Solar panels and battery - any real world recommendations?

Journey said:
General rule these days, if paying for a new install you can't have too many panels, as the cost isn't in the panels it is the labour, scaffold etc.

If you can fit 40 panels and get export allowance for that, then you'll be more off grid in the winter and generate more income back in the spring and summer. For reference a 430w panel can be bought for ~£42 now.
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Where can one buy a solar panel for 42 quid?

I hope the government or the parliament decide sometime soon to make it easier to install small solar generators in UK. Germany already has over 2 million of those - they probably cut the need for grid upgrades and gas generation by some noticeable amount. The biggest cost when installing solar panels in UK is the labour, giving people the chance to install them without hiring someone drastically cuts the pay off time. Given that two solar panels cost say 84 quid and a microinverter, like EcoFlow Stream 800W is often available for 92 quid - a south facing DIY install will pay off in one or two years with the very expensive eletricity we got (I think most people who don't have EV or solar pay around 24p per kWh).

 
City Plumbing used to sell JA 435W solar panels around 53 quid, but currently the cheapest one they have is LONGi Hi-MO X6 Max 455W for £78.32.

There are other suppliers offering very cheap panels, but usually they charge 90 to 150 quid for delivery - so not a very good deal if one needs 2 or 4 panels only.
 
SkyTerran said:
Where can one buy a solar panel for 42 quid?
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Sorry didn't see your question, there's a few around. One link below. There are others too just need to look around, prices are at an all time low - helped someone setup a 'balcony' solar system with two refurb Ecorflow Microstreams and 4x 430w panels - £350 including all the fixings they needed for the fence.

 
For small quantities of panels you really need to use City Plumbing (free delivery), or some other local supplier. Looking at that link above they charge £150+VAT for panel deliveries. The three for my rear wall cost £106 for delivery - I wanted a specific size.
 
Journey said:
General rule these days, if paying for a new install you can't have too many panels, as the cost isn't in the panels it is the labour, scaffold etc.

If you can fit 40 panels and get export allowance for that, then you'll be more off grid in the winter and generate more income back in the spring and summer. For reference a 430w panel can be bought for ~£42 now.
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I have 44 panels, 22kWp, and I am nowhere near off grid in the winter :D Today I generated less than 1kWh!!

UK is too variable for true offgrid without a LOT of battery, and very little use. I have 40kWh of storage but it doesn't touch the sides.

Whole of Dec so far, 0.4MWh. Get every panel you can fit!!
 
the developer of Predbat is looking to develop a configuration for Solax systems which should be handy.

They need someone to lend their system for live development use so once that’s done (assuming there is a willing participator) it should get added to the default configurations.

Edit: looks like they are also developing a paid cloud solution for those who don’t want to manage a local install (e.g. like the net zero app).
 
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rtho782 said:
I have 44 panels, 22kWp, and I am nowhere near off grid in the winter :D Today I generated less than 1kWh!!

UK is too variable for true offgrid without a LOT of battery, and very little use. I have 40kWh of storage but it doesn't touch the sides.

Whole of Dec so far, 0.4MWh. Get every panel you can fit!!
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The problem for offgrid is that you need to generate on average enough over a period to balance the usage
Storage helps in that if you had say 10 days worth of storage then you can gather more peaks and hopefully see out more dips, but as a basic principle your average generation for the time of year needs to be above or at least equal to your usage for the time of year.
b0rn2sk8 said:
the developer of Predbat is looking to develop a configuration for Solax systems which should be handy.

They need someone to lend their system for live development use so once that’s done (assuming there is a willing participator) it should get added to the default configurations.

Edit: looks like they are also developing a paid cloud solution for those who don’t want to manage a local install (e.g. like the net zero app).
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Do you know who to contact in this regard?

Saying that the TOU stuff Solax rolled out a while back seems to do everything I would want (I am not sure if all inverters can run it or if beyond a certain age they cannot be upgraded to a firmware that can), other than plug in a forecast to further tweak the charging times etc.
Also saying that, my experience with forecasts hasn't been that great and I stopped looking at them* as I found even the odd day being quite wrong could be costly.

* I was specifically doing this when on Agile but concluded that simple minmaxing came very close to trying to use the forecast to create some optimum minmax.
 
I'm surprised no one has mentioned it in this thread but there was a load of coverage in the times about a potential energy policy anouncement on Monday.

It's behind a paywall but I am sure you resourceful people can do something about that
:p


the TLDR is:
-moving some policy costs from electricity to gas
-moving away from insulation schemes
-big grants for solar systems for people on low incomes (cheaper, more effective, quicker and easier to install than insulation at lowering bills)
-enabling small scale 'temporary' solar installs often refered to as balcony solar in the likes of Germany (they have >2 million systems installed since allowing this).

Those small scale systems are very inexpensive and can take hundreads off your bill.

The knock in impact of going further with solar is export rates are likely to drop from their current highs of 15p/kwh.
 
(posting in the right thread...)

Just started thinking about Solar, we moved in this house in April. Our neighbours already on the solar.

What do we think in terms of this roof (south facing) in terms of potential and rough costs I should be budgeting?


att-ueh3-WX471-Ka-RIpg8-Fv-O6-N9b0-Tx56-Wnc-Vxz-Wuykg58d-I.jpg


The rear of the house is the same as the one across the street

Screenshot-2025-12-31-123537.png
 
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Reposting my reply
b0rn2sk8 said:
As a minimum, fill the souh face, you should be able to go over those roof vents as long as there is a joist for a hanger to be screwed into betwee the 3 of them somewhere.

You could consider doing the north and west depending on costs and DNO export restrictions (no point if you are already using your whole capacity with your south array IMO).

I probably wouldn't bother with the east as that would be a 3rd set of scaffolding and probably not worth it for the small amount of panels which would fit and you'll likely be export capped at this point. I think the east will generate more than the west due to shading in winter but it all comes down to cost/bnenefit.

As for costs, 'it depends', particularly on how much battery capacity you want/need. I'd suggest 70%-80% of daily use is suffcient.
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Where are you based? Someone may be able to recomend an installer.

Edit: edited my reply above as I think the east is a bettter generation potential than west but not mich in it in reality.
 
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