Solar panels

[hayfield]

17 hours ago, Metr0Land said:

10.9kWh today!  Frustratingly had to dump 5kWh to the grid and I'm not on an export tariff.

 

Overnight I'd topped up the car (PHEV) and the Tesla powerwall had decided to fill up to 94pct, and the sun came up early.  I put the dishwasher on, and then a load of washing before I went out, but as I was out for sunniest part of day the system filled up and dumped excess...  on Octopus Intelligent Go that's only 38p I lost but it's always frustrating to see it going out....

 

As I've only had the powerwal since mid-Oct I've not had a chance to get consistent sun, otherwise I'd leave plugging the car into morning, use power from the powerwall and backfill with solar.

 

You have hit a problem I decided was not worth it, going too big !!. I wanted value for money, when I ordered my system I was buying electricity at 16p per kwh and the companies were paying 3p per kwh for exporting

 

Owing to the design of our house on the south face we could only fit 4 panels, the single story extension would take 8 panels. A small battery system would cost in excess of £5000

 

I quickly decided at the rates being charged at that time it would take at least 20 years to pay for the batteries and when I needed the batteries the amount (winter) my production will not charge the batteries fully that often

 

As for how many panels to buy initially I thought to buy as many as I could, the main problem cost wise was the extra cost of fitting spread over 2 days and an extra visit from the scaffolders, so using both roofs was out of the question. During the buying process there was a facility to analyze cost and production according to how many panels you buy. For me and my requirements 7 panels came out as the best value

 

I have looked (and will do this year) at the cost of adding a battery, the quote reduced last year but mainly due to a smaller battery being quoted for. When we brought our system we were able to obtain a 40% discount using Solar Together bulk buying arrangement, at the moment there seems no reason for giving away large discounts.

 

My search for a good return on my investment has proved very beneficial to date, for both years power generation has been more than expected, fees have gone up by 300% for exports and value of energy saved has nearly doubled

 

A second thing which has occurred is the effect on the value/desirability on our property. When we ordered it we were told it would only affect the houses energy rating, but  it would be highly unlikely to increase the value of the property, well now according to one comparison I use 60% less than my neighbor's on electricity  and that is not including my export fees

 

Edit

 

I have just seen that yesterday I used 2kwh of my own production for the first time this year, despite it being January the value (usage and export) was worth 81p, quite a difference from Tuesday's 6p. The past 6 days even in the month of Jan I have benefited to the value of £2.56, may even reach £3 which is 3 times the value of the first week

Edited January 27 by hayfield

[Metr0Land]

The panels were here when I bought the house.  However, even after 3 months winter usage am thinking that in summer (if we ever get one) I might need to go off grid and eg plug the car in first thing in morning rather than overnight to maximise solar use.

[hayfield]

1 hour ago, Metr0Land said:

The panels were here when I bought the house.  However, even after 3 months winter usage am thinking that in summer (if we ever get one) I might need to go off grid and eg plug the car in first thing in morning rather than overnight to maximise solar use.

 

The maths are simple do you pay less by using your generated power than you pay your supplier at night. The other thing is by being on the standard rate with Octopus I get 15p per kwh export rather than 7.5p per kwh

[Stevebr]

For the month of January generated only 486.3 kWhr but was away for 2 weeks (Game reserve adjacent to the Kruger Park and a family wedding in Simonstown in the Cape) so only fridges and security system drawing power during this period (150W or so). Peak days at home saw up to 37 kWhr and a peak of 8400W. Not a bad month.

[hayfield]

Well at the start of the month I thought we would not get anywhere near out January average of 46 kwh, in the end we generated 41.5 kwh, even though 2 of the last 3 days were a wash out.

 

Shading is also a bit of a mystery as its far more pronounced on sunny days, with more power being produced in the shading troughs on cloudier days

 

Still overall the days are looking much better  

[Metr0Land]

I have 3 complete months of solar now, all winter-ish

 

Nov23  130kWh

Dec23  67kWh

Jan24  123kWh

 

....hopefully none of the next 9 months to complete the cycle will be as bad as Dec!

[hayfield]

42 minutes ago, Metr0Land said:

I have 3 complete months of solar now, all winter-ish

 

Nov23  130kWh

Dec23  67kWh

Jan24  123kWh

 

....hopefully none of the next 9 months to complete the cycle will be as bad as Dec!

