Solar panels and battery - any real world reccomendations?

[b0rn2sk8]

my array is easy-west, it costs more for the same generation but I’d say very much still worth it. I’ve not 9 on my east roof and 14 on my west which maxes out the roof space.

East west will not hit the high mid day peaks that south will but it will generate earlier in the morning and later into the evening.

Modern panels are a lot more effective at east west than they used to be back in the day. My west facing panels are generating in the morning despite being in direct sunlight.

 

[200sols]

In my view south is best in deepest winter hands down but in the other months east/west split is very good. Where south is very peaky the east/west split gives you usable generation over the entire day. I think given how cheap panels are now though it makes sense to consider most roof spaces.

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

Agree with others, raw power but also deep winter South wins hands down.

West has another advantage if you have batteries however in that the cheap charging being overnight and the west generation peak being lunchtime to late afternoon means they are basically opposite within a 24 hour period.
So if your getting panels and they are west facing you will gain a lot from batteries. The problem with East in this scenario is that you will start the day with batteries full (or maybe less), hit peak generation and full batteries and potentially export.
Then as your generation tails off in the good but not super months your far more likely to end up with grid usage.

Saying all the above, I would get as much as you can within reason.
I think export is going to steadily increase.

I would think hard about just panels however, try to get batteries, and IMO somewhere between 60-75% of your daily usage seems to be a sweet spot, although that can change due to pricing of export. Batteries give most benefit in the winter when you can take in a lot of cheap overnight units and top up with some generation most days.
Of course that relies on a cheap overnight charge window but thats pretty much available to all now.

 

[Unseul]

Hoping to have our panels and batteries fitted in the next 2 days. They've been sat in the garage waiting for decent weather for a few weeks now!

East West facing roof, 7 panels on each, totalling 5.7KW, with 10.65kwh battery system. No smart meter yet, so no real opporunity to take advantage of cheaper electricity, but at least it can start reducing electricity costs!

 

[94JDH]

Hoping to have our panels and batteries fitted in the next 2 days. They've been sat in the garage waiting for decent weather for a few weeks now!

East West facing roof, 7 panels on each, totalling 5.7KW, with 10.65kwh battery system. No smart meter yet, so no real opporunity to take advantage of cheaper electricity, but at least it can start reducing electricity costs!

You should get a nice spread of generation with an East-West system.

 

[Unseul]

You should get a nice spread of generation with an East-West system.

That's what I'm hoping for. We've got an electric car (tiny battery one), so can try and dump excess into that as much as possible. Got an air con too, so will switch to using that for heating where possible.

 

[Mekrel]

Apologies if asked already, but how long are we talking (if it even happens) for Perovskite based panels hit the market? I'm weighing up solar, but wondering if scenario A happens where I get them installed and then Perovskite panels come to market within a couple of years or B it'll be much longer than that.

 

[tamzzy]

Apologies if asked already, but how long are we talking (if it even happens) for Perovskite based panels hit the market? I'm weighing up solar, but wondering if scenario A happens where I get them installed and then Perovskite panels come to market within a couple of years or B it'll be much longer than that.

a quick google says mass production in 2026...so probably 2027-2028???

Perovskite solar in 2026 “kicks into unrelenting growth for 20 years”: forecast | theenergyst.com Perovskite, growth, Renew Energy, Bristol, Microquanta, Ultmolight, China, GCL Perovskite, ENEL theenergyst.com

Perovskites’ development towards maturity as a viable force in the solar panel industry will take until 2026, but explode thereafter, new forecasts by Bristol-based analysts Rethink Energy predict. By 2030 the technology will make up a 100 GW segment of solar panel manufacturing. By 2040, it...

theenergyst.com

 

[oggiet]

Some more noon questions here please Is there limit of how much electricity you can sell back to the grid, and what sort of price are we talking about when selling? Slowly get my head around the whole process of it all.

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

Some more noon questions here please Is there limit of how much electricity you can sell back to the grid, and what sort of price are we talking about when selling? Slowly get my head around the whole process of it all.

