Domestic solar system

[MisterB]

West Suffolk council just did this as well. Our final quote was £9000 for 12 panels incl installation, and £13000 with storage batteries.
This was on a bungalow roof south facing. Still thinking about it.
Phil

I suppose it all comes down to the size of the installation in terms of KW not the number of panels and also what size battery they are suggesting, before you can really judge the price.

 

[mikebeaches]

That’s very interesting and reassuring. I’ve got a local solar company coming round next week to quote. I’m going through the last few years electric bills to ascertain our usage.

I also checked our usage prior to seeing the surveyor/salesman.

When he saw our figures, he said "Oh, you don't really need such a big system, if that's all you use" And I said, we want to use more electricity; have a bigger surplus to export and may in future have an air-source heat pump and / or an electric car. Also, we want to be able to try to get some sort of useable contribution in the winter months, even if only small. Because we'd got the roof space, and the additional cost for going large was not that much more, I said we'd have 20 x 375-watt panels.

We had a similar discussion when it came to battery storage "Would you like 3.25 kWh; 6.5 kWh or 9.75 kWh of storage capacity? And I said, what's wrong with 13 kWh? Again, he didn't understand why I wanted that much. And with hindsight, I wish I'd bought more, but hey-ho...

These size/specification/price negotiations were going on last December, and of course he was fixated on calculating the pay-back period - and I wasn't. As it's turned out I'm pleased we had a bigger system than recommended.

 

[Coolcats]

Suffolk Country Council were running a scheme called Solar Together, you join and then at a set date installers are supposed to bid for the opportunity to quote and you get it 27% cheaper. Just had mine its from Greenscape £9818 thats for 16 panels. If I accept this quote I then have to pay Greenscape £150 to come around and do a proper quote which could be totally different. I shan't be bothering.

When you look at what you would get with that money in a bank and if your exporting you may find both the savings and export gives a far better return on that cash than any bank

 

[mikebeaches]

When you look at what you would get with that money in a bank and if your exporting you may find both the savings and export gives a far better return on that cash than any bank

That was certainly our view.

 

[olley]

When you look at what you would get with that money in a bank and if your exporting you may find both the savings and export gives a far better return on that cash than any bank

I am 72, you have to think "will I be dead before it pays for itself"
Secondly, would I be better to spend that money insulating the bungalow even more.
I already have cavity wall, loft and UPC double glazing all round, but more could be done like external wall insulation or triple glazing.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[MisterB]

I am 72, you have to think "will I be dead before it pays for itself"
Secondly, would I be better to spend that money insulating the bungalow even more.
I already have cavity wall, loft and UPC double glazing all round, but more could be done like external wall insulation or triple glazing.

I am a big fan of home battery storage BUT as a principle I think it's better to reduce heat loss than use more energy to compensate for that heat loss. There comes a point however when the cost of reducing heat loss outweighs the cost (and benefits) of storing produced (solar or wind) energy. That point is probably near to where simple and easy methods are exhausted.

Where those two intersect is also affected by the length of time they are active for. Insulation should in theory last forever whereas energy storage and production equipment (currently) won't last forever.

I think energy storage and production should be considered when all the simple and easy insulation methods are exhausted.

At 72 I would be looking to get my money back in savings in as short a period of possible, so solar and battery storage might be worth looking at closely.

 

[Coolcats]

I am 72, you have to think "will I be dead before it pays for itself"
Secondly, would I be better to spend that money insulating the bungalow even more.
I already have cavity wall, loft and UPC double glazing all round, but more could be done like external wall insulation or triple glazing.

As they say its your money and you choose to spend it how you wish, Given the insulation levels you have said you have done I suspect the ROI would be after than you may think add about another £5K and you could have a decent battery set to go with it which would mean you would probably be energy independent. You would still probably be dead by adding external insulation or triple glazed windows.

