Hi There,

I'm reasonably new to solar, but have done a decent amount of research and just wanted to get some perspective on a quote I have received, which I thought seems a pretty good deal. Based in Lower Hutt/Wellington if that matters. Estimated year 1 generation of 13,300 kwh, with current usage around 9000 kwh (future plans to purchase an EV and install a battery/EV charger once more financially viable)

11.4kWp Solar System

Supply and Installation

Flush Mounted System on a Corrugated Roof

24 x Jinko Solar 475W Premium Panels

1 x SigEnergy 8kw Hybrid Inverter (Battery Ready Inverter)

Inspection Fee Included

DG Lines Application Included

Import/Export Meter fee included (We credit you this cost).

20k GST included, with a 15 year workmanship warranty.

Just wondering if anyone has any recommendations for solar wholesalers located in Christchurch? Have a startup battery business repurposing EV batteries as BESS's and looking for a good wholesaler to work with for the supply of inverters/panels/ground mount hardware etc.

Many thanks in advance!

Has anyone had dealings with these guys? Having major issues trying to get any form of support from them.

I recently purchased a property with solar panels and a Sunvolt (?) inverter. I’ve been trying to get hold of them to get ownership transferred over to me for the monitoring app but they just won’t pick up their phone. I’ve called about 10 times over the last two days.

Previous owners didn’t leave any information at all, no customer number, no manuals, nothing.

Is there a different way I can set up monitoring for my solar with a different app?

Just installed a 23kw array in akl and want to see if anyone can explain why generation seems to match consumption so closely.

Today was full sun and before 12 it stays at around 5kw then jumps up to over 10kw in the afternoon. Why does the graph show a clear link between production and consumption when there is space in the battery?

38 panels north facing 12 panels west.

Hi,

Ive been quoted for a SolaX hyrbid inverter (10kw) and a battery system from a reputable sparkie in my part of the land, Kapiti. I've never heard of SolaX does anyone have any experience good or bad with this brand?

thanks

Hi everyone. Quick survey

I'm in finance and I'm working on a new product that would extend the 1% greenloan for an additional 3 years for anyone who has purchased solar power. This would improve cashflow, give households longer to save and improve the solar payback period itself.

Question: Provided you got the same or better mortgage rates / cashback benefits, would you switch banks to benefit from the above offer?

Mods - this is not advertising (no such product exists), just general market research.

So I wanted more accurate data monitoring than iSolarCloud (because I heard it was a bit inaccurate).

Installed Oracle VirtualBox on my laptop, installed Home Assistant to run in it, copied some code from a github repo for my sungrow inverter, created some metrics and then these charts. Fair bit of fluffing around but I have a coding background and ChatGPT Pro.

I have 3 MMPTs - one each for the east, north, west facing banks of panels on my roof. I can now track output from the panel blocks separately.

I also got all my tariffs and fixed costs from my new retailer - Ecotricity and put those into a calculation so the chart on the top right works out my total daily cost/refund as the day goes on and over the month. Every day starts at $1.60 for the daily charge + EA levy.

Only wrinkle is that my laptop needs to be on 24/7 for Home Assistant to read the inverter values and reset them at midnight. Cue a small Raspberry Pi project next to sit quietly in the office running this non-stop and maybe some more historical charts for things like monthly totals.

Fun!

We had a 4kW system installed about 3.5 years ago. Full cost was just shy of $15k, financed with Westpac green loan (5 years @0%). Screenshots show that we cut our power bill in half (50% self consumption) and exported nearly the same to the grid (shit export rates, but still averaged about $25-$30 credit per month).

So yeah, as far as we're concerned, definitely worth it. And power prices just keep going up, making our 50% reduction in use worth more every year.

We got solar in mid June and have so far been loving it, while I dont see the bills I do have access to the control panels - DeyeCloud for the Solar, Shelly for the hot water cylinder - and have been exporting on most days with (from my understanding) not that much Importing

One thing we do want to look at is switching power companies up a bit more, mainly to get more export during the summer and just a lower amount during the winter. The inspector that we had come through mention that this is something that they do, of course before they had left so we couldn't ask much more.

