Solar panels and battery - any real world reccomendations?

Ev0 said:
Quick obvious stupid question, our meter and consumer unit are in the understairs cupboard.

Will likely be looking at getting a solar install plus battery, would it mean that the most sensible place for everything is in the understairs cupboard?

Said it was a stupid question
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i put mine in the attic, we need all the in house storage we can get.. .... funnily enough ours initially went in the understairs cupboard - despite not being what i asked - the fitter promised me i would not hear the system in the house and if i did he would move it........ (i was not around when he decided he didnt want to go in my hot dusty attic and chose to put under the stairs anyway.

when under load i could hear the inverter and it was anoying so i phone him................. and he moved it.
 
Mercenary Keyboard Warrior said:
Did you specifically request it?
I see many installs that have nothing and it seems so daft.
(Mine is whole house anyway upto 5.5kwh assuming I have some battery left!)
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There is a lot of debate on this online/on here. A socket [hopefully RCD type A in-built at least] is often hooked straight up to the EPS output... it is not compliant with BS7671 at all or the SQSS (supplier) rules but some would say it's OK. Some seem to use weatherproof sockts to distinguish them. I think technically they should be red but i've also never seen a red RCD protected outlet. Issues include (potential lack of) earthing, floating neutrals and whether the RCD will function. It's pragmatic for very occasional use (and not lending power to the street) in my view but that is not advice.


I got my first cheque from British Gas SEG today @ 6.4p kwh. It was super easier, I just e-mail them a reading once a quarter (they don't seem fussed about connecting to my smart meter) and they post me a cheque within a few days.
 
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Mercenary Keyboard Warrior said:
Did you specifically request it?
I see many installs that have nothing and it seems so daft.
(Mine is whole house anyway upto 5.5kwh assuming I have some battery left!)
Click to expand...

I did - it was just in case of emergencies. We've had 2-3 short powercuts (less than an hour) over the past 7 years. And whilst it's not the end of the world it's just handy to have.
 
bigmike20vt said:
i put mine in the attic, we need all the in house storage we can get.. .... funnily enough ours initially went in the understairs cupboard - despite not being what i asked - the fitter promised me i would not hear the system in the house and if i did he would move it........ (i was not around when he decided he didnt want to go in my hot dusty attic and chose to put under the stairs anyway.

when under load i could hear the inverter and it was anoying so i phone him................. and he moved it.
Click to expand...
We triple insulated our loft. Double floor plus PIR insulation between the rafters. It has made a massive difference to how hot it gets in the summer and staying warmer in the winter. I did it 20 years ago and with zero evidence to prove anything, I believe payback in terms of heating savings is 15-20 years. It does provide a much better enviroment for both the batteries and inverter. Most houses have a structural wall that goes up to the roof. In many houses joists will meet at this point. This is the best place to store anything heavy.

Off topic...........The UK got a majority of its electricity from wind in the first 3 months of this year for the first time ever. Good news for the planet and hopefully good news for electricity prices in the not too distant future.
 
Peteronthesouthcoast said:
Off topic...........The UK got a majority of its electricity from wind in the first 3 months of this year for the first time ever. Good news for the planet and hopefully good news for electricity prices in the not too distant future.
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news.sky.com

Nearly half of UK's offshore wind capacity owned by state-owned foreign entities, analysis shows

In large part this is because the UK government only owns a small renewable energy company called Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult, which is focused on research and innovation and holds a tiny percentage of capacity.
news.sky.com news.sky.com
Maybe they will take pity on us, or more likely not.
 
Peteronthesouthcoast said:
We triple insulated our loft. Double floor plus PIR insulation between the rafters. It has made a massive difference to how hot it gets in the summer and staying warmer in the winter. I did it 20 years ago and with zero evidence to prove anything, I believe payback in terms of heating savings is 15-20 years. It does provide a much better enviroment for both the batteries and inverter. Most houses have a structural wall that goes up to the roof. In many houses joists will meet at this point. This is the best place to store anything heavy.

Off topic...........The UK got a majority of its electricity from wind in the first 3 months of this year for the first time ever. Good news for the planet and hopefully good news for electricity prices in the not too distant future.
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Did you consider/design for the hot roof vs cold roof thing? Ie most uk homes being designed to have cold but very well ventilated roofs to prevent condensation?

Cold roofs strike me as horribly inefficient. 300mm of rock wool getting blown about and which inevitably doesn’t quite reach the edges / tops of the walls, which therefore get cold where the cavity insulation doesn’t reach.
 
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As I had another power trip yesterday, I'e re-rang my installers who have checked remotely and they state they cannot find a fault, so I've said to them well if the solar PV and the RCDO has tripped, there must be a fault, and here is the data from HA to show when I'm hitting 5.4KW on generation I'm at risk of getting another outage.

also mentioned how the iBoost wouldn't work and the change of batteries I had to undergo compared to original contract, and if I want another battery now I'd pay inflated rates + VAT

See what they say :)
 
Oldman2 said:
news.sky.com

Nearly half of UK's offshore wind capacity owned by state-owned foreign entities, analysis shows

In large part this is because the UK government only owns a small renewable energy company called Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult, which is focused on research and innovation and holds a tiny percentage of capacity.
news.sky.com news.sky.com
Maybe they will take pity on us, or more likely not.
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We dont help ourselves do we?

Our goverment is horrendous, we need a modern day Guy Fawkes.
 
quickshot89 said:
As I had another power trip yesterday, I'e re-rang my installers who have checked remotely and they state they cannot find a fault, so I've said to them well if the solar PV and the RCDO has tripped, there must be a fault, and here is the data from HA to show when I'm hitting 5.4KW on generation I'm at risk of getting another outage.

also mentioned how the iBoost wouldn't work and the change of batteries I had to undergo compared to original contract, and if I want another battery now I'd pay inflated rates + VAT

See what they say :)
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You need to put your foot down, they’ve left you with an unsafe and faulty install.

I gave you the run down didn’t I?
 
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SBo said:
Did you consider/design for the hot roof vs cold roof thing? Ie most uk homes being designed to have cold but very well ventilated roofs to prevent condensation?

Cold roofs strike me as horribly inefficient. 300mm of rock wool getting blown about and which inevitably doesn’t quite reach the edges / tops of the walls, which therefore get cold where the cavity insulation doesn’t reach.
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Our house was built in 1956. Could not do a warm roof at home though we are finishing a project where there is full fill insulation in the walls and a warm roof. Our rafters are 150mm and we used 60mm PIR allowing for ventilation. What we did was building regs at the time (plus 10mm) if we had converted the loft to habitable. The house is large enough for us to live in comfortably. The loft is really big but we have filled it up with junk/very precious things we will never use.
 
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Just updated my battery firmware which requires a recalibration(discharge - full charge), thought oh it's a good day today will do it now so it charges off the PV, forgetting that PV turns off during the process! doh, going to be a big waste of PV :(

Oh its discharged and now switched to generating PV to charge the battery now.
 
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SoliD said:
Just updated my battery firmware which requires a recalibration(discharge - full charge), thought oh it's a good day today will do it now so it charges off the PV, forgetting that PV turns off during the process! doh, going to be a big waste of PV :(

Oh its discharged and now switched to generating PV to charge the battery now.
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I was going to do this just before a Flux charge period so it starts mostly discharged and then spends most of it's time charging in the cheaper rate.

How long did it take to kick off once you started it?
 
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