There can be a limit, but your given 3.68kw for sure, no cap on units, only throughput potentially
Price varies by supplier (you dont have to use the same as supplies your electric)

If you take Octopus minimum is 8p per kwh, max is like 30p kwh but its tied to things like your import price so you need to consider the amount you can realistically export vs your import.

 

[oggiet]

There can be a limit, but your given 3.68kw for sure, no cap on units, only throughput potentially
Price varies by supplier (you dont have to use the same as supplies your electric)

If you take Octopus minimum is 8p per kwh, max is like 30p kwh but its tied to things like your import price so you need to consider the amount you can realistically export vs your import.

Ah I see, we are with Octopus at the moment. When we move I guess install the system and see than what our usage is.

 

[Nickjf20]

1) 15 x 400w ultra premium Eurener panels.
2) Lux power 6kw hybrid.
3) Hanchu 9.4kw battery x1.
4) 4 x Tigo optimisers & panel monitoring
5) includes bird netting, scaffolding, G99 etc

£9350

What do we think? Roof is south facing. Optimisers required for a gas boiler flue.

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

Seems very good

 

[tonys]

1) 15 x 400w ultra premium Eurener panels.
2) Lux power 6kw hybrid.
3) Hanchu 9.4kw battery x1.
4) 4 x Tigo optimisers & panel monitoring
5) includes bird netting, scaffolding, G99 etc

£9350

What do we think? Roof is south facing. Optimisers required for a gas boiler flue.

That sounds very good, what part of the country are you in?

 

[Nathan]

Great price that

 

[Journey]

1) 15 x 400w ultra premium Eurener panels.
2) Lux power 6kw hybrid.
3) Hanchu 9.4kw battery x1.
4) 4 x Tigo optimisers & panel monitoring
5) includes bird netting, scaffolding, G99 etc

£9350

What do we think? Roof is south facing. Optimisers required for a gas boiler flue.

It's alright, not sure what the long term support will be like with Lux and Hanchu though. Hardware costs (at retail ex. VAT) with better 415w panels and a 15kWh Fogstar battery are ~£4200, using a Solis Hybris inverter. If I were you i'd ask for them to up the panels to 435w, you can never have enough kWp.

 

[94JDH]

1) 15 x 400w ultra premium Eurener panels.
2) Lux power 6kw hybrid.
3) Hanchu 9.4kw battery x1.
4) 4 x Tigo optimisers & panel monitoring
5) includes bird netting, scaffolding, G99 etc

£9350

What do we think? Roof is south facing. Optimisers required for a gas boiler flue.

It's alright, not sure what the long term support will be like with Lux and Hanchu though. Hardware costs (at retail ex. VAT) with better 415w panels and a 15kWh Fogstar battery are ~£4200, using a Solis Hybris inverter. If I were you i'd ask for them to up the panels to 435w, you can never have enough kWp.

This is one over on Facebook for comparison:

Screenshot 20240229 202124 — Postimages

postimg.cc

 

[Journey]

This is one over on Facebook for comparison:

It's amazing how much they add to the prices, you can pick up the Gen3 5kW inverter and a 9.5kWh battery for £3,195 as Joe Punter so they are adding serious margin to the kit to make the install look cheap, same for the panels, if they aren't the all black NEO panels and just the standard 440w (which seems likely) they are £75 each. Unless they are spreading the cost of the Zappi Car charger across the other parts, which seems to be listed at £1.25, which seems odd.

 

[john_smith]

In my view south is best in deepest winter hands down but in the other months east/west split is very good. Where south is very peaky the east/west split gives you usable generation over the entire day. I think given how cheap panels are now though it makes sense to consider most roof spaces.

My E/W has now started matching my S. Over Dec, Jan and most of Feb the S was outperforming them.

 

[94JDH]

It's amazing how much they add to the prices, you can pick up the Gen3 5kW inverter and a 9.5kWh battery for £3,195 as Joe Punter so they are adding serious margin to the kit to make the install look cheap, same for the panels, if they aren't the all black NEO panels and just the standard 440w (which seems likely) they are £75 each. Unless they are spreading the cost of the Zappi Car charger across the other parts, which seems to be listed at £1.25, which seems odd.

I'd be interested to see what my kit would cost now fully installed compared to what I've actually paid ( not withstanding a load of problems with the original installer).