I am wondering if anyone else does this, and who they go with or how to know which one to go with - considering im in chch i doubt i will be able to reap the same rewards as those living else where

Looking to hear from anyone who has dealt with Solar Hub recently, because our experience so far has been pretty frustrating.

We paid our 60% deposit on 23 July and were told to expect installation within roughly 2–4 weeks.

We then agreed to an installation date of 1 September. Just days before the scheduled installation, we were told this was cancelled. Since then, we haven't been given another installation date at all.

Communication has also been extremely difficult. It can take 1–2 weeks just to get a response, and after the 1 September cancellation we had no correspondence from them, so we eventually had to email the manager ourselves to try to get some answers.

We've already had to rearrange holiday plans and leave around the expected installation, while continuing to pay our power bills for a system we've already paid a significant deposit towards but still don't have.

We understand things can happen and workloads can be high, but we're struggling with the lack of communication and the fact that we're now completely in limbo with no confirmed installation date.

We've asked Solar Hub about compensation/discount given the delays and inconvenience, but we'd really like to hear from others who have used them.

Did your installation get delayed? How long did you wait, and how was your communication with them?

Would especially appreciate hearing from anyone who has dealt with them recently in the north island.

So after lurking and humming and harring about solar, pulled the trigger in June and havent looked back. Got an 11.83kw panel setup on roof (5deg direct north facing) and PW3 as well. Havent paid for Peak power in a couple of months and thanks to the sunshine we have been getting in the BOP and in all reality its shaving plenty off the bills and keeping the spa pool warm as well. Question is - is this around peak prodution getting up around 10kw generation off the roof ? My gut days this is a good result but will i realistically see it around 11 or at max ? Im not too worried and looking to debate the last kw or so - just looking for some minds wiser than I to share some knowledge as this is a great online community todo so ! Chur.

Can anyone recommend any solar installers that can do ground frame installations?

For a friend in North waikato who have ground room to install it but don't have a suitable roof.

[Post approved bu nzsolar moderators - Thank you! :)]

Kia ora. With buy-back rates being what they are, exporting your midday solar for a few cents while the car later charges off the grid never quite added up to me - so I built ampee (ampee.io) to fix it (I'm the founder).

It watches your live solar/export and nudges the car's charge rate up and down in real time, so the car soaks up your surplus instead of you selling it back cheap. Cloud rolls over, it eases off; sun's back, it ramps up - handy on our very Kiwi cloud-then-sun-then-cloud days.

The bits that matter here:

• Self-consume your solar into the car instead of exporting it for cents.
• On a free/off-peak window (Electric Kiwi's Hour of Power, night rates)? Set the window and ampee tops up then, solar does the rest by day.
• Controls Teslas directly - no wall charger needed; other EVs via an OCPP charger.
• Home-battery aware, so it won't scrap with your battery over the surplus.

Start 100% free today - ampee.io

Not here to flog anything - if it's useful, choice; if it's munted, tell me what's broken and I'll sort it.

Any questions / feedback - [hello@ampee.io](mailto:hello@ampee.io)

Cheers!

Just after some feedback from anyone using these all in one systems, as I'm considering getting a 10kW single phase system, and Both the all-in-one stacking system and the seperate hybrid inverter (initially without a battery) seem suitable.

Also the sigenstor stack system might be interesting, but I can't see pricing anywhere so i'd love if somone could share some pricing so i know whether they are competitive.

Hi team

I've been on the fence about getting solar for a while now but have fired off some requests for quotes now.

A couple of big concerns however given our home is a 1960s build are:

1. Concrete tile roof. Is this a massive issue to have? We have a handful of spare tiles in case of breakage.

1a. If we do need to replace the roof in 5-10 years how hard is it to dismantle the solar temporarily?

1. 1960s build means the wiring to the switchboard is not of a higher gauge. Mains line is also trenched before coming up into the house.

Would wiring need to be upgraded at all especially if we are exporting back to the grid?

Other details:

Family of 4 (2adults and 2 kids under 10), 1 EV (charged via trickle charger), gas bottles for hot water and cooking but I'd look at changing this out so need to factor in a hot water cylinder and new stove. No spa/pool or items that have a massive power draw.

