Solar panels and battery - any real world reccomendations?
- Thread starter GinG
- Start date
Soldato
Who are you replying too, as theres been two posts with different quotes
Associate
I assume me as his numbers add up to my total, I’ll be honest I’m happy with the price my queries are more over the brands being used if they are known as good enough.
I went with 10 x JA solar 400w solar panel, 10x Tigo Optimisor TS4-A-O, Tigo Cloud connect, SolaX X1 G4 3.7D hybrid inverter, V2.1 Eddi Immersion Controller (for hot water), 1x Solax Master 5.8kw battery and 1 x Solax slave 5.8kw battery
So far really pleased with them. the Solax app can take a bit of getting used to as can the Tigo EI but all in all it seems to work well for me.
Had some work going on at work replacing the 3 rows of 40 or so panels that are about 7 or 8 years old to 3 roofs of 4 rows of I think 51 panels each (your eyes go blind coutning them all in sequence)..... So rough estimate of 230kwh of power potentially using 375w panels!! Going to take a look around and try to see the inverters they're using or if they've got any stats on it once it's up and running.
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Man of Honour
Is everyone's Solax app working at the moment? Mine seems to have partly lost the connection between the site and the inverter - I can only see some of the data on the home site view (the AC power and battery %) and all the graphs have disappeared - waiting to hear back from them but the update they just pushed to my inverter hasn't helped...
Soldato
I use the web portal as opposed to app but thats fine
Associate
- Joined
- 23 Oct 2020
- Posts
- 12
How long are G99 applications taking at the moment? Has anyone recently got one back and able to report on timescales?
Associate
My G99 couple of months ago with UK Power networks took about 6-8 weeks with 2 more weeks after that for my export MPAN number
Mine took 5 months with SSE. Top tip; you can export limit to 3.68kw and notify on that basis and then apply for permission to export >3.68 and then up your export as/when they permit. Ie no need to delay your install.
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Associate
- Joined
- 23 Oct 2020
- Posts
- 12
Do you not run the risk that they can reject your application? My installer won’t go ahead without the G99
They can’t reject it if you limit the export to 3.68kw. Hence the suggestion.
Once you get the G99, uncork it. If you don’t get it, leave it as is.
Unless you have a huge array, you’ll not suffer too badly with clipping on the export in the summer months.
Don’t forget it doesn’t limit you from using the full amount inside your house, it’s just what you are exporting.
You can keep applying for the G99, it’s not a once and done, things do change over time.
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SSE wanted £800 to let me export >3.68kw in the end, so I kept the grid limitation on at 3.68kw but can use the full 5kw for my home/car etc so it was still worth buying a 5kw inverter.
Most of the quote was a "second comer" charge which means since someone else has paid for a transformer/cabling upgrade, I would have to contribute to that if I benefit in a set number of years following the work. At some point that that secondn comer charge will roll off and then I won't have to pay towards it and can apply again.
My father in law just got a flat no to export above 3.68kw from UKPN who replied within 48 hours, maybe one day his village transformer will be upgraded or a different engineer with take a different view but in any event we're still going to go with a 5kw inverter there to run his house off and just export limit it.
Most of the quote was a "second comer" charge which means since someone else has paid for a transformer/cabling upgrade, I would have to contribute to that if I benefit in a set number of years following the work. At some point that that secondn comer charge will roll off and then I won't have to pay towards it and can apply again.
My father in law just got a flat no to export above 3.68kw from UKPN who replied within 48 hours, maybe one day his village transformer will be upgraded or a different engineer with take a different view but in any event we're still going to go with a 5kw inverter there to run his house off and just export limit it.
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Soldato
Been waiting just over 9 weeks now for Scottish Power to setup my export tariff, I have the confirmation of submission email but since then nothing......
Man of Honour
its worth chasing them, had some issues with British Gas when setting up my export and it took a few nudges to get them to actually solve the problems rather than just ignoring the application. The suppliers seem happy to basically ignore export customers as much as possible (and pay us terrible rates
)
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Join this club. I requested my export tariff set up from Octopus at the start of March. Still not done. Account webpage still says 'about two weeks'.
Since then I've been chasing them weekly. At no point have they ever offered even a single bit of information about what is going on. Just a sorry and a promise it'll be another two weeks.
I raised an official complaint. Nothing.
Eventually, they replied to say that if I wanted to export I just needed to fill in a form to request it - which is what I'd done in the first bleeding place. When I pointed this out, they apologised and said they would raise an official complaint - again, already done.
I have sent them a final email today demanding 4 pieces of information (what has gone wrong, what they are doing about it, when it will be fixed, and what reparation them are offering) as a direct reply to my email. If they cannot provide those, I want toe ombudsman details to raise with them.
Even at a very conservative figure (15p per kWh) they have cost me at least £125 in export payments so far.
Soldato
Scottish Power 'claim" they back date it so you don't loose out. It's rubbish though, bet they are quick to get back you when it's you owing them money.
Associate
I just saw on BBC news that Octopus are actively using AI to answer email there, no wonder mine went unanswered and Phoning was the only answer, just make sure that the person answering is real 
SP are pants go to Octopus its only a 4 week wait
