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Are you happy with it?
Thanks. That's really helpful and the numbers are in line with what the salespeople are telling me which was one of my main questionsI had a 10 panel system fitted in February
Total power generated so far is 835 KWH
I have a 3.5 kwh battery for storage , It is currently at 99% charge .
The full system fitted cost £9.500
Currently setting up with Octopus energy to sell my surplus at 7.5p per kwh
To make the most of the system you need to do all washing machine / dish washer energy using during daylight / daytime and use minimum at night / when its dark
You also need to have a south facing roof thats unobstructed , I am lucky as my garage roof points directly south ,
84FAF74E-6255-4395-9311-0EB692AF2478 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/150639903@N08/, on Flickr
Inverter
52DF6E52-8620-4171-BB59-601FC70F7CAC by https://www.flickr.com/photos/150639903@N08/, on Flickr
3.5 KWH battery
1E739F41-6B66-4EA1-882C-04452EA58544 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/150639903@N08/, on Flickr
I hadn't heard of this - I'll look into it. I How would this affect me? Would RF disrupt WiFi? Or is it just more of a "they shouldn't be doing that" sort of thing?Just be aware that some solar installations can generate vast amounts of RF interference - electrical noise, which is naughty
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3.5 KWH battery
1E739F41-6B66-4EA1-882C-04452EA58544 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/150639903@N08/, on Flickr
Pass ? All I know is it can run my home from sun dow until sunrise and still have some reserveDo you mean the battery can deliver 3.5kw for one hour total?
Do you mean the battery can deliver 3.5kw for one hour total?
Cheers, I was asking particularly because I have an electric car to charge every night. 5 to 7 hours at 7kwYes.
Average UK usage is 3,200 kWh per year so it would last a bit under 10 hours of average use.
Of course use tends to be very spiky so it should be a good buffer for night use except in the depths of winter. But if you stick a 2kw fan heater on, it will be gone in about 90 mins.
I have considered solar panels but the payback period is too long for me.
Have you read the Money Saving Expert article? https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/free-solar-panels/
It has a link to the Energy Savings Trust calculator https://energysavingtrust.org.uk/tool/solar-energy-calculator/
They should give you a rough idea of cost and payback etc.
Cheers, I was asking particularly because I have an electric car to charge every night. 5 to 7 hours at 7kw
I'm looking at a system that generates about 6kw. So if it was 100% efficient (which it never will be) and nothing else is on (again, never true), it could charge your car in maybe 8 hours.
Assuming your car is about 45 kWh (7kw * 6ish hours), a full charge at average prices costs you about £13. Or "free" if you have solar
And yes, I need to start another thread on electric cars - what do you have?
Currently an MG5 company car. 48kw battery.
Trying to work out if the £10,000 odd cost of solar is a reasonable expenditure.
There's 2 main metrics with battery: power (in kW) and energy (in kWh).Do you mean the battery can deliver 3.5kw for one hour total?
It wouldn't work like 6 kW * 8 hours = 48 kWh. Solar production is a curve. You'll need to get something like Zappi to vary EV charge rate based on solar production. But I'd still favour 7-8p EV tariff and use solar to reduce expensive daytime consumption. (+ battery to timeshift all consumption to the cheap period)I'm looking at a system that generates about 6kw. So if it was 100% efficient (which it never will be) and nothing else is on (again, never true), it could charge your car in maybe 8 hours.
Assuming your car is about 45 kWh (7kw * 6ish hours), a full charge at average prices costs you about £13. Or "free" if you have solar
Yes, good point on the curve. Of course you'd never get close to 100% sustained over 8 hours.I've had solar PV, no battery, for over 5 years now. W-E facing roof, 5 on each side. Install size of 2.9 kW-peak but would only produce 1.6 kW in most ideal conditions due to roof orientation, so not able to charge EV.
I get feed-in-tariff, so calculations would be different. It costed £7,000 to install. Projected ROI was around 11 years. But I expect I see break even point in next 2-3 years due to higher leccy price and my solar powered crypto mining efforts. Per year, I get ~£400 in FiT payment, I self consume 1400 kWh over last 365 days, which translates to saving of ~£350 on pre-April 25p/kWh day-time prices (EV tariff). Then there was ~£400 mining payout during highest last year. Plus crypto holding of £1000+ over previous years mining.
I'm considering a separate home battery system. My goal is to use over 90% of solar production by having battery as buffer, and also time-shift other house consumption to the cheap EV tariff periods.
The system Allen F1.2 posted looks like an integrated solar-battery system. Unfortunately I cannot do that because the FiT payments are calculated using an AC meter, after the solar inverter. So I cannot add battery before the meter. I have to do it less efficiently by getting another inverter with the battery as separate unit, tied through AC mains.
There's 2 main metrics with battery: power (in kW) and energy (in kWh).
I think 3.5 kWh means the battery can store 3.5 kWh of energy.
The photo of battery looks like it's just a battery, the Growatt controller/inverter do everything else. So the power figure would be dependent on the capability of the inverter inside that box.
It wouldn't work like 6 kW * 8 hours = 48 kWh. Solar production is a curve. You'll need to get something like Zappi to vary EV charge rate based on solar production. But I'd still favour 7-8p EV tariff and use solar to reduce expensive daytime consumption. (+ battery to timeshift all consumption to the cheap period)
This was last Sunday, for example. We were away for the morning until mid afternoon. Then I fired up bouncy castle for an hour or so without incur a cost. But late afternoon cooking used 2kWh from the grid.
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As far as I know, the only help is vat free installation. There are some grants for ground source but that's a whole different thing.Would like to do it but unfortunately our house is not suitable, wrong orientation and no garage to locate a battery or any other gubbins.
Out of interest, is there still funding/loans available to help with this or is that a thing of the past now making the option to save money only open to those who already have some? [/facetious]
I'd really like to start out on this journey, but unsure where to start. I'm very keen to enure that I avoid cowboy installers etc.
I'm particularly interested in a solution that can be extended as circumstances change..... addition of EV, inclusion of air source heat pump.
Where did people get advice? I understand basics, but don't feel qualified to design an integrated energy system. I'd really like to speak to qualified engineers that can design a suitable solution starting with solar panels.
Any pointers?
Yeah it's a tough one. Practically any fitter will "design" you a system but obviously they will base it around what they want to sell you and how much they think they can get. There are lots of regulations - obviously I wouldn't deal with anybody who didn't have MCS certification with an insurance backed warranty.
One thing that I'm really noticing in my research is that right now solar thermal (heating hot water in tubes) probably isn't worth it. It costs about 4-5k to fit a system to save up to whatever you pay to heat water. However, an iBoost and immersion heater probably is worth it if you have a hot water tank. Fitted cost is around £4-500 (less if you already have an immersion) and you can use this to heat water using PV. Even if you added another couple of panels to provide the spare capacity it's still about 20% of the price of solar thermal.
I've got an Audi Q4 etron company car and a 7kw home charger.Currently an MG5 company car. 48kw battery.
Trying to work out if the £10,000 odd cost of solar is a reasonable expenditure.