Solar panels and battery - any real world reccomendations?

Do any suppliers let you offset what you put into the grid off another property.
So if i'm at an excess I can offset that against my other properties
 
Not unless you can wire them up to one meter.

There is no offsetting even then, you can share the same meter and the same equipment such as inverter/batteries for solar, but you can't bank kWh for usage later, it's just paid for export rates vs paid for import rates. Mostly this is not in your favour as the end customer unless you have an old grand-fathered in FiT scheme.
 
Looking into the solar / battery minefield i wondered if anyone had thoughts on my first quote ( £17k) Also been told i should add an eddy water diverter to this to heat the water - house is 4 years old.


Firstly finding a tried and tested solar installer in the north west uk is nightmare so any real world advice welcomed.

Background on the power usage, 5 bed roomed house full of pcs and smart home stuff with two EV's one doing 130 miles per day everyday - currently on octopus go.

Suggestions on product manufacturers installers and setup greatly welcomed.

Trina Vertex S 410w All Black Panel solar panel 20
Solis Energy Storage 6kW Hybrid inverter 1
Growatt MIN 3000 TL-X Dual MPPT Single Phase Inverter inverter 1
Emlite Hybrid Only Bi-directional Meter ECA2 1
Label sheet 2 DC cable warning sticker sheet 1
Growatt Wireless Shinelink 1
Solis Wif Stick DLS-W 1
AC isolator - KN 32A 3-pole 2
PureStorage II Battery 5kWh 2
installed capacity of PV system - kWp (stc) 2.460 kWp Orientation of the PV system - degrees from South 100 ° Inclination of system - degrees from horizontal 45 ° Postcode region 7E B. Performance calculations kWh/kWp (Kk) 635 kWh/kWp Shade factor (SF) 1.00 Estimated output (kWp x Kk x SF) 1562 kWh


Thanks in advance

Mark.
 
Isn't the tesla one in effect offsetting.
I think the units price is the same isn't it, import and export.

Long way to go though in general.
Home generators at the mo are taken advantage of.

Tesla is the closest thing yes, but actually think you can largely do better on Go or Agile depending on time of year.

Even then I guess you lose a bit in conversion or losses in efficiency of storage.
 
Looking into the solar / battery minefield i wondered if anyone had thoughts on my first quote ( £17k) Also been told i should add an eddy water diverter to this to heat the water - house is 4 years old.


Firstly finding a tried and tested solar installer in the north west uk is nightmare so any real world advice welcomed.

Background on the power usage, 5 bed roomed house full of pcs and smart home stuff with two EV's one doing 130 miles per day everyday - currently on octopus go.

Suggestions on product manufacturers installers and setup greatly welcomed.

Trina Vertex S 410w All Black Panel solar panel 20
Solis Energy Storage 6kW Hybrid inverter 1
Growatt MIN 3000 TL-X Dual MPPT Single Phase Inverter inverter 1
Emlite Hybrid Only Bi-directional Meter ECA2 1
Label sheet 2 DC cable warning sticker sheet 1
Growatt Wireless Shinelink 1
Solis Wif Stick DLS-W 1
AC isolator - KN 32A 3-pole 2
PureStorage II Battery 5kWh 2
installed capacity of PV system - kWp (stc) 2.460 kWp Orientation of the PV system - degrees from South 100 ° Inclination of system - degrees from horizontal 45 ° Postcode region 7E B. Performance calculations kWh/kWp (Kk) 635 kWh/kWp Shade factor (SF) 1.00 Estimated output (kWp x Kk x SF) 1562 kWh



Thanks in advance

Mark.

Am I drunk or are the installers drunk? £17K for a 2.46 kWp system?

If that's 20 panels then it's at least a much more reasonable sum! :cry:
 
Last edited:
installed capacity of PV system - kWp (stc) 2.460 kWp Orientation of the PV system - degrees from South 100 ° Inclination of system - degrees from horizontal 45 °
Predicted best case 2.4kwp from a 8800kwp system? Are they installing the panels upside down? So, they're facing away from the sun on a 45° roof?

If that's right, you're literally throwing away money. You will never see a return on your investment. Surely you've got a more suitable roof.
 
Last edited:
Looking into the solar / battery minefield i wondered if anyone had thoughts on my first quote ( £17k) Also been told i should add an eddy water diverter to this to heat the water - house is 4 years old.


Firstly finding a tried and tested solar installer in the north west uk is nightmare so any real world advice welcomed.

