Solar Installation!

[Abacist]

 

[Abacist]

My club got a grant for solar! 70 panels, 6 huge lithium batteries, 3 inverters, feed back to the grid with a snazzy display to show what’s happening at any given time. All went live this afternoon.

 

[Abacist]

The batteries are not in their final position yet as the leads don’t reach.

 

[Abacist]

The system is designed to produce about 21,000 Kwh in an average year. Our present consumption which is on the up is 14,000 Kwh. Callidus, our supplier and installer from Newton Abbot, reckon that we will feed the grid for most of the year other than in the winter when a combination of lower solar input and greater consumption will force us to draw from the grid. 50 panels face due south and 20 panels face due west to catch the late afternoon/evening sun.

 

[Just smiffy]

Your never gonna get that in your van…

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[Abacist]

The system automatically is prioritised as follows:-

Current solar panel input supplies current building needs. If there is excess production the surplus tops up the batteries but if the batteries are full the surplus goes into the National Grid.

If there is no solar input e.g. at night, then the building runs off the batteries until depleted or not adequate for the demand in which case it draws from the National Grid.

Our main use is in the evenings so in the daytime the batteries will be re-charged after satisfying the low daily building needs and then any surplus goes back into the National Grid.

 

[Abacist]

The 6 Pylontech lithium batteries will store 2,400 Amp hours at 12 volts or 28.8 Kwh.

The inverters can provide a steady 12 Kwh but will cope with a higher demand which tends to happen as equipment fires up.

Any guesses at the system cost?

 

[Lenny HB]

Any guesses at the system cost?

Load of money.

 

[Kannon Fodda]

£1 if it's normal funster pricing, but perhaps we should be generous for inflation, £2.


Buy seriously that looks the dogs bits and before grants I'd suspect around £30k

 

[Raul]

The 6 Pylontech lithium batteries will store 2,400 Amp hours at 12 volts or 28.8 Kwh.

The inverters can provide a steady 12 Kwh but will cope with a higher demand which tends to happen as equipment fires up.

Any guesses at the system cost?

You haven’t said about the panels anything, dno mods or new bord?
At a guess, given the tree controllers, 1 for the west and the other two from the south with 25 on each, in strings of 5, approximately 15-17kwp.
The us 5000 about 2k each, I expect £1500-2000 per 1kwp, plus batteries 6k, and a multi 48/5000 it’s about £1400 depending where you shop.

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[Abacist]

You haven’t said about the panels anything, dno mods or new bord?
At a guess, given the tree controllers, 1 for the west and the other two from the south with 25 on each, in strings of 5, approximately 15-17kwp.
The us 5000 about 2k each, I expect £1500-2000 per 1kwp, plus batteries 6k, and a multi 48/5000 it’s about £1400 depending where you shop.

The solar panels are 410 watt Q Cells if that means anything to you.

 

[MichaelT]

30k

 

[Abacist]

For anyone involved in any sort of Community project or Sports Club etc I would commend you to approach your local commercial waste company with a view to getting a Community Fund Grant. Waste companies have to set aside some of their profits to provide a Community Fund which are then granted out to local worthwhile projects. My club is a registered sports club charity. We have to contribute 10% of the project cost to the Waste Company Community Fund to get a grant. So for a grant of £50k we have to contribute £5k so get a net grant of £45k towards the project. The grant is paid in arrears after the build/expenditure has been carried out/installed. They will either reimburse you or pay your suppler direct. As a charity we are obliged to get 3 quotations for anything and that is also what the waste company Community Fund require as well.

In respect of the club solar system we first approached our local district council and got through the first two stages of the process but got turned down in the end without any explanation. Local councils were provided with millions by the government for this sort of thing.

Our local waste company have been hugely supportive and we have now had 3 substantial grants from them!

 

[Ejaydee]

That looks like a brilliant setup.

We had a 13kWh home battery installed a couple of weeks ago, linked to 3.88kW solar panels and last night/this morning has been the first night we have run the house for "free" off the battery after it charged to 67% yesterday in nice sunny weather. When we got up this morning, our 'lecky' cost was 54p which is the the standing charge, we have a nice warm home and have just started to pull off the grid for the last 20 mins or so. Not bad for the end of February/beginning of March.

I am hoping for lots of sun today to top the battery up again!

 

[Raul]

The solar panels are 410 watt Q Cells if that means anything to you.

In that case I guess the total system cost of around 60k.

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[Abacist]

In that case I guess the total system cost of around 60k.

Not bad! The 2 quotes we did not accept were well over £50k but Callidus ended up a shade under £50k!

