Dillsue

As I understand things, the PV industry is running flat out and seemingly install prices have gone up noticeably this spring/summer. I know personally theres been material shortages. If you get a quote now youll likely be asked to pay more than you would have 6 months ago so it might be worth putting things on ice for a few months hoping that things calm down in the autumn/winter?? That said the October price cap hike might fire up the industry further????

Technically you cant 100% do a DIY install as you need a qualified spark to test and certify the install. You can do all the work but you need a spark to test before you connect up to the mains. That said, theres lots that dont do that.

Unless youve specifically installed a system to monitor export and throttle generation if you start exporting, any excess just goes to the grid. Unless youve got a DNO restriction on what you can export, I cant see a reason why you would not want to let excess go to the grid.

If you want to connect to the UK grid, Im pretty sure the kit you use has to have a manufscturers cert on the ENA type approved database. CE/UKCAS/MCS has nothing to do with the ENA type approval. Best thing for you to do is work out who your DNO is then ask them. Id be comfortable betting my kids that on the G98 notification or the G99 application form that the principle thing they want to know about is the ENA type approval cert.

I dont think thats correct!! To connect to the grid your inverter needs to be ENA G98/G99 compliant, no MCS required. MCS is an optional quality certification that allows you to get paid for export generation. We had G99 approval to connect a second G98 inverter and theres no MCS involved.

I think its typically twice that at £6k for a 4kwp

If it was wired in twin and earth or SWA youd have the same problem of separating the live conductor to get a CT round it. Equally problematic with twin and earth/SWA/flex/YY. Theres usually enough space inside a consumer unit to get a CT on the PV live wire, certainly with Owl CTs

YY = flex which is used for power and control. The Eland cables link raises specific concerns about the metallic braid on CY and SY but nothing specific about YY. Heres a link to Lapps YY offering which specifically states used for power https://lapplimited.lappgroup.com/products/yy-cable.html YY/flex is unarmoured double insulated which is exactly the same protection as twin and earth. I think its fair to assume the spark that did the OPs install is comfortable using YY/flex and as its a new build will have almost certainly been signed off by a qualified spark.........you would assume!!

Yes. Have a look on the ENA inverter database for any make/model youre thinking of buying to verify the G98 cert. If a manufacturer has bothered to type test and certify their inverter, Id be fairly comfortable buying their kit

CE marking is potentially meaningless for a personal import from outside the EU. If something dodgy injures you who you gonna complain to...... a company in China whos name you cant pronounce. As mentioned a few years ago rumour has it chinese companies were using a very similar CE mark that they said was a "China Export" mark and noghing to do with European CE marking

Whys that? You can get "flex"/YY cable in a big range of sizes capable of handling much more than 2.5kw.

If its a new build it shouldnt be too hard to track down the spark that installed the system via the site agent/builder. Failing that if youve not been given an in home display for your smart meter youll likely be able to get one from your eleccy supplier or off ebay. If you want to see what youre generating without going in the loft, you can get simple wireless energy meters that fit round the live conductor of the cable from your inverter and transmit to a small display- have a look at Owl Micro as an example. Youll likely need to get a spark to fit the clamp that measures the current depending on your competancy

Spot on. If DC connected, the inverter does the overall limiting whether its from PV, batteries or both. Technically you should tell the DNO about the change of inverter and if the new and old have the same limited output and have a manufacturers cert on the ENA database there'd be no issue

If the batteries are AC coupled then they have the potential to feed into the grid in addition to the 6kw PV you have approval to export. If your batteries can push out 5kw and your PV push out 6kw then your DNO will want to assess you potential export as 11kw.

Ah, could be that variant of HD wave

Each to their own! Thanks for the detailed explanation of your setup. Being non techy Id be sticking to standard SE kit. Your SE8000H inverter does all the battery charge management without a StorEdge interface?? SE do an xxxx- S4 variant of the StorEdge interface which is intended to be used with the HD wave inverters and I cant work out why that is needed as your HD wave inverter is managing the battery on its own. Anyone know why??

So in the summer your inverter will limit generation to circa 6kw. Spring, autumn and winter its likely the array will limit what you generate so I would squeeze in as many panels as you can to maximise generation for the majority of the year outside the summer peak. The maximum DC input figures manufacturers state are when all panels are facing the same way so are all generating at max at the same time. You can massively oversize your array if the panels are orientated differently so not hitting peak generation at the same time. Our SE inverter has a max 5250w DC input but currently has 6.4kwp panels connected with a further 2kwp to be added in the next few weeks. With 2kwp facing SE, 3.2kwp facing SW and 3.2kwp facing NW, PVGIS figures for the last 2 years say max we'll generate is just over 5kw so hopefully no smoke from the inverter! If youve got the space and funds, Id definitely oversize your array up to the manufacturers max rating or beyond if you want to crunch the figures.

Are you using 100% solaredge kit? SE6000H inverter, maybe storedge interface, SE or LG battery pack and SE energy meter?? Trying to understand options for adding a battery.

Hopefully outputs ramped up a bit now??

Quick look and I think thats for earlier inverters with a display. Now theyve ditched the display its all configured through SetApp

That all looks good. Theres some limited diagnostics available from stick of leds under the inverter but need to get SetApp working to see whats really going on.

Is the 10 volts the correct polarity? Should be marked on the underside of the inverter which is pos and neg. The female MC4 PIN is positive but dont forget youre looking at the metal pins and not the plastic housing.

For commissioning the HD wave inverters without display, theres no need for an external antenna as the inverter creates a local short range wifi signal to allow set app to connect. Your phone needs to be near the inverter to pick up the signal. My son in law setup the inverter we installed for him a few months back and it wasnt particularly intuitive what you had to do. Once it was up and running he thought he knew where hed gone wrong but I cant remember what he said!!

Lots of options already offered but something worth considering is your proximity to civilisation and likelyhood of extended power cuts. In the past weve been without electricity for 3 days over xmas so we would never rely on a full electric heating solution such HP. We currently heat with WBS and an LPG boiler as backup. DHW is from solar thermal with top up from the WBS in the winter. A small genny runs any or all of those if the power goes off which is typically a couple of days a year. If we go to a HP in the future it will be in addition to the WBS and bolier. If you include a large buffer now youll be able to have both gas and ASHP if youre happy to have 2 x standing charges. If youre even a touch remote get your spark to put in generator changeover switch and buy a small genny

Not sure how valid that schematic is as AFAIK if the Tesla gateway is used for power cut backup, it needs to be positioned between incoming supply and consumer unit so it can disconnect the house from the grid.