Solar panels and battery - any real world reccomendations?

I'm talking about excess power not power you need, and in the saving sessions it will be 100% worth exporting as much as you can even if you wind up using the grid later on that day, because the payments for exporting then will far out weigh the costs of importing.
 
HungryHippos said:
I'm talking about excess power not power you need, and in the saving sessions it will be 100% worth exporting as much as you can even if you wind up using the grid later on that day, because the payments for exporting then will far out weigh the costs of importing.
Click to expand...

I tend to drain the battery fairly quickly, it's only 9.5kW so oven, hobs, and evening appliances between 4-7pm is quite high - and would rather avoid drawing from the grid in that time.

The saving sessions of course I'll do the trick as usual, load up before but legitimately, i.e. if I need to use the dishwasher etc...

Perhaps I'm being stupid... probably am!
 
Freefaller said:
The saving sessions of course I'll do the trick as usual, load up before but legitimately, i.e. if I need to use the dishwasher etc...
Click to expand...

That is not a thing this time, the way to play it now is to charge the battery before and then export for the payout it offers, helps the grid and helps you.

In day adjustment is not relevant anymore.
 
Assuming it works as we expect.
Its tricky since the details published are certainly open to some interpretation.

Fingers crossed the export will be the same rate as saved units. I don't see why they shouldn't be, but who knows.

Also of course the savings sessions varied from 1 - 2 hours last time. I think in theory they were 1-3 but I don't believe we had any longer than 2.
Most were iirc shorter than 2.

So if you have a decent size battery you can probably set export to max for that period and you will export for the whole session (less what you are using of course)
 
Scottish Power are so rubbish.

We signed up for them (well maybe we have?) because they offer the highest export (12p per kwh) that will accept our solar creditation, flexiorb.

I think I started the process around March or April time......

We sent them all the paperwork with regards to the solar installation which they seemed to have accepted, provided a meter reading, they eventually emailed to say we have an export MPAN setup, and then to register our bank details through their portal, which we did. That seemed to have all worked.

But their communication is so awful, I have no idea if that is everything now or there is anything else we need to do, I have emailed asking them and just got a very generic reply back, emailed them again, you are loooking about 3 weeks turn around per email.......

They claim they do backdate the payments.
 
Hi all,
I am trying to find the best offer on the market to buy solar panels (Barnsley/Doncaster area). Maybe you can help me with this. My yearly electricity usage is about 2kW.
I had an offer:
- 13x Trina 425w Solar Panels (5.5kWh)
- 3.6kw GivEnergy Hybrid Inverter
- 5.2kw GivEnergy Battery
---
Company: Turbine Energy | Price: 9000£

Is it any good? Btw. It is the cheapest quote I've got so far.
 
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85okoprze said:
Hi all,
I am trying to find the best offer on the market to buy solar panels (Barnsley/Doncaster area). Maybe you can help me with this. My yearly electricity usage is about 2kW.
I had an offer:
- 13x Trina 425w Solar Panels (5.5kWh)
- 3.6kw GivEnergy Hybrid Inverter
- 5.2kw GivEnergy Battery
---
Company: Turbine Energy | Price: 9000£

Is it any good? Btw. It is the cheapest quote I've got so far.
Click to expand...
Not the same company. But I had a nightmare with a recent installation from a company in Doncaster. Not the one you have a quote from. However, I always now do a company check. If Turbine Energy are the same as the one linked to they are dissolved? But do your own due diligence

TURBINE ENERGY LTD filing history - Find and update company information - GOV.UK

TURBINE ENERGY LTD - Free company information from Companies House including registered office address, filing history, accounts, annual return, officers, charges, business activity
find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk
 
85okoprze said:
Hi all,
I am trying to find the best offer on the market to buy solar panels (Barnsley/Doncaster area). Maybe you can help me with this. My yearly electricity usage is about 2kW.
I had an offer:
- 13x Trina 425w Solar Panels (5.5kWh)
- 3.6kw GivEnergy Hybrid Inverter
- 5.2kw GivEnergy Battery
---
Company: Turbine Energy | Price: 9000£

Is it any good? Btw. It is the cheapest quote I've got so far.
Click to expand...
Are the panels south facing? If so, I’d say that inverter is a little under specced and you’ll get some clipping in summer.

The price difference to go up to a 5kw inverter is minimal, the installer will just have a bit more paperwork to do.

The other thing to note is the 5.2kwh battery is 90% depth of discharge so only 4.68kwh is useable. The 9.6kwh batter has a 100% depth of discharge.
 
It's crazy what a difference a year can make. Octopus Energy Solar quoted me £13822 about 11 months ago for this same setup, although their quote included 12 panels and not 16 like the iVoltz one!

gpKTMtp.jpg
 
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b0rn2sk8 said:
Are the panels south facing? If so, I’d say that inverter is a little under specced and you’ll get some clipping in summer.

The price difference to go up to a 5kw inverter is minimal, the installer will just have a bit more paperwork to do.