Callidus were brilliant and from signing the order having got approval from our grant awarding community waste fund we had to organise the scaffolding at our own cost and once that was up they were there and installing the panels on the roof. The wall panel was built in a factory and all connected together to make life easier when installing on site. The scaffolding went up a week last Monday so they took one week to instal and commission the system to go live yesterday. Everything was in stock!

No delays like if you try and order a Tesla backed battery system!

 

[Raul]

That’s is a very good price for the amount of equipment installed, having the scaffolding that helped to keep the price down to. A very nice system and nicely done.

 

[Abacist]

Our present electricity bill is about £2,400 per annum on an EDF 2 year fixed contract which ends in mid April this year. I got quotes back in the Autumn for our consumption and was getting quotes for £12k per annum for a new contract which we had no way to afford. This system is going to dramatically cut our future electricity costs.

 

[L' Hobo]

The batteries are not in their final position yet as the leads don’t reach.

You couldn't spare one for my Campervan could you! (Looks impressive, well done!)

 

[berni109]

I appreciate the thinking and benefits this will give the club especially with the grant's available but on a personal level.
Does the fun collective think it is cost effective to have solar installed on our bungalow given that it's all significantly increased in price recently. Plus the lead times that installers are quoting with every man wanting to reduce their bills.
I guess it's a trade off between life expectancy (ours), capital outlay and future electricty prices.

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[L' Hobo]

I appreciate the thinking and benefits this will give the club especially with the grant's available but on a personal level.
Does the fun collective think it is cost effective to have solar installed on our bungalow given that it's all significantly increased in price recently. Plus the lead times that installers are quoting with every man wanting to reduce their bills.
I guess it's a trade off between life expectancy (ours), capital outlay and future electricty prices.

I have looked at this a couple of times, once for my (then) business premises, and later for my home.

I would have installed them BUT I cannot get it out of my head that in this country, just when you want the extra power for heat and for ones lights etc, in the winter and at night, The sun doesn't shine?
The other off-putting thing for me is, that according to the installer I spoke to, the house roof panels are only suitable for windspeed up to 60mph, I live up a hill and get gusts exceeding that.
( When a North wind blows in East Anglia, there's nothing between us and the Artic Circle except flat land and sea!

For my business premises, the outlay was going to take years to recoup and would be paid for at about the same time as the panels would need renewing?

To my mind, Solar, be it in your home or M/H, is useful in places where there is a lot of sun, Spain, Africa etc. but the UK....?

I'm sure there will be many who disagree with me, it will be interesting to read their views, but not for me
(just don't get me going about the non-sensical Government policy of wind over Tidal!)

 

[Kannon Fodda]

Solar panels, especially in todays high electricity costs, should be viable, but need like most energy saving measures to be thought of long term, rather than short gain. After all the installation costs are high. I suspect the real benefits are, if you can get enough panels, facing the right way (my house roof orientations are wrong), and you have sufficient battery so you don't actually rely on the feed in tariffs which aren't very good. The saving is from your reducing your mains consumption.

What does need to be watched is the condition of your property. There was supposed to be a rule that the roof should be good for 25 years without major repairs. If you have to renew the roof covering first, your costs will be a lot higher.

 

[wfdTamar]

You’d want to look at the tariffs available for feed in (from your solar to the grid) and what you can get for grid to you, taking advantage of any off peak rates. Also look at diverting power use to best solar hours or off peak times.

Case study of what solar is like in Australia (and the worst state for solar too).
Before I installed solar I was on two tariffs - one for hot water and heating (a lower rate) and the rest at a higher rate. Same price at any time of day.

After the solar was installed I went to a Time Of Use tariff. Everything in the house on the same rates, but a Peak rate M-F during peak hours morning and evening. Off Peak the rest of the time. I won’t tell you the rates because you’ll cry. Well ok:
Peak about 15p kWh
Off Peak 7p kWh
Solar feed in 7p kWh

Being retired I don’t need to use much power during peak time. The house is completely electric (no gas). I heat the hot water middle of the day almost always off solar. It has to be really miserable and grey not to be able to do it, but then it’s at Off Peak rate so pretty cheap. I can heat the house with about an hour of heat pump at the same rate (some passive solar heating, very well insulated and only a small amount of space heated). Very little air con use in summer since installing a ceiling fan in the main room. Climate is not far off southern UK. This is Tasmania so more sun than the UK.

During our winter I’m in Europe so the house only uses minimal power, almost everything goes into the grid.

10.8 kw solar panels produce an average 17000 kWh annually. Covers my power cost and makes about £800 a year. Cost (premium quality system) 2 years ago was about £7000. I had to replace the roof & guttering which well and truly needed doing anyway - DIY job = £2500.

 

[Abacist]

I have looked at this a couple of times, once for my (then) business premises, and later for my home.

