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New solar panels poor performance, can't contact solar company! Apolo solar.

Discuss New solar panels poor performance, can't contact solar company! Apolo solar. in the Solar PV Forum | Solar Panels Forum area at ElectriciansForums.net

J

jojitsu

Hi all, I just stumbled across this forum and I'd very much appreciate a bit of advice from you kind and knowledgeable folk..

My wife and I bought a new (to us) house at the beginning of last year, and after much though decided to have pv solar panels fitted.. After some research and a few quotes, we decided to go with a company that was recommended to us from a very savy, elderly neighbour (before retiring he was the chief engineer at a paper mill), who could not speak highly enough of his panels, and more importantly, the professionalism of the company who fitted them.. The panels where fitted in April, to our SSW facing garden, that is a great sun trap and not overlooked, and with no shade, and with a nicely pitched roof.. The maximum 4kw (3.9kw to be precise).. Anyway, long story short, after the best summer I can remember, the panels are doing a rubbish job, as far as I can see.. Looking at the invertor, they have never excexed an input of 2.4kw, and at this moment in time have only clocked up 1340kw.. That's in 10 months of mostly great weather!

For the last couple of months I have been trying to Contact the company, but the phone lines have been disconnected and they don't reply to emails.. I fear and image they have gone bust!

I was planning on doing some daily comparisons with my neighbour, as he kept accurate readings most days in his diary, and clocking up some big numbers with his panels, that are also 4kw, but are spread over both the front and back of his roof, with half of them facing North Easterly, So, much less desirable than mine.. Sadly my neighbour suffered a bad stroke before I had the chance to compare..

I'd really appreciate some advice on getting the problem solved, as me and my wife don't know where to start! Pretty much all of my wife's savings went into buying the panels, and we wish we had spent the money on much needed house improvements..

The company we used are called apollo-solar, and are/where based in Huddersfield, Yorkshire.

Solar Panels Huddersfield | Apollo Solar Installations Huddersfield

Any help and advice would be great..

Sorry for any typos, I'm writing this on my phone..

Ps, our house is in Bury, North of Manchester.
 
It sounds to me like you may have a string down. Although the output of 2.4kWp from your inverter suggests something else is wrong.

Can you take some photos of the inverter, isolators etc?
 
Many thanks for your responses... Im new here so gonna try and upload a couple of photos now...When I work out how to do it!
 
save your pics to desktop in low res. then at the top of your reply box, you'll see a toolbar. towards the right is an icon " insert image". just follow the steps to upload.
 
IMG_20140218_102652.jpgIMG_20140218_102531.jpgIMG_20140218_102508.jpgIMG_20140218_102353.jpg
 
gonna get my wife to pull out the documents with all the details on..

Gavin, I know the website is still up and running but they never respond to emails and the telephone lines are always down 8(
 
Solar panel details :
3.92KWp Solar PV System
Comprimising of:
16 Kinve 245W solar pv panels
Schuco on roof mounting system
Power One PVI 3.6 inverter
 
It would probably be too tricky to spot from the ground, might be worth looking if there is anything in your design pack. For instance if you had one string of six/seven panels and one of ten/nine, but the string of ten/nine wasn't working then that could explain the current performance.
 
It would probably be too tricky to spot from the ground, might be worth looking if there is anything in your design pack. For instance if you had one string of six/seven panels and one of ten/nine, but the string of ten/nine wasn't working then that could explain the current performance.

Well I have easy access to the loft, where the inverter is, and also have a velux window in my roof whith the solar panels built around it, so may be able to look?
 
The inverter should switch between each MPPT or string on its small display screen giving you string voltages. They should be very similar if 8 panels per string, if one string was not working then the string voltages would show this up.
 
If you go to the inverter you will see up/down arrows. Using one of the arrows scroll through until you reach:

Vin1
Iin1

Vin2
Iin2

Please let us know what readings you have. They will be something like Vin1 380V Iin1 1.5A
 

Reply to New solar panels poor performance, can't contact solar company! Apolo solar. in the Solar PV Forum | Solar Panels Forum area at ElectriciansForums.net

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