Sorry to start a new topic but my searching hasn’t pinpointed the best thread to post.
We currently have a makeshift / test solar setup with a forklift truck battery, inverter and I think 2 panels. We use it to run the house lights (most of our living / kitchen is underground so they are on ALL day!). We are now looking at getting a proper setup after seeing some of the kits now available and seems the rules have changed, and become easier. After pricing we probably won’t go with the kit as we already have some panels 750 w I think and we can source the cables / connectors ect from local electrical places cheaper. We are thinking to order the proper inverter from one of these sites, which comes with the certificate to give to EDF to ‘allow’ us to give them excess electricity. Seems like it is just a déclaration préalable for the panels, up to 3kw, to the Marie. Financially this seems like the way to go. Get on the system properly and add panels as / when with the savings. We had a quick look at our consumption and looks like even the panels we have will cover much of our base load and 270e for the inverter is much more palatable that over a grand for a kit. We can then improve gradually. Anyone already doing this? @hairbear@letsmile ??
Would love feedback. Also has anyone found a good price or alternative solution for the fixations? They seem insanely expensive for such s simple thing (hubby can weld ect ).
Probably more profitable to actually use your electricity than sell it back. Big inverters share the load so if a panel or two are in shade, the output can be reduced for the others, not what you want. If you go micro inverters then each panel is optomised so you can get more electricity.
Oh yes, we’ll totally optimise to use all we can! Opposite to red days, use machines in the day, heat water, even run the air con to cool the house ect so as little as possible is lost.
We think so, I’m sure it was all much more difficult when we look X years ago.
The problem you’ll have is selling back to EDF. EDF will only buy from professionally installed solar - even if you go Consuel they still won’t buy.
Your options are a kit below 3kW sold as Sur en prise (plug and play) - it has to be a full kit and come with a plug. Those you simply complete an enedis form online and your legal. If it’s ground mounted and less than 3kW it’s exempt from a DP (not historic zones).
A self installed kit thats wired to the tableau - that needs Consuel (or you can lie and pretend it’s plug and play.
Now …all the other “buyers” have stopped buying excess and only offer virtual batteries - which are a well hidden con (pay 11c a unit for the electricity you “store” plus a fee each month.
There are routers. Arsun is the best known in France. They use your excess solar to heat water - but you need a chauff eau. It’s a bit more complicated but…
The kits are at good prices right now try materfrance or allo solaire.
I’m ignoring the battery - at the moment they insist on Consuel if you admit to connecting them to the grid
Except the inverter/micro inverter does that regardless of whether it’s wired via socket or the tableau.
It’s EDF “interpreting” the regs to suit themselves. I can install a new circuit from the tableau - no Consuel required - I can run that feed down the garden and install a socket - no Consuel. I can then plug my kit into the socket - no Consuel.
If I however use exactly the same kit but go direct to the tableau it needs Consuel
@toryroo the system I have now is based on using two Bluetti ac200max’s with one also being installed with an additional battery. I then have 2.4kw of ground mounted panels connected to these units and this provides my main use elec. In addition to this I also have two Bluetti eb70 units which I mainly use for lighter loads like laptop, ipad, phone, tv + other small power when needed as they are very portable. I have two 160w solar panels I use to charge these which I’ll also use on the campervan conversion. The set up works for me as it gives me alot of flexibility, as I can also use any of the units outside if I need power outside in a particular location where no sockets available, as I have about 10,000m2 of outside area. Totally agree with @Corona comment re shading on panels impacting output. After alot of experimenting I’ve now located my panels to avoid this, but it was an initial surprise to see the impact on the whole system when only one panel was partially shaded - a good watchout!
Not sure if that’s true. We have a separate box that has both a short circuit protection unit and a unit that cuts off the solar supply if the mains goes down. I think both are mandatory for connection to the grid. @Badger probably knows about this.
We already had solar when we bought the house, but we doubled it from 2Kw to 4.1Kw, added a diverter for the hot water heater and another box that allows us to monitor what is happening with power generation and consumption.
As others have said I’d recommend going down the micro inverter route.