Not giving money to the energy B'tards gives a huge amount of satisfaction and quite life affirming

 

[olley]

Getting a rough quote from Greenroute energy this afternoon, they work of Google sat view.
If your then interested they come round and discuss it all with you.
Guy was saying it's all vat free, but any additional batteries bought later have vat added to them.

 

[olley]

The quote is £12400.00
That's what's below inc fitting.

 

[MisterB]

i think you need much more battery storage to be honest. if it was me i would try to get on a low electricity tariff for 'off peak' and increase the battery storage by at least 2 times the amount they suggest - they are offering you (i assume) over 7kw of solar per hour - when would you ever use that amount per hour when its generating at its highest, ie the summer period?

i can see it giving you some (poss all) free electricity for you to use when the sun is shining, even in winter when the output might drop to 2 kw per hour, but my concern is that all the energy you dont use goes back to the grid (you only have 5kw storage - and if you dont discharge lower that 10% or charge over 85% then your actual capacity is more like 3.75kw) - yes they may pay you up to 15p a kw, but then you have to buy it back at a price at least twice that much when you need it .....

dont look at solar in isolation, dont look at batteries in isolation either, they should compliment each other and your quote seems heavily in favour of solar.

try your energy provider and see if you can go onto an off peak tariff in the future because thats an important part of the equation ie being able to buy cheap electricity and store until you need to use it when electricity is more expensive

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Coolcats]

The quote is £12400.00
That's what's below inc fitting.
View attachment 680771

Not a bad price, you may want to consider a 3rd battery and Tigo optimisers. the solar panels are normally installed in a string the issue is is if one of those panels degrades by x% it drags them all down to that same level of performance so to ensure you get maximum performance from each panel ideally fit the Tigo's also consider a heat sensor for the batteries. The Solis will have a spare Ethernet port with means you can create your own management system should you feel inclined, this web site has a blog and scripts

 

[Bessy765]

We have 16 x 375 watt panels and 2 x 6.2 batteries came out at £12700

 

[stevec]

We have 16 x 375 watt panels and 2 x 6.2 batteries came out at £12700

Who was that supplied by?

 

[MisterB]

We have 16 x 375 watt panels and 2 x 6.2 batteries came out at £12700

that seems like a more realistic set of figures and components. have you any performance results you are happy to share?

 

[autorouter]

I see there are two Pylontech US2000 batteries listed. They are 2.4kWh each. Pylontech also do a US3000 and US5000 model, which are 3.3kWh and 4.8kWh respectively. It works our less expensive per kWh to get the larger batteries, so if you intend to go for more battery storage you could consider this. Pylontech batteries of all sizes work well together, it's a 5-minute job to add more and reconfigure the battery bank.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[olley]

I did notice that but thought it might be because you couldn't mix sizes. Thanks for the info.
Is there a limit to the size of battery bank you can go to.
I got sent a quote for Tigos £55 each and extra pylon us2000 at £1150 each additional one

 

[olley]

Got another rough quote today. 4Kw of panels for £6500 and 13.5Kw Tesla powerwall for £9900 both plus vat although they do say if ordered at the sametime there's no vat. 12 months waiting list for powerwall.
From the email they don't mention anything but the powerwall, is their any major advantage over other battery systems anyone know?

 

[autorouter]

Is there a limit to the size of battery bank you can go to.

In one of the manuals it says up to 16 units. That's probably sufficient for most domestic storage. However I have a feeling that battery storage will escalate almost as sharply as memory sizes escalated for the early PCs. 38kWh sounds way OTT at present, but I'm sure in a few years it will seem tiny.

 

[Bessy765]

that seems like a more realistic set of figures and components. have you any performance results you are happy to share?