 

My December averages over the past 3 years 20 kwh, against my best month July for the past 2 years 338 (Aug 305 ave)

[hayfield]

The effect of shading is reducing as each day passes, The first tree  still affects production but the effect is far less. The second object no longer has any affect, the third and probably the worst offender still is affecting production, but again its affect is reducing. Also the days are getting longer. 

 

 

[hayfield]

I have noticed that in the past 3 weeks the value of the energy I have either used or exported, has doubled  from the previous weeks. On average I use about £15 worth of electricity a week, over these past 3 weeks the average benefit has been just over £3 a week, rather than between £1 & £1.50.

 

For the half full brigade I guess it could be said "not a great return", but then in the winter months our expectations are low. As far as February is concerned by the end of the month production will be 5 times that of December. In short even on days when we have sunny spells our financial gain is 75% of the average weekly benefit we were to to expect when we brought our system.

 

Roll on the Spring as today looks to be a washout

[Tony_S]

Similarly to last year January and February are not the most productive month for our solar panels but the few sunny even if cold,days are a nice bonus. 
My wife really seems to enjoy managing the battery storage in conjunction with weather forecasts but she concluded that we could do with an extra battery for our non winter use. We did contact the people who installed our system but they said they no longer worked in Essex.  I really didn’t pursue it much further but they contacted me this week and having analysed our usage they thought we wouid benefit from an extra battery, as did we.  Also VAT was now zero rated for the battery. They also are working in Essex again. So,I have ordered one. 

Edited February 9 by Tony_S

[hayfield]

16 hours ago, Tony_S said:

Similarly to last year January and February are not the most productive month for our solar panels but the few sunny even if cold,days are a nice bonus. 
My wife really seems to enjoy managing the battery storage in conjunction with weather forecasts but she concluded that we could do with an extra battery for our non winter use. We did contact the people who installed our system but they said they no longer worked in Essex.  I really didn’t pursue it much further but they contacted me this week and having analysed our usage they thought we wouid benefit from an extra battery, as did we.  Also VAT was now zero rated for the battery. They also are working in Essex again. So,I have ordered one. 

 

Tony

 

Yesterday was not the best with cloud all day but with the odd sunny periods, produced nearly 2kwh though as more daylight getting through the cloud, with export income now 50% of imported power, its even better value now to export. Having said that using your own generated power is still worth double the value of exports

[Kris]

We are now seeing enough solar power to fully recharge our batteries and export again, this has not been the case for the past couple of months. Over these months we have been using the batteries to import at cheap rates then use this throughout the house during expensive times. This has proved to be an unexpected benefit and has reduced our electric costs over December and January by about 40% when combined with the limited solar gain we have seen and the saving sessions that we have managed to export for we have nearly broken even over the last 2 months. 

[Metr0Land]

Just had latest bill from Octopus £57 for 10Jan-09Feb.  As per my post 01Feb above solar for month of Jan was 123kWh - doubt I'll get much more than 100kWh in Feb as there are less days and it's so far been less sunny.

 

The £57 for the month breaks down to:

£16 standing charge

£19 car charging

£22 rest of house usage.  This was prob some £4 above what it might have been.  When I was fiddling with the detail in the myenergi app I managed to put the daytime rate in as 7.5p and didn't notice it for a while - the app thought it was doing me a favour filling up the Tesla powerwall.  Also storm Isha and friends triggered storm warning alerts.  When this happens the powerwall fills up there and then at the prevailing price, but I guess this a price worth paying to have several hours backup supply (power lines are mostly on 'telegraph poles' here)

 

Recently worked out I'm paying ~£100pcm throughout the year for heating oil as I don't stint on heating so I'm looking at £122pcm to budget for 'energy'

[Mike 84C]

Question chaps, have any of you had the experience of your Solar system supplier subcontracting your fitment to another company who is not a member of HIES consumer code. The first company ceases to trade, this is the one you have paid for your system, and then HIES who are the governing body for the industry contact you and tell you all your guarantees are null and void. This because neither company was a member of HEIS even though all the paperwork is headed as if  they were.

   Discuss !!  😰

Although notwithstanding the above our system is working well!! long may it continue!

[Ian Smeeton]

I agree, the industry seems to be full of 'Fly by Nights'

 

The company I dealt with has gone into administration without registering our installation for the MCS Certificate, which means that I get no payment for exported electricity.

 

MCS, themselves have been unable to help, the subcontractors who did the work won't speak to me. 

 

All good fun.

