Solar panels

[Stanley Melrose]

I've just put in my claim for the last quarter.  As an early adopter, we get the very high FIT rate of 60.23p/kWh and 4.25p export.  That will result in a payment of £750.52 next week from our 16 panel system and take our total FIT payments to 175%+ of our (high) capital outlay back in 2011.

 

I have an 87 year old neighbour who not only has a large SPV system with battery back-up but a ground source heat pump and has just told me that he's going to install a wind turbine from TESUP <https://www.tesup.co.uk/wind-turbines>.

 

I admit these look interesting and relatively inexpensive so I'll be watching this with interest.

 

Stan

[Ian Morgan]

My Hampshire Solar Together install has been brought forward to Monday. Exciting times 🙂

[Tony_S]

This is a graphic from the inverter app showing our data for May. We have panels on the south and west facing roof and batteries.

 

Tony

[hayfield]

10 hours ago, Ian Morgan said:

My Hampshire Solar Together install has been brought forward to Monday. Exciting times 🙂

 

Quite the opposite from me, you will get 4 of the most productive months under your belt, I found with my installer I had to chase them up for the paperwork regarding getting paid for the exports, in the end Network Power were quite quick and all I needed was a reference number. Still with imports costing 29.23 per kwh this will be the biggest saving and its instant

 

Good luck

[hayfield]

10 hours ago, Tony_S said:

This is a graphic from the inverter app showing our data for May. We have panels on the south and west facing roof and batteries.

 

Tony

 

 

Tony very impressive, not having batteries all I get is the amount of power I am producing so I rely on Octopus for the rest of the information.

 

Despite being partially cloudy yesterday the system generated just over 10kwh, I have always been a bit competitive and I see this years goal as generating more energy than the providers estimated, having spent 30 years in an industry where projections were the main selling tool I always looked for these to be exceeded. I am now 799 kwh behind the projection with 3 months (90 days) generating to go, 8.9 kwh average required a day.

 

But the main benefit has already occurred, my first years benefit was calculated as £204.59, with escalating energy costs and I seem to be using 20 kwh of my own production a week its more that what was projected for both import savings and export receipts. Which at todays costs are 3 times the projected savings, exports are the same in percentages, but the average will be brought down far more in the colder months, but this is all down to the high energy costs which we all hope will recover  

[Ian Morgan]

Installation Day 😀

 

The installers had the wrong type of brackets for the roof tiles I have, so they went off to do another install while the correct brackets were delivered, but they came back in the afternoon and finished the job. Meanwhile, the separate electrician spent most of the day fitting the batteries and inverter, etc in the garage. Installation complete by 16:30 and, despite grey skies and drizzle, the panels are producing around 500W, enough to power my computers, fridge and freezer, and other stuff on standby with enough left over to charge the batteries. No doubt that will change as lights go on, and cooking dinner starts, but I am still happy.

 

There are ten 380W QCell panels, 9.9kWh of Growatt batteries (3 small units because the larger units are in short supply) and a Growatt SPH Inverter.

 

I already have a Growatt (ProjectEV) car charger, which was cheap and cheerful at the time, but has served well for 3 years.

 

 

[Ian Smeeton]

Well, I have bee folowing this thread for a while.

 

And as I live in an all-electric house, the bills are climbing.

 

My estimate, for this tear is that we will use around 10,000 KWh, split 65/35 day to night use (Economy 7)

 

Totaling about £2800 for this year, let alone the price increases due in October

 

I inherited 4 solar hot water panels when we bought the house, circa 9 years ago.

 

Does the panel think....?

 

That solar panels on a S facing roof would be worth it at the mo?

 

As SKDC?Lincs CC do not seem to be on Solar Together's radar, I should look at another supplier.

 

If another supplier, any suggetsions?

 

Regards

 

Ian

Edited June 6, 2022 by Ian Smeeton
Posted too soon

[hayfield]

14 hours ago, Ian Morgan said:

Installation Day 😀

 

The installers had the wrong type of brackets for the roof tiles I have, so they went off to do another install while the correct brackets were delivered, but they came back in the afternoon and finished the job. Meanwhile, the separate electrician spent most of the day fitting the batteries and inverter, etc in the garage. Installation complete by 16:30 and, despite grey skies and drizzle, the panels are producing around 500W, enough to power my computers, fridge and freezer, and other stuff on standby with enough left over to charge the batteries. No doubt that will change as lights go on, and cooking dinner starts, but I am still happy.

 

There are ten 380W QCell panels, 9.9kWh of Growatt batteries (3 small units because the larger units are in short supply) and a Growatt SPH Inverter.

 

I already have a Growatt (ProjectEV) car charger, which was cheap and cheerful at the time, but has served well for 3 years.

 

 

 

The past 2 days have been very poor, which is the exact opposite to the previous 4 days, which were producing 13 kwh on average each day, Sunday I produced 1.6 kwh (the worst day since December) and a miserly 4.2 kwh yesterday, still with very mixed weather for the past 6 days I have produced just under 10 kwh a day for the past 6 days

[hayfield]

13 hours ago, Ian Smeeton said:

Well, I have bee folowing this thread for a while.

