ 11:58:10 am from IP #
murcod
Member

Solar, I've yet to see my Sharp system get to 1300 Watts instantaneous output (perhaps the NW aspect of my panels is to blame?) Best daily output so far has been 7.165kWh . What panels did you get - the 8 x 188 Watt panels or the other higher wattage Sharp panels they also install?

I'm actually toying with the idea of possibly adding two more panels but keeping the same inverter. The inverter derates itself so it shouldn't be a problem should the panels exceed 1600 Watts output. On days with less sun it will give a boost to the output.

Posted Monday 30 Aug 2010 @ 6:56:57 am from IP #
murcod
Member

Oh, by the way, the Sharp inverter is rated to IP65 (from memory) and suitable for outside mounting. It is also a fanless design and I can't hear any humming noises from it like some cheap inverter apparently do.

Posted Monday 30 Aug 2010 @ 6:58:42 am from IP #
Vanette
Member

Thanks everyone for the interesting posts. I have just joined (at the Home Show) and we are looking at installing solar on our Melbourne home. We have the perfect roof to install, north facing about 20*, no shade. Perhaps not for mid summer. We will see. I have considered installing something approaching 5Kw, as I plan to use the excess to pay for our gas, which is allowed. That way the bill will be minimal, and hopefully when we are in retirement (a year or so) we will not have to grapple with the increasing energy costs. something nobody has mentioned is the fact that if you go over 5kW, the feed in tariff drops to about 17c.

Posted Monday 30 Aug 2010 @ 8:11:19 am from IP #
Annette
Member

Cyclingkaren

I had a Nuenergy 1.5kw system installed 6 months ago. I was very happy with the sales and installation service. However, it took a couple of months to have it connected so I lost the peak summer generating period.

Posted Monday 30 Aug 2010 @ 8:37:49 am from IP #
Vanette
Member

Ah well. There goes $800. Just had a call from a supplier we had a quote from and she told me the RECs have just dropped 16% and will take affect tomorrow. Drat!!

Posted Monday 30 Aug 2010 @ 8:42:27 am from IP #
georgiek
Member

Hi Annette.

When Nu Energy installed your system. Who actually connected the inveter to your power box metre ?

Because when I called them for a quote yesterday they told me they connect it all the way next to the box. then i got to get a licenced sparky or my electricty provider to connect to the metre (GRID)

Posted Monday 30 Aug 2010 @ 11:04:50 pm from IP #
CNCandy
Member

Most suppliers here in Adelaide that I have spoke to are paying the $40 a REC as they will hold onto them until Jan 1 and then get $40 thru the SRET.

Does anyone know if this is a minimum price or that it is a set price, obviously the Solar Credits multiplier will push the price paid down to x4 next year.

Posted Tuesday 31 Aug 2010 @ 2:47:22 am from IP #
benito
Member

Hi there people.
My wife and I have signed up for the origin 2.3Kwh system. Our latest bill was just over $600.00 and a 1.5 will not be sufficient.

We had quotes ranging from $10000.00 to over $16000.00. The guarantees plus the interest free loan swayed us. We look like having it installed in 5-6 weeks, and it will make our usage zero in money terms.

I will post more about the panels and inverter later. However I would advise against bypassing your local council. My information is that when buyers look for finance to buy a house a bank will not lend if any unauthorised construction has taken place on that site.

The lowest quote we recieved for a 1.5K system was $1209.00 from a firm in Sydney, and they could not say if they could install before next March such was the demand.

The certificates are quoted @ $37.00 each to us, and the feed in tariff is 60 cents per Kwh. and for 7 years

We have been told to be careful adding extra panels. Apparently we can run into a warrantee issues over time, differences in panel size, manufacturing etc, "it is always the other blokes gear that is causing the problem.

We had our house assessed on boxing day 9 months ago and we are still waiting for the documentation.

When we are up and running we will still be liable for a charge of over 19 cents per day "availability charge".

Posted Tuesday 31 Aug 2010 @ 7:14:59 am from IP #
Annette
Member

Hi Georgiek

My electricity supplier did the connection and installation of a new meter. It wasn't expensive - from memory.

The delay was because the installation needed to be certified as Ok by someone subcontracted to nuenergy and that paperwork sent to the electricity supplier.

Posted Tuesday 31 Aug 2010 @ 11:57:19 am from IP #
suesolar
Member

Hi Everyone,
I've just signed up with Origin for the 1.5kW system and this is my first post on this forum. Origin are now offering a choice of panels; 8 x 188W Sharp, 8 x 190W Suntech or CanadianSolar, or 7 x 215 or 220W Sharp or CanadianSolar panels with either a Sharp or Aero-Sharp Inverter (HR-INV-Z01-015).
Can anyone tell me whether any one of these is a better or worse option or whether the choice of inverter with the different panels is a potential issue. Thanks!

Posted Monday 6 Sep 2010 @ 12:41:16 am from IP #
murcod
Member

Sharp would be your best option. However on other forums there is a significant waiting period for the Sharp gear, the other brands they can apparently supply straight away. http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=1377141 http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=1440653

Aero-sharp has nothing to do with Sharp. A number of people seem to have had problems with the Aerosharp inverters. http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=1292493

Posted Thursday 9 Sep 2010 @ 7:48:52 am from IP #
cool at home
Member

We have Suntech panels, and in making my decision to purchase these I did a fair bit of hanging around the various 'forums/blogs' available - they seem to be one of the good Chinese manufacturers (and their ARE some). It is early days for us, but they seem to be doing 'the business'! Have an SMA Inverter, which also got a good rap...

Good luck with the decisions.

Posted Thursday 9 Sep 2010 @ 9:34:59 am from IP #
murcod
Member

Saw my Sharp 1.5kW system pumping out an instantaneous reading of 1598W earlier today. It's a cloudy day and the sun was partially behind clouds.

It's amazing the difference in the sun's height in the sky in the last month. It's made a noticeable difference to the power generation. My best daily output is 7.165kWh and that was last month.

Posted Friday 17 Sep 2010 @ 4:35:40 am from IP #
ddj
Member

I also signed up with Origin Energy 4th of June and was informed a 8-10 week installation period. I have been informed today I will not recieve system untill 30th November. Origin Energy is possibly the worst company I have ever delt with and would not recommend to my worst enemy. Many excusses but no solutions.Hope no one else is treated By Origin Energy the way I have.

Posted Monday 20 Sep 2010 @ 6:54:47 am from IP #

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