Background on the power usage, 5 bed roomed house full of pcs and smart home stuff with two EV's one doing 130 miles per day everyday - currently on octopus go.

Suggestions on product manufacturers installers and setup greatly welcomed.

Trina Vertex S 410w All Black Panel solar panel 20
Solis Energy Storage 6kW Hybrid inverter 1
Growatt MIN 3000 TL-X Dual MPPT Single Phase Inverter inverter 1
Emlite Hybrid Only Bi-directional Meter ECA2 1
Label sheet 2 DC cable warning sticker sheet 1
Growatt Wireless Shinelink 1
Solis Wif Stick DLS-W 1
AC isolator - KN 32A 3-pole 2
PureStorage II Battery 5kWh 2
installed capacity of PV system - kWp (stc) 2.460 kWp Orientation of the PV system - degrees from South 100 ° Inclination of system - degrees from horizontal 45 ° Postcode region 7E B. Performance calculations kWh/kWp (Kk) 635 kWh/kWp Shade factor (SF) 1.00 Estimated output (kWp x Kk x SF) 1562 kWh



Thanks in advance

Mark.
A realistic estimate on most installations can be found by trawling PVoutput.org, a data sharing website. Look for people close to you and a similar orientation. Many years ago I was given an SAP prediction over 20% out from reality.
 
Shading

For the last 10 days the weather has been mixed

Below are our generation figures for the East panels (4.8KW) and south ones (5.6KW)

5.7
11.8​
2.5
8.9​
2.5
3.6​
7.1
21.6​
6.7
19.9​
7.3
22.6​
7.6
21.8​
6.9
15.9​
7.7
19.9​

Going back 6 months to last summer in July they are

25.6
29.0​
21.1
28.8​
24.9
25.8​
17.1
26.5​
15.4
16.1​
9.7
12.6​
25.8
27.7​
22.2
32.3​
11.9
14.0​
14.4
14.6​

We have shading issues to the East, South and West. Worst is the west which has no panels. Best is to the south.


At this time of year the east panels suffer from trees and neighbouring houses with the low angle of the sun. As the sun gets higher the problems just go away
 
£240. At least they're trying to. Original estimate was £150 and I've just been told that a fast track isn't possible. I'm not paying anything until everything is completed and completed by the deadline
I've seen higher, but its a lot of money for about 10 minutes work filling out a form, not sure what justification they have for the jump from £150 to £240 though.

What size system are you having installed?
 
I've seen higher, but its a lot of money for about 10 minutes work filling out a form, not sure what justification they have for the jump from £150 to £240 though.

What size system are you having installed?
7kw so I’m not 100% certain a fast track DNO application is feasible. The installer thinks not.
 
Nope


£240. At least they're trying to. Original estimate was £150 and I've just been told that a fast track isn't possible. I'm not paying anything until everything is completed and completed by the deadline
Did mine myself after the installer proved themselve useless, it is not difficult at all just takes a while to get your head around the routes/how to pivot if the DNO asks for a big contribution. Not worth paying for.
 
Last edited:
Tesla is the closest thing yes, but actually think you can largely do better on Go or Agile depending on time of year.

Even then I guess you lose a bit in conversion or losses in efficiency of storage.
The TEP used to be 10p unit in and out. I think it's significantly more than that now so yes you're right. Go will be better.
 
By the way, for those on Octopus GO with PV (without FIT), British Gas are now offering 6.4p kwh on their SEG tariff with no need to also be supplied by them. Beats Octopus' 4.1p and gets closer to parity with their 7.5p GO rate if you're lucky enough to still be on that rate alongside me. https://www.britishgas.co.uk/business/help-and-support/billing-and-payments/smart-export-guarantee
I think its a no-brainer to switch the export unless you plan to move to Agile in the spring/summer. I'll have had my EV delivered by then so expect to stay on GO.

Export and Earn Flex tariff​

Our SEG export tariff is called Export and Earn Flex. It's a variable price tariff, which means the export rate could go up or down. There's no fixed end date and no exit fee, so you'll have the freedom and flexibility to switch to a new export tariff whenever you choose - with nothing to pay. You don't need to buy your electricity from British Gas to benefit from our SEG export tariff, you are free to choose separate suppliers for your energy and export if you wish to.

On this tariff, we'll pay you a unit rate of 6.4 pence for every kilowatt hour (kWh) of eligible electricity you export to the grid.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom