Good afternoon all,
Firstly big thank you to all contributing to this forum as well as youtube, you are incredible source of information to all of us who are new to solar world.
I live in UK and with the current jump in energy prices has made me think about solar panels and join the community of ever increasing solar owners. For the last 2 weeks I have been researching into solar (spent too much time into researching battery set ups but now decided that will skip the batteries for the time being), we live in the main house but have adjacent lodge cabin at the back of the garden which has large enough roof facing south and hence I have decided to install panels onto the roof of the lodge and if needed on our detached garage that also has south facing roof (pictures attached), this will make the installation much easier as we we will avoid the whole main roof on 3rd floor installation complexity and cost, but also the roof on main house is not that big so the lodge is better option all in all. However have the following questions:
1. Solar kit will be grid tied, the main electrical box is at the main house, but have small box in lodge and garage (picture attached for the one in lodge), I understand the inverter would have to be plugged into the main box in the house where the meter is, rather than the small box in the lodge or garage (my electrician will do all of this, but he has never done solar) so I thought I would just double check.
2. If so, my plan is to run cables from the solar panels on lodge roof to the garage (have decking everywhere so not an issue to hide them), install inverter in the garage and then connect it to the main house electrical box for grid tied system - are there any issues with that? Currently not planning to get any £ for exporting to grid as it would be DIY and not MCS certified to receive £, however the main aim of this is to be able to use generated energy in the main house, garage and lodge.
3. South facing lodge roof has size of 8m length and 2.8m width, so if I would be fitting 360w panels, I could fit 7 in portrait orientation and 4 in landscape - would all of them need to be connected in either string or parallel or mixed to improve efficiency?
4. Past 15:00/16:00h time, some shading comes onto the roof of the lodge from the trees, only around 1 or 2 metres in size, therefore couple of panels would get shade on them end of the day - what would be the best way to improve efficiency - the main part that does not have shade connect in string and shaded side in parallel? Or add micro inverters or panel optimisers to those affected panels?
5. As per attached pictures, if I understand correctly panel fittings such as Renusol with long bars are suited for vertically run beams? In our case, could I not use cheaper individual fittings as per the ebay link below?
Ebay fittings
Apologies for such a long topic and so many questions, I just want to make sure I get it all right and order the correct kit, thank you in advance!
Firstly big thank you to all contributing to this forum as well as youtube, you are incredible source of information to all of us who are new to solar world.
I live in UK and with the current jump in energy prices has made me think about solar panels and join the community of ever increasing solar owners. For the last 2 weeks I have been researching into solar (spent too much time into researching battery set ups but now decided that will skip the batteries for the time being), we live in the main house but have adjacent lodge cabin at the back of the garden which has large enough roof facing south and hence I have decided to install panels onto the roof of the lodge and if needed on our detached garage that also has south facing roof (pictures attached), this will make the installation much easier as we we will avoid the whole main roof on 3rd floor installation complexity and cost, but also the roof on main house is not that big so the lodge is better option all in all. However have the following questions:
1. Solar kit will be grid tied, the main electrical box is at the main house, but have small box in lodge and garage (picture attached for the one in lodge), I understand the inverter would have to be plugged into the main box in the house where the meter is, rather than the small box in the lodge or garage (my electrician will do all of this, but he has never done solar) so I thought I would just double check.
2. If so, my plan is to run cables from the solar panels on lodge roof to the garage (have decking everywhere so not an issue to hide them), install inverter in the garage and then connect it to the main house electrical box for grid tied system - are there any issues with that? Currently not planning to get any £ for exporting to grid as it would be DIY and not MCS certified to receive £, however the main aim of this is to be able to use generated energy in the main house, garage and lodge.
3. South facing lodge roof has size of 8m length and 2.8m width, so if I would be fitting 360w panels, I could fit 7 in portrait orientation and 4 in landscape - would all of them need to be connected in either string or parallel or mixed to improve efficiency?
4. Past 15:00/16:00h time, some shading comes onto the roof of the lodge from the trees, only around 1 or 2 metres in size, therefore couple of panels would get shade on them end of the day - what would be the best way to improve efficiency - the main part that does not have shade connect in string and shaded side in parallel? Or add micro inverters or panel optimisers to those affected panels?
5. As per attached pictures, if I understand correctly panel fittings such as Renusol with long bars are suited for vertically run beams? In our case, could I not use cheaper individual fittings as per the ebay link below?
Ebay fittings
Apologies for such a long topic and so many questions, I just want to make sure I get it all right and order the correct kit, thank you in advance!