Apart from removing the problem of a single inverter having issues with panels of differing output (either different models or due to shading or position) you also get a more robust system i.e. if your one large inverter fails then the whole system stops working, whereas a failed micro inverter just takes two panels out of the system.
Any inverter used MUST comply with the specifications outlined by EDF to avoid your PV generation feeding back to the grid when there is no grid voltage present, in order to protect engineers working on the lines.
I’ve got the maximum of amount output allowed without the hassle of getting CONSUEL in (3kWc) & have happily connected that direct to my tableau. Being an electrician I’m more than happy that I’ve got it all right!
I’ve got that twice as I’ve got the proper controller provided by a PV supplier, but my surplus energy diverter (an Eddi from Myenergi) gives a lot of the same information as well as offering other control options.
My favoured supplier has also just pointed out that if your controller can be set up to control the amount of power exported to the grid then you can have a larger system than 3kWc as long as you set that as a maximum. As I’ve got such a controller I will be adding to my system in the nearish future
That’s interesting. I have enphase micro inverters with a box that controls and monitors them. The installation manual suggests (I say suggest because it’s only in the diagrams and not the text) that an isolation switch should be placed between the solar feed and the grid. We do have such an automatic switch.
Me too, as the enphase box does this. I also have an elios4you that monitors and controls the hot water diverter.
I’ve been considering a 3kw DIY solar system, but since moving to Normandy I’m now not sure if its worth it as the weather hasnt been that great. @Badger Whats your thoughts as I think you’ve lived in Normandy a lot longer than me?
It’s a unit that monitors whether electricity from the solar panels is being sent out to the grid, and if it is, it diverts that electricity into the heating element in a water heater. It works only if the load is purely resistive, i.e a heating coil in a tank. Of course if the tank is full of hot water, then then the excess electricity will be sent to the grid. It’s very useful in that a lot of electricity is used heating up water in a water tank, and people generally want hot water, so if you can divert any spare electricity that would otherwise go to the grid into the hot water tank, it’s a good thing. Because of the diverter, we rarely have to use electricity from the grid to heat our water.
Thats the largest part of our daily electricity. I use around 3.5kw per day using a kettle for hot water for washing up and only taking cold showers. Put the hot water on and its closer to 8.5kw per day so 5kw is just hotwater.
Our tank is a horizontal one around 200ltrs. It has some insulation but is housed in a very well insulated space but that said in this cold weather it only keeps hot for 1 day and warm the following. I believe that may be due to being horizontal as there is a much larger surface area to cool quicker than a vertical cylinder. Certainly the first area I want to tackle.
I’ve had 3kWc since mid-2020, & after our old evacuated tube solar water heating failed last summer I added a MyEnergi Eddi to run a new bog standard chauffe eau.
Autoconsommation definitely works in Normandie. Having the aforementioned Eddi (surplus power diverter) really makes a difference as it can take even low levels of surplus output rather than giving them away to the grid. In 2023 we didn’t use any grid electricity to heat our water from mid-August up until November. Even now, in mid-winter, a bright sunny day adds quite a bit, so it only needs to be topped up on Heures Creuses (all the timing is easily controlled with Eddi).
If you have an EV you can get clever chargers that work in a similar way - see here. One is definitely on my list.
I have never seen 3kW come out of my panels but now that my old evacuated tubes have gone I have some spare space on my south facing roof to add some more PV, & I plan to build a workshop with a suitable bit of roof too. As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, as long as you have a controller to avoid feeding back more than 3kWc you avoid all kinds of bureaucracy.
Thanks @Badger I’ve got a south facing terrace/balcony that we don’t really use that would be ideal. I’m going to look into it in a lot more detail (so I’ll probably be looking to pick your brains a little more if thats ok)
The heat exchange coil inside the 300 litre tank corroded & mixed the fluide caloporteur in with our hot water. This was despite it having the right fluid in it.
For various reasons we decided to remove the complexity of such a system, although it served us well for over 15 years.
As luck would have it I’ve got a friend who runs a brewery who is going to buy the tubes & control system to preheat the 600 litres of water that he otherwise heats by gas once a week during the summer
as the weather hasnt been that great.