Posts By SolarQuotes Founder Finn Peacock

Grid Connected Solar Panels with Battery Backup (aka Hybrid Solar)

April 8, 2012 2024-06-04T15:13:06 by 38 Comments
A solar panel charging a battery

Batteries + Solar?

Note: This post was written in 2012 and is way out of date.

>>> Please read this post on solar batteries for the latest information. <<<

A few weeks ago I blogged about my mate who really hates his electricity company. In fact he hates them so much he wanted his new house to have an expensive off grid solar system with battery backup, diesel genset, the works.

I blogged how the cost of going off grid with solar would be over $50,000 compared to about $12,000 for a standard, grid connect 5kW system and that it would be economically barmy to go completely off grid if your home already has a connection to the grid which you can use.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Solar Installation Tagged With: ,

Q-Cells file for bankruptcy but are saved by Korean Hanwha Solar

April 3, 2012 2017-05-02T10:42:53 by 5 Comments

The German press has just announced that one of my favourite solar companies plans to file for insolvency tomorrow (April 4th).

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Solar Panels Tagged With:

Why Your 5kW Solar System Output Is Lower Than You Expected

March 29, 2012 2023-07-13T14:02:41 by 109 Comments
Cleaning a dirty sold panel

Dirt is one of 5 losses

Is your new solar system producing the power output it should? 

A very common question I get from people who have just got a new solar power system is: “Now the solar panels are on my roof, how do I know what the solar system output should be?”.

The solar power system owners are usually a bit concerned because they have bought, for example, a  5kW system but their inverter is telling them that they only got 4kW of peak power  yesterday! Where’s the missing 1kW? Most people expect a 5kW solar system output!

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Solar Panels Tagged With:

kW, kWh and kilowatt/hour : What do they stand for?

March 24, 2012 2023-05-27T15:20:18 by 92 Comments
An electricity meter reading kWh

Don’t confuse kW and kWh. It matters!

One of the most common sources of confusion I encounter when talking to non-electrical people about solar power is related to the terms kW and kWh. What do they stand for? What do they mean? And what’s the difference between the two? Watch the video, or read below to find out…

Folks who are really confused also throw the term “kilowatt/hour” into the mix. I’ll deal with that doozy in this footnote1.

Starting with the absolute basics

Please excuse this post if you think I am explaining the bleeding obvious! But I think it is vital to write a post that describes these key units of electricity in a way that requires zero prior knowledge of anything electricity-related.

So here is my humble attempt to answer the question:

What is the difference between a kW and kWh?

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Solar Installation Tagged With:

SunGrow Inverter beats SMA in Latest Inverter Reviews

March 15, 2012 2016-06-23T00:31:23 by 75 Comments
sungrow and sma inverter

Chinese Sungrow Vs German SMA Inverters: Which ones are best?

Note: This post is just one opinion on Sungrow Inverters. Click here for lots of Customer Reviews of Sungrow Inverters to see how they have performed in Australian homes over the last few years.

If you are considering buying a Sungrow Inverter over an SMA inverter – then you should also check out customers’ SMA reviews. You’ll see that, in practice, SMA inverters are more reliable. This is to be expected, since SMA are double the price of a Sungrow!

Now back to the post…

Yesterday I received my latest issue of the solar industry bible, Photon International  via airmail all the way from Germany. Whilst many people may get excited by the latest issue of Top Gear Australia magazine or Better Homes & Gardens, I’m one of those odd people that gets my kicks looking through the latest solar panel and inverter specs.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Solar Inverters Tagged With: ,

Samil Inverter Review: German magazine gives top marks

March 13, 2012 2017-05-02T10:48:08 by 20 Comments
Samil Power Solar River Inverter

The Samil Inverter got a great review in the German Photon Magazine in August 2011

Samil Inverters are very popular in Australia. They are great value, and have great specifications on paper. However I get a lot of emails asking me if this Chinese made solar inverter is any good.

