Hi all, I’m due to have PV installed in the next month 2 arrays on 2 roofs (4 arrays). The contractor hasn’t included bird mesh and kinda dismissed it when it was mentioned. Do you think I should request mesh? Has anyone without bird mesh had issues?
Bird Mesh?
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considering the hundreds of thousands of installations completed before bird mesh became popular, only a very small percentage have had issues with pidgeons nesting under the panels. However, if the birds do decide your solar array is good place to nest, they can be a real nuisance and difficult to get rid of. Pidgeons are very persistent little buggers, they are still checking out my neighbours roof depsite having had mesh installed about 2 years ago. It took them a few years to decide to nest there after he had the solar installed, and it does seem to be becoming a worsening problem. So, if your roof is difficult to access, and you have a lot of pidgeons / neighbours who like feeding birds in your area, I would probably fit bird mesh just in case. NB I live in a city where pidgeons are numerous.
Thanks binky that’s really helpful. Installer is budget quoting on there website £45 per panel and we’ll have 30 panels so quite a chunk of change! I think I might chance it and keep an eye out early doors. They did try to nest on a floodlight we have but after disturbing them a few times they gave up and haven’t tried again now fir a couple of years
I have friends who didn’t have mesh installed with their panels.
however, after nesting pigeons damaged the cables, when the scaffolding was erected to repair the wires, mesh was also fitted.
I fitted mesh when I fitted our panels
i would say it’s a must
however, after nesting pigeons damaged the cables, when the scaffolding was erected to repair the wires, mesh was also fitted.
I fitted mesh when I fitted our panels
i would say it’s a must
Hmm, okay maybe this isn’t so cut and dried…
30 panels ???
yep and 17.4kw storage, with 2 young kids we have pretty high use and I figure there are start up costs so extra panels were relatively inexpensive. Batteries hard to justify cost wise but I’ve done lots of calcs and figure a 7 year ROI worst case on the whole system
How many kWh do you use per day on average?
How much is this lot going to cost you ?
I think your ROI sounds rather optimistic
We use c. 30kwh per day average and this is fairly consistent throughout the year and sometimes higher use in the summer as we have 3 ac units 1 of which is running 8-6 4 days a week.
Quote is £20k including ev charger, diverter for hot water tank and 2 inverters (as pv is on 2 buildings 3m apart)
I’m a complete novice and happy to be corrected but from looking at websites with live use data in my local area people are generating on average about as many kWh per year as the size of their system in kw
Quote is £20k including ev charger, diverter for hot water tank and 2 inverters (as pv is on 2 buildings 3m apart)
I’m a complete novice and happy to be corrected but from looking at websites with live use data in my local area people are generating on average about as many kWh per year as the size of their system in kw
Basic thoughts
we have 12 panels, so you might expect 2.5 times the generation. So you will be storing a lot but during the winter the generation will be extremely low.
on another recent thread, I listed our production per month - we don’t have batteries or ev, but do have a hot water diverter.
so if both kids are at home and we all try to have showers in the morning we’ll run out of hot water. It’ll then take about 12 - 14 kWh to refill the tank, depending on the temperature of the water entering the tank
so if the misses is washing / ironing / cooking during the day we sometimes don’t get a full tank of hot water, and hence why I’m dubious about adding batteries.
just my thoughts
we have 12 panels, so you might expect 2.5 times the generation. So you will be storing a lot but during the winter the generation will be extremely low.
on another recent thread, I listed our production per month - we don’t have batteries or ev, but do have a hot water diverter.
so if both kids are at home and we all try to have showers in the morning we’ll run out of hot water. It’ll then take about 12 - 14 kWh to refill the tank, depending on the temperature of the water entering the tank
so if the misses is washing / ironing / cooking during the day we sometimes don’t get a full tank of hot water, and hence why I’m dubious about adding batteries.
just my thoughts
Hi. Had mine fitted before anyone thought of mesh. Have a permanent sparrow population which love the fixing points in particular! Also had starlings last year which were fascinating to watch when they fledged. The local wood pigeons are so fat they do not SEEM to be getting in preferring a local tree instead. No problems so far but starting to think that I may need to clean out under the panels sometime - choosing the time is the difficult thing. Just a point for you to consider now: How many local firms do you know could service the panels if your inverter or wires do go? I had to have a new inverter and it took me ages to find a repairer - rather than an installer - many only install. My installer had gone out of business. Luckily I found one just a few miles away who I had not previously known.. and at much better cost than many bigger firms. Oh by the way it is a nightmare finding plumbers and electricians who really KNOW and are experienced with underfloor heating - the Gas safe register is not a reliable source for this knowledge- makes you think doesn't it? good luck.
Thanks for your thoughts Murdoch.
It’ll be interesting to see how it all pans out, we have a large water cylinder run off the gas boiler which tops up morning and night currently and it has only ever run out if we have 2 baths and then someone else has a shower afterwards.
I’m hoping once things settle down with the energy prices we will get some cheaper overnight tariffs which we can take advantage of to top/fill the batteries giving us perhaps 50% of our electricity in the winter months when the pv is generating much less/nothing. I’m hoping that for say 5 months we can generate most of our electricity and save some gas too.
We’re still on a 17p a unit tariff until end of this month and our gas/electricity bills are £300 pcm, this will of course more than double.
If we can save say 30% of our total bill ROI will be just over 6 years not taking into account any energy price increases in that time
It’ll be interesting to see how it all pans out, we have a large water cylinder run off the gas boiler which tops up morning and night currently and it has only ever run out if we have 2 baths and then someone else has a shower afterwards.
I’m hoping once things settle down with the energy prices we will get some cheaper overnight tariffs which we can take advantage of to top/fill the batteries giving us perhaps 50% of our electricity in the winter months when the pv is generating much less/nothing. I’m hoping that for say 5 months we can generate most of our electricity and save some gas too.
We’re still on a 17p a unit tariff until end of this month and our gas/electricity bills are £300 pcm, this will of course more than double.
If we can save say 30% of our total bill ROI will be just over 6 years not taking into account any energy price increases in that time
Thanks for this, it’s sounding like I need to get several quotes then
Deege Solar are the installers and they do offer a maintenance package including an annual wash for £27.50 per month, they aren’t particularly local to me though
there is no maintenance to do bar the occasional panel wash, waste of money.
wait until they have finished and pop up on the roof and fit this yourself before the scaffolding comes down https://www.birdcontrol.uk.com/shop/product/30m-solar-panel-bird-exclusion-kit/
Great idea, thanks binky
James Page
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