 

And as I live in an all-electric house, the bills are climbing.

 

My estimate, for this tear is that we will use around 10,000 KWh, split 65/35 day to night use (Economy 7)

 

Totaling about £2800 for this year, let alone the price increases due in October

 

I inherited 4 solar hot water panels when we bought the house, circa 9 years ago.

 

Does the panel think....?

 

That solar panels on a S facing roof would be worth it at the mo?

 

As SKDC?Lincs CC do not seem to be on Solar Together's radar, I should look at another supplier.

 

If another supplier, any suggetsions?

 

Regards

 

Ian

 

 

Ian 

 

Look into the Solar Together scheme to see if there is one near to you, certainly with the huge discounts available using the group buying certainly makes it worthwhile, plus you get the professional guidance and insurance the scheme produces. I thought it was worthwhile when electricity was costing 16p per kwh, now I am paying 29.23p per kwh its worth it for this benefit alone, the 7,5p kwh  export payment is the icing on the cake 

[hayfield]

14 hours ago, Ian Smeeton said:

Well, I have bee folowing this thread for a while.

 

And as I live in an all-electric house, the bills are climbing.

 

My estimate, for this tear is that we will use around 10,000 KWh, split 65/35 day to night use (Economy 7)

 

Totaling about £2800 for this year, let alone the price increases due in October

 

I inherited 4 solar hot water panels when we bought the house, circa 9 years ago.

 

Does the panel think....?

 

That solar panels on a S facing roof would be worth it at the mo?

 

As SKDC?Lincs CC do not seem to be on Solar Together's radar, I should look at another supplier.

 

If another supplier, any suggetsions?

 

Regards

 

Ian

Ian

 

I have just revisited my initial quote and had a look at the benefits at todays prices

 

At 16p per kwh it projects my system would save me £127 pa on imports at the new rate its £234

on exports at 3p  per kwh it would produce £77.60 pa, where as now I am getting 7.5p its £194 pa

 

At the moment I am projecting to slightly exceed the production projection

 

However last May at 18p per kwh my bill was £60.76, this year at 20.23p it was £24.89. The spring, summer and autumn arr the periods where the best savings are made, I still paid less in the winter months but that was at 22p per kwh.

 

I think the best thing is to get a quote and see the figures, if it looks good then get alternative quotes if the first quote is not through Solar Together

[Ian Morgan]

My 'Solar Together' supplier was 'Infinity Renewables'. So far, I am pretty happy with them and the installation.

 

As for costs, the following was supplied and installed:

• ten 380W Qcell panels
• 9.9kWh battery
• Growatt SPH Inverter
• Scaffolding (included extra scaffold over protruding garage)
• Optimisers (I believe this is to get full power from unshaded panels when one or more panels are shaded)
• Optional emergency power socket, so I can get some electricity from the battery during a power cut
• Optional bird netting to stop pigeons nesting behind the panels

I do not have the final bill yet, but the quote is just on £10,000 so it will be interesting to work out how long it will take to pay for itself when I get more data. In the meantime, the smugness factor is priceless 🌳🌳🌳😀

 

 

 

[Ian Morgan]

I believe good discounts on solar installation can be had if you have a 'Blue Light Card'.

 

[hayfield]

2 hours ago, Ian Morgan said:

My 'Solar Together' supplier was 'Infinity Renewables'. So far, I am pretty happy with them and the installation.

 

As for costs, the following was supplied and installed:

• ten 380W Qcell panels
• 9.9kWh battery
• Growatt SPH Inverter
• Scaffolding (included extra scaffold over protruding garage)
• Optimisers (I believe this is to get full power from unshaded panels when one or more panels are shaded)
• Optional emergency power socket, so I can get some electricity from the battery during a power cut
• Optional bird netting to stop pigeons nesting behind the panels

I do not have the final bill yet, but the quote is just on £10,000 so it will be interesting to work out how long it will take to pay for itself when I get more data. In the meantime, the smugness factor is priceless 🌳🌳🌳😀

 

 

 

 

Last year I was quoted £5,000 to have batteries, the numbers just did not add up

 

This year I asked again for a quote, it had come down to £3,600, starting to make better economics until you take the loss of revenue into consideration

 

Yes it would be lovely to have batteries, but on a financial basis there are still too dear

[Tony_S]

12 minutes ago, hayfield said:

the loss of revenue into consideration

 

Our batteries today are full after charging all morning and we are exporting to the grid, already exported 4kWh so far today. Even at night we don’t (apart from one really gloomy day) import electricity. The ultra quiet, energy efficient devices we bought to run on Economy Seven at night now run when sunny or if there is sufficient battery in the evening. If we don’t use it the batteries discharge to the grid but not enough to prevent our background overnight use. For those of us on the very low SEG (it was all we could get) rates it is better to use it than export it. 

[Ian Morgan]

The 9.9kWh batteries in my installation were £3,375.

 

There was some charge in them when installed yesterday, and they ran down to 10% in the evening, and then I started using expensive electrons from the Grid.

The battery is up to 92% now. So far today I have only used Grid power a couple of times, once to supply half the power used by my electric shower, and once when some bread rolls were baked as the sun was coming up and the battery was still empty. Apart from that the battery has filled in for the solar when the sun has gone behind clouds.