It is a fair question. The inverters are a lot cheaper than their German made competition (like SMA), and are a relatively new player in the market. Plus there are a lot of solar salespeople out there that are peddling the (somewhat xenophobic) line that all Chinese made solar components are crap.

So what’s the truth? Are Samil Inverters any good? [Read more…]

Filed Under: Solar Inverters Tagged With: ,

Old School Solar Sales Tactics That You Should Not Tolerate

March 9, 2012 2017-05-02T10:52:23 by 1 Comment

Solar Power is a very new and very fast growing industry. That makes it an exciting thing to be part of, and attracts a lot of interesting, enthusiastic and hard working people, most of whom believe passionately in what they are selling.

Unfortunately it also attracts people and companies that appear to have no other motive than to make as much cash as possible in as short a period of time as possible. Now there is nothing at all wrong with trying to maximise the profitability of your business. That’s just good business. But if you are maximising your short term profits by throwing your ethics out of the window, then that is wrong, dumb and short sighted. In the 21st century your actions will catch up with you.

That is one of the main reasons I started collecting Solar Installer Reviews.

Over the past 4 years, I’ve found that the common theme amongst the bad ‘uns in the Solar Power game seems to be their old school, hard sell, sales tactics. If you’ve ever been cold called by a solar power company knocking on your door, you’ll probably recognise some of these tactics. I personally believe these tactics are wrong, counter productive, insulting to the customer and have no place in this industry. See if you agree:

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Solar Installation Tagged With: ,

How Does Temperature Affect Your Solar Inverter Power?

March 1, 2012 2017-05-02T10:55:07 by 26 Comments
Inverter positioned badly

Don’t mount your inverter where the sun can cook it!

If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time you are probably already aware of how high ambient temperatures negatively affect solar panel performance.

But did you know that when it gets hot outside, those scorching Aussie temperatures can also cause the efficiency of your solar inverter to drop? [Read more…]

Filed Under: Solar Inverters Tagged With: , , ,

Learn About The Adelaide Solar Cities Project

February 28, 2012 2017-05-02T11:00:09 by Leave a Comment

If you live in Adelaide and want to learn what the pollies are spending your taxes on then come along to the Australian Solar Energy Society, South Australia Branch’s public meeting tomorrow 29th Feb in Goodwood and say hello!

  SOLAR CITIES – PUBLIC MEETING

Speaker:  Dario De Bortoli, Adelaide Solar City Program Manager

When:  Wednesday 29 February 2012 commencing 7:00 pm

Where: Goodwood Community Centre, 32-34 Rosa Street, Goodwood 5034

(Location Map:  http://is.gd/ZrLFfX.  Car Park, Tram, Train and Bus services all conveniently serve this venue)

Cost:  $5.00 payable at venue door – all welcome!   (AuSES Members – Free)

Reservations:  To assist with catering, please provide your name and the number of people in your party via email to AuSES.Adelaide[AT]yahoo.com.au

This presentation will discuss the background to the Solar Cities Program, the expected benefits, targets and progress to date, community engagement strategies, the solar trial, the cost reflective pricing trial, energy efficiency initiatives and the home energy assistance program.

Presented by: Dario De Bortoli, Adelaide Solar City Program Manager

Dario is an employee of Origin Energy Ltd and is responsible for the management and ongoing delivery of the $65 million Adelaide Solar City project.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With:

Solar Panel Size: Is Bigger Better?

February 23, 2012 2023-09-13T13:47:25 by 19 Comments
a 410W solar panel

A 410W solar panel. Look at the size of that thing! (image: TopSun)

The Size of Solar panels is definitely increasing, there’s no denying it.

A couple of years ago the average solar panel was 165W. Today the average is about 240W. The biggest one approved for installation in Australia at the time of writing is the whopping Topsun TS-S410. This giant amongst solar panels has these super sized stats: [Read more…]

Filed Under: Solar Panels Tagged With:
Get the latest solar, battery and EV charger news straight to your inbox every Tuesday