Solar panels and battery - any real world recommendations?

SkyTerran said:
If you're located in London, the first one is a good offer. These are the very latest solar panels and battery. If you're not getting power cuts, you can save the money for a gateway.

I'd ask what the price is for a Tesla Powerwall 3 - now that's available with or without a gateway as well.
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Had another call, asking if they can do a little better on the Gateway as it's a good few hundred more than the other company. And revise the optional quote for a 6 kW battery as 9 kW would be too much for an additional battery. As good as the PW3 is, wasn't keen on the Tesla route.

Edit - one of site surveys noted the fuse next to our CU is 60 amps and would likely needing upgrading to 80 or 100. Is that done through the DNO?
 
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doodah said:
one of site surveys noted the fuse next to our CU is 60 amps and would likely needing upgrading to 80 or 100. Is that done through the DNO?
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Yes, depending on the DNO they may not upgrade it to 100 amps, some will only go up to 80 amps. The meter cables will need to be 25mm2 and supply cable will have to be of sufficient size, it's also possible you could be on a looped supply, but all problems for the DNO to sort.
 
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doodah said:
Edit - one of site surveys noted the fuse next to our CU is 60 amps and would likely needing upgrading to 80 or 100. Is that done through the DNO?
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i had a 63A main fuse until i got an EV charger...just got upgraded to an 80A
if you have an EV charger/heatpump/immersion heater then the DNO will upgrade.
i'm not sure on what the rules are for solar battery import though...in theory it's basically the same as charging an EV, but whether the DNO will accept that as a reason to upgrade the fuse
 
Just about sizing the inverter correctly, some omissions and minor errors, but given it's Heatable not too bad a video and no mention of micro inverters.
 
Finally got the email this morning to state that the export tariff is up and running. \o/

Couple of things they need, is bank details to pay us back which is already set up as we have a DD with them so irrelevant, but they want a photo of our export read from the smart meter, but seeing as we've not been technically exporting to anyone I think it might be like the payment details and not required.


Anyone with Octopus and exports know if the export data will show in their app?
 
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Gazanimal said:
Finally got the email this morning to state that the export tariff is up and running. \o/

Couple of things they need, is bank details to pay us back which is already set up as we have a DD with them so irrelevant, but they want a photo of our export read from the smart meter, but seeing as we've not been technically exporting to anyone I think it might be like the payment details and not required, although when I looked through their guide to find where the Export reading is, my model of Smart Meter isn't listed. :cry:

Meter type:Smart (SMETS2)
Made by:Kaifa MA120


Anyone with Octopus and exports know if the export data will show in their app?
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It will. Might take a few days. Around a 24 hour delay on data however.
 
I don’t have Home Assistant just the Octopus app on my phone along with the FoxESS/FoxCloud and Energy Stats apps.

I’m trying to figure out a good timetable for exporting and to make sure I always generate/import at the cheap rate to cover my average daily usage as that can vary from 9-16kwh per day.

Some days it’s quite high due to work usage or a lot of gaming, yet other days it’s a lot lighter.

I suppose that’s the magic question :cry:
 
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reef said:
That's disappointing, but I expected as much. Northern Power are notoriously stingy on export limits. 3.68kW and 5kW seem to be regular numbers that people get. Of the installers I spoke to recently in the local area when looking into my garage install, most said 5 or 6kW is usually the maximum, with the odd very rare case of 8kW or 10kW. I don't think it's necessarily a case of the local grid not being able to cope, but rather a blanket figure they grant.

Still, at 5kW I would charge overnight to 50% or so and then force discharge at a constant 5kW all day. Any excess will go into the batteries and you shouldn't lose much. You can also move loads to do the day or trickle excess into an EV if you have one.

As for F.P.S. This is the issue when they install before getting the G99. They've installed and had their money so there is no impetus for them to act quickly.
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Reef, is this still the ideal scenario for me, even though I average anything from 9-16kWh usage per day on my 10kWh system? Or should I fully charge and export at 5kW as I don't want to be caught short in terms of battery power/solar generation and then get hit paying 27.5p per kWh :D
Admittedly my lowest generation in the recent months since the install was 16.10kWh and max 91.10kWh, but I appreciate that's going to dip significantly during autumn/winter/spring.
 
Gazanimal said:
Reef, is this still the ideal scenario for me, even though I average anything from 9-16kWh usage per day on my 10kWh system? Or should I fully charge and export at 5kW as I don't want to be caught short in terms of battery power/solar generation and then get hit paying 27.5p per kWh :D
Admittedly my lowest generation in the recent months since the install was 16.10kWh and max 91.10kWh, but I appreciate that's going to dip significantly during autumn/winter/spring.
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At this time of the year I would probably charge to 100% and then start force discharging when the off peak window ends. Be sure to set a min discharge SOC of 40 or 50% so on cloudier days you have enough to get through.
 
reef said:
At this time of the year I would probably charge to 100% and then start force discharging when the off peak window ends. Be sure to set a min discharge SOC of 40 or 50% so on cloudier days you have enough to get through.
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Thanks. I’ll take a look tomorrow at setting it up in the Mode Scheduler and see if I can get my head around it.
 
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