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Solar power system on village house

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  1. #21

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    I love dealing with people who know what they are doing, refreshing for once
    I am 100% with you on this one - far too many "professionals" in this town refuse to discuss AND explain what they're doing...
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  2. #22

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    Quote Originally Posted by shri:
    I am 100% with you on this one - far too many "professionals" in this town refuse to discuss AND explain what they're doing...
    LOL he stood me there for 30 minutes explaining everything from the batteries to Tesla Powerwall (even his Tesla insider, whom he met while doing a 30 charger port installation for an estate in Mid Levels, said Tesla North America hasn't even discussed the topic with Tesla HK so there's not even an estimated availability for HK). Then he made comments on my exiting panel that was done by the house builders decade ago and how it could be improved, not trying to upsell but just explain different systems of setting up circuit breakers. I almost wanted to tell him ummm I have to go..... LOL
    Last edited by Titus; 11-04-2018 at 05:22 PM.

  3. #23

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    Quote Originally Posted by shri:
    I am 100% with you on this one - far too many "professionals" in this town refuse to discuss AND explain what they're doing...
    At the same time it could be out of fear for others copying them. I thought about sharing photos of the breakers and system but asked him out of courtesy. He said yes but I could tell he had hesitation, being in business I know how much it sucks when you've spent time building up experience and someone just leap frogs you by copying. So I told him don't worry I won't posts photos of the control system required by CLP lol
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  4. #24

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    Quote Originally Posted by emx:
    There was talk of CLP offering a HKD$4 kwh feed in tariff, but not confirmed.
    Hopefully more at peak times and less during the day

  5. #25

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    Quote Originally Posted by East_coast:
    Hopefully more at peak times and less during the day
    Not much sun at peak times.
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  6. #26

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    In The Standard:

    The government announced details of the Feed-in Tariff yesterday. Each unit of electricity generated by renewable sources, including a solar photovoltaic system and a wind system, could be sold at a rate between HK$3 to HK$5.

    The rate will be reviewed annually.

    The government expected that the cost of the renewable energy system as well as the installation, operation and maintenance costs could be recovered in about 10 years - substantially better than other overseas jurisdictions.
    Powering up energy paybacks - The Standard
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  7. #27

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    @Titus - any update on how the PV system is working so far?


  8. #28

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    We got solar installed on our boat a couple of weeks ago. Not enough room for 20 panels though - we just have 6 = 1.2kW system. It's enough to run everything except the big loads (aircons/washer/oven). So we now have split the system - the solar goes into a battery system which is then used to run all the smaller stuff. The big loads come direct off the marina power supply.

    I want to get to talk to CLP about the feed-in tariff, but since we are not direct CLP customers (the marina is in between us) I think it will be complicated. It's not economic as it stands as our power supply is at CLP rates but with a 100hkd per month admin fee to the marina (which doesn't change when I take less power!). But I wanted to understand the issues with installing solar.

    And there are certainly some issues with out setup. We cannot run the kettle and the toaster at the same time any more and on cloudy days we have to revert to shore power for the other circuit. The installation cost was 80% labour - the cost of panels is dirt cheap these days. The big costs are the batteries, inverter and the labour.

    But when our shore power trips (as it does, pretty much every day now since they allowed a colossal boat to hook up near us) then we only lose the air con. Can keep watching TV etc and wait for someone to fix it

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  9. #29

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    Quote Originally Posted by HK_Katherine:
    We got solar installed on our boat a couple of weeks ago. Not enough room for 20 panels though - we just have 6 = 1.2kW system. It's enough to run everything except the big loads (aircons/washer/oven). So we now have split the system - the solar goes into a battery system which is then used to run all the smaller stuff. The big loads come direct off the marina power supply.

    I want to get to talk to CLP about the feed-in tariff, but since we are not direct CLP customers (the marina is in between us) I think it will be complicated. It's not economic as it stands as our power supply is at CLP rates but with a 100hkd per month admin fee to the marina (which doesn't change when I take less power!). But I wanted to understand the issues with installing solar.

    And there are certainly some issues with out setup. We cannot run the kettle and the toaster at the same time any more and on cloudy days we have to revert to shore power for the other circuit. The installation cost was 80% labour - the cost of panels is dirt cheap these days. The big costs are the batteries, inverter and the labour.

    But when our shore power trips (as it does, pretty much every day now since they allowed a colossal boat to hook up near us) then we only lose the air con. Can keep watching TV etc and wait for someone to fix it
    Nice!

    Keep us posted on how the batteries go; are they lithium ones?

    I had asked the installer about that and (sorry I know how much of an a-hole people are who talk bad stuff about something you just bought LOL) he was telling me unless I get super expensive batteries, normal Taobao ones will only last 2-3 years of full cyclying-charge/drain and the costs would defeat any financial incentive. He only recommended it for places where you have no choice but to go full off-grid. Which is your case on a boat, if you do sail out from the docks you have the luxury of full AC without cranking on the generator. But if you are at a house serviced by CLP then he definitely recommended to go with grid-tied. Downside to grid-tied is that if there is a power outage on the CLP grid, your solar power also goes down (it generates electricity but due to safety reasons for workers trying to restore power, the rig is legally set up that it cannot be powered up if there's no power on the other side of the grid).

    Wish you many ACed summers on the boat to come!
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  10. #30

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    Quote Originally Posted by Titus:
    Nice!

    Keep us posted on how the batteries go; are they lithium ones?

    I had asked the installer about that and (sorry I know how much of an a-hole people are who talk bad stuff about something you just bought LOL) he was telling me unless I get super expensive batteries, normal Taobao ones will only last 2-3 years of full cyclying-charge/drain and the costs would defeat any financial incentive. He only recommended it for places where you have no choice but to go full off-grid. Which is your case on a boat, if you do sail out from the docks you have the luxury of full AC without cranking on the generator. But if you are at a house serviced by CLP then he definitely recommended to go with grid-tied. Downside to grid-tied is that if there is a power outage on the CLP grid, your solar power also goes down (it generates electricity but due to safety reasons for workers trying to restore power, the rig is legally set up that it cannot be powered up if there's no power on the other side of the grid).

    Wish you many ACed summers on the boat to come!
    as noted in my post, we can't get AC on the batteries because we don't have enough panels. The batteries are lead-acid marine batteries. We have the batteries because we get outages on the marina circuit so often and need to ensure we keep the fridge (freezer) and the bilge pumps working.