@JN.V you inspired this response.
The answer is no!
This is a complex subject. Your input to the solution is paramount since you need to take ownership of the project.
I live in a neighborhood with many houses that have PV panels on the roof. However they refuse to be coaxed into discussion!
I’m trying to get them to come out of the closet but so far no success but one thing I’m convinced of is a lot of them are embarrassed to answer any questions about their systems…
Conversely, because I know I have a tendency to fixate on stuff I am passionate about, and talk about it incessantly, I actually also avoid talking to people about such things. I might even jokingly ask the guy, at the outset (if such a conversation was struck up), how much time he has…
I think of my friends who have PV systems, and some of them have little idea of how it works. They are not stupid people, they just don’t know a lot about electronics or kWh etc. What they can do is share their experiences, including what happened to their bill.
I suppose it depends what people want to know. I imagine that there are questions that I couldn’t answer, but I hope I would not have a problem saying that I don’t know enough to give a good answer.
There are also questions that amount to how long is a piece of string? EG (and I have been asked this) “can you get through the night on your batteries?” I replied with something like “the batteries are like any other finite resource. How long they will last depends on how you use them.”
I do remember that for a while I was posting on Facebook numbers and especially grid useage per meter. I don’t think the figures are that remarkable in terms of my grid usage (averages 2.something a day), but I got a message from a friend saying that he had initially been happy with his purchase because it kept the lights on, but he was inspired by my figures to investigate and better manage his own useage because he was paying the City significantly more than I was.
We didn’t talk a lot more actually, though I was glad that I had sowed a seed in his mind.
There are so many variables, and this maybe complicates the conversations. I’ve been at war with my electricity meter for years. And this kept on after I got PV, because I wanted the battery to last as long as possible if there was a long outage. So I have a heatpump which is already a savings over a conventional geyser. Plus because there’s just two of us we can run that pump just twice a day. We have a full gas stove, our washing machine does only cold cycles, we have LED lighting nearly everywhere in the house (I think there’s one CFL, and there’s certainly a small incandescent globe in the oven). And generally we have to a degree altered our routines to suit the PV, which might not suit everybody.
Me too!
But my lighting is on a dedicated 12V backed up supply. This is disconnected from the inverter overnight just to reduce the load on the inverter (and it does make a difference!)
I have several (seven I think) externals burning all night.
This is partly for security and visibility (I have more than once walked into the swimming pool at night) but also because my inverter stops working if demand is too low and just starts pulling from the grid. This behaviour means that my consumption from the City goes up. I’d rather it went down. The external lighting is an attempt to up the load so that the inverter doesn’t lose interest and go to sleep.
It hasn’t worked.
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What sort of information are you wanting to get out of people?
Why that inverter? In many cases the answer will be “that’s what the installer installed”. I know several people with Sunsynk inverters. They didn’t specify Sunsynk. They didn’t think about different brands and the pros & cons. The installer arrived and slapped a Sunsunk on the wall.
Same with battery brand.
I actually don’t see this as a problem. I would want the installer to install kit that he knows, can support, that he knows will work together.
I think a lot of people with PV just know that a guy came along, put some panels on the roof and some boxes in the garage, and load shedding went away. They’re not concerned about the technicalities and can’t talk about them.
They can say things like “my lights stayed on throughout stage 6” or talk about the reduction of their bill.