Solar panels and battery - any real world reccomendations?

Nope, sadly this is a huge issue with installs where the installer doesn't do their due diligence and ask the right questions of the customer or inform the customer about the limitations of the system design. Sometimes I think they still think they are only installing a solar setup based on FIT, not on modern generation, consumption and battery storage combined with smart tariffs.

You could contact your installer and ask for a price to swap out the inverter and have the DNO G99 updated, probably wouldn't be worth what you'll spend save for at least a decade.
Yeah I figured the cost part would be the case.

It's fine - I mean it would be cheaper to just replace the shower and plumb into the oil combi boiler so no high power outlays!

I was wondering if a second inverter and battery might help though?
 
So my 5kW hybrid inverter is clipping my 5.88kW array.
Currently I have two rows of 7 panels on a south facing roof. Each row is on a separate string.
The inverter is connected to a battery with a discharge rate of 3.6kW

I think I'm at the limit of the system as I have no roof space left, but the inverter is just bothering me!! It means a 6+kW draw from the shower always needs grid injection and it means the maximum export to grid is 5kW if there is solar but only 3.6kW if discharging battery.

I have GivEnergy gen 2 battery and gen3 inverter.

Any cheap(??) improvements to this??

I doubt it's worth spending any money on this.

Clipping will only occur sometimes on the generation side.

On the usage side, you'll see it more often, but shower is usually relatively short, so overall impact is limited.
 
How is Eon customer service? How do they pay export? Both of those are good with Octopus so worth considering.

re: eon (i've been with them since i moved to my home, so approx 18 months) in that time, this is what i've found

long waits on the phone, but once connected pretty good service.
seg is paid yearly, so not as good as octopus
i believe that you cannot discharge to grid during saving sessions and earn £££ like you can with octopus (never tried though, so just speculating)
 
re: eon (i've been with them since i moved to my home, so approx 18 months) in that time, this is what i've found

long waits on the phone, but once connected pretty good service.
seg is paid yearly, so not as good as octopus
i believe that you cannot discharge to grid during saving sessions and earn £££ like you can with octopus (never tried though, so just speculating)
Make sure you complain, they give out 50 quid statement credits like nobodies business.
 
It's terrible as a low user just how much you are forced to support others, IMO they need to rethink the whole thing, especially for poor pensioners etc.

yeah, i was on a fix last year for 45p/day leccy and 21p/day gas standing charge...had to swap to the price capped tariff for a couple of days before the ev tariff kicked in...
was crazy paying 50% more for standing charges and i was actually paying less on the original (more expensive) tariff than the new "price capped" tariff
 
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So my 5kW hybrid inverter is clipping my 5.88kW array.
Currently I have two rows of 7 panels on a south facing roof. Each row is on a separate string.
The inverter is connected to a battery with a discharge rate of 3.6kW

I think I'm at the limit of the system as I have no roof space left, but the inverter is just bothering me!! It means a 6+kW draw from the shower always needs grid injection and it means the maximum export to grid is 5kW if there is solar but only 3.6kW if discharging battery.

I have GivEnergy gen 2 battery and gen3 inverter.

Any cheap(??) improvements to this??

Also bear in mind some people specifically over panel to get clipping since the inverters are more efficient the higher the loading.
So when its producing less than 5kw the smaller inverter would be more efficient than a say 6kw one.
 
Looking through import tariffs just tempted to get a bog standard fix, looks like 47p p/d standing charge and 25p p/kWh pretty much anywhere, so would go with Octopus as everyone says their customer service is good.

Father in law is on the octopus tariff where the price constantly changes but honestly I'm busy and I can't be doing with something else to have to keep an eye on, and with only the 5.2kwh battery (effectively about 4) it's not worth overnight charging as in winter that would be gone by 10am.
 
Yeah I figured the cost part would be the case.

It's fine - I mean it would be cheaper to just replace the shower and plumb into the oil combi boiler so no high power outlays!

I was wondering if a second inverter and battery might help though?
This is essentially my setup, though less panels. I have a 5kW inverter on the 4.8kW array facing SE. This one has the batteries attached. I then have a separate 3.6kW solar-only inverter attached to the 4.62kW array facing north-west. There's a CT clamp attached from the 3.6 inverter to the 5.0 so it can manage the power and charge the batteries from that too. This wouldn't really help you though as the batteries need to be able to charge/discharge at that rate in the first place. Like you I also have a high power shower (8kW) and if I time it right in the afternoon can get the full 5kW from one inverter and whatever the 3.6kW generates at the same time, so grid draw is minimal. It also has the advantage that when I force discharge at 16:00, whatever the 3.6kW inverter is producing is exported too, so I can often get a rate of 7kW+ early on in the window.

The only way you could improve your setup would be better batteries and a larger inverter, but with no extra panels you wouldn't ever make it back.
 
Looking through import tariffs just tempted to get a bog standard fix, looks like 47p p/d standing charge and 25p p/kWh pretty much anywhere, so would go with Octopus as everyone says their customer service is good.

Father in law is on the octopus tariff where the price constantly changes but honestly I'm busy and I can't be doing with something else to have to keep an eye on, and with only the 5.2kwh battery (effectively about 4) it's not worth overnight charging as in winter that would be gone by 10am.
Just go on tracker then. Its always cheaper than 25p.
 
re: eon (i've been with them since i moved to my home, so approx 18 months) in that time, this is what i've found

long waits on the phone, but once connected pretty good service.
seg is paid yearly, so not as good as octopus
i believe that you cannot discharge to grid during saving sessions and earn £££ like you can with octopus (never tried though, so just speculating)
Yearly! Wouldn't like that.
 
How does that work, does the unit price change daily or weekly or more often?

Assuming you are not locked into anything going on that?

Its daily, 24 hour fixed price. It has a 9 month lockout though if you come off it.

Octopus Smart tariffs have a one month lockout, so you cannot switch to another smart one within a month of switching to one.
My plan is to go agile 6 months and Go for 6 months. If for some reason I cannot get back onto go then I may well go tracker at that point

Its hard to predict the right move longer term as the world is volatile right now.
 
Won't it be more than that, you'll be exporting nearly all of it in the spring/summer?
quite possibly/probably lol, i'm charging my batteries for 8p/kwh overnight and exporting most of the solar
if i'm exporting 3MWh then should be ~£500

(£240/yr was my installer estimate)
 
Its daily, 24 hour fixed price. It has a 9 month lockout though if you come off it.

Octopus Smart tariffs have a one month lockout, so you cannot switch to another smart one within a month of switching to one.
My plan is to go agile 6 months and Go for 6 months. If for some reason I cannot get back onto go then I may well go tracker at that point

Its hard to predict the right move longer term as the world is volatile right now.

Ok cheers I might give that a go.
 
Its daily, 24 hour fixed price. It has a 9 month lockout though if you come off it.

Octopus Smart tariffs have a one month lockout, so you cannot switch to another smart one within a month of switching to one.
My plan is to go agile 6 months and Go for 6 months. If for some reason I cannot get back onto go then I may well go tracker at that point

Its hard to predict the right move longer term as the world is volatile right now.
Can you have the 15p fixed export on agile???
 
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