Replying to your Comments about our North Facing Solar Panels - a Waste of Money?

Thanks for watching the last video and sharing some thoughts with me to chew over.
Join me as I respond to them!
Big thanks to Dorset Solar Solutions Ltd for an excellent installation. Definitely give them a call if you're in the Hampshire/Dorset area, let them know that you've seen my videos!
www.dorsetsolarsolutions.co.uk/
g.co/kgs/RJPVJw1
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Use this link to sign up to Octopus Energy for a free £50 - share.octopus.energy/bold-mis...
--------------------------------------------------------------------
My Setup
Sunsynk 8.8kW Inverter
Longi HiMo 6 430w Panels x 22
16 on NW aspect and 6 on SE aspect
No battery storage

[@Lawrence7of9]

Just had timely visit from Gas structure people, following our gas boiler removal. Was curious to excitedly demonstrate the HP benefits to gas engineer, energy use/bills/comfort. Only criticism he suggested - as I requested removal of house pipe termination to end in pavement - was selling house with no gas connection could cost next owner. Besides obvious, gas is dead opinion (I didn’t bother) I told him how our property EPA had risen from C to A with solar/HP installed. That is it’s an investment to property adding real value, why wouldn’t future proof low/free energy bills not? The future.

[@elslopez]

I have 39 panels, all facing near enough south, so hearing about north facing panels I had a moment of “good luck with that” but I can see that as long as you are not literally burying the panels underground there is genuine benefit to using what surface area you have, even if north… my opinion is altered… good work!

[@UpsideDownFork]

We've all got to work with what we've got! 39 south facing panels is the dream!

[@Lawrence7of9]

Happy to hear downside :-) no solution is perfect, I don’t feel picked on. System is impressing me, in beginning though my choices were more expensive from other suppliers for lesser panels/string/warranty. Many of the tech insights came later.

[@stephen260472]

Another great video. I feel the need to start sharing my journey! A key point the installers don't tell you about is the system losses for running the inverter and battery charging which when you become self sufficient really begin to show in the figures. I will start sharing mine.

[@UpsideDownFork]

Yes, indeed! Fortunately when my panels stop generating, the inverter goes into standby mode and doesn't draw barely anything overnight as it would if I had a home storage battery connected.

[@wgj4813]

I have had solar panels for over 12 years a 4kw max gov criteria. Panels have evolved so much that for the same area a 7 kw system can be installed so there is now sence to install on the northerly roof slopes to achieve the same as my sunny southerly facing roof. To benefit most a battery is needed but concern is rising about battery fires so i am inclined to install well away from from my home.

[@carlarrowsmith]

SolarEdge is wonderful but they have recently changed the warranty, they no longer pay the labour to fix optimisers on your roof. I've had one go down after 8 years, the cost to fix it is now many hundreds. I'd go with standard string or Enphase in future.

[@serraios1989]

Will the rest of the array produce if there is a single optimiser failure? I read somewhere that Solaredge will remotely shut the system down for safety reasons till the faulty optimiser has been replaced

[@carlarrowsmith]

@@serraios1989 In my case the rest of the array works. SolarEdge will remotely connect into the system and try to restart the optimiser ( which in my case failed).

[@UpsideDownFork]

Ouch, that's a shame. Is the bulk of the cost in the scaffold etc?

[@carlarrowsmith]

@@UpsideDownFork Yeah, it's a full scaffolding job and then the roofy to take off the panel and put on the new optimiser. Optimiser is free replacement but then it's only £50. As it's 1 of 14 doesn't seem worth while at present. One installer told me he's changed 40 optimisers so far this year, so it's not uncommon. I'm thinking of having a few additional panels and it could be done at some time, but it's complex because the current set-up is under the old FIT scheme.

[@leexgx]

If possible, I would really recommend you install the optimisers in the roof space then if they ever fail in the future they can just be easily replaced by going into the attic (at night), I find it interesting that Everybody installs them under the solar panel if one of them fails, you’ve got to put scaffolding up just so you can pull one solar panel up to figure out if it’s the panel or the module that’s failed (if they’re in the attic it’s dead easy to service them) Tigo dc to dc optimises are cheap (work with any inverter) I would say they are more for solar panel monitoring and more crucially firefighter safety (once the control tigo unit has lost power 30 seconds later all tigo dc to dc modules automatically isolated from each other making the roof electrically safe) but they are also work if you have shaded conditions or multiple angle roof on the same string (his install has dual MPPT built into the inverter was all that was needed but I do like per panel monitoring) solar edge (requires both solar edge DC to DC optimiser plus the solar edge inverter) generally not cheap and if they’re all on one side of the roof or two sides (with minimal or no shade), one inverter usually has dual MPPT So you can connect the front and rear of the solar panels like he did on his roof on this KZbin video,, The optimisers are realistically not worth it If you’ve got a sunny boy inverter or even pretty much any Chinese inverter they usually have shade fix Which can dynamically change the MPPT voltage (the only benefit you really get is you can see when you’ve got a malfunctioning or under performing individual panel because it needs cleaning, but is it worth more than £1000 to £2000 more) micro inverters (enphase) incredibly not cheap if you want to use large wattage panels (all the micro inverters combined can cost more than three or four inverters If an optimiser fails or if micro inverter fails the rest of the modules will still produce power just the one panel will stop making power,, but If the control module fails It may disable all of the modules on the roof, tigo it does (it’s a safety feature) all systems if the DC string (dc to dc optimiser)or the AC string (micro inverters) is cut all modules fail safe and self isolate each panel and output no power on the output side of the module all micro inverter (most also have arc fault detection) unfortunately optimises and micro inverters have a lot of safety and monitoring benefits but don’t generally make you more money ,at most maybe 3 or 1% (as most string only inverters have shade fix)

[@andy9841]

I wonder if Dorset Solar cover Yorkshire 😊

[@UpsideDownFork]

Line up enough jobs with friends and family and i'm sure they'll travel!

[@Lawrence7of9]

North facing diffused definitely a surprise benefit, we have alot of cloud here too. I’m finding a distinct increase in NW panel performance relative to SE as the evenings lengthen, is that something you’ve noticed? Some days it’s almost been the equivalent.

[@UpsideDownFork]

Yes, the longer evenings are making a big difference!

[@Princ3Shun]

i talked with Artisan Electrics say my south facing roof could only fit 5 panels and they refuse to install any panel on my north west facing roof which could easily hold 20 panel.Told me that 5 panel isnt worth it and the NW facing roof is not economic for installing solar panel

[@UpsideDownFork]

Send them the link to my videos! My last one is all the evidence you need.

[@GeoffRichards_GP]

Consider the enormous price crash in panels, that "logic" is worth a revisit