 

Regards

 

Ian

[hayfield]

1 hour ago, Mike 84C said:

Question chaps, have any of you had the experience of your Solar system supplier subcontracting your fitment to another company who is not a member of HIES consumer code. The first company ceases to trade, this is the one you have paid for your system, and then HIES who are the governing body for the industry contact you and tell you all your guarantees are null and void. This because neither company was a member of HEIS even though all the paperwork is headed as if  they were.

   Discuss !!  😰

Although notwithstanding the above our system is working well!! long may it continue!

 

 

One of the benefits of using Solar together is they vet the suppliers/fitters and provide an insurance backed system

 

If you have paid for a system and the contract stated the HEIS guarantee would be supplied I would take this up with the installers

[Tony_S]

We had our extra battery fitted yesterday by Greenscape who were the installers for our Solar Together system.  Really good job, great installation team. They upgraded the inverter Wi-Fi link and removed a a software “bar” for export settings as well. 
Now all we need is some sun. 

[Nick C]

15 hours ago, hayfield said:

If you have paid for a system and the contract stated the HEIS guarantee would be supplied I would take this up with the installers

Not much point if they've already ceased trading...

[hayfield]

1 minute ago, Nick C said:

Not much point if they've already ceased trading...

 

If the subcontractors were claiming to be HEIS compliant go to trading standards, is it not the main contractor who has gone bust? May even be worth getting trading standards to check out the HEIS reply, sometimes these type of bodies always deny liability in their first reply, Trading Standards may have a different view

 

Secondly were the main contractors still members of HEIS at the time of instillation ?

 

Again this is why I chose Solar together, as I would not have had a clue of what I was ordering. Plus we were offered an insurance backed guarantee, which I assume protects the buyer from these sort of issues

 

I too had Greenscape install my system, no problems what so ever

 

By the way what is the length of the Solar Together guaranty and what does it cover

[mezzoman253]

16 hours ago, Ian Smeeton said:

I agree, the industry seems to be full of 'Fly by Nights'

 

The company I dealt with has gone into administration without registering our installation for the MCS Certificate, which means that I get no payment for exported electricity.

 

MCS, themselves have been unable to help, the subcontractors who did the work won't speak to me. 

 

All good fun.

 

Regards

 

Ian

Solar is the 21st century equivalent of the 20th century double glazing boom. Many chancers saw an opportunity to fleece unwary members of the public. Set up a company, install poor equipment badly, and then disappear.

 

Heat pumps is the next "big " thing.

 

Caveat emptor.

 

[hayfield]

42 minutes ago, mezzoman253 said:

Solar is the 21st century equivalent of the 20th century double glazing boom. Many chancers saw an opportunity to fleece unwary members of the public. Set up a company, install poor equipment badly, and then disappear.

 

Heat pumps is the next "big " thing.

 

Caveat emptor.

 

 

 

This is not just about double glazing or solar panels, its in everything we use or buy. Last week I witnessed a person who was offering both a will and power of attorney writing service, coming from an insurance background I had a slight of these type of firms as I know a couple of people who went down this route, the chap admitted to once being an IFA, which made me more interested in what he was doing. Certainly the power of attorney will be officially registered, so there may well be some form of checking. Then we had the rise and fall of property conveyancing firms (one of my granddaughters had a narrow escape when the firm they used realized they had made a mistake), sadly its a fact of life 

 

But the way I read your take on solar power, in my opinion is way off the mark.

 

Yes please be very careful who you choose, especially if like me you know little about the subject. So I agree with you on this point

 

But I have found Solar Panels the best thing I have ever brought excluding the properties them selves. £ for £ its the best use of my savings ever and on its own is preserving my savings better than anything else (like turning down the temperature).  A local comparison site claimed my electricity usage is 40% of the other houses close by, and I doubt if that takes into consideration what I am paid for exporting excess power.

 

My DDI payments for both electricity and gas has stayed the same for over 4 years, my investment was just under £2700 and well on track to have paid for its self much earlier than anticipated and performance and returns are better than projected. All down to having been advised what to buy and from whom. Solar Together is backed by quite a few County Councils and ideal for buyers like me who lack the knowledge to make informed decisions. Like insulating your property its another energy saving facility.  

[mezzoman253]

22 hours ago, hayfield said:

 

 

This is not just about double glazing or solar panels, its in everything we use or buy. Last week I witnessed a person who was offering both a will and power of attorney writing service, coming from an insurance background I had a slight of these type of firms as I know a couple of people who went down this route, the chap admitted to once being an IFA, which made me more interested in what he was doing. Certainly the power of attorney will be officially registered, so there may well be some form of checking. Then we had the rise and fall of property conveyancing firms (one of my granddaughters had a narrow escape when the firm they used realized they had made a mistake), sadly its a fact of life 

 

But the way I read your take on solar power, in my opinion is way off the mark.

