SMA Smart Energy

[PVMatt]

Hi, With a kit material cost of around **removed** for the 3600TLSE Smart Energy system. Do you think end users will go for it??

 

[Gavin A]

no, but then your kit cost is a bit high.

even then though I can't make the figures stack up

 

[PVMatt]

no, but then your kit cost is a bit high.

even then though I can't make the figures stack up

For a full PV kit with a battery store for less than ? Love to know where you buy from. Using FIT as a mechanism to pay off the full system, and decreasing energy from the grid at a minimum of 15% at current electricity costs. Was not long ago 9K was the average cost of install with a reduced FIT

 

[SibertSolar]

Cost to the trade or to end users? Be careful putting prices on a public forum...

 

[Gavin A]

For a full PV kit with a battery store for less than 6K? Love to know where you buy from. Using FIT as a mechanism to pay off the full system, and decreasing energy from the grid at a minimum of 15% at current electricity costs. Was not long ago 9K was the average cost of install with a reduced FIT

thought you were just on about the SMA kit, nto panels as well.

If that's the full kit price, I suspect you've not actually got the entire kit, it also needs the sunny home manager, and the SMA meter to enable the kit to work

 

[The Solar King]

The kit is a non starter and eye wateringly expensive. SMA told me at Birmingham it could lift self consumption to 50%! Whoopiedo. You can do that with a proportional controller.

Another five years years before this is viable in the UK at least. Worth monitoring developments but nowhere near viability yet.

 

[PVMatt]

The kit is a non starter and eye wateringly expensive. SMA told me at Birmingham it could lift self consumption to 50%! Whoopiedo. You can do that with a proportional controller.

Another five years years before this is viable in the UK at least. Worth monitoring developments but nowhere near viability yet.

Why not fit both? You will still export. The product will pay for itself... using the FIT, in 5 years are we going to have a FIT. I know customer will buy this product but I was curious to find out the view on the market, (PS I got the price removed)

 

[The Solar King]

The customer must have more money than sense.

 

[PVMatt]

The customer must have more money than sense.

or a less negative installer...

 

[The Solar King]

Nothing negative about this at all. It is about our responsibility as installers. If you are serious about this business, you will consider yourself to be a professional. Part of being professional is the recognition that you have a Duty of Care toward your client. This means not doing anything that is not in their best interests or to their detriment.

Encouraging someone to make an investment on which they will effectively loose money would come in to this category. In exercising your Duty of Care it is necessary to formally advise your client of the facts. If having done this, your client still decides to go ahead, you have discharged your duty toward them.

I take it you have embarked on this responsible course of action, thus ensuring you do not bring yourself or the industry into disrepute. As part of this you will of course have discussed that the batteries will have exceeded their charge cycle limit and need replacing before they too have covered their cost.

If your client is going ahead in the clear knowledge of all relevant information, I would again repeat, they have more money than sense. - unless they do not have all the facts.

 

[Gavin A]

it is a very smart bit of kit tbf, designed more to enable bigger systems to be installed on a 16amp connection than for the pure self consumption.

I thought that the 2kWh battery wouldn't be able to have much impact as it'd get charged in the morning, but they've got a smart charge control system linked to weather forecasts that means it delays charging until the peak of the day's generation.

but it's still only going to mean you can get another 1kWp or so on.

 

[The Solar King]

One other caveat worth mentioning. To my knowledge no one will yet have fitted a proportional controller in conjunction with the SMA smart energy kit. Whilst the proportional controller will work independently, battery charging will alter export levels from the property, which will in turn affect energy available to heat water.

It is important to estimate daily hot water demand and seasonalise this in terms of energy requirement. This alters significantly due to change in inlet water temperature. This can be done quite easily using the data from SAP and also MCS023. Having done this , there needs to be recognition of the potential mismatch between water heating requirement and available energy from the PV system. This is unlikley to be more than 20% in normal circumstances but could be significantly altered by battery charging. This is an unknown.

Having done this, the likely financial benefits of fitting the proportional controller can be assessed in terms of the savings in the back up fuel used taking into account the seasonal efficiency of the heating device. Again, standard tables are available in SAP.

One other question I have not yet had answered on this equipment is conversion losses. On most equipment, battery charging takes place on the DC side before conversion to AC, therefore this generated energy will not initially register on the generation meter. It will only register when converted to AC when drawn from the batteries and back through the inverter. There is loss in its conversion to and from stored energy. As a percentage of total generation, how much is this? It is a cost that also needs to be taken into account when assessing the efficacy of the equipment.