Home solar, opinions please

[lorger]

Thanks for all the comments, we’re definitely going to go for it my only concern was if it was worth buying batteries or not. After having read a few use the system for initial heating or on days when it’s cool rather than cold sounds good, we are all electric in the kitchen and only have gas for heating although I’ve been told I’m making a feature wall with electric fire in it so that would be free or cheap to use.

Our thoughts are as we retire this year at the age of 56/55 spending £12k won’t change our plans or lifestyle, hopefully when we’re older and skint so in 2 years time maybe as we hit 70 our outgoings will be reduced, also I’m hoping ASHP come on a bit over next few years and don’t need to renew all existing pipe work.

 

[Howard B]

Folks,

The basic facts are solar gives you free electric ( plus standing charge) on a sunny day. Nothing at night and bugger all during Winter.

Our 4kWh system does ok during winter. Has provided enough to run the house most days during Feb.

 

[daventess]

We've just had it installed. We got batteries because - well, we just did. Too early to say if it's worth it, but even in winter we have managed to power the whole house on several occasions just with solar power and stored battery power.

We have charged the batteries up during Octopus Energy's 2am-5am cheap rate and hardly drawn a thing from the grid for the rest of the day. When the sun is out (even in Feb) we've not even had to do that on occasion. The sun kept us topped up.

Looking forward to seeing how it performs in summer (when our kids are back from uni). Hopefully our buy-back will be in place by then so we can sell our extra power back to the grid (takes a while to set up apparently).

Make sure you get a site survey before buying. We didn't (it was all done remotely using google maps!) and they did make a mistake on the number of panels they could fit. It all got sorted in the end but we ended up with a smaller system that we originally wanted. We are still pleased with it, but you really have to choose your installer carefully, and it helps if you know a bit about what you're buying.

Specifically on batteries, we got Sunsynk ones. They are ok, but their app is a bit rubbish. Can be a little tricky to configure if you want things beyond the basic (for example, setting timers to top up the batteries during cheap rate as they are not yet integrated with all of the Octopus plans). They also complain about the cold - a problem with UK winters! Ours have shut down on a few occasions. We were recommended to use "lizard tank warmers" as we had ours mounted outside - a faff we have not yet fully looked in to.

Anyway, that was longer than I intended

 

[LesW]

Our 4kWh system does ok during winter. Has provided enough to run the house most days during Feb.

Same here, our panels face southwest.

 

[wolfie2]

Several people have said they are pay little or nothing for electricity since installing solar panels/ batteries. Does this mean you no longer pay daily standing charges?

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[Howard B]

Several people have said they are pay little or nothing for electricity since installing solar panels/ batteries. Does this mean you no longer pay daily standing charges?

Still pay standing charge.

 

[BryanW]

After having 5KW of solar panels and 7KWh of batteries plus hot water diverter switch fitted our grid import went from just over 4000KWh in 2022 to 1780KWh in 2023 dropping our DD to about £50/Mth. We are all electric with induction hob and air source heat pump. No regrets

 

[Baggydave]

Still pay standing charge.

Standing charge is a real pain. Our reading on the smart meter is showing about £1 for overnight usage, 12-6am ish. 78p of that is the dual fuel standing charge!!

 

[AJM2]

My return last year was around £1,800 some months it’s just standing charge and a payment for each kw

Solar should be placed on every home rather than fields the high interest at the bank would have to be near 20% to get the same value. Each deployment is different and the benefits will change with energy pricing

the figures didn’t stack up for me even at 5.95% interest and the assumptions built into the spreadsheets were a joke. When I queried them none of the companies responded, except to say they were used across the industry. How convenient for them all.

 

[The Coops]

Work out the interest the cost of the solar, say £9500 would make in an ISA or building Society account, its a no brainer go for the system, we have had our now over 10 years and it more than pays for itself, we are one of the lucky ones and get 65p per kwh for electric produced, Its no use us fitting a battery at the moment as it would mean us losing money charging the battery rather than it going to the grid and we charge the car etc after midnight on Octopus 7.5p per kw tariff. Son has just had a 5 kw system and battery fitted in a day for under £9000 by playing off the companies, get as many quotes as possible and sit back!