I would have installed them BUT I cannot get it out of my head that in this country, just when you want the extra power for heat and for ones lights etc, in the winter and at night, The sun doesn't shine?
The other off-putting thing for me is, that according to the installer I spoke to, the house roof panels are only suitable for windspeed up to 60mph, I live up a hill and get gusts exceeding that.
( When a North wind blows in East Anglia, there's nothing between us and the Artic Circle except flat land and sea!

For my business premises, the outlay was going to take years to recoup and would be paid for at about the same time as the panels would need renewing?

To my mind, Solar, be it in your home or M/H, is useful in places where there is a lot of sun, Spain, Africa etc. but the UK....?

I'm sure there will be many who disagree with me, it will be interesting to read their views, but not for me
(just don't get me going about the non-sensical Government policy of wind over Tidal!)

In the business environment you may have major advantages over a domestic user. If your business is VAT registered you can recover the VAT element of the cost. After that you should be able to claim capital allowances on the cost excluding VAT if you have reclaimed it against your profits so you get tax relief on the cost.

Google says "From April 2021, companies can claim up to 130% of their Capital Allowances back from the Government, for qualifying investments. The list includes both Solar PV as well as EV Charge Points. Under the scheme, for every pound invested, the company can save up to 25p on taxes."

By choosing the right provider and system there should be no need to have to wait months for an installation. Ours was quoted, explained, revised, surveyed, ordered and installed within a month!

 

[L' Hobo]

In the business environment you may have major advantages over a domestic user. If your business is VAT registered you can recover the VAT element of the cost. After that you should be able to claim capital allowances on the cost excluding VAT if you have reclaimed it against your profits so you get tax relief on the cost.

Google says "From April 2021, companies can claim up to 130% of their Capital Allowances back from the Government, for qualifying investments. The list includes both Solar PV as well as EV Charge Points. Under the scheme, for every pound invested, the company can save up to 25p on taxes."

By choosing the right provider and system there should be no need to have to wait months for an installation. Ours was quoted, explained, revised, surveyed, ordered and installed within a month!

I should have said, when I was looking at it for my business, that must have been 20+yrs ago (I retired 10+yrs ago) when it all first started.
To me, in this country, the only reliable form of alternative energy is reliable tidal/wave power. it happens twice a day and can be predicted 100+yrs in advance. Why our Government has not put as much money into this form of energy, as it has in wind, is incomprehensible?

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[berni109]

is incomprehensible

Hardly! Far more greasy little fingers in the wind industry/government. The tower manufacturers are rolling in it.
When they finish building the current lot they have to start again replacing all those that are past there service life. Talk about a green footprint - it's a joke.

 

[Abacist]

I should have said, when I was looking at it for my business, that must have been 20+yrs ago (I retired 10+yrs ago) when it all first started.
To me, in this country, the only reliable form of alternative energy is reliable tidal/wave power. it happens twice a day and can be predicted 100+yrs in advance. Why our Government has not put as much money into this form of energy, as it has in wind, is incomprehensible?

I understand your comment about tidal and wave power. I remember learning about it in Geography at school over 50 years ago! Enjoy your retirement! We must have retired about the same time!

 

[L' Hobo]

Hardly! Far more greasy little fingers in the wind industry/government. The tower manufacturers are rolling in it.
When they finish building the current lot they have to start again replacing all those that are past there service life. Talk about a green footprint - it's a joke.

You might say that, I couldn't possibly comment! as Mr Urquhart used say in the wonderful 'House of Cards'!

 

[wfdTamar]

I would imagine the problem with tidal is you can’t harvest much from the amount of investment. It’s been one of those items that appears in ‘tomorrows world’ type tv shows for decades (I’m sure I saw the ‘snake’ version in the ‘70’s) but surely if it was viable it would have been developed. Just as much fodder for conspiracy theorists in tidal as there is in wind. Meanwhile renewables are providing about 25% of UK power I believe.

 

[L' Hobo]

I would imagine the problem with tidal is you can’t harvest much from the amount of investment. It’s been one of those items that appears in ‘tomorrows world’ type tv shows for decades (I’m sure I saw the ‘snake’ version in the ‘70’s) but surely if it was viable it would have been developed. Just as much fodder for conspiracy theorists in tidal as there is in wind. Meanwhile renewables are providing about 25% of UK power I believe.

Renewables are only providing about 10% of power 6.7% wind 56% gas and most of the rest Nuclear at this moment in time according to the power dash.

The first house to be powered in the UK by electricity was powered by a device called the Archimedes Screw and that device was powered by water. Willian Armstrong's 1878 'Cragside', Northumberland, (10yrs before Edison) well worth a visit as it's still working I believe? .

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