Paddington Bear
31st January 2020, 14:00
Hi All,
Apologies if there’s anything in this post which sounds wrong, silly, or unlikely – we’re new to the whole arena of solar energy and are looking for some help with our house project here in Italy - thanks for reading!
We’re lucky enough to be close to the end of a renovation project in Umbria, Italy, involving a 4 bed, 3 bath house of around 300 sq m, which we live in year round. We’re close to the end, and soon the energy systems will be installed – we’re having (in short) a photovoltaic system for which we’re considering batteries, together with an air source heat pump. We will keep our connection to the grid for electricity, so we just want the system to provide electricity during daylight hours, and some way into the evening and through the night hopefully using the battery set up. We have underfloor heating (hydraulic system) in half of the house, and (hot water) radiators in the other half. We have fairly normal power requirements otherwise – washer and dryer (we’ll only use the dryer in winter), refrigerator, ovens etc. Outside we have a pool with a pump which we will only use in the summer.
Now – we’re total newbies to all of this, and confess that all of our time has been taken up with the million decisions we’ve had to make about the rest of the house. We’d trusted our builders (our geometre) that they would select the right kit and the right configuration for our needs. Alas, all they have done is present us with a range of options and seem to be trying to wriggle out of committing to anything – for whatever reason.
Some additional information about our project – in a second phase, we will build a small (50 sq m) second house which will be used occasionally as guest accommodation, mainly in summer and for a few weeks maximum (maybe in the future we will rent it out to paying guests). We will also add a 40 sq m outbuilding which will be a garage/ storage area and a small kitchen. This will hardly be used for anything other than storage – i.e., low power requirements.
So far, we’ve committed to the following (based on the builder's recommendation):
- A Sanicube 16kWT air source heat pump
- A 6kw photovoltaic system with 20 Q Cells panels; with
- A monophase SolarEdge SE6000 inverter
Some options we were presented with were:
- Do you want single phase or three phase power? Based on pretty much nothing other than cost, we opted for single phase…
- Do you want a 6kw or a 10kw photovoltaic system? Based on some basic internet research, we went for 6kw
- Do you want 7kw or 10kw batteries? We haven’t provided an answer to this yet, as we know nothing about the battery systems available and what the benefits of one over another really are
We’ve also been quoted for an inverter for the battery set up.
So – my questions here, which our builders seem adept at avoiding, are:
- Did we make a reasonable decision in opting for single phase?
- Did we make a reasonable decision in opting for the 6kw photovoltaic system, given the size of our house/ project and future requirements?
- Would either the 7kw or 10kw battery set-up be the optimal choice for our needs?
- Would either of the battery set ups allow us to more or less not need to draw electricity from the grid? I realise this depends upon consumption etc – I guess what I’m thinking is, for instance, would the 10kw set up be a beast that would rarely be exhausted in ‘normal’ patterns of usage?
All in all, we feel a little exposed due to lack of technical knowledge and experience in designing and configuring the power set up for our house. Any help that some more informed folks might be able to offer would be very welcome!
Appreciate you getting this far - if this is an inappropriate post or I'm asking too much of folks, please let me know - we are aware we may just need to get some professional advice - but we don't know how or where to get this!
Thanks again!
Apologies if there’s anything in this post which sounds wrong, silly, or unlikely – we’re new to the whole arena of solar energy and are looking for some help with our house project here in Italy - thanks for reading!
We’re lucky enough to be close to the end of a renovation project in Umbria, Italy, involving a 4 bed, 3 bath house of around 300 sq m, which we live in year round. We’re close to the end, and soon the energy systems will be installed – we’re having (in short) a photovoltaic system for which we’re considering batteries, together with an air source heat pump. We will keep our connection to the grid for electricity, so we just want the system to provide electricity during daylight hours, and some way into the evening and through the night hopefully using the battery set up. We have underfloor heating (hydraulic system) in half of the house, and (hot water) radiators in the other half. We have fairly normal power requirements otherwise – washer and dryer (we’ll only use the dryer in winter), refrigerator, ovens etc. Outside we have a pool with a pump which we will only use in the summer.
Now – we’re total newbies to all of this, and confess that all of our time has been taken up with the million decisions we’ve had to make about the rest of the house. We’d trusted our builders (our geometre) that they would select the right kit and the right configuration for our needs. Alas, all they have done is present us with a range of options and seem to be trying to wriggle out of committing to anything – for whatever reason.
Some additional information about our project – in a second phase, we will build a small (50 sq m) second house which will be used occasionally as guest accommodation, mainly in summer and for a few weeks maximum (maybe in the future we will rent it out to paying guests). We will also add a 40 sq m outbuilding which will be a garage/ storage area and a small kitchen. This will hardly be used for anything other than storage – i.e., low power requirements.
So far, we’ve committed to the following (based on the builder's recommendation):
- A Sanicube 16kWT air source heat pump
- A 6kw photovoltaic system with 20 Q Cells panels; with
- A monophase SolarEdge SE6000 inverter
Some options we were presented with were:
- Do you want single phase or three phase power? Based on pretty much nothing other than cost, we opted for single phase…
- Do you want a 6kw or a 10kw photovoltaic system? Based on some basic internet research, we went for 6kw
- Do you want 7kw or 10kw batteries? We haven’t provided an answer to this yet, as we know nothing about the battery systems available and what the benefits of one over another really are
We’ve also been quoted for an inverter for the battery set up.
So – my questions here, which our builders seem adept at avoiding, are:
- Did we make a reasonable decision in opting for single phase?
- Did we make a reasonable decision in opting for the 6kw photovoltaic system, given the size of our house/ project and future requirements?
- Would either the 7kw or 10kw battery set-up be the optimal choice for our needs?
- Would either of the battery set ups allow us to more or less not need to draw electricity from the grid? I realise this depends upon consumption etc – I guess what I’m thinking is, for instance, would the 10kw set up be a beast that would rarely be exhausted in ‘normal’ patterns of usage?
All in all, we feel a little exposed due to lack of technical knowledge and experience in designing and configuring the power set up for our house. Any help that some more informed folks might be able to offer would be very welcome!
Appreciate you getting this far - if this is an inappropriate post or I'm asking too much of folks, please let me know - we are aware we may just need to get some professional advice - but we don't know how or where to get this!
Thanks again!