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[Howard B]

Work out the interest the cost of the solar, say £9500 would make in an ISA or building Society account, its a no brainer go for the system, we have had our now over 10 years and it more than pays for itself, we are one of the lucky ones and get 65p per kwh for electric produced, Its no use us fitting a battery at the moment as it would mean us losing money charging the battery rather than it going to the grid and we charge the car etc after midnight on Octopus 7.5p per kw tariff. Son has just had a 5 kw system and battery fitted in a day for under £9000 by playing off the companies, get as many quotes as possible and sit back!

I get the same FIT regardless of what goes to the grid or batteries.

 

[AJM2]

It is simply not true that it’s a no brainer. It works for some, it doesn’t for others. If you are contemplating it get the quotes and check the assumptions against your useage, tariffs etc. I have seen some blindly signing up to it at shows who were being blatantly misled.

 

[Coastal Cruiser.]

I thought the FIT had been stopped after years of gradual reduction in rates?

 

[Howard B]

I thought the FIT had been stopped after years of gradual reduction in rates?

It has, but some systems still have a few years to run. Mine still has 11 years. .

 

[dunnah01]

We're all electric but our 4kW system does nothing for heating in winter. Powers appliances but not much else.

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[Coolcats]

the figures didn’t stack up for me even at 5.95% interest and the assumptions built into the spreadsheets were a joke. When I queried them none of the companies responded, except to say they were used across the industry. How convenient for them all.

This calculator gives a reasonable output and not dissimilar results to what the installer gave

Solar panel calculator

Use the solar panel calculator to find out if a solar panel system is right for your home and how much you could save by having one.

energysavingtrust.org.uk

 

[Nigel Crompton]

No.
When I enquired here ,at my wife's insistence , iberdrola stated that it was completely uneconomic for our usage & they wouldn't be interested in fitting them even if we wanted them.

We had them fitted here in Cuesta Blanca when I was 73 . We had an unreliable supply, we are at the end of the line and suffered frequent brownouts. Despite repeated reports to supplier, "No fault found". So bit the bullet 7.2kw panels, 6Kw inverter 5kw battery, smooths out the supply - and we get to have the pool heated too .... Iberdrola now bills us typically €12 pcm which is the standing charge which can't be offset against feed-in. We no longer have power cuts - the system alerts me when the incoming voltage deviates from norms.

12 months of

power...
7.99MWh total generation
83% of power usage from solar
0.96MWh used from grid (€0.09 night-rate/€0.15 day-rate per Kwh)
3.16MWh fed into grid (€0.10/Kwh)

 

[AJM2]

This calculator gives a reasonable output and not dissimilar results to what the installer gave

Solar panel calculator

Use the solar panel calculator to find out if a solar panel system is right for your home and how much you could save by having one.

energysavingtrust.org.uk

Thanks for that but I’ve checked and that calculator doesn’t give sufficient information about when it expects the solar to be generated, which made a real difference to how the savings were calculated when I unpicked some of the spreadsheets. Fundamentally, the rate per kw/h they’ve used is 87% higher than I’m paying today which has obviously inflated the potential savings.
Just doesn’t work for me and I would recommend anyone to look into the detail before assuming it is cost-effective.

 

[jerryz]

I just couldn’t make it stack up for me, I was better keeping the money in a high interest account. When I looked into the calculations provided by a few firms their underlying assumptions were nonsense and when I dabbled with them the output changed dramatically.

Me too.....???? I fitted a 4kw system to my old house 14 years ago with batteries and it was a no brainer paid off in 7 years ,, but my new house is smaller as i downsized and can only fit 3kw but none of the figures add up at all ....

 

[Carpmart]

A very interesting thread which I shall read properly later.

