Yeah they go into loft space and then down the gutter on the other side of the roof. Get the crux of what an optimiser does but will monitor over coming months, think potentially it could be a lot of money to generate a few more kwh on good days.
Solar panels and battery - any real world reccomendations?
- Thread starter GinG
- Start date
Soldato
This recent talk just sent me outside. To have a look at what its like with my house. Haven't been outside for a check for a couple of months.
Right now there is a decent gap between the sun and the top of the 3 storey town houses to my south, I am guessing I will have a month or so before they may interfere with direct line of sight to my panels, which get installed in just under a month, lol!
But to be honest by then I am not expecting that much (my first cut of model assumes 164kwh for total nov) so will be interesting to see how bad it is.
We are almost at 2 months to go to shortest daylight day in the UK (21st Dec) so can't get any worse than that I believe for how low the sun is in the sky.
Yeah I think this is the crux. From the basic data I have pulled on typical UK generation, 80% takes place between March and Sept. If those months are unaffected then the marginal gains of messing with optimisers (from the pricing I have seen) doesn't look likely to have a great ROI!
Right now there is a decent gap between the sun and the top of the 3 storey town houses to my south, I am guessing I will have a month or so before they may interfere with direct line of sight to my panels, which get installed in just under a month, lol!
But to be honest by then I am not expecting that much (my first cut of model assumes 164kwh for total nov) so will be interesting to see how bad it is.
We are almost at 2 months to go to shortest daylight day in the UK (21st Dec) so can't get any worse than that I believe for how low the sun is in the sky.
Yeah I think this is the crux. From the basic data I have pulled on typical UK generation, 80% takes place between March and Sept. If those months are unaffected then the marginal gains of messing with optimisers (from the pricing I have seen) doesn't look likely to have a great ROI!
Soldato
Yep I was saying this to myself yesterday that the shortest day is only 8 weeks away. Looking forward to seeing how the generation takes from early spring, I missed all of April to July which would have been lots nearer the longest day (and better weather potentially).
Cheers guys (and the other poster that my multi quote seems to have missed off!)
That's sort of what I'm thinking with the hot water diverter system but it sounds like I'd need a battery to power things when the sun goes in etc. Ideally a capacitor but I'm guessing that doesn't exist!
I'll be looking into a split aircon system or heat pump system I think as they seem to be more efficient.
Soldato
Why not just tie it into the house like the rest of us? At least then it will be useful no matter what you do or change in the future.
chaps, is this proposal decent value or overpriced? I was going to bin it but todays announcement about gas\leccy has got me worried.
We are currently using about £400 per month.
https://imgur.com/a/hL7YMfd
Solar Panels
Sharp or Longi
4 kW Total Solar Power
10 x 400 Watt Panels (400w Panel)
3,711 kWh per year
Inverter
Sunsynk
3.6 kW Total Inverter Rating
1 x SUNSYNK-3.6K-SG01/03LP1
Battery
SunSynk
10.24 kWh Total Battery Storage
1 x ADDITIONAL BATTERY , 1 x _FIRST BATTERY L051100-A
£12,500
We are currently using about £400 per month.
https://imgur.com/a/hL7YMfd
Solar Panels
Sharp or Longi
4 kW Total Solar Power
10 x 400 Watt Panels (400w Panel)
3,711 kWh per year
Inverter
Sunsynk
3.6 kW Total Inverter Rating
1 x SUNSYNK-3.6K-SG01/03LP1
Battery
SunSynk
10.24 kWh Total Battery Storage
1 x ADDITIONAL BATTERY , 1 x _FIRST BATTERY L051100-A
£12,500
Soldato
@Nemiyen The problem that I see is for example, the suns shining brightly, 4kw is being generated, the system turns on 2 x 2kw heaters, the sun goes behind a cloud, and is now generating 1.25kw, what happens??? The piddling small battery is flat, and there's no grid, do you get horrendous voltage drop, which increase current, or does the inverter just trip off?
As @HungryHippos said, just do a grid connected system, believe me it gets very complicated very quickly even doing something slightly different to the norm let alone what you're proposing.
As @HungryHippos said, just do a grid connected system, believe me it gets very complicated very quickly even doing something slightly different to the norm let alone what you're proposing.
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Soldato
I would say its a bit overpriced based on recent quotes people here have
Its not horrendous but I think its probably 1-2k over what I would be hoping for, or vice versa its about 4 panels short plus should have a slightly larger inverter for about 12k
fantastic - I'll email them back to see if the price is slightly flexible and if they can requote for more panels and larger inverter. I think i need to read this thread from beginning to end.
Well, I do like to be difficult.
I want the system to be normal like everyone elses but I guess instead of diverting excess energy to a water heater, I want it to go to a way of heating / cooling the house with excess energy.
The last thing I want to do is be paying for that extra energy usage and I just want to be using what I can. Good day, we use more energy and the house is warmer but on a bad day we use less energy and the house is colder. (or vice versa in summer!
)Edit: It sounds like I need an Eddi or something similar to that. More research required!
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Soldato
A good system will have no problem cooling the house in the summer, heating in winter would be limited, but I still stand by what I said, best to attach solar to whole house. Will also be more value to whoever you next sell the house to as well, rather than forcing them to use it in the same way you described.
Goal is to reduce energy bill such that you have more leeway for using extra if/when you need it. Solar achieves that by taking care of a lot of the base load, and when it's sunny you can do random stuff like throw on Aircon, run the Pyrolytic cycle on your oven, put on the dishwasher/washing machine etc.
You have a large roof there, I'd be going bigger than 4KW personally if you can. Looks like chimney stack might cause shading so some of the panels would probably need optimisers.
Goal is to reduce energy bill such that you have more leeway for using extra if/when you need it. Solar achieves that by taking care of a lot of the base load, and when it's sunny you can do random stuff like throw on Aircon, run the Pyrolytic cycle on your oven, put on the dishwasher/washing machine etc.
You have a large roof there, I'd be going bigger than 4KW personally if you can. Looks like chimney stack might cause shading so some of the panels would probably need optimisers.
Associate
You'll be able to put 7kW of solar panels into that Sunsynk inverter, its the one I've got. Going bigger on the inverter will then mean a G99 application which will possibly delay things and some installers dont like doing them.
Although good installers listen to what the customer wants/needs and does what is necessary to do that not what’s easiest
Soldato
Not many like that at the moment sadly.
Soldato
Given the current market that isn't horrendous.
You are going to struggle to find the perceived, "good prices" at the moment, I just don't think they really exist at the moment.
I got quoted £10.5k in April for 4.5kw panels with battery but knowing the installers I used it would have been the ******** battery you could find (I didn't go battery in the end), so your 2k over but possibly a better battery.
I also don't think this demand/or the supply will change any time soon, if anything the opposite, it'll only get more expensive in the near future.
Soldato
Taking this with a pinch of salt, but the council "solar together" scheme have come up with this figure:
+ 3251 for a 3.3kWh battery, or 4884 for a 6.6, or 6725 for a 9.9kWh.
Sounds about right.
I paid £7000 for 12 panels earlier this year, would have been £6750 without the hot water diverter.
I regret not getting a battery but I will add one in a few years I reckon.
Soldato
Same here, this will get more common as well into the later parts of the year.
In the depths of winter I will inevitably have to import some units at full price vs what I can generate on solar or charge up via Go off-peak.