Getting help (an ongoing post)

There comes a time, sooner or later, that someting about your solarPV system does not work as expected or simply does make sense. When this happens, your installer or the manufacturer of the equipment may not, unfortunately, be much help.

This is when online forums or Facebook groups come into their own.

I have found a lot of good information on various forums. As long as you are aware of the shortcomings, they can be very useful. My tips for using them are as follows:

  • There are some very knowlegable people on the forums, but also a lot who don't have much expertise. People like to be "helpful", so be aware that some of the "information" is pure guesswork.
  • Most forums are seldom, if ever, visited by the equipment manufacturers. I have found this to be true even of those forums hosted on the manufacturer's Website. There will be times when you should pick up the phone and try to talk to the manufacturer.
  • Many forums have a worldwide memership. A business customer in Capetown South Africa, say, has very different needs and expectations of a solarPV system than someone living, say, on a farm in rural north Wales.
  • If you describe your problem and your use-case clearly you WILL find someone who has run into the same problem. They might not know how to solve it, but the combination of their experiences and yours may shed some light on it.
  • When looking for people with a similar set-up to yours, do not forget the LOAD. For example, someone charging an electric vehicle nightly and/or heating their home with electricity will have different ideas about what is an appropriate battery size than someone with a "typical" usage (say 3500kWh/year in the UK).
  • Users can become very fixated on the particular tariff that they are on. There is a reason that there are so many tariffs! Everyone's usage pattern is different! Even when you think you have found the perfect tariff for your use-case, keep looking!

(This is an ongoing post of things that I have been collecting for a while. I will add to it as more things occur to me).

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