Just had the last four panels and the batteries fitted. Had to have 2 x 5.8kw as the original ones were on back order. Today is overcast with occasional sunny spells, these are on my garage roof so only about a 10 degreesslope. At the moment they are putting 2.382 w into the batteries, nothing major on in the house, tall upright freezer, under worktop larder fridge, Environment positive pressure ventilation unit, one 36” tv on standby and one Ipad on charge. Very pleased with it so far.

batteries installed on the afternoon of the 27/10/2022

 

[OldAgeTravellers]

Hi,
I am in the process of getting quotes for a solar and battery system, it has taken a year to get anybody to even talk to me though so I fear that I have missed the boat, but we have only been in the house a year.
The front of our house faces almost due south actually 2deg to the east. but the roof angle is 60deg which should be good in the low winter sun. Because of this angle and the fact that we have an enormous amount of pigeons as well as the looks we are looking at an in-roof system which has a limit of 60 deg I know it is much more expensive but the look of the installation is important to us as the house is very prominent.
We have finally started getting quotes but annoyingly all you get is the bottom line no itemisation. I show one quote below. A previous one from the same company but with only 13 panels and using the cheaper Growatt kit was £15.26k again not itemised.
We are in our late 70's but to me it is just another investment which I estimate will produce about a 10% return. I am not interested in payback time.
I am a great fan of running everything locally and not relying on cloud based servers especially if controlled by China and I understand that Solar Edge systems play well with HomeAssistant which at present completely runs my house offline.
Any comments and especially places for further research are welcomed I am devouring YouTube channels at the moment.
The trouble is that Solar is the new double glazing with cowboys crawling from under their rocks.
I know this started as a DIY thread but seems to have morphed into a general solar interest discussion. My apologies to the OP if it is distracting from his point and I will start another thread.
Steve.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[EuroTrotters]

A lot of our neighbours have solar in Spain.

A friend who has had solar in Spain has said it’s not worth it as it takes too long to pay back.

But we have a swimming pool heat pump and I’ve installed an electric hot water tank as a backup in-case the boiler fails.

So I think our house would benefit greatly. Iberdrola quoted me over €17,000 for a system (without batteries). I’m trying to find the quote to see how big the system was.

So I’m looking at a DIY Instalation. Just not sure where to start. Installed lots of motorhome and caravan solar, but that a different and much easier task.

This is my backup hot water for summer rentals. First photo

How many kw’s do we guess my neighbour has (has this on Two sides).

 

[Coolcats]

Hi,
I am in the process of getting quotes for a solar and battery system, it has taken a year to get anybody to even talk to me though so I fear that I have missed the boat, but we have only been in the house a year.
The front of our house faces almost due south actually 2deg to the east. but the roof angle is 60deg which should be good in the low winter sun. Because of this angle and the fact that we have an enormous amount of pigeons as well as the looks we are looking at an in-roof system which has a limit of 60 deg I know it is much more expensive but the look of the installation is important to us as the house is very prominent.
We have finally started getting quotes but annoyingly all you get is the bottom line no itemisation. I show one quote below. A previous one from the same company but with only 13 panels and using the cheaper Growatt kit was £15.26k again not itemised.
We are in our late 70's but to me it is just another investment which I estimate will produce about a 10% return. I am not interested in payback time.
I am a great fan of running everything locally and not relying on cloud based servers especially if controlled by China and I understand that Solar Edge systems play well with HomeAssistant which at present completely runs my house offline.
Any comments and especially places for further research are welcomed I am devouring YouTube channels at the moment.
The trouble is that Solar is the new double glazing with cowboys crawling from under their rocks.
I know this started as a DIY thread but seems to have morphed into a general solar interest discussion. My apologies to the OP if it is distracting from his point and I will start another thread.
Steve.

