Solar panels and battery - any real world reccomendations?

Freefaller said:
Yep. Made £100 profit last month.
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Profit? Don’t you store your electric that you dont use?

I remembered asking here why people bother having batteries installed when you can just feed it back to the grid for credit and people here said that you dont get the same rates back as you buy, ie if your electricity is 20p kwph, then you sell back for like 10p kwph… something like that!!
 
jonneymendoza said:
Profit? Don’t you store your electric that you dont use?

I remembered asking here why people bother having batteries installed when you can just feed it back to the grid for credit and people here said that you dont get the same rates back as you buy, ie if your electricity is 20p kwph, then you sell back for like 10p kwph… something like that!!
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I have batteries but once they are full I export. By 9am I'm exporting. During the day I get 23p per kWh and between 4-7pm I get 37p.

Even using the oven and other appliances from April through to October I barely import that much electricity.
 
jonneymendoza said:
Profit? Don’t you store your electric that you dont use?

I remembered asking here why people bother having batteries installed when you can just feed it back to the grid for credit and people here said that you dont get the same rates back as you buy, ie if your electricity is 20p kwph, then you sell back for like 10p kwph… something like that!!
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You're information is out of date, enter Octopus Flux.

I charge my batteries between 2am and 5am every day regardless of the weather, this costs less than I can export at later in the day, once the batteries are full excess is exported, then come 4pm to 7pm I discharge the batteries to 45%.

Over the last 27 days my electric cost has been -£174 :D

2023-04-11-Flux-prices.jpg
 
Ron-ski said:
You're information is out of date, enter Octopus Flux.

I charge my batteries between 2am and 5am every day regardless of the weather, this costs less than I can export at later in the day, once the batteries are full excess is exported, then come 4pm to 7pm I discharge the batteries to 45%.

Over the last 27 days my electric cost has been -£174 :D

2023-04-11-Flux-prices.jpg
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Nice and what kind of tech do you have at home and how frequent do you use it?

Its all good if no one in your property works from home, doesn't have a beefy gaming pc that games say 3 to 4 hours a day or doesn't have a 5.1 surround sound home cinema setup!

It depends on what you got and use?

For your information I have the above mentioned Scenarios and I am wondering if solar would still net me zero or minus bill each month even on a cloudy winter day?

In summer time I think the amount of solar power you can get can be amazing of course
 
Freefaller said:
I have 16x400W panels but split over 2 roofs ( I have 2 tier roof) so not the best set up as the lower tier gets shading from 3pm. But on a good day I can generate over 40kWh, but even in winter I easily get over 15 if the weather is good.
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I guess for 4 months a year you basically get free electricity and the rest of the year a bit of a discount
 
jonneymendoza said:
Nice and what kind of tech do you have at home and how frequent do you use it?

Its all good if no one in your property works from home, doesn't have a beefy gaming pc that games say 3 to 4 hours a day or doesn't have a 5.1 surround sound home cinema setup!

It depends on what you got and use?

For your information I have the above mentioned Scenarios and I am wondering if solar would still net me zero or minus bill each month even on a cloudy winter day?

In summer time I think the amount of solar power you can get can be amazing of course
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I work from home……it doesnt cost as much as people think.

laptop requires 15w too tick over once fully charges, additional screen is 40w……thats about all you need to work from home. It will hardly break the bank thats for sure

i have a 3.2kw system on the roof and my dual bill this month is currently -£70. In the last 40 days i have exported 550kwhs of electric back to the grid.
 
Bug One said:
Is that really how you plan to communicate with a company you're about to employ?
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If I am going to pay ~£15k for something and they cannot 100% measure up beforehand and they proceed with the understanding that if it doesn't work out then I will not proceed with the install and will want my money returned then I would say that is fair wouldn't you?
 
alphaomega16 said:
If I am going to pay ~£15k for something and they cannot 100% measure up beforehand and they proceed with the understanding that if it doesn't work out then I will not proceed with the install and will want my money returned then I would say that is fair wouldn't you?
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Are you really spending 15k though…..my 3.2kw system without batteries was 5.2k
 
jonneymendoza said:
Nice and what kind of tech do you have at home and how frequent do you use it?

Its all good if no one in your property works from home, doesn't have a beefy gaming pc that games say 3 to 4 hours a day or doesn't have a 5.1 surround sound home cinema setup!

It depends on what you got and use?

For your information I have the above mentioned Scenarios and I am wondering if solar would still net me zero or minus bill each month even on a cloudy winter day?

In summer time I think the amount of solar power you can get can be amazing of course
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LOL

Server 24/7, 10Gbit switch, 1 Gbit switch, wifi etc.
More PC's than there are people
Chia Farm
Workstations
2 x fridge freezers
Electric double over, double draw air fryer etc.
Nope, I don't have a 5.1 cinema set up, I have a proper cinema room setup 5.1.4 Atmos setup :D

We don't use as much power as some on here, but we use a fair wack, last month we averaged 16.5kWh per day consumption.
 
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jonneymendoza said:
Nice and what kind of tech do you have at home and how frequent do you use it?

Its all good if no one in your property works from home, doesn't have a beefy gaming pc that games say 3 to 4 hours a day or doesn't have a 5.1 surround sound home cinema setup!

It depends on what you got and use?

For your information I have the above mentioned Scenarios and I am wondering if solar would still net me zero or minus bill each month even on a cloudy winter day?

In summer time I think the amount of solar power you can get can be amazing of course
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I work from home at least 2 days a week. I have 2 servers (NASes really), iot devices, switches, CCTV, I leave things on standby mainly, fridge, freezer, plus dozens of other chargers and devices. Electric oven and hob.

We have a few TVs, a couple of 5.1 systems. A few laptops.

We also have a hot water diverter so use no gas in the summer months for hot water.

We have 2 kids so we have a washing machine load on every day.

The dishwasher goes on nearly every day.

I don't do a lot of gaming to be fair.

Everything is used daily to a certain amount. And yes we still earn more than we spend.

That said at night we draw between 300-500w. So not a huge amount really.
 
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Freefaller said:
I work from home at least 2 days a week. I have 2 servers (NASes really), iot devices, switches, CCTV, I leave things on standby mainly, fridge, freezer, plus dozens of other chargers and devices. Electric oven and hob.

We have a few TVs, a couple of 5.1 systems. A few laptops.

We also have a hot water diverter so use no gas in the summer months for hot water.

We have 2 kids so we have a washing machine load on every day.

The dishwasher goes on nearly every day.

I don't do a lot of gaming to be fair.

Everything is used daily to a certain amount. And yes we still earn more than we spend.

That said at night we draw between 300-500w. So not a huge amount really.
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That's epic. As you see. With many things in life not being single, you have to provide evidence to back up your proposal to your partner lol
 
‘We should install solar, we will save X over 8 years. It costs Y, our bill is Z. after that it’s free electricity.

As long as X is greater than Y and you can afford it the discussion moves away from logic and to the feels.

You are on your own with the latter. We can’t help you if she comes back and says she doesn’t want them because they look ugly (not that a standard concrete tile roof looks dashing mind).

Edit: I should add that I lost the discussion after our original installer went to the wall and now we are getting a caravan :cry:

In fairness my dad is a keen caravaner so it will be nice to do some touring with him.
 
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