Timmyk

Ah okay. Understood. By the looks of it, if I go with the ones you are suggesting then I'll need the Sofar 1100 inverter for the east roof (690w) and the 1600 for the west roof (1380w). Maybe even the larger 2200 for the west facing roof as there may be scope to expand onto the flat roof with south facing panels in the future. Correct? My builder is going to install the GSE frames and panels. I'm going to connect them up to the inverters myself and get an electrician to hook those onto the consumer unit. Hope that's not too mad a proposition.

Having had a look, I think 1 x Growatt 1500 TL-X for the west array and 1 x Growatt 750 TL-X for the East array would work well. Any thoughts on those?

Bit more research this morning. I think I can get 4 x Q cells G9+ 345w at the front and 2 at the back. So total system will be 2070w; 1380w west and 690w east. This is very useful - thank you. Sounds like two small inverters with a shared AC cable back to the consumer unit is the way to go. Still recommend the Sofar inverter you mentioned above? Thanks again Tim

Thanks for the fantastic response. Okay, sounds like dodging SolarEdge is better. Thanks for that advice. I knew the optimisers were only compatible with their inverter but hadn’t thought forward enough to think about what I’d need to do if/when one failed. Shading shouldn’t be a problem, except for the different orientation they face. Ie - all of the west facing ones will get sun without shading, both the east facing ones will get sun without shading. Obviously that will be in the evening/morning respectively with a period in the middle of the day they *should* both get sunlight. Re: landscape at the front. I probably could change my order to accommodate that. But I would need to work out which panels would go with landscape GSE frames - which I was finding hard before. I also need them relatively quickly as the builder wants to make the roof watertight this week coming. Any idea which panels would work with which GSE frames? Would probably need to be minimum 350w panels to make it worth changing from the 3 x 370w I have ordered. Then the inverter. My feeling is that two small ones are probably more hassle than one slightly bigger dual MPPT. Are optimisers still needed if all the panels of each string will get sun equally, and they’re on separate inputs into the inverter? Any recommendations for such an inverter? Thanks - assume you mean a single small inverter with input for 2 strings, rather than a single input? I think wiring up two separate inverters to the house might create a bit much hassle. Any suggestion on which inverter? By the sounds of it I can get away without optimisers, if the panels are on separate strings to the inverter. thanks for the insight!

Okay, thanks. I had a chat with a supplier and it seems the panels I have bought produce too much current for the SolarEdge Compact anyway (apparently the panels make 11amps, the inverter can take 10.5.) I'm not 100% convinced on this though. An optimiser per panel is doable for sure. Probably the Tigo ones I guess so there is flexibility with regards to inverter choice? That still leaves the question of which inverter - particularly what size to go for given the array size and direction. Any thoughts?

Got to be this one by the looks of it… https://midsummerwholesale.co.uk/buy/SolarEdge/solaredge-compact-1500m-ext

Thanks for the fast reply. About size - 4 portrait panels side to side including the side flashing would take up 4.7m. The entire width of the roof is 4.9m. So just about too small I thought but maybe I’m wrong on that. If I’m quick I can probably add to the order! Landscape I had a really hard time finding a compromise between panel size and GSE trays that would work for them; I did try to spend a while looking. One ray of hope is putting extra panels on the flat roof further down the line. That’s sad but fair enough about the battery. There’s nothing that could work? Optimisers I can sort. One per panel, right? Thanks again. Tim

Photo above is the front roof, below is the small rear bathroom roof Thanks!

Hi! I’m new to the forum and PV and I’m just looking for some advice for a new in-roof system. We’re currently having a dormer loft conversion and that has mandated a new roof at the front of the house (35 pitch) and over the bathroom (15 pitch) at the rear. They face west and east respectively. Instead of replacing the slates, we’ve decided to have in-roof solar panels put in. GSE mounts, black JA Solar 370w panels. There’s space for 3 panels on the west facing front and 2 on the east facing back. The total cost of the mounts/panels was £1500 - which isn’t much more than the new slates were going to be. Whilst I fully appreciate that it is a small systems with a less than ideal arrangement, given the small difference in cost to re-slating the roof we thought we’d give it a go. There is scope to later - with planning permission - put south facing panels on the flat roof of the dormer. Ideally I’d like to use the system to charge batteries via a hybrid inverter and then use any power in the evening/overnight as the house is mostly empty during the day. Current draw even in the evening is low. We use about 3000kWh/year total. I’m not experienced enough in this to know which inverter/batteries to go for. The Solis 3kW hybrid looks reasonable but 3kW is quite a lot higher capacity than the PV will be able to produce - my understanding is this will significantly reduc efficiency. Can anyone suggest an inverter / batteries for this array? Or any other opinions/advice on this setup? Thanks! Tim