View attachment 687498

Couple of things, the first is have they produced a calculation of what those panels will produce? Eg the savings you may make
If not here is a link

By not having batteries you will not be getting the most out of energy you are generating for us without batteries we would only benefit from about 30% of the energy generated

9.5 kilowatt of. Battery storage is about £5k including a solis hybrid inverter (some maybe cheaper some dearer)

It could be the in roof install but that’s quite a costly

If we had 13 Trina 385 W panels it would cost £5662 including install and inverter (standard not hybrid), now these are on roof panels not in roof ones (there could be a huge cost for in roof ones) . You need to consider if you are exporting you would need a smart meter

For the Trina panels there is an additional cost of pigeon proofing the panels for us is about £600

Just to add whilst Solis is Chinese and they do have a cloud based system as there is a Lan port you can control everything locally

 

[OldAgeTravellers]

Couple of things, the first is have they produced a calculation of what those panels will produce? Eg the savings you may make
If not here is a link

By not having batteries you will not be getting the most out of energy you are generating for us without batteries we would only benefit from about 30% of the energy generated

9.5 kilowatt of. Battery storage is about £5k including a solis hybrid inverter (some maybe cheaper some dearer)

It could be the in roof install but that’s quite a costly

If we had 13 Trina 385 W panels it would cost £5662 including install and inverter (standard not hybrid), now these are on roof panels not in roof ones (there could be a huge cost for in roof ones) . You need to consider if you are exporting you would need a smart meter

For the Trina panels there is an additional cost of pigeon proofing the panels for us is about £600

Just to add whilst Solis is Chinese and they do have a cloud based system as there is a Lan port you can control everything locally

Thanks for the reply. The quote does include a 10kW battery, I don't see the point of panels without so as to shift usage. I know an in-roof installation is expensive and adds about £200 per panel for an existing roof and solar edge kit is expensive. I just wish they would itemise their quotes so a decision can be made properly.
Yes they did show estimated return but with the way energy prices are going I think payback times will drastically reduce.

 

[Coolcats]

Thanks for the reply. The quote does include a 10kW battery, I don't see the point of panels without so as to shift usage. I know an in-roof installation is expensive and adds about £200 per panel for an existing roof and solar edge kit is expensive. I just wish they would itemise their quotes so a decision can be made properly.
Yes they did show estimated return but with the way energy prices are going I think payback times will drastically reduce.

Good to hear you have the batteries does it include a heat sensor (most should or at least offer it as an option) , and your right a summery is fine but if a customer would like a breakdown that should be supplied as well for example scaffolding along with when will it be put up and how long before taken down.

 

[OldAgeTravellers]

Good to hear you have the batteries does it include a heat sensor (most should or at least offer it as an option) , and your right a summery is fine but if a customer would like a breakdown that should be supplied as well for example scaffolding along with when will it be put up and how long before taken down.

What is the heat sensor for? I haven't read about that need anywhere.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Coolcats]

What is the heat sensor for? I haven't read about that need anywhere.

It keeps any eye on battery temperature the firebigade recommend them rather than smoke detectors

 

[OldAgeTravellers]

It keeps any eye on battery temperature the firebigade recommend them rather than smoke detectors

I think with the Solar Edge batteries that is available via the ModBus which is monitored by HomeAssistant but I will check.

 

[Coolcats]

I think with the Solar Edge batteries that is available via the ModBus which is monitored by HomeAssistant but I will check.

Possibly is it’s a sensible thing to have

 

[EuroTrotters]

A lot of our neighbours have solar in Spain.

A friend who has had solar in Spain has said it’s not worth it as it takes too long to pay back.

But we have a swimming pool heat pump and I’ve installed an electric hot water tank as a backup in-case the boiler fails.

So I think our house would benefit greatly. Iberdrola quoted me over €17,000 for a system (without batteries). I’m trying to find the quote to see how big the system was.

So I’m looking at a DIY Instalation. Just not sure where to start. Installed lots of motorhome and caravan solar, but that a different and much easier task.

This is my backup hot water for summer rentals. First photo

How many kw’s do we guess my neighbour has (has this on Two sides).

View attachment 687515View attachment 687516

Any suggestions welcome !

 

[MisterB]

Is the heat sensor also to ensure temp isn't below 0 degrees - as you can't charge below that, a lot of people set the min charge temp to 3 degrees to be in the safe side?

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}