That sounds like the price for full islanding mode though
Solar panels and battery - any real world reccomendations?
- Thread starter GinG
- Start date
Soldato
Is your EV at home during the day?
Couple of questions on my Givenergy system before I go to the installers, had it a couple of times where the battery has shown as steady charging all day then suddenly jumps to 100%, usually this is 90% to 100% but today it's gone from 70% at 14:55 to 92% at 15:00 to 100% at 15:05.
Are you able to clarify the point above? Presume it's this document here? https://kb.givenergy.cloud/assets/EPS Configuration v2.pdf
I see that too, suspect it may be a calibration thing or something. Generally around 85% to 100% pretty instantly.
I've heard about a day's usage is a good rule of thumb, I guess the advantage of going bigger is that if you have a full battery and then have bad solar day or two, you might still make it through with the battery, but that only helps if the previous days have been sunny enough to charge the big battery, which considering bad days are most likely to happen in the winter then it's less likely the battery will be fully charged. I decided to go for about a day's usage, figuring I can get an idea of how everything works and maybe add an extra battery in the future, would mean I pay VAT on it, but probably better that than paying a lot more for a large battery that rarely provides any benefit. i.e at the moment, I'm making it easily through night with an 8.2 battery, so only benefit of more would be having more flexibility to sell back power back to the grid at peak times.
Also if you have high demand items, like electric underfloor heating, which will sap up considerably more energy in the winter and unlikely to be used in the summer period.
Soldato
Had my second survey today, more thorough than the first. Gave me more confidence, he checked the loft design and spacing etc (to calculate load etc)
Hes suggesting 14 panels, said 16 would be really close and prefers not to. I think we have agreement to go for 16 if the guys doing the install are happy to fit them. Although I may just say lets stick at 14. (I really want to max panels considering we are talking peanuts per extra panel in the grand scheme of things)
So probably a 5.6kw system (give or take), two batteries giving about 10kwh usable.
Quote within a couple of days he says. Be interesting to see if they can. I felt more confident and comfortable with the survey, he even talked about Octopus and getting onto the Go Tariff as a key part of maximising the battery usefulness.
Interesting in regards bird netting. I said could they add to quote he said you probably don't need it. My thought was to get it due to large trees near me having lots of birds but he said typically they say the opposite in that the birds will far prefer the trees to the panels.
I can see two houses from mine with panels he said to check them for obvious bird poo and nothing is visible, apparently thats the simple check they apply, if people have panels and they have been up for a while and no signs of birds your probably fine, ie there is something else in the area they prefer.
Hes suggesting 14 panels, said 16 would be really close and prefers not to. I think we have agreement to go for 16 if the guys doing the install are happy to fit them. Although I may just say lets stick at 14. (I really want to max panels considering we are talking peanuts per extra panel in the grand scheme of things)
So probably a 5.6kw system (give or take), two batteries giving about 10kwh usable.
Quote within a couple of days he says. Be interesting to see if they can. I felt more confident and comfortable with the survey, he even talked about Octopus and getting onto the Go Tariff as a key part of maximising the battery usefulness.
Interesting in regards bird netting. I said could they add to quote he said you probably don't need it. My thought was to get it due to large trees near me having lots of birds but he said typically they say the opposite in that the birds will far prefer the trees to the panels.
I can see two houses from mine with panels he said to check them for obvious bird poo and nothing is visible, apparently thats the simple check they apply, if people have panels and they have been up for a while and no signs of birds your probably fine, ie there is something else in the area they prefer.
Soldato
Sadly not the cars at work all day.
Currently charge it up on Octopus go 5p night rate (one of the lucky ones they screwed up with and gave another year at a low rate!) but that will end in Jan and I’m expecting by then the 5p to be 15p or more!
LOL!
Did he turn up to quote in a Rolls Royce
A GE 9.5kwh battery is circa £4000 delivered and that's Inc VAT if you ordered yourself. So an installer will get one for circa £3200.
So £2500 installation cost to screw it to the wall and attach a few cables to the inverter..................... Time to upgrade the Roller!
Last edited:
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- 1 Feb 2009
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Finally got wife approval to go with Solar given the recent news on how high bills this year will go.
6.48 kW system comprising:
16 x 405W JA panels
7.8 (3 x 2.6) Fox battery storage
6.0kW hybrid inverter with online monitoring APP
solar Iboost
Pigeon protection system
Scaffolding
£11,695.
I'm quite happy with the price and they have everything in stock ready to go, just need the DNO to hopefully go through quickly.
ROI on Octobers electricity prices has dropped to 6 years, so cant complain
6.48 kW system comprising:
16 x 405W JA panels
7.8 (3 x 2.6) Fox battery storage
6.0kW hybrid inverter with online monitoring APP
solar Iboost
Pigeon protection system
Scaffolding
£11,695.
I'm quite happy with the price and they have everything in stock ready to go, just need the DNO to hopefully go through quickly.
ROI on Octobers electricity prices has dropped to 6 years, so cant complain
Soldato
We have loads of tree's around us, yet they still nested under ours, not for the first few years, but then the pigeons discovered them, personally I would have it installed or do it yourself whilst the scaffold is still up.
I don't remember seeing any bird poo I thought was related to the panels either - I think that's just giving a false sense of security.
Soldato
6 years sounds surprisingly good in the UK, is that a sunny part of the country.
Does anyone keep track of what the best mobile type solar setup would be (roughly), I need to look up a showdown review to see if theres any point. I suspect on a variable or cheap over night tariff and with peak elec units approaching 50p it might be worth it for almost anyone.
Soldato
Yeah when we built our house 7 years ago we were on 12p a unit and zero standing charge..
Soldato
That'll be a nice system.
The iboost hot water diverter is such a good thing to have as it'll also start saving you gas, or oil if you are like me and live in the middle of nowhere.
Soldato
So far the eddi has kept my heating tank maxed out. May the sunny days long continue!
I made a very rough spreadsheet to calculate my expected payback time, currently showing about 13 years, but I haven't yet got my export payments coming in and of course, price rises are coming. If I stick in rough estimates for the October energy price cap and export payments then the time drops to under 6 years. Obviously it is currently a good time of the year for solar, so things will probably drop off in winter, but of course, there are almost certainly further prices increases to come.
Soldato
Thanks, I said I wanted a quote for this specifically so will see what they actually come in with.
Its the sort of thing I would haggle on as I believe its quite a quick job when up there anyway
I don't tend to mess with things like this installed by a pro, if something goes wrong it just gives them an out