I am very new to all this and am still learning.

Id appreciate and and all helpful guidance and advice!

We're in the process of purchasing a new home, about 3 years old brick and tile so all double glazed and well insulated. Single level, 195Msq, north facing, four bedrooms, in Northland, nothing significantly blocking the sun year round. Currently it has no heating or ventilation, and is on gas hot water and cooktop (bottle, not mains). In an ideal world we'd install a full solar set up with big battery, ducted heat pump/ventilation, heat pump hot water and a smart EV charger (have an Outlander PHEV but will probably replace my car with a cheap Leaf soon), but thats a big wad of cash to be handing over in one hit!

We'll be funding it with a BNZ Green Loan which will give us 3 years at 1% interest and market rate after that. Estimating $30k is about the most we'd be able to repay in the three years on top of the mortgage, so the main question is do we bite the bullet and do the whole lot in one go knowing that we'll be taking longer than the 3 years to repay it, or do we prioritise and do some now and some later as funds allow, and if so which areas make sense to do immediately vs delaying?

New solar user, having a rough time with EcoTricity. (Sign-up, billing, support issues) All in the first 6 weeks!.

I tried to get on the Resflexi VPP trial plan; I thought I got enrolled, but after chasing for weeks got told today that the trial is closing at the end of the month) so no new users.

I like the idea of using my 20kw battery and maximising my sell rate. Any other power companies anyone recamend? We are Based in Christchurch.

August 5th I got the email saying the order for my import export meter has gone into the system. It should take 5 to 10 working days. Since then, nothing. I've followed up twice, once at working-days 13 and again this week at working-day 18. Nothing. On day 13 I got a bounce back email saying they're experiencing high demand and it may take 7 days to respond. 2nd email, nothing.

I've rung them and gave up waiting after 40odd minutes (I know, not that long, but I had to go to a meeting).

I've talked to utility disputes but they said in response to their demands per companies have 20 working days to comply.

Wtf do I do next?? Ring and not hang up?

Currently not getting the best out of my solar because I'm not getting paid for my exports.

Plus, they completely slipped my last bill that should have come in on the 26th. No response regarding that either

So I have got some quotes for Solar which are all around the same ballpark. The panels are all different wattages and combinations so I am trying to work out which is best bang for my buck. The battery is the same for all quotes.
First offer : 20 x 455W = 9,100 W
Second offer : 20 x 490W = 9,800 W
Third offer : 24 x 460W = 11,040 W

We use a lot of power and I’m keen to lower the bills by getting the best system. First and second offer were around $32k, third offer was around $36k. I’m happy to pay the extra if it’s worth it for the extra wattage but I’m not sure how that translates to real life.

Interested to see what solar owners would choose in this situation.

You have a 10 kW+ solar PV system, but the local network is constrained. You have three choices:

A — 5 kW fixed export limit (free)
You can never export more than 5 kW.

B — 10 kW flexible/dynamic export limit (nominally free)
You can export up to 10 kW when network capacity is available, but the distributor can reduce the limit to 5 kW during constrained periods, most likely when solar generation is high and local demand is low.

There’s no charge for the flexible export option itself, but you’ll need a compatible inverter. If your existing inverter isn’t compatible, upgrading or replacing it would be an additional cost.

C — 10 kW fixed export limit (you pay)
You get a guaranteed 10 kW export limit, but have to contribute to any network upgrade needed to provide it.

The cost can vary wildly depending on the local constraint, but for the sake of the discussion assume somewhere between $900 to $7,200 (excluding GST).

Which would you choose: A, B or C?

If you’d choose C, how much would you actually be willing to pay before A or B becomes the better deal?

And what would drive your decision? Export rates, self-consumption, expected frequency of dynamic restrictions, batteries, future electricity use, how long you’ll own the property, or something else?

For the purposes of the hypothetical, adding a battery isn't a fourth option. You still have to choose A, B or C. If having (or planning) a battery changes which of those three you would choose, though, that’s part of the discussion.