Solar panels and battery - any real world recommendations?

Ron-ski said:
Hope you're feeling strong, makes for an extremely heavy battery.

Some cases available from China, no doubt you've seen Andy's video. I'm not keen as the cells are double stacked, so you can't get to the lower cells without taking the top layer off.

16 of those bad boys makes for a 34 kWh battery, nice!

Click to expand...

Not seen the video, was just browsing and saw them at £99 each and thought a 32-34kWh battery for under £2.5k sounds appealing, plus it'll give me something to do as a hobby. :)

Will watch the video later, and have a browse of the cases - as long as they have wheels I'll be fine hopefully.
 
timmy85 said:
I've had an alternative price now from someone else for -

19 x Aiko 470W panels
1 x Sigen 6kW Inverter.
1 x 10Kwh Sigen battery
Includes a "free" EV charger and installation too apparently.

For £13k installed.
Click to expand...
Set the ball in motion with this earlier. But an 8kW inverter and a sigen gateway.

£13k install.

DNO request going in this weekend.
 
Last edited:




Near perfect day today. Looks like the 6 on this roof are not going to be great over the winter. The sun is just too low in the sky. Despite the panels facing south the gym is north of the house so, as you can see, they are shaded. Looks like I will need to trim some of that tree to help the rear right panel.

Regarding my fit, something interesting has happened and I might be able to exploit it.... The fit system is 16x250 into a 3kw inverter. Just this week I had an email from e-on as they said they have no signed paperwork for my install (?). Maybe because I bought the house with the fit already installed and had it trasferred from the pervious owners.


We have recently completed an audit of Feed in Tariff (FiT) accounts to make sure that we have all the required documents and sadly we are not able to locate your original signed and dated FIT Acceptance Plan.

Don’t be worried as I’ve sent you another email which will have a FIT plan attached which relates to your FIT account and if you could sign and date this document and return it to ourselves by responding to this email.

(Please also bear in mind that the unit rates displayed on the FIT plan are the original rates from when the system was set up for FIT and have since had an annual increase inline with RPI, Set by OFGEM.)

You can also post the signed FIT Acceptance Plan to FiT Team, E.ON Next, Technology House, 239 Ampthill Road, Bedford, MK42 9QG

If you have any queries regarding this please get in touch. Email us at [email protected] (we're here 8am-10pm everyday) or call us on 0808 501 5218, Monday to Thursday 9am–5pm and Friday 9am–4pm.

Should you have any other questions, please don't hesitate to get in touch with us.

Thank you.
John.
EON Next Feed-In Tariff Team

So I replied with the signed acceptance and said I want to change my inverter and add more panels.

Good morning.

Please find attached the signed FIT Acceptance Plan.

I took over this system when I bought the house from the previous owners. If it's ok I have two questions.

The FIT acceptance Plan mentions the installed capacity is 4kW. This is correct as there's 16 x 250w panels on the roof. However, i've always found this strange but the inverter is a 3kW unit. Am I allowed a 4kW inverter?

This brings me onto my next question.

I am looking to replace the inverter and add additional panels on to the roof. I have read up on this and I need to notify you before carrying out any changes. So, how do we go about this and what do I need to do to for you before any changes are made? I am not going to change the panels on the fit so they will be generating the same as they are now.....but upto 4kW as they won't be capped by the current 3kW inverter.

They replied

Hi,

Thank you for sending over the signed FIT Acceptance Plan. I have updated our records accordingly.

Regarding the installation of a 4kW inverter, there is no requirement to advise us unless you increase the total installed capacity of the system. If you do decide to increase the capacity of the panels, please provide us with the necessary information at that time, as we would need to put a split on the system since your new panels would not be eligible for FIT payments.

If you have any further questions or need assistance, feel free to reach out.

Kind regards,

Liam

and my request for clarification..

Thanks Liam

Just so i'm understanding correctly.

If I change my existing inverter to a 4kW one and add no extra panels. I don't need to notify you.

If I change my existing inverter (for example) to an 8kW one and add an extra 4KW of panels then I notify you of this before carrying out any work.

You then put me on a split system and my fit payments will be 50% of my future meter readings?

Thank you.

So, if this goes right. I might be able to get my FIT payments on 4kw rather than 3kw. Which would be nice....but I would say unlikely at this stage.

Thoughts?
 
Last edited:
I read it that your have 4kWp of installed capacity, this has been clipped by the 3kW inverter, but they are saying you can change the 3kW to a 4kW as the installed capacity of panels has not changed. You will earn extra, but obviously it won't be 25% extra.

I'm sure you are understanding it correctly, especially if the MCS certificate says that there is 4kWp installed
 
I'll await clarification, but that would be very nice. I'll have to try and dig out any paperwork I was given when I bought the house. I'm sure they know I have a 3kw inverter. It always annoyed me. Along with the fact the previous owners missed the 1st FIT rate by a month. I'm sure it was a cowboy solar firm that ripped them off and just thew in a smaller inverter because they had it in the van.
 
john_smith said:
I'll await clarification, but that would be very nice. I'll have to try and dig out any paperwork I was given when I bought the house. I'm sure they know I have a 3kw inverter. It always annoyed me. Along with the fact the previous owners missed the 1st FIT rate by a month. I'm sure it was a cowboy solar firm that ripped them off and just thew in a smaller inverter because they had it in the van.
Click to expand...
It was more to do with lack of equipment for installing Inverters back then so they installed whatever they could get their hands on unfortunately.
 
but you now have solar edge? Seems erm... not sketchy at all...

Are you sure the Solaredge inverter is orignal and are you sure there is a material amount of clipping which you could even benefit from?

3.68kw is the biggest you can go without a G99 either way and your 4kw of panels are probably not going to produce 4kw for a sustained period as output goes down as heat goes up.
 
Last edited:
It's not sketchy at all. I have 2 systems. I have a G99. I havent touched the fit system at all and it is a 3kw inverter.

FIT is 16 x 250w into a 3kw inverter. It clips.
Solar edge is 15 x 370w and 8 x 430w into a 6kw inverter.

The benefit i'm going to realise is replacing the inverter and adding another ~5kw of panels. If that realises a little bit more generation from the fit panels it's a nice bonus.
 
Last edited:
If there are any GivEnergy or Fox users here who fancy using a tool like Predbat but would prefer a supported commercial service, the team behind Predbat have just launched Predbat cloud as a closed beta.

You can get an invite on their website.
 
Now we're up and running, just wanted to check a few things. Our G99 DNO was approved and we're with e.ON so I'll need to send them our MCS to get on SEG? I think our Sigenergy is currently on AI mode but think this goes through cycles more quickly. If we come off that, what's the best 'manual' mode setup? Run house of solar and charge battery during the day + charge battery during early hours of the morning when it's cheaper?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom