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Re: The Climate, Environment and Energy Thread

Reply #435
A lot of people are looking at Solar panels, any good experiences the forum wants to share? Any reputable installers vs never do business with 'these' guys?
https://365solar.com.au
These are the people that did my daughters, they are based in Epping (northern suburbs).
2017-16th
2018-Wooden Spoon
2019-16th
2020-dare to dream? 11th is better than last I suppose
2021-Pi$$ or get off the pot
2022- Real Deal or more of the same? 0.6%
2023- "Raise the Standard" - M. Voss Another year wasted Bar Set
2024-Back to the drawing boardNo excuses, its time

Re: The Climate, Environment and Energy Thread

Reply #436
Most companies selling SolarPV use subbies, so you can get good or bad results from the same supplier unrelated to the panel quality.

Not sure about the panels at the moment, supply is an issue and it seems quality is highly variable. Most of the panels come through just 2 or 3 wholesalers, nearly all of them out of China, even the ones that claim they aren't Chinese usually means they aren't Chinese owned but the panels are still usually Made in China.

Part of the trick therefore is to find a good installer, it makes the difference.
The Force Awakens!

Re: The Climate, Environment and Energy Thread

Reply #437
Okay, thanks for the replies, maybe those that know list your top two or three? Let's see if a trend emerges.

I suspect LP may be onto something with sub-contractors. There is however the issues of warranty and whether the company will be in business 10 years from now etc.

 

Re: The Climate, Environment and Energy Thread

Reply #438
Most companies selling SolarPV use subbies, so you can get good or bad results from the same supplier unrelated to the panel quality.

Not sure about the panels at the moment, supply is an issue and it seems quality is highly variable. Most of the panels come through just 2 or 3 wholesalers, nearly all of them out of China, even the ones that claim they aren't Chinese usually means they aren't Chinese owned but the panels are still usually Made in China.

Part of the trick therefore is to find a good installer, it makes the difference.
Preferred the LG(now defunct) and USA made panels, the Chinese ones are rubbish like everything else they make but because they are cheaper they get traction in Australia and sold in package deals.

Re: The Climate, Environment and Energy Thread

Reply #439
A lot of people are looking at Solar panels, any good experiences the forum wants to share? Any reputable installers vs never do business with 'these' guys?
We got them before it was trendy....10+ years ago now.

At the time it was a good investment and i worked out that it was going to pay itself off in 7-8 years.
Then the feed in tarrifs went off a cliff and the efficiency of the system dropped. I never worked it out, but it was going to take more than double the time to pay it off. They only have a life cycle of 25 years before they are junk....and thats if they don't stop working sooner. Good luck finding the company that supplied/installed them as they are about stable as crypto. I don't think the feed-in rates have increased but i know power price has increased and not sure how that affects things.

We've recently moved into a new house and will be selling that one shortly. Not sure how much the weight of the panels are to blame, but the ceiling in the main living room under the panels have started pushing the plaster down and creating humps which may or may not have happened otherwise, but needs to be fixed.

Now we have a new place, with a stronger roof structure and no panels......and we have no interest in getting them again unless something dramatic changes. Financially, its not worth it.

Re: The Climate, Environment and Energy Thread

Reply #440
Our place had solar panels when we bought it.  The previous owner was a sparky and that means that we inherited a mix of state of the art electrics and incomplete wiring 🙄

We have a local company that specialises in energy efficient electrical applications as well as your bog standard electrician’s jobs.  Their work is highly regarded in our community and I think that’s the key to finding a competent, reliable solar panel installer.

“Why don’t you knock it off with them negative waves? Why don’t you dig how beautiful it is out here? Why don’t you say something righteous and hopeful for a change?”  Oddball

Re: The Climate, Environment and Energy Thread

Reply #441
Perhaps it's just me, but the Solar PV industry demanding better infrastructure sits a bit uncomfortably with me.

They've spent years telling us that the lack of uptake was holding us back, we were filthy dirty global polluters for not covering our roofing will pilot dazzling glittering glaring glass panels that roast our northern neighbour.

Now as installations accelerate courtesy of public subsidies, they tell us they can't achieve targets because "The Grid" the public provides them freely is insufficient for purpose.

At the same time they poo poo Dan's plan to put energy back in public control, and lambaste the old world energy for destroying the planet. But wasn't it the SEC and the Coal burners that built the grid, the very grid that Solar PV uses freely without any commitment to improve, maintain or manage it in any way whatsoever. They come across like a reformed smoker preaching salvation while sucking on a high-tec vape!

Such is another false economy and glaring hypocrisy of the so called "renewables" sector!
The Force Awakens!

Re: The Climate, Environment and Energy Thread

Reply #442
A bloke across the street had solar panels being installed yesterday. Reminded me to look into mine and what it was when i installed.

10-ish years ago, i was getting 32c buyback rate. Las time i checked, i was getting 8c buyback rate. That is 1/4 of the initial price.
Now its good with all the government insentives and what not, but still, its not even close to what is used to be.

If the government are serious about getting this industry up and running they would provide similar rebates to what they used to have.

FWIW, a mate of mine got some years before me and locked in a long-term deal of 50c rebate and was absolutely racking it in.
Unfortunately, energy companies lose too much money on those kinda deals....so its not actually about the environment and being green, but (as we all suspected all along) its the bottom line that matters most.