 

[Tony_S]

3 hours ago, Ian Morgan said:

he 9.9kWh batteries in my installation were £3,375

7.2kWh cost us £3900 last year. There are 3 (of them in a 19” rack with space for another.  If we needed more storage we could add another 2.4kWh unit. They are about £1000 to £1200. I can’t imagine fitting would be expensive.

Tony

[Colin_McLeod]

Has anyone experienced solar panels 'whistling' in the wind and if so is it at an acceptable level?

[Tony_S]

4 hours ago, Colin_McLeod said:

Has anyone experienced solar panels 'whistling' in the wind and if so is it at an acceptable level?

Haven’t noticed that at all when outside and nothing inside. We had pigeon mesh fitted to stop pigeons nesting under the panels so no cooing either. My brother in law had pigeon problems so had pigeon mesh fitted to his existing solar panel system this year. 

[hayfield]

12 hours ago, Colin_McLeod said:

Has anyone experienced solar panels 'whistling' in the wind and if so is it at an acceptable level?

Colin

 

No, but as ours are on the roof of a single story extension and our roof has a shallow pitch I don't know if these factors make them more or less likely to suffer. We are at the top of a very high hill (the village is the second highest point in Essex)so not a sheltered location

[hayfield]

14 hours ago, Tony_S said:

7.2kWh cost us £3900 last year. There are 3 (of them in a 19” rack with space for another.  If we needed more storage we could add another 2.4kWh unit. They are about £1000 to £1200. I can’t imagine fitting would be expensive.

Tony

 

 

I will revisit the maths, but we were quoted £3600 for about a 3/4 kwh system, what I may have failed to take into consideration is that once fully charged I would still be exporting a certain amount of power. But I am looking at it in financial terms,  

[Ian Morgan]

So, my battery was fully charged by sundown yesterday (it greived me I was giving away free electricity to the grid then, but it will be a few weeks before I have the smart meter fitted, and all the necessary paperwork to get a feed-in tarrif). The battery then powered the house (TV, lights, fridge, freezer and computers) for the evening and overnight, reducing to 85% full this morning and no electricity taken from the grid.

 

Today is grey and cloudy, and I had to plug my car in for a charge, but solar and battery are supplying up to half of what it required at the moment.

 

 

 

[hayfield]

1 hour ago, Ian Morgan said:

So, my battery was fully charged by sundown yesterday (it greived me I was giving away free electricity to the grid then, but it will be a few weeks before I have the smart meter fitted, and all the necessary paperwork to get a feed-in tarrif). The battery then powered the house (TV, lights, fridge, freezer and computers) for the evening and overnight, reducing to 85% full this morning and no electricity taken from the grid.

 

Today is grey and cloudy, and I had to plug my car in for a charge, but solar and battery are supplying up to half of what it required at the moment.

 

 

 

 

At least when I started exporting I was only loosing about 3p or less per kwh, plus I kept on to the installer and Network Power (who were very fast and helpful) and once I transfered to Octopus all they required was the reference number from Network Power, very efficient and quick system

 

The main cost savings is reducing the amount of power you import, exporting is the icing on the cake. Think of it in you have the cake !!  The icing will follow.

 

 

[Ian Morgan]

So, the car is charged, and the late afternoon sun is refilling the battery nicely. It went down towards 50% full but is back up over 90% already.

 

I think the inverter is limited to supplying just over 4kW from the panels and battery combined, so any more than that has to come from the grid. The car charger is 7kW, so it will always require some grid power, but this was half the usual amount today, thanks to the battery and panels.

 

Don't worry, I will get bored with this new toy soon, but I thought some 'real world' figures might be of interest to those who are contemplating going solar.

 

 

 

[hayfield]

1 hour ago, Ian Morgan said:

So, the car is charged, and the late afternoon sun is refilling the battery nicely. It went down towards 50% full but is back up over 90% already.

 

I think the inverter is limited to supplying just over 4kW from the panels and battery combined, so any more than that has to come from the grid. The car charger is 7kW, so it will always require some grid power, but this was half the usual amount today, thanks to the battery and panels.

 

Don't worry, I will get bored with this new toy soon, but I thought some 'real world' figures might be of interest to those who are contemplating going solar.

 

 

 

 

 

Ian

 

I think more people should be made aware of how inexpensive a basic system both costs and how much it will potentially save. I have heard that as more systems are bought the cost will decrease. As far as I am concerned Solar Together sponsored by local government is a system that enables those like myself obtain the correct system with an insurance backed guarantee at a competitive price. I just do not understand why some councils do not offer this facility, in fact it should have government backing.

[Tony_S]

2 hours ago, Ian Morgan said:

I think the inverter is limited to supplying just over 4kW from the panels and battery combined, so any more than that has to come from the grid.

I don’t think ours has that limitation as our panels were producing just over 5kW at about 2pm today. There is a limit on the inverter  to prevent it overloading the grid on very sunny days if the batteries are full. However that limit will be removed sometime as our local wiring to the distribution system has been deemed to be able to cope.