Advice on solar quote

S

Solar user

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Hi Everyone

I am getting quotes for a solar installation in Durban. I have had a very good site visit by a company with detailed explanations. It is for a system fully installed of 20 panels (460w), 8kW inverter and two 5kW batteries. The price is R294 000 and the quote is below. Is this price a fair one? Thank you for your advice.
solar2.jpg
 
Doesn’t specify what brand of panels and quality of circuit equipment. Also are the panel mountings made of aluminium or galvanized steel as durban rust is an issue
 
That is a heck off a solar array, do u need 20 panels? How much electricity do u use in an average month?
 
Solar user said:
Hi Everyone

I am getting quotes for a solar installation in Durban. I have had a very good site visit by a company with detailed explanations. It is for a system fully installed of 20 panels (460w), 8kW inverter and two 5kW batteries. The price is R294 000 and the quote is below. Is this price a fair one? Thank you for your advice.
View attachment 1526965
Click to expand...
They are creaming it, this quote should be coming in at around R210,000 - R220,000 tops.
 
238k for 12kw deye 3 phase inverter, 16 panels, 2x 5kw batteries with difficult roof and long install away from db board
 
Go to Solar advice and enter the same size system into their solar power kit calculator. This is more a +-R200k system at present.
That said. The 4-5 full days of installing and testing sounds like royal service, and if I was paying that much, then I'd be draconian about getting it. It's not like you get bad service with a normal but at least well known and trusted installer though.
Personally I'd want two of those batteries with the rest of the system, but if you are a light user at night time it should be... fine. I wouldn't expect to be able to run the aircon through the night.
You said Durban, so I assume it's not rural or something. You're not in the boonies somewhere, where the installer has to go on an epic journey to do the installation.
 
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Hi everyone.

Thank you for all the replies. These are my additional points with regards to the quote

1. We live in Umhlanga in an urban area.
2. I do not know if the mounting panels will be aluminum or galvanized steel. I will ask, as we are about 300 metres from the sea and rust definitely is an issue.
3. Our average electricity usage is 32 kWh/day
4. The panels will be split into three sections as this is the best design due to the roof configuration. There will be one string of ten panels on the east side of the roof. The west side of the roof will have a string of six panels and another string of four panels.
5. There is ample space to install the inverter and batteries just below the DB board.
6. The batteries quoted are Averge multi protocol BMS model 48100S
7. The panels are Jinko solar Tiger mono-facial 460 watt panels


I have also obtained a second quote form another company which is below. It includes twelve 550 watt panels. The price is less but the this system has 6.6 kWp of panels and the more expensive quote has 9.2 kWp of panels. I have been spending hours trying to research my solar installation but it seems that the more I search, the water just gets muddier. Once again i appreciate all the advice.

2
 
That's a bit steep. My folks went live this week at R280k for 8 kW Deye, 20 x 455W JA panels and 4 x 5.12 kWh Dyness batteries.

You should be getting 2 more batteries in that price and then you'd be in the right ballpark...
 
Solar user said:
Hi everyone.

Thank you for all the replies. These are my additional points with regards to the quote

1. We live in Umhlanga in an urban area.
2. I do not know if the mounting panels will be aluminum or galvanized steel. I will ask, as we are about 300 metres from the sea and rust definitely is an issue.
3. Our average electricity usage is 32 kWh/day
4. The panels will be split into three sections as this is the best design due to the roof configuration. There will be one string of ten panels on the east side of the roof. The west side of the roof will have a string of six panels and another string of four panels.
5. There is ample space to install the inverter and batteries just below the DB board.
6. The batteries quoted are Averge multi protocol BMS model 48100S
7. The panels are Jinko solar Tiger mono-facial 460 watt panels


I have also obtained a second quote form another company which is below. It includes twelve 550 watt panels. The price is less but the this system has 6.6 kWp of panels and the more expensive quote has 9.2 kWp of panels. I have been spending hours trying to research my solar installation but it seems that the more I search, the water just gets muddier. Once again i appreciate all the advice.

View attachment 1527159
Click to expand...
Register yourself on opensolar's site and play around a bit. It takes some getting used to, but it's not rocket science. By using your exact location & roof layout, you can add the exact panels, inverter & batteries to your system to see what sort of production you should get out of it. It's a bit of a rabbit hole, so don't blame me if you waste a lot of time there!

My gut feeling is your system is overspecced on panels and I would rather cut back on the panels and add anyother battery (or 2).
 
Jeruanamo said:
Paid R185k for 12x 550w panels, 8kw Sunsynk inverter, 3 x 5kwh Revov batteries in September 2022
Click to expand...
That's about right for the components.
His includes an install, and mounting kit and switchgear, the guys have done a site inspection, so there could be things that aren't visible to us, we have no idea what the roof looks like, or distances. A good install is important, but I'll be damned if I am going to pay R130K for it though, even if he is using Hager switchgear.
 
Katelknaap said:
Register yourself on opensolar's site and play around a bit. It takes some getting used to, but it's not rocket science. By using your exact location & roof layout, you can add the exact panels, inverter & batteries to your system to see what sort of production you should get out of it. It's a bit of a rabbit hole, so don't blame me if you waste a lot of time there!
Click to expand...
This is a great site, thank you!
Katelknaap said:
My gut feeling is your system is overspecced on panels and I would rather cut back on the panels and add anyother battery (or 2).
Click to expand...
I am not so sure, I would max the panels in any install, even up to the 8K's limit (10,500W), but I agree that adding 2-3 batteries would not be a bad idea. Need to get the supplier price right first.
 
RonSwanson said:
They are creaming it, this quote should be coming in at around R210,000 - R220,000 tops.
Click to expand...
I agree. Paid around 148k for 8x 550W JA panels, 1x 8kW SunSync, 1x 5.32kWh SunSync battery. There was extra installation costs involved because I wanted the battery and inverter around 20m from the incoming Eskom supply so that price included extra cabling and trenching etc. Doubling the panels would add another R45k and adding another battery would come in at 35k making the total ~R225k.

Edit: this was one month ago
 
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Solar user said:
Hi everyone.

Thank you for all the replies. These are my additional points with regards to the quote

1. We live in Umhlanga in an urban area.
2. I do not know if the mounting panels will be aluminum or galvanized steel. I will ask, as we are about 300 metres from the sea and rust definitely is an issue.
3. Our average electricity usage is 32 kWh/day
4. The panels will be split into three sections as this is the best design due to the roof configuration. There will be one string of ten panels on the east side of the roof. The west side of the roof will have a string of six panels and another string of four panels.
5. There is ample space to install the inverter and batteries just below the DB board.
6. The batteries quoted are Averge multi protocol BMS model 48100S
7. The panels are Jinko solar Tiger mono-facial 460 watt panels


I have also obtained a second quote form another company which is below. It includes twelve 550 watt panels. The price is less but the this system has 6.6 kWp of panels and the more expensive quote has 9.2 kWp of panels. I have been spending hours trying to research my solar installation but it seems that the more I search, the water just gets muddier. Once again i appreciate all the advice.

View attachment 1527159
Click to expand...

Your second quote is very similar to my setup.
Paid R205k in Feb 2023 in Cape Town.
Prices have gone up, even since then, but should be roughly in the R220k - R230k region from what I’ve seen.
 
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