One question springs to mind. It seems buying a big fogster battery, inverter and the correct tariff would mean a significant reduction in the per unit cost for our household, have I got that correct?

Add in a limited number of solar panels to replenish the morning usage of electric during the day and this then covers morning and evening periods (evening all battery) and topped up overnight on low tariffs…

What am I missing?

What’s the delta between overnight tariffs and regular tariffs?

Seems a very viable option, still concerned by what I am missing?

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[stevec]

Thanks for that but I’ve checked and that calculator doesn’t give sufficient information about when it expects the solar to be generated, which made a real difference to how the savings were calculated when I unpicked some of the spreadsheets. Fundamentally, the rate per kw/h they’ve used is 87% higher than I’m paying today which has obviously inflated the potential savings.
Just doesn’t work for me and I would recommend anyone to look into the detail before assuming it is cost-effective.

Yep. When I looked at the detail of our quote, the calculations assumed a tariff of 50p per kWh which was plainly an overinflated figure. I don't think it included any export figure though which would offset that imbalance. We still went ahead. If we had done it on a purely financial basis we would not have done. Incidently we had a quote for the same system 16 months ago (a year between quotes) and the system cost would have been £4000 more, so we saved that amount by waiting 12 months! Our neighbour had theirs installed at that time and were surprised at how much the install cost had gone down.

 

[gus-lopez]

We had them fitted here in Cuesta Blanca when I was 73 . We had an unreliable supply, we are at the end of the line and suffered frequent brownouts. Despite repeated reports to supplier, "No fault found". So bit the bullet 7.2kw panels, 6Kw inverter 5kw battery, smooths out the supply - and we get to have the pool heated too .... Iberdrola now bills us typically €12 pcm which is the standing charge which can't be offset against feed-in. We no longer have power cuts - the system alerts me when the incoming voltage deviates from norms.

12 months of

power...
7.99MWh total generation
83% of power usage from solar
0.96MWh used from grid (€0.09 night-rate/€0.15 day-rate per Kwh)
3.16MWh fed into grid (€0.10/Kwh)

Trouble is our bill was only around 30€/month ,which has crept up to the high 30's since we installed starlink. & even when I use the swimming pool for just under a month last year it only got to 70€.

I'm thinking of installing a 3Kw system but completely independent of the existing Iberdrola supply.I will just leave it there as a standby

 

[starquake]

No it's the same as the energy prices a wet finger in the air job.

I dunno, the government long term pricing, apart from last 2 years is pretty much bang on (showing between 4-6p on renewables). Last 2 years is an oddity/peak which helps the pricing, but long term prices are being reverted to in this years pricing (5.5-6p a unit is pretty bang on where it should be this year).

(I own part shares in 2 wind farms based on the governement forecast on which the investment repayments are scheduled).

It may supprise many here to note the long term prediction is for wholesale pricing to fall not rise, as the link to gas on renewables goes as removed eventually. This is EU wide not just UK. Standing prices will rise for non-smart meters and fall for smart meters in same 10-25 year timeframe, as there will be a premium for non-30 min metered electricity from ~ 2025-6. And as you pay these even with solar/renewables connected it's a good point, as you more likely to be on a smart meter than not.

Whats more likely however is demand pricing on individual 30 min segments will become wilder, ie, the premium on 4-7pm will be higher in future, and equally there is likely enough profit in emptying any battery you have in the 10-12 times a year the grid is at peak demand to repay the battery. This year the peak of £4 per kwh you export (so 5 per hour on a 5kw inverter, so £20 an hour, could be enough to repay a battery install over life of your house).

 

[starquake]

A very interesting thread which I shall read properly later.

One question springs to mind. It seems buying a big fogster battery, inverter and the correct tariff would mean a significant reduction in the per unit cost for our household, have I got that correct?

Seems a very viable option, still concerned by what I am missing?

Yes, you'll pay (assuming you have a PHEV, or BEV) 7.5p for near all electric with solar and a battery which is about one third of current rates.

