Solar panels and battery - any real world reccomendations?

I've read through the thread but I think I've confused myself. The I thought I'd unconfused myself, and now I'm back to being confused. So apologies if this is a straight forward stupid question but I want to ask it.

If get panels installed and a battery - when I'm not in the house during the day, I assume the panels charge up the battery? When I come home at night, will I be able to use the battery power first before needing to use the grids electric? Do I need to switch anything or will this automatically be done?

Also people talk about charging the batteries up at night? This is where my confusion has come in; why? I pay for electricity the same at night and the same through the day; I thought E7 was not common anymore so assumed this was the majority of households, why is it beneficial to charge the battery at night?

Cheers
 
Kyle009 said:
I've read through the thread but I think I've confused myself. The I thought I'd unconfused myself, and now I'm back to being confused. So apologies if this is a straight forward stupid question but I want to ask it.

If get panels installed and a battery - when I'm not in the house during the day, I assume the panels charge up the battery? When I come home at night, will I be able to use the battery power first before needing to use the grids electric? Do I need to switch anything or will this automatically be done?

Also people talk about charging the batteries up at night? This is where my confusion has come in; why? I pay for electricity the same at night and the same through the day; I thought E7 was not common anymore so assumed this was the majority of households, why is it beneficial to charge the battery at night?

Cheers
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Yes you will be able to charge your batteries through the day from the solar ( weather dependent!) And use the stored energy in the evening as long as your demand at once isn't high to be supplemented by the grid.
Night charging is relevant to those with dual tarrif which can be considerably cheaper (5p or 7.5p per kW for example) and is beneficial through winter periods of low solar generation or if you need to top up the battery for the morning for example.
 
It depends on your usage and how big your battery is.

I've got a 13.5kw battery and survive fine with filling up cheaply overnight and or filling it up with solar when it's sunny.
 
Kyle009 said:
Ok that makes sense, thanks. Is it viable in the UK to run a regular 4 bed house from battery? Or are the batteries not big enough at present?
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It doesn't only depend on the capacity of the battery, it depends how much the battery can supply at once. You may have say a 9kw battery, but if it can only supply 3kw, anything over and above that would be drawn from the grid unless the solar was also producing enough.

It can get very confusing very quickly, and with a lot of gotcha's you may not be aware off.
 
john_smith said:
It depends on your usage and how big your battery is.

I've got a 13.5kw battery and survive fine with filling up cheaply overnight and or filling it up with solar when it's sunny.
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Ron-ski said:
It doesn't only depend on the capacity of the battery, it depends how much the battery can supply at once. You may have say a 9kw battery, but if it can only supply 3kw, anything over and above that would be drawn from the grid unless the solar was also producing enough.

It can get very confusing very quickly, and with a lot of gotcha's you may not be aware off.
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Thanks I know there are a lot of what ifs - I think this is what my confusion has come from.

Is it the inverter that limits what can be drawn from the battery? Seen a lot of these have power ratings.
 
Kyle009 said:
Thanks I know there are a lot of what ifs - I think this is what my confusion has come from.

Is it the inverter that limits what can be drawn from the battery? Seen a lot of these have power ratings.
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The inverter controls the charge/discharge rate. For example the gen 1 givenergy 3.6kW inverter has a max 2.6kW charge/Discharge on the battery, the new gen2 version is upped to 3.6kW charge/discharge rate.
 
john_smith said:
The easiest way to mitigate as many as the gotchas is to buy a Tesla Power Wall :)
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I'd love a PW, in fact the mysterious PW3 would be even better, but as others have said, try getting hold of one. I have enquired, but I've got about four weeks until they come back to me, and currently a seven month installation lead time presuming I can stomach the cost.

I will be making other enquiries, but I want a system that can charge when required at low rates, hence why I'd like a PW.
 
Ron-ski said:
I'd love a PW, in fact the mysterious PW3 would be even better, but as others have said, try getting hold of one. I have enquired, but I've got about four weeks until they come back to me, and currently a seven month installation lead time presuming I can stomach the cost.

I will be making other enquiries, but I want a system that can charge when required at low rates, hence why I'd like a PW.
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Givenergy can charge at low rates.
 
For those wondering about 0% VAT on battery installs, someone spotted this on HMRC forums:

installation of batteries on their own were not covered under the 5% rate, they were only charged at the reduced rate if supplied together with a solar panel as a single supply.

So the new 0% rate will not apply to solar batteries installation on their own
 
@94DJH Givenergy is currently top of my list, only aware of that one and of course the PW which is automated, not seen mentioned any others that are. Would prefer PW as it seems to take into account the weather, not sure Givenergy does.

That's a bum on the VAT, guess anybody that wants a battery will need to buy a panel still.
 
Ron-ski said:
@94DJH Givenergy is currently top of my list, only aware of that one and of course the PW which is automated, not seen mentioned any others that are. Would prefer PW as it seems to take into account the weather, not sure Givenergy does.

That's a bum on the VAT, guess anybody that wants a battery will need to buy a panel still.
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I'm sure I read somewhere it was able to check the forecast? I'll have a look.
 
Just had a chat with a contact who's going to put a quote together for me who mentioned proposing a Huawei system. We already have 4kW of solar (with FiT so cant touch this system), and want to add about 3kW along with batteries, which I told him. From my quick research, I cant seem to find an AC coupled Huawei inverter, which would mean a hybrid inverter, which cant then use our existing 4kW system to charge the batteries. Is this right, or is there a Huawei AC coupled inverter, or can the hybrid inverter somehow use our existing AC power from the 4kW array to charge the batteries? Thanks.
 
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