Solar panels and battery - any real world reccomendations?

Yes, first winter with solar/batteries so will be interesting. Forgot to charge up batteries last night so they started 100% from dusk yesterday, currently sitting at 47% and think we’ll be running out towards 10pm. Might need to pop to the chippy for dinner, don’t want to use the oven
 
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.

The guy has come back with another quote for a larger system, more panels and seems to have done a bit of a deal with the price.

Solar Panels
TIER 1 all black 400w panel
5.6 kW Total Solar Power
14 x 400 Watt Panels (400w Panel)
5,194 kWh per year

Inverter
Sunsynk
5 kW Total Inverter Rating
1 x SUNSYNK-5K-SG01/03LP1

Battery
SunSynk
10.24 kWh Total Battery Storage
1 x ADDITIONAL BATTERY , 1 x _FIRST BATTERY L051100-A

5.6kW
Total System Price
£14,150

One thing thats in the back of my mind is, will labour bring in a discounted scheme if\when they get into power? Or would the scrabble for applications be so massive you would end up waiting for years anyhow?
 
The guy has come back with another quote for a larger system, more panels and seems to have done a bit of a deal with the price.

Solar Panels
TIER 1 all black 400w panel
5.6 kW Total Solar Power
14 x 400 Watt Panels (400w Panel)
5,194 kWh per year

Inverter
Sunsynk
5 kW Total Inverter Rating
1 x SUNSYNK-5K-SG01/03LP1

Battery
SunSynk
10.24 kWh Total Battery Storage
1 x ADDITIONAL BATTERY , 1 x _FIRST BATTERY L051100-A

5.6kW
Total System Price
£14,150

One thing thats in the back of my mind is, will labour bring in a discounted scheme if\when they get into power? Or would the scrabble for applications be so massive you would end up waiting for years anyhow?

Thats much more on point for current costs imo
 
Hard to say because solar could demand could rocket up more if the help stops in 6 months and units are higher, I guess the opposite is also possible. Extra financial help may never come.

I'd take the current figures, your usage per day, and sort of work out your expected ROI assuming the unit prices stay at a similar price to the current cap (£0.34/kwh).

If your ROI is under 10 years I think it's not too bad to go ahead and get the ball rolling. Make sure they have a G99 DNO application included in that price as well.
 
yep that's all in there. Right. Decision time! Thanks for the help with this.

14 x 400w Panel 400 Watt Panels (TIER 1 all black 400w panel)
1 x SUNSYNK-5K-SG01/03LP1 (Sunsynk)
1 x ADDITIONAL BATTERY , 1 x _FIRST BATTERY L051100-A (SunSynk)
DNO 4kw Fee£450.00
Total System Price£14,150.00
Standard System Price£13,700.00
Payment Milestones
Deposit£1,415.00
Pre-Install£5,660.00
Final Payment£7,075.00
Total£14,150.00
 
You'll definitely want to run some usage numbers, what is your daily usage of electric roughly?

DNO fee seems a little steep but not sure how much work it is to apply, in my case the network operator replied to confirm that the fee to add my G99 was £0! :D

Can't say how well Sunsynk compares to Givenergy, I have the latter and it's really good, and gets active development, so it can tie into smart tech like TOU tariffs with Octopus, and Solcast forecasting.

If you ever intend to add an EV make sure it's a Hybrid inverter you are adding, so it can handle adding a charge point to the system.
 
Today will be first day for us, since 1st July, where we will need to use electricity at the full rate (31p). All due to the rubbish cloudy day, and the shorter daylight hours.

I'm not too concerned as we are £380 in credit with our electricity supplier.
 
yep that's all in there. Right. Decision time! Thanks for the help with this.

Have you asked for a price without the batteries but with the same inverter?

I say this as the batteries are only £1900+ VAT each to buy, and it might save you several thousands of pounds if you buy them and have them installed after.
 
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You'll definitely want to run some usage numbers, what is your daily usage of electric roughly?

DNO fee seems a little steep but not sure how much work it is to apply, in my case the network operator replied to confirm that the fee to add my G99 was £0! :D

Can't say how well Sunsynk compares to Givenergy, I have the latter and it's really good, and gets active development, so it can tie into smart tech like TOU tariffs with Octopus, and Solcast forecasting.

If you ever intend to add an EV make sure it's a Hybrid inverter you are adding, so it can handle adding a charge point to the system.
Thanks HH, I'll check about that the inverter is a hybrid one. We are currently using between 18 and 24 Kwh for leccy for the last week. We have a second fridge freezer in the garage, we need to run the contents of it down and turn it off. The 100W pond pump has already been turned off for the year. And is anyone bothering with Christmas decorations this year?
 
The DNO fee varies by entity

HOW MUCH DOES A DNO APPLICATION COST?​

The G98 DNO application for “connect and notify” is a free application, however administrative fees from your solar panel installers are usually charged in order to process the application. As for the G99 and G100 applications, they can cost anywhere between £300 – £750 each, with Scottish Power often being the most expensive.

 
Thanks HH, I'll check about that the inverter is a hybrid one. We are currently using between 18 and 24 Kwh for leccy for the last week. We have a second fridge freezer in the garage, we need to run the contents of it down and turn it off. The 100W pond pump has already been turned off for the year. And is anyone bothering with Christmas decorations this year?

You should be fine then. I'm slightly lower usage and my system which will be very similar to yours (14x390 and 11.8 (10.5 usable) battery) models to very good return.
 
Alright so maybe the fee is about right then, it can come back with extra fees needed I think if they have to do work to enable it.

If you assumed 24kwh per day, that is £8.16 per day if you had no solar and was paying the cap all day long.

That is £8.16 * 365 = £2978 per year.

That solar and battery setup should offset your usage a lot, in the summer basically all of it, in the winter basically none of it, got to say it could reduce your average usage by somewhere around 50-70% but it's hard to say exactly where you'd sit in that window.

If you had a cheaper TOU tariff like GO as well you could get some additional savings, especially in the winter. Charging the battery for 12p/kwh overnight.
 
Was a miserable morning but mine also saying 7kwh today, and it's currently exporting some, don't really have any extra ways to dump the power already cooked lunch in the oven and whacked the dishwasher on!
 
Was a miserable morning but mine also saying 7kwh today, and it's currently exporting some, don't really have any extra ways to dump the power already cooked lunch in the oven and whacked the dishwasher on!

Hopefully my 15p export with Octopus will be live soon, then I wont be so worried about when it happens! Currently give it away for free :(
 
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Had my quote back for the council-sourced solar with 9.6kWh battery - utter LOL worthy costs. No mention of inverter size or type, so an absolute guess as to what equipment they fit and they want a £150 "deposit" before they'll talk about the next stage. What a waste of time that was
 
Guess you are on the Hampshire scheme because I just got mine as well.

ArTUiz7h.png.jpg

The product specification page has more details.

Suntech 390w Mono all black panel
Growatt inverter no mention of size.
Growatt battery 9.6kw

Price doesn't seem that outrageous compared to my last quote :p
 
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