Soldato
- Joined
- 27 Mar 2013
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- 9,260
I still don't get why solar tiles aren't mandated on all new builds.
Energy Prices (Strictly NO referrals!)
- Thread starter DXP55
- Start date
Soldato
Same, that should absolutely be a thing.
Soldato
- Joined
- 13 May 2003
- Posts
- 8,921
So let's say we build 200,000 houses a year with solar. They have 5kW each that's 1000,000 kW or 1GW that's about 1.8% of winter peak demand and about 2.5% of summer peak demand. It's all produced exactly out of phase with the seasonal and daily demand cycle. In 5 years you've got 10 GW of solar you have trebled the existing installed capacity. You have probably borked the grids ability to manage the solar generation.
I actually kind of agree with you it feels like it makes sense to put solar up on all new builds but you need to have something to do with it. Possibly the best way is large thermal stores in homes so spare electricty is turned into hot water for the house holder, difficult to retrofit to the pokey homes built in the last 20 years but could be managed in new builds if mandated. As electric cars take off solar could also be spilled into their batteries.
One of the problems with solar and wind is they lack some of the capabilities that were intrinsic in legacy generation techniques. Because their is no synchronous spinning component and all electricity goes through an inverter they offer no inertia to the grid so when you lose generator output or have a spike in demand their is no electrical momentum to ride through the problem. They also don't have large transformers at the production location so you can't play tunes with teh voltage and current to deal with a property of electrical distribution called MVAR's which is the effect of capacitnce and inductance on the gird. This is often called compensation. So you have t find other ways to back fill these essential capabilities.
You can DIY it, you won't get any export payment though.
I plan to give it ago at some point maybe even some batteries. Nothing huge though.
Soldato
- Joined
- 23 May 2006
- Posts
- 7,480
East /west facing roof is not bad (I have one) sure... the absolute best output is south but if you have south then the back will be North which is the worst.
unless you are a very high user you will generate more than you need at peak times and as such it is better to generate a lower peak over a longer period
this is where east/west comes in. with panels on both sides of the roof even right now early April I start generating just after 6:30am all the way up to almost 7pm. my 7.2kw/h battery covers some of my excess to extend my use further but once you go over that size the battery costs get really high
really isn't much point generating over 3kw per hour which my east west roof can do anyway.
How do the national grid think about people fitting their own solar panels?
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/04/08/pay-power-peak-hour-surge-pricing-plans/
Thank god I have held off getting a smart meter
Thank god I have held off getting a smart meter
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Can't read it due to lack of subscription
Your on a pc hardware site you must know how to circumvent that? I never see any pay walls.
I've never been bothered enough to work it out tbh
I don't think they care there is nothing difficult about it, you just plug into a standard plug socket usually or you can wire direct into the consumer unit.
The inverter syncs to the mains and that's it.
Soldato
I was holding off, but eventually, your hands will be financially tied. In order for me to get the EonNext deal, I had to commit to a smart meter.
With the migration to electric cars, you can see how they'll be able to recover the Vehicle Excise Duty through a smart meter.
I agree at some point it will make financial sense but not yet. And you are right it's pretty obvious they will need to recoup the lost revenue, what ever happens we will be screwed to the floor.
Soldato
When mine worked out already sent readings every half hour. The unreliability has me concerned though, mine just randomly stopped working after over a year. What if I was on a multi rate tariff.
So potentially most customers will be worse off. I haven't seen the details but I hope they still have a price cap on the peak rate.
Soldato
I keep it oldskool dum meter will come in handy for oct readings
Yeah but they are supposed to be told about it, right?
Soldato
- Joined
- 23 May 2006
- Posts
- 7,480
without a smart meter you miss out on some really good pricing plans. (octopus go faster in my case). combined with solar for the last 10 months what electricity I do not produce myself , 80% of it has been at 5.5p kw/h. you won't get that on an old meter.
and it's not really like it is paying more now to save long term with a dumb meter....... either people will be forced to upgrade if they want their supply to continue or fees on an old meter will become so high you will be forced to change.
Finally.... in principle I am not against charging people more in peak times.... on the condition that off peak is equally FAR cheaper and that everyone are given affordable options to be able to practically offset their energy use.
smoothing out the demands on the grid needs to happen and having peak and off peak rates is the best way to do this as people are lazy and won't bother otherwise.
however it does need to be doable by all and not just those who can afford house batteries etc.