That saving alone is enough to make things viable long term. You'll also be able to once export allowed FORCE export at certain times when you will be paid from £2 to £4 a kwh, ie, £10-20 an hour for 3 hours at certain peak times. This could indeed reduce your bill below 0.

 

[Bessy765]

We have 2 systems, a 1.12kw on the roof of the house the way the roof is thats all that would fit this was fitted 14 years ago and the FIT is 68p per kw. And a 6.6kw system on the garage roof. We are with the Octopus agile tarrif some days they even pay us to take power. We have 2 x 5.8 triple power batteries. During the winter we can charge then for an average of 12p per kwh. We are in France at the moment but can control everything from my phone. Today the batteries were full at 11 am so switch one two fan heaters to keep the house aired with the go sound app. Bill for Jan elec ‘’’312.75

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[autorouter]

I'm thinking of installing a 3Kw system but completely independent of the existing Iberdrola supply.I will just leave it there as a standby

You probably know this, but be careful to choose the right inverter type if you want standby when the grid goes down. A grid-tied inverter (see my post #20) gets its timing for the AC waveform from the incoming grid mains. When that goes down, it goes down too. Even if it's midday and the panels could be generating 3kW, you'll get nothing.

Most hybrid systems have their own waveform generation internally, that can synchronise to the incoming mains if it's available. If the grid goes down, it uses its own internal waveform generator to give the correct AC waveform to give you power from the batteries and top up the batteries with solar.

 

[Bessy765]

We have 2 systems, a 1.12kw on the roof of the house the way the roof is thats all that would fit this was fitted 14 years ago and the FIT is 68p per kw. And a 6.6kw system on the garage roof. We are with the Octopus agile tarrif some days they even pay us to take power. We have 2 x 5.8 triple power batteries. During the winter we can charge then for an average of 12p per kwh. We are in France at the moment but can control everything from my phone. Today the batteries were full at 11 am so switch one two fan heaters to keep the house aired with the go sound app. Bill for Jan elec ‘’’312.75

Sorry it should read £12.75 for Jan £8.10 so far for Feb.

 

[Coolcats]

Thanks for that but I’ve checked and that calculator doesn’t give sufficient information about when it expects the solar to be generated, which made a real difference to how the savings were calculated when I unpicked some of the spreadsheets. Fundamentally, the rate per kw/h they’ve used is 87% higher than I’m paying today which has obviously inflated the potential savings.
Just doesn’t work for me and I would recommend anyone to look into the detail before assuming it is cost-effective.

That’s an interesting comment Basically Solar with battery storage works and I think there are those on here who can testify it does. It doesn’t matter if it’s a 7 or 10 year payback the point is it works if it didn’t you would not have fields being taken over by Solar panels.

Today the panels have produced 10Kw of energy the home has consumed 4.5kw and exported 5.5Kw it’s still February My batteries at 18:08 are 98% charged they will be topped up this evening at night rate. By April I won’t be topping them up and most of our consupetion will be supported by the pannels which means we just pay the standing charge By mid October I will start topping up again.

We have a 6 Kw array with battery storage

It works, we save money and we get paid money as others have said best investment we could have done. So the Solar team are probably not far off

 

[gus-lopez]

but be careful to choose the right inverter type if you want standby when the grid goes down.

It will not be physically attached to the grid at all.

 

[Coolcats]

A very interesting thread which I shall read properly later.

One question springs to mind. It seems buying a big fogster battery, inverter and the correct tariff would mean a significant reduction in the per unit cost for our household, have I got that correct?

Add in a limited number of solar panels to replenish the morning usage of electric during the day and this then covers morning and evening periods (evening all battery) and topped up overnight on low tariffs…

What am I missing?

What’s the delta between overnight tariffs and regular tariffs?

Seems a very viable option, still concerned by what I am missing?

Your not missing anything the night rate you can get from your provider, even without pannels you could half the cost of consumption by adding batteries.

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