 

Yes please be very careful who you choose, especially if like me you know little about the subject. So I agree with you on this point

 

But I have found Solar Panels the best thing I have ever brought excluding the properties them selves. £ for £ its the best use of my savings ever and on its own is preserving my savings better than anything else (like turning down the temperature).  A local comparison site claimed my electricity usage is 40% of the other houses close by, and I doubt if that takes into consideration what I am paid for exporting excess power.

 

My DDI payments for both electricity and gas has stayed the same for over 4 years, my investment was just under £2700 and well on track to have paid for its self much earlier than anticipated and performance and returns are better than projected. All down to having been advised what to buy and from whom. Solar Together is backed by quite a few County Councils and ideal for buyers like me who lack the knowledge to make informed decisions. Like insulating your property its another energy saving facility.  

My comment wasn't about solar as a means of saving money. It's about people seeing an opportunity to make money at the expense of others, and leaving them to pick up the pieces when it all goes wrong.

 

Anyone can set up a company and claim to be an expert in whatever field they choose, and as most of us are not conversant with whatever the technology, it's very difficult to find those that are experts and will do a good job. Solar Together seems a better way to go about things in this regard.

 

We seem, as a country, to have a surplus of these individuals, who, with no experience in the chosen field, will gladly take your money and run. These emerging technologies are food and drink to them.

[hayfield]

9 minutes ago, mezzoman253 said:

My comment wasn't about solar as a means of saving money. It's about people seeing an opportunity to make money at the expense of others, and leaving them to pick up the pieces when it all goes wrong.

 

Anyone can set up a company and claim to be an expert in whatever field they choose, and as most of us are not conversant with whatever the technology, it's very difficult to find those that are experts and will do a good job. Solar Together seems a better way to go about things in this regard.

 

We seem, as a country, to have a surplus of these individuals, who, with no experience in the chosen field, will gladly take your money and run. These emerging technologies are food and drink to them.

 

From the unsolicited phone calls I and others receive on a regular basis, shows charlatans are far more active abroad than here, the human nature is to be an opportunist, thankfully most act within the law.

 

Solar panels are part of the building industry and for years unqualified journey men have acted this way in seeking to make money from who ever they can. In the building industry its still rife and not just at the lower levels of skills. Large building companies have and still cutting corners where they can. On TV last night highlighted 3 year old buildings with faulty balconies

 

However we must be careful when highlighting the pitfalls, stress most companies act honestly. It is right that solar energy is booming, the worlds future will rely on decarbonizing our world. A few bad apples will always crop up, they always have and I guess always will.

 

We had a very bad experience with the first builder on our extension, we dealt with it and moved on. By all means warn people but educate at the same time by explaining how to avoid these people. As I said I and others on here have benefitted from Solar Together, an ideal way promoted by many county councils as a safe way for people to buy systems  

[hayfield]

This month has to date been a complete wash out, we have just started the 23 day of a 28 day month and we still have not reached 50 kwh production for the month. The past 2 years have both produced 108kwh for the 28 days

 

On a brighter note on the best day we produced 6.8kwh, not bad for a small system in early February, also shading stopped quite a few days ago, the sun is very high in the sky now (10am) and certainly the morning and lunchtime shading went days/weeks a go, late afternoon might still be affected if so to a very much lesser extent.

 

Still we are now on an upward trend, against last year we are behind, but last March was awful so on a comparison basis against last year its easy to make it up with a bit of decent weather, what ever the system is coming out of the winter slump and will continue to reduce our dependence on imported power

 

I have had an email from Greenscape (our installers) about adding a battery to our system, stating we could take advantage of cheaper overnight charging. They forget to say I would loose my export premium rates by changing tariff. 

 

 

[Mike 84C]

I do agree with the comments "that its like the wild west" vis; solar panel/system fitting.

I did explore the Solar Together option but it doe's/ is not available here in Lincolnshire and that was definately true a year ago when we kicked this ball into play.

Our system has reduced our energy bills by at least half, I think an average of £20 pw is not bad for winter and that's gas and leccy.

Our system cost approx;   £12.5k but I think a payback of 8/10years is probable.

Its the warranties, in case of problems that concern me.