Is this PV kit any good?

Morning everyone,

We live in the North of Spain and we've been wanting to do something with PV for a long time but given the Spanish governments reluctance to incentivise it's use we've been suitably out off. Recently, however, our local B&Q (Bricomart) has started selling a wealth of kit. My question for you is whether it's any good? I'd like to install a 3kW system on our south facing roof, possibly hybrid as we don't have the option to feed back into the grid.

They're offering kit from the likes of Huawei, solis, SAJ, Axpert, Victron.

Test your Spanish here - Bricomart PV kit

Any thoughts?

Victron is excellent stuff, not sure abut Huawei as I'v never fitted it. I've been fitting Solis for a few years with no dramas and not had any dealings with Axpert or SAJ..

Given your sunnier climes, you would be daft not to fit PV, your output will be heading for double that of the UK due to far stronger irradiance. If you are up in the mountains of northern Spain, I would suggest a small wind turbine might work well for you - free energy all night and in cloudier weather. 

binky said:

Victron is excellent stuff, not sure abut Huawei as I'v never fitted it. I've been fitting Solis for a few years with no dramas and not had any dealings with Axpert or SAJ..

Given your sunnier climes, you would be daft not to fit PV, your output will be heading for double that of the UK due to far stronger irradiance. If you are up in the mountains of northern Spain, I would suggest a small wind turbine might work well for you - free energy all night and in cloudier weather. 

Click to expand...

We are indeed in the mountains, well we're about 600m here but when I look out the window behind me there are definitely mountains there. Never considered a wind turbine, I'd always assumed they were high maintenance and we wouldn't have enough wind here. I'll have a look into that though, they're selling 12v/24v models at Bricomart too, could these be used with the PV invertors I've been looking at?

if you have a view, you have a draft . 

Only trouble with small turbines is they tend to be aimed at charging batteries. Victron is probably your best bet for a combined wind and solar option. Maintenance wise, it's a mechanical item and so  bearings will die eventually, but they are 'sealed for life' so no actual work to do. I don't really know how long they will last, but I think around 10 years depending on the quality of the wind turbine purchased, maybe longer.