Solar panels?

Psycho Sonny · 14 Apr 2019 at 15:27

nutsnut said:
I'll be getting my solars installed this summer, should be able to squeeze a 5kwh set up on the rook. Only doing it because i can get it done cheaply so the repay period will be a few years, I need to look at batteries as out next car will be electric.

if you get batteries installed at same time then no VAT after the fact then there is VAT iirc.

battery tech is expensive and immature. if you can avoid it for a few years i would.

you going for leaf, i3 or tesla? i was toying with the idea of an i3 (without the petrol generator engine add on).

nutsnut · 14 Apr 2019 at 18:20

Don't know on the car front, but definitely wont be tesla territory.

We drive less than 5k per year, so hoping with a battery we will have very low cost mileage.

Psycho Sonny · 15 Apr 2019 at 08:03

nutsnut said:
Don't know on the car front, but definitely wont be tesla territory.

We drive less than 5k per year, so hoping with a battery we will have very low cost mileage.

Electric cars still need to improve a lot and are limited by the same issue battery technology.

Give it a decade or two and every car will be electric but major improvements need to be made.

I've toyed with the same idea but even the cheap ones aren't that cheap and then you have the issue of older ones needing replacement batteries or you lease the battery at such a cost it makes it pointless over a petrol car.

They are very much just prototypes of the technology with too many issues and too expensive to save a decent wedge of money to make the issues worthwhile.

I'd look at plug in hybrids instead where you get a 30 mile range battery only before the petrol engine kicks in. For 5k a year that sounds like you wouldn't be doing more than 30 miles often and when you did you have the petrol engine anyway.

weescott · 15 Apr 2019 at 22:43

A guy at work has a 1st gen Nissan Leaf and gets about 60 miles out of it. But it has done over 100k.

I have a 94ah i3 BEV. Unlike the Leaf I haven't seen any battery degradation issues. The i3 has been tested to something like 500k before it's classed as EOL.

I don't agree on hybrids. They work for some, sure. The Outlander as an example is horrendously inofficiant as a petrol car. If you use the battery all the time you might as well buy a pure EV. Plus it drives like a boat.

Sure battery tech has a lot to go but for home charging you are limited to either a Zappi or using the granny charger to make use of solar.

Current home battery storage is limited to 5kwh output just now AFAIK... Fine for low mileage. Also consider how much your solar array is likely to produce in a day. A typical 4kw system will produce between 3600 and 4100kwh in a year depending on your location. Forget EV and battery tech...most will always need to rely on the grid as back up.

nutsnut · 16 Apr 2019 at 19:26

Agreed, I see no point in PHEVs. Poor range on electric because you're lugging around a petrol/diesel engine. Poor MPG on petrol/Diesel because you're lugging around an electric motor and battery.

Will be getting something like an I3 with some decent free milage from home solar/battery storage.

Psycho Sonny · 17 Apr 2019 at 11:03

nutsnut said:
Agreed, I see no point in PHEVs. Poor range on electric because you're lugging around a petrol/diesel engine. Poor MPG on petrol/Diesel because you're lugging around an electric motor and battery.

Will be getting something like an I3 with some decent free milage from home solar/battery storage.

don't go for the range extender then. it's basically a petrol generator. so once you run out of electric the generator kicks in which charges the battery / powers the vehicle as if it was still using electric but it's now using petrol. it's a stupid way to extend the range IMO. why not just add more battery?

weescott · 17 Apr 2019 at 13:59

Turning into a nice day in NE Scotland. 13kwh generated so far.

Not often I charge at home as I use the free rapid charge points but today I'm using the 3 pin cable for the i3 at the same time as having the dishwasher on. HW up to 63c.

(site time an hour behind)

samcat · 17 Apr 2019 at 15:21

How many kW of panels do you have?

1kWp here, just north Bristol. Overcast. 2.2 kWh so far today.

weescott · 17 Apr 2019 at 16:13

4.8kw. Clipping at 3.68 quite often. South facing on a 30 degree roof . No shading. April has been hit and miss so far:

samcat · 17 Apr 2019 at 20:49

Similar here.

SW facing on veranda, 15 ish degrees.

Dont worry about the clipping, overpanneling the inverter is good for the shoulder months, gives you extra generation when you need it!

onomatopoeia · 23 Apr 2019 at 15:21

weescott said:
4.8kw. Clipping at 3.68 quite often. South facing on a 30 degree roof . No shading. April has been hit and miss so far:

For me so far April north of Bristol has been a mixture, there have been very good spells and very poor spells (much like typical spring weather really). So with my 5.2kWp system I've had days from 2.9kWh total up to 33.0kWh. Average generation for the month so far is well above all the predictions for my system and location though, just as it was for the three weeks of March from when the panels were installed.