Posts By SolarQuotes Founder Finn Peacock

Solar Power For Your Home: The Absolute Basics

May 29, 2014 2017-04-20T12:44:57 by 4 Comments

Back to absolute basics today on the SolarQuotes blog!

Here’s an infographic I got drawn up that explains the fundamental concepts you need to understand before buying solar for your home.

Yes, yes – I know for many of you dear readers this is completely obvious! But trust me, many folks out there starting on their solar journey do not realise that solar hot water panels don’t produce electricity.

Feel free to reproduce, republish and share to your heart’s content. The more knowledge out there the better for everybody!

an infographic describing solar power fundamentals

Solar Power For Your Home: The Basics

 

Filed Under: Solar Installation Tagged With:

Solar Isolator Switch Recall. What you need to know.

May 27, 2014 2023-08-01T15:18:59 by 4 Comments
solar isolator switches

The 3 isolator brands that have been recalled: PV Power, Avanco & NHP

We’ve recently had a number of phone calls from people who have heard about the national solar isolator switch recall recently announced by the ACCC, and are worried about their solar systems.

Here’s what you need to know about the Solar Isolator Switch Recall: [Read more…]

Filed Under: Solar Installation

Energy costs are going down, but you wouldn’t know it if you’re still on the traditional grid.

May 22, 2014 2017-04-20T12:46:20 by 1 Comment
confused man and pylons

Huh? Energy Prices Are Going Down?

How much of that quarterly cheque you cut to your local electricity supplier is actually paying for the energy you use?  According to a new scathing news story from ABC and confirmed with data from the Federal Treasury, under half.  Surprisingly, 51% of your monthly payment is, in fact, going to fund the unnecessary rebuilding of a now bloated Australian power grid.   [Read more…]

Filed Under: Solar Policy Tagged With: , ,

How to install solar panels on a metal roof – without leaks.

May 2, 2014 2019-03-12T14:29:22 by 20 Comments

This post comes courtesy of Trevor Berrill. Trevor is Principal of  Solaris Sustainable Homes and is a 30 year veteran of  both renewable energy  and energy efficiency. It is a honour to have him contribute to this humble blog. Here Trevor describes how a good solar installer should install solar panels to a metal roof and how bad installers, in a hurry can do the wrong thing and leave you with a leaky roof!

Over to you Trevor.

Holier than thou? How to avoid leaks in the roof! [Read more…]

Filed Under: Solar Installation Tagged With: ,

Is Solar Leasing a Better Option than Buying Outright?

April 3, 2014 2014-10-27T09:15:38 by 10 Comments
usa and aussie flags

Should Aussies follow the American way when it comes to solar leasing?

Are Americans are getting their butts handed to them with long-term solar leasing? And what can us Aussies do to come out ahead?

It seems the suits perched in the top floor offices on Wall-Street are finally taking notice of solar energy.  And that could spell bad news for American consumers.

American energy firms like SolarCity, a growing solar-energy giant based out of California, have been offering long-term, relatively affordable leasing arrangements to consumers for years; either by financing the installation of panels or charging users by the kilowatt-hour and selling the remaining power back to the grid.

But those arrangements are about to get a whole lot more expensive now that they, and firms like them, are going public.  Why?  Because their shareholders, many of them massive hedge funds and banks, are demanding an American-sized profit which can only be attained through skyrocketing costs to consumers.    [Read more…]

Filed Under: Economics Of Solar Tagged With: , ,

New research shows most power bills are more than halved with solar.

March 22, 2014 2019-03-12T14:25:55 by 15 Comments

Recent research by the Australian Solar Council shows that the average Aussie that has installed solar has seen an average 65% reduction in their power bills. And to pre-empt a gazillion comments – yes – this is achievable with a crappy Feed-In -Tariff too!  

They have produced a great infographic which sums up most of the benefits of solar that the anti solar brigade wish weren’t true. Here it is:

solar infographic

The joys of solar power. Cue solar nark’s teeth gnashing!

 

Filed Under: Economics Of Solar Tagged With:

Discover How Micro Inverter Solar Panels Cope With Shade

March 7, 2014 2022-07-06T19:07:16 by 21 Comments

As a true solar geek, I can’t think of anything better to do at 7:30 on a Friday evening, than log in to my solar panel monitoring system.  While most folks are settling down to Friday Night Footy, you’ll find me checking out how much power my 6kW of micro inverter solar panels are producing as the last rays of evening sun scatter across my roof.

As I logged in tonight to see a respectable 1.2kW being pumped out, I noticed that the monitoring system was providing a great example of one of the benefits of microinverter technology.

If you have a gander at the live monitoring screenshot below you’ll see that I’ve highlighted the position of my wood burner’s flue and the approximate shadow it casts as the sun goes down.

solar panel monitoring

The red circle is my flue. I’ve drawn on its 7:30pm shadow.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Solar Inverters Tagged With: ,

Chinese Sopray, Risen and ET solar panels come top in German testing.

February 27, 2014 2024-01-04T18:25:17 by 12 Comments
chinese panels and a trophy

China win #1 solar panel for 2013 (although US firm Sunpower was robbed!)

Note: this post was written in 2014 and is out-of-date. To get my latest recommended solar panel brands please read my constantly updated Solar 101 Guide.

Hot off the German Press: industry bible Photon Magazine has announced the winners of its 2013 solar panel test. Basically, a bunch of Germans in white coats mount a gazillion solar panels in a field in Germany and measure their power output over 12 months.

At this point, I must point out that 3 separate Sunpower models would have won all of the top 3 spots, but they had to remove them from the table due to a testing machine malfunction…so it is by no means a totally fair test. But it is useful to see which brands perform well despite this rare cock up from our German friends.

So here here are the top 20 for 2013: [Read more…]

Filed Under: Solar Panels Tagged With: , ,

If your Chinese solar panels are not on one of these lists, be careful!

January 16, 2014 2017-12-04T14:23:52 by 306 Comments
chinese solar panels

Some Chinese panels are top quality. But which ones?

A lot of people are wary of Chinese solar panels. China doesn’t exactly cover itself in glory with some of the low quality junk it manufactures. But, as I have said many times before, China also produces some fantastic quality stuff.

Need examples? I bet the device you are reading this blog on was made in the People’s Republic. The Macbook Pro I am writing it on certainly was and it is impeccably put together (the laptop – not the blog!). [Read more…]

Filed Under: Solar Panels Tagged With: ,

Micro Inverters vs. String Inverters [infographic]

December 18, 2013 2017-04-20T12:49:09 by 49 Comments

I’ve had a lot of people ask me about the pros and cons of microinverters recently.  I have written a long and detailed description of microinverters, but for those who would rather learn about them without ploughing through 1000 words of my ramblings (and who can blame you!) I created this infographic about micro inverters vs string inverters. Hope you like it 🙂

microinverters pros and cons - infographic

Micro inverters vs. String Inverters (AKA Central Inverters)

 

 

Filed Under: Solar Inverters Tagged With: ,
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