Re: The Climate, Environment and Energy Thread

Reply #443
Solar feeds create a over voltage problem for the Grid which means they often switch off the feeds for stability reasons so Power companies don't need the power and won't pay high rebates.
Current flows from the highest voltage point to the lowest point so to push solar feeds down the line the Grid Voltage has to be raised. Too many snouts in the trough and you end up with voltages above 250v and that won't fly on a old 240v infrastructure system.
Solution is to average down the voltage and make everyone run on a 230v system but that means changing the the bulk of the infrastructure which costs big money.

Re: The Climate, Environment and Energy Thread

Reply #444
Solar feeds create a over voltage problem for the Grid which means they often switch off the feeds for stability reasons so Power companies don't need the power and won't pay high rebates.
Current flows from the highest voltage point to the lowest point so to push solar feeds down the line the Grid Voltage has to be raised. Too many snouts in the trough and you end up with voltages above 250v and that won't fly on a old 240v infrastructure system.
Solution is to average down the voltage and make everyone run on a 230v system but that means changing the the bulk of the infrastructure which costs big money.
Noted.

It's not a problem caused by the state of the grid or the general public, it's a problem caused by the Solar PV, yet the renewables sector paint it as an issue of maintenance and upgrade and want the public to pay to fix it!

If this was a Ferrari owner, lobbying to make the roads better so Ferrari owners can drive faster and safer, the public wouldn't even consider paying for the road upgrade.

If the renewables sector need a grid that operates in a different regime so it can meet it's potential, then Solar PV / Renewables sector should subsidise the upgrade just like coal and gas did!
The Force Awakens!

Re: The Climate, Environment and Energy Thread

Reply #445
Interesting the US announce progress in Nuclear Fusion at NIF by having an NNSA Director tell the media how important the breakthrough was for nuclear weapons research.

Not a single mention of clean energy.

It's quite a bit of a tell about the state of the US psyche!
The Force Awakens!

Re: The Climate, Environment and Energy Thread

Reply #446
Interesting the US announce progress in Nuclear Fusion at NIF by having an NNSA Director tell the media how important the breakthrough was for nuclear weapons research.

Not a single mention of clean energy.

It's quite a bit of a tell about the state of the US psyche!

Propaganda is propaganda.

That message in the current world state of play is not for anyone interested in saving the world and clean energy.  Its a statement to show the world how much further ahead the USA is than they are.

The Artemis mission to the moon came from nowhere, and all of a sudden they are orbiting the moon and splash down.

Any statement made publically by the USA is one to advise their enemies how much further ahead they are.  Its an answer to a question no one asked, designed to make them ask that question.  In the context of the ongoing Ukraine/Russia struggle, it all makes perfect sense for them to talk nuclear weapons.
"everything you know is wrong"

Paul Hewson

Re: The Climate, Environment and Energy Thread

Reply #447
Propaganda is propaganda.

That message in the current world state of play is not for anyone interested in saving the world and clean energy.  Its a statement to show the world how much further ahead the USA is than they are.

The Artemis mission to the moon came from nowhere, and all of a sudden they are orbiting the moon and splash down.
@Thryleon Yes, the poltical stuff just shows you where the US public headspace is at, even if the polticians are not the same it's clear evidence they know the US public has a parnoia.

FYI, Artemis itself has been around for over a decade it's hardly an overnight occurrence. It was initially announced back in Obama's era, and formally funded a few years later initially as Exploration Mission-1, built on the earlier Ares, SLS and Orion programs some of which are more two decades old.

Often the media tout these big projects as the latest and greatest tech, but in reality by the time they fly projects like Artemis, JWST, and others are already obsolete or superseded, most of these missions started planning and technical design back in the 90s.

As an IT person you'll not be surprised to hear they still use "space hardened" versions of 90s era CPUs and Chipsets in these machines, PowerPC, x86, etc, etc.. The most critical thing for them is reliability and predictability, using tech they have an intimate knowledge of already, they rarely use "new" in developments like this.
The Force Awakens!

Re: The Climate, Environment and Energy Thread

Reply #448
Yep wouldn't surprise me to see rudimentary operating systems.  They were way less buggy than the stuff we use every day.  They are less capable of performing graphics intense stuff, but they don't really need any of that on a space rocket.

ECC is a by product of atmospheric radiation (this is a memory thing).

It basically came about on the back of an election counting precisely 4096 too many votes.  They discovered that bit flipped from 0 to a 1.


"everything you know is wrong"

Paul Hewson

Re: The Climate, Environment and Energy Thread

Reply #449
ECC is a by product of atmospheric radiation (this is a memory thing).

It basically came about on the back of an election counting precisely 4096 too many votes.  They discovered that bit flipped from 0 to a 1.
Yes, nanometre or smaller sized semiconductor devices and cosmic rays do not mix, so the much older micron scale silicon hardware turns out to be more reliable.

Many people do not realise it, but some of the old Apollo era electronic circuits were partly made of large scale woven materials, some of it hand knitted by artisans and forming part of the crafts panels and linings. They did this partly because they feared that radiation of space would destroy small  scale components. Weird isn't it, now flexible electronics is a frontier, life is like a merry-go-round!
The Force Awakens!