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Thread: Solar Panels and inverter being replaced

  1. #21
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    Quote Originally Posted by george65 View Post
    Trina panels are known to fall over.
    In qld and the more tropical areas north thay have had huge problems and had to replace thousands of the things literally. I have bought a lot of panels and set my own 20 Kw system up but the only ones I won't touch are the Trina panels. I believe the new ones are OK but the older ones had a major problem. Wonder the company hasn't gone under really.
    I have also read a lot of the same in regards to Trina.

    It amuses me that all the installers on Whirlpool spruiked them on Whirlpool at one stage, and if you didnt get them you were stupid.

    I got Jinko's which they all sneered at.

    All the installers stomped off Whirlpool a couple of weeks ago and setup their own Facebook group, as they couldnt bag the crap out of each other, brands and various other things.

    Good to hear you had a win mi_tasol, installer was my first choice over panels and inverter for the same reason. So many disappear very quickly, Victoria will be a nightmare with the current scheme a bit like the pink bats debacle.



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    Quote Originally Posted by admin View Post

    It amuses me that all the installers on Whirlpool spruiked them on Whirlpool at one stage, and if you didnt get them you were stupid.

    I got Jinko's which they all sneered at.

    All the installers stomped off Whirlpool a couple of weeks ago and setup their own Facebook group, as they couldnt bag the crap out of each other, brands and various other things.
    I was looking at whirlpool earlier in the year. The installer guys were a bunch of self important tossers. Only one panel to buy, LG.
    One guy started asking a lot of questions and pointing out some inconvenient facts and they all had a hissy fit. Someone else said they were buying Cheaper Jinko's and he was made out to be an idiot.
    No one could really point to anything wrong with them other than you paid a lot to have the extra warranty of the LG's. BFD!

    I pointed out the worthlessness of a 25 yr warranty. They would only replace the faulty Panel(s) not the whole system. In 15 years time I'll guarantee the current panels won't be compatible with what is being installed now. If you have a problem with an LG in a decade to come, your system will be down that much and you'll have a couple of useless new panels sitting in the shed or YOU will have to pay to have the rest of the system renewed to get full production out of it again.... which makes the whole 25yr warranty useless. Of course that is if LG, their local distributors or anyone else involved decides to actually honour the warranty at all and does not put it down to wear and tear, acts of god or other escape clauses.
    People are renewing systems now after 5-7 years because they can get so much more powerout of the newer panels.

    I doubt many will hang on to their old systems for 25 years especially if the tech evolves and they can get 3x or more the power they are getting now. If everyone has an EV or 3 In the garage they want to charge up, No one is going to be hanging onto a 5KW system when they could have one cranking out 25 Kw.

    Other thing is most Aussies change homes every 7 years by stats. I think that's a bit short, probably allowing for renters rather than owners but the question would be if you intend to be where you are for the next 25 years or you might pull stumps and go elsewhere in 10 or 15 therefore again making a 25 yr warranty useless. Better to get a good quality but less expensive panel like a Jinko IMHO and get a faster return on the investment and then in 10 years when the warranty is up, see if it's not worthwhile replacing it with a newer and more efficient system. you will have made you money back on it well and truly anyway.

    I also looked at some of the WP installers Websites and FB pages. What an UNsurprise to see pics of them on junket tours OS provided by.... Geewizz, LG!!
    I'm sure that had nothing to do with their apparent Bias or favoritism of the brand at all. Much.
    Might be worth having a look there again if all the blowhards have pissed off but I doubt it. The sites No DIY electrical idiotic arse covering policy pretty much negated anything I was interested in and took away any chance of learning. The endless what panels/ system/ installer questions were pretty boring as were the " Is this a good price?" questions.

    Personally I'm much more into reading about guys doing their own off grid systems, building their own inverters or modding them and coming up with new and innovative ideas rather than just sprouting about rules and regulations.

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    Work has been completed, the inverter is an ABB, not sure what the panels are, haven’t received any paperwork. There are 19 of them - pretty sure I used to have more, but are probably a different size.

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    Larger output panels are also larger in physical size, usually width.

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    Yes they are wider, however I still have racking space left over. I can't increase the array size as I am on a rather generous feed in tariff (0.44) until 2028 and the max array is 5 KW.

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    That is a great feed in. What is the cost of off peak and the power you purchase?

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    0.2105 for off peak and 0.25298 normal. Having said that I haven’t paid a power bill since the system was installed, the pay me! Then again we only get one choice of provider.

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    And who would that provider be? At those rates, I'll sigh up as well if they are in my area.

    For a FIT like that and those consumption rates, have to be about the best i have heard of!

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    Ergon. It was a deal done by the QLD state government to encourage people to put solar on their roofs about 6 or 7 years ago, no longer available to new users.

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    33.31 kWh generated today with the new panels with 28 exported 😀

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    Did you go home at all?

    I can easy burn 50Kwh a day and people go on about how little power they used then you find out that everything they can possibly have runs on gas where I am 100% electric.
    Even so, how do you ONLY use 5 Kwh a day?? The aerator on my waste water system uses 3.5Kwh/ day. That is a VERY low consumption.

    Do you own a fridge or a TV?? :0)

    I am surprised you are able to renew your system and continue to get the old FIT or renew that. Here in NSW I think it was a 7 Yr deal and was only applicable to the original system which was pretty low powered by todays standards. I know a mate got it on his 1.5 system and after a few years wanted to increase his capacity but he would loose the fit if he did that. At one stage he had over $500 credit on his account and when he asked about getting the money, he was told it would be credited to any usage charges. by that time he hadn't had a bill in 3 years so the question was why and when would he ever get a bill? The fit ended and far as I know they never paid him out. He got a 5Kw system added to the roof and then told the old company where they could shove their power when he changed to someone else.

    He was on .60c but I think now is on 12. Makes next to nothing but doesn't care as long as he does not have to pay.

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    There’s only 2 of us, we don’t watch much TV, have solar hot water, the bore and pool pumps run off peak. Plus we both work during the day and the dog doesn’t use much power. Last bill shows 491 KWH peak and 478 off peak for 3 months, we exported 1,688.

    The reason we didn’t lose the FIT was because it was a warranty replacement.

    And the new panels are Trina 270w
    Last edited by mi_tasol; 07-11-18 at 09:08 PM.

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