The other thing to note is the 5.2kwh battery is 90% depth of discharge so only 4.68kwh is useable. The 9.6kwh batter has a 100% depth of discharge.
Click to expand...
Thank for your advice. About facing panels, it looks like on the photo below:
Pt9x2L7

AnastieByte said:
Not the same company. But I had a nightmare with a recent installation from a company in Doncaster. Not the one you have a quote from. However, I always now do a company check. If Turbine Energy are the same as the one linked to they are dissolved? But do your own due diligence
Click to expand...
Thanks, I'll check them.
 
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BUDFORCE said:
Scottish Power are so rubbish.
Click to expand...
if its any consolation British Gas are very much the same - took about 3 months to get signoff and an MPAM from them, had to phone up and wait on hold for ages to get anything moving as they 'didn't get' half my e-mails, they did however pay from the day we put the first application in, albeit just over half what Scottish power are paying.
 
Thoughts please:
6x Longi 430w panels
Solis String Hybrid Inverter
6.9kwh Pylontech battery (waiting for the full quote to be emailed- unsure if this is the 80% usable number or the total capacity)
Scaffolding, fuseboard, bird proofing etc.

£9,150
 
Have you any reccomendations elsewhere (Norfolk)?

It doesn't seem initially too bad from a skim backwards through the thread and trying to back-calculate the figures.
I make it approx £5,000 of materials, plus scaffolding etc. to add probably another £1,500 before labour costs etc.
It's clearly not bargain basement prices, but I don't see ridiculous figures either.

e.g.

Solar panels and battery - any real world reccomendations?

Crew arrived about an hour ago and got stuck straight in. Started at the front, rails have gone up and cabling been cut ready to fit to the panels. Spoke to one of them and he said they are still busy, but today will probably be their last job this week due to the change in the weather. Said...
forums.overclockers.co.uk forums.overclockers.co.uk

Take off £800 of panels, £1,000 of battery and the numbers are 'similar'

The instant online quote places I can see (e-On, Heatable etc.) are all way more too :)
 
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leezer3 said:
Have you any reccomendations elsewhere (Norfolk)?

It doesn't seem initially too bad from a skim backwards through the thread and trying to back-calculate the figures.
I make it approx £5,000 of materials, plus scaffolding etc. to add probably another £1,500 before labour costs etc.
It's clearly not bargain basement prices, but I don't see ridiculous figures either.

e.g.

Solar panels and battery - any real world reccomendations?

Crew arrived about an hour ago and got stuck straight in. Started at the front, rails have gone up and cabling been cut ready to fit to the panels. Spoke to one of them and he said they are still busy, but today will probably be their last job this week due to the change in the weather. Said...
forums.overclockers.co.uk forums.overclockers.co.uk

Take off £800 of panels, £1,000 of battery and the numbers are 'similar'

The instant online quote places I can see (e-On, Heatable etc.) are all way more too :)
Click to expand...
I dont know any in Norfolk sorry, wait to see what others say then on the price. Looks pricey to me though for 6 panels and small battery.

A few posts above is an offer of 16 panels and givenergy 9.5 for £9300 odd, wish I paid that :cry:
 
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Solar panels and battery - any real world reccomendations?

I'm talking about excess power not power you need, and in the saving sessions it will be 100% worth exporting as much as you can even if you wind up using the grid later on that day, because the payments for exporting then will far out weigh the costs of importing.
forums.overclockers.co.uk forums.overclockers.co.uk

The post I think you're looking at is a 5.2kwh battery, so £1,000 odd of battery less.
Add that and take off £700 of panels and it's somewhere actually pretty close to the same ballpark figure.

Sure, in an ideal world the labour costs would be much less, but I think that's the issue I'm hitting here, in that the labour figure for 6 / 13 panels is going to be pretty similar.
Being a mid-terrace, I can only fit the 6 on the S facing roof. Might fit another 4 on the rear if I was lucky, but they didn't suggest any on there.

Doing some skimming on MSE, it seems to suggest that a battery is pointless (export the excess!!!), but interestingly the numbers he was showing me suggested the battery to be a considerable part of the benefit.

FWIW, total daily usage is ~8kw
 
leezer3 said:

Solar panels and battery - any real world reccomendations?

I'm talking about excess power not power you need, and in the saving sessions it will be 100% worth exporting as much as you can even if you wind up using the grid later on that day, because the payments for exporting then will far out weigh the costs of importing.
forums.overclockers.co.uk forums.overclockers.co.uk

The post I think you're looking at is a 5.2kwh battery, so £1,000 odd of battery less.
Add that and take off £700 of panels and it's somewhere actually pretty close to the same ballpark figure.

Sure, in an ideal world the labour costs would be much less, but I think that's the issue I'm hitting here, in that the labour figure for 6 / 13 panels is going to be pretty similar.
Being a mid-terrace, I can only fit the 6 on the S facing roof. Might fit another 4 on the rear if I was lucky, but they didn't suggest any on there.

Doing some skimming on MSE, it seems to suggest that a battery is pointless (export the excess!!!), but interestingly the numbers he was showing me suggested the battery to be a considerable part of the benefit.

FWIW, total daily usage is ~8kw
Click to expand...
i dont have a battery, i export all my excess.....but then i only use around 4/5kwhs a day
 
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