Solar panels and battery - any real world recommendations?

Zeeflyboy said:
Now we’re cooking!

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Edit - currently generating 2.7kw at 10:37am

Battery is already 88%… supposed to be cloudy later but we’ll see.
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Awesome, you'll quickly find out that your system is sat there exporting like a lemon because you can't find enough stuff to use it for as it comes in! :D

ON a good sunny day these things will fly through generation.
 
Yeah. In the summer it will "hurt" but in the winter is where the big systems really pay off imho. I've got the space and i'm really considering adding a 2nd system on my roof for this very reason. With Go at 7.5p it's probably not beneficial regarding a decent ROI. However if it continues to rise the spend becomes an easier decision.
 
john_smith said:
Yeah. In the summer it will "hurt" but in the winter is where the big systems really pay off imho. I've got the space and i'm really considering adding a 2nd system on my roof for this very reason. With Go at 7.5p it's probably not beneficial regarding a decent ROI. However if it continues to rise the spend becomes an easier decision.
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Same.

Seriously considering a simple system of some panels on my east facing roof and south facing wall.
Wouldn't be aiming high, probably 6 on each or something.

I'm giving it a year though. So will revisit next spring.
The battery ROI for additional over 10kwh for me was around 10 years, didnt seem worth it. Panels could be just as bad or even worse so data needed I think.

Also for me, 6kwh or so its completely optional. Used for the crypto, so basing decisions on that usage ramps the risk up a good few more notches.
 
I'd like a little more battery but i'd want another PW2 and there's 2 issues there. 1. Unobtainimum and 2. Price.

More generation to take care of the lower generation days is where i'm going to benefit most. I put 220 grid units into hot water last month for example. A bigger PV system could have taken care of some of that.
 
My most notable benefit is probably another battery, but it's very limited repayment compared to battery #1, so like MKW I will also wait a year and see where things are. If the batteries get cheaper it will help drive that decision.
 
You’ll want to put as many panels on the roof as possible once. A huge amount of the cost is installation, it makes sense to max out as many panels as you can.

Sure you might export a lot in summer but winter is where it makes all the difference.
 
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HungryHippos said:
My most notable benefit is probably another battery, but it's very limited repayment compared to battery #1, so like MKW I will also wait a year and see where things are. If the batteries get cheaper it will help drive that decision.
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You've got 5kWH of storage now, GivEnergy? Adding in one of their 9.5kWH would be nice. The news was saying this morning that bad energy prices are expected for another two years. So i'm potentially looking at a year of Go on 12.5 or even 15p. That's a significant increase from the 5p most of us started on.
 
Battery helps smooth out the ups and downs as well.
Its relatively easy for most people to knock themselves up a simple model, but your going to be using averages and averages hide a lot.

My Jan generation was 0.53kwh to 8.94kwh

Its also slightly patterned, in that low days tend to be closely clustered and so do high days.
More battery might allow you to smooth those peaks etc more.
But for me it would only really be a benefit in regards low clusters since on high days I feed my hot water tank. No excess is wasted, within reason.

With more data I would be aiming to do another model, a more advanced one that assumes peaks and troughs (so need data on those values) to work out reasonable low periods. How frequently and how bad.
I imported quite a lot of peak rate units Dec and upto mid Jan. But if that the main window of that happening is that narrow then more solar and or more batteries might be a really bad decision.
 
john_smith said:
You've got 5kWH of storage now, GivEnergy? Adding in one of their 9.5kWH would be nice. The news was saying this morning that bad energy prices are expected for another two years. So i'm potentially looking at a year of Go on 12.5 or even 15p. That's a significant increase from the 5p most of us started on.
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Got the 8.2kWh battery, it's sized to last about half a day of my usual usage by itself, so it gives me a baseline cover. On Go at £0.075p/kWh as well, which as you say is on the up and up.

It's definitely a case of wait and see though, because it may not make any sense, i.e. may be better saving the money towards the next battery after this one dies/loses capacity over time (this is also a thing I think).

Will have to run the numbers, because a 9.5kWh battery on top would add a bunch of cost I think.

I need to check the stats as well because I think I only imported in the worst case 6-7 kWh of peak units on a given day in December, so the excess benefit isn't as high, but what a 2nd battery does do is allow me more room to charge into for solar, and also a better safety net I can set in case of a poor day in the summer.
 
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Mercenary Keyboard Warrior said:
Battery helps smooth out the ups and downs as well.
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This so much.

I didnt go for a battery and regret it, to be honest I was talked out of it by the installer which I think in hindsight was for their benefit not ours, despite them saying otherwise, but running through in my head, what I didn't really consider were days with sunny spells.

Becuase typically you'll put the kettle on/your dishwasher will start a heating cycle etc - when a cloud comes over, so you have to pull from the grid, then the sun comes back out when not, and you end up exporting.

That being said I am thinking about getting another 3 (high watt) panels put on the garage roof and then getting a a battery at the same time. But I am wondering if its worth waiting a bit given current crazy demand.
 
Nope. You can get an AC coupled inverter. Piggybacks whatever you've currently got, measures your solar in and grid out with a pair of CT clamps, and charges and supplies from your batteries accordingly using it's own inbuilt inverter.
 
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You can have standalone as well they have their own inverter. They will use a clamp to check for outgoing where as a hybrid does it all itself.

Its a more expensive way of doing it.
I guess it would make having a solar diverter tricky as well as thats the mechanism they also use
 
Yup probably struggle if you have a hot water diverter as well.

Otherwise yea makes sense you would just draw if from your AC supply as you would any other electrical device.
 
Mercenary Keyboard Warrior said:
You can have standalone as well they have their own inverter. They will use a clamp to check for outgoing where as a hybrid does it all itself.

Its a more expensive way of doing it.
I guess it would make having a solar diverter tricky as well as thats the mechanism they also use
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do you have a link for the standalone with their own inverter??
 
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