Solar panels and battery - any real world reccomendations?

[Ron-ski]

On a separate note, can't you move those panels together and fit some with the space saved on the flat roof?

As the regulations* changed late last year I could increase the pitch of the panels, and move them closer together, but still not sure there would be space for a third row. With increased pitch, and closer together the panels would also shade each other more.

Currently there is a 770mm gap down the middle, and the gap at the front and back is 300mm, so total gaps = 1370mm, it would be a lot of work, and cause other complications.

*Panels used to be allowed to be a maximum of 200mm above a flat roof under permitted development, this has been increased to 600mm.

 

[94JDH]

As the regulations* changed late last year I could increase the pitch of the panels, and move them closer together, but still not sure there would be space for a third row. With increased pitch, and closer together the panels would also shade each other more.

Currently there is a 770mm gap down the middle, and the gap at the front and back is 300mm, so total gaps = 1370mm, it would be a lot of work, and cause other complications.

*Panels used to be allowed to be a maximum of 200mm above a flat roof under permitted development, this has been increased to 600mm.

I was thinking of just closing the gaps at the same angle and adding a further single row of 3 perhaps?

 

[Ron-ski]

If it had fitted, I would have done it.

Edit. Would have worked with another single row of three, but causes other complications. Its currently 4 strings of three panels, wired in parallel as two arrays, add another 3 panels and it causes complications, it also means there is no easy access to the panels as no roof space.

It works easily the way you do it, you just add an optimiser and extend the string, all you have to worry about is maximum voltage and maximum amps, with Victron its far more restricted.

 

[smallstool]

I have many questions. Before I try and read nearly 500 pages, is there a good 'I'm an idiot, tell me about Solar and Battery' post I should start with?

Have a look at the video in my footer, Mark is one of the most knowledgeable and very best in the business.

 

[Journey]

Dovedale. | 5 bedroom house for sale in Rugby

Learn more about Dovedale., a 5 bedroom home available at our Poets Meadow development in Rugby. Make your new home a Miller home!

www.millerhomes.co.uk

I'll help later, but it is frankly an utter disgrace that a new house like that, and those advertised on their website don't have a sign of solar on them, they must cost £500k+ and if they skipped the roof tiles they would have probably saved money. This country is utterly crap at getting anything done properly.

EDIT: There is a picture of a house on there with solar all over the roof, and it is obviously a 3D render as the panels are a weird aspect and there is zero mention of the solar in any of the available plots, which is even worse, if there really is solar they should be screaming about the bills saving since they are lumbering you with a crap leasehold that will cost you £3k a year in fees when the sell it out from under you.

 

[Ron-ski]

Sadly they either don't bother, or they put a token 4 panel system on new houses.

On a brighter note, they built a new care home locally, and all roofs have in roof panels, it does look nice, also a battery store (top right in the below picture).

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

Darn, quick estimate is 340-350 panels there.
Saw they are 400s, thats 140kwp.
Could be producing a MWH a day in summer.

 

[Ron-ski]

My sort of care home, hopefully I'm a long way off needing it.

I can't see in the planning documents what they fitted or how many, but it does state they also install ground source heat pumps, a truly forward thinking company.

 

[Ron-ski]

Part of the reason Im going in roof panels this time.

I just costed this using Easy PV on my proposed NW array, it would add about £1000 to the cost, I'll just go with rails I think. The roof can't really be seen, so it would only be the potential problem with seagulls that would be the main reason.

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

My sort of retirement home, hopefully I'm a long way off needing it.

I can't see in the planning documents what they fitted or how many, but it does state they also install ground source heat pumps, a truly forward thinking company.

Lies!
We know you would prefer one with no panels so you can get to work building

 

[Ron-ski]

Lies!
We know you would prefer one with no panels so you can get to work building

As long as I have access to the stats I'll be happy

 

[Axeboy]

I just costed this using Easy PV on my proposed NW array, it would add about £1000 to the cost, I'll just go with rails I think. The roof can't really be seen, so it would only be the potential problem with seagulls that would be the main reason.

I would happily pay it mate!

Different for me as I'm replacing my roof anyway

 

[Ron-ski]

If you're replacing your roof then it's a no brainer.

That £1000 is about a quarter to a third of my install cost, so a big chunk added on.

 

[Freefaller]

Does anyone know how to do a download of the daily performance of your system for a whole year? i.e. I want to see the days where I was maxing out etc... I have access to givenergy system or the solis inverter. I can only see how to download by year which just gives me monthly totals. I want the year but with daily details and even hourly if possible. Just playing with data to learn really, but also interested to see if I can find how many days of the year my system was maxed out.

 

[Pickers]

I'm sorry for inevitably asking a question that has been answered before, but I'm going EV.
My current situation:

* I currently have a 6kW array,
* GivEnergy 5kw hybrid inverter and 9.5kWh battery.
* I'm on Octopus Flux and use home assistant to schedule charge and discharge. I export heavily when I can.

I'm almost certainly going to get a zappi charger and intelligent octopus GO.

My questions are really based off confusing posts on the internet:
* how well will the zappi work with the GivEnergy?
* How much do octopus control in terms of charging the car and exporting to grid?
* I have read of people saying that the zappi drains their battery and a solution being to put CT clamps in ?places? to overcome the inverter seeing the zappi as a electrical load to satisfy by pulling from battery.

Does anyone have this setup and some tips of what to ask for regarding the zappi install??

 

[b0rn2sk8]

My questions are really based off confusing posts on the internet:
* how well will the zappi work with the GivEnergy?

It doesn't natively which can cause problems when using Octopus Intelligent Go because it can charge the car at seemingly random times of the day but you can use home assistant to resolve this issue. This can cause battery draining issues, the Zappi also can't tell what is solar or what is coming from the battery on a hybrid inverter.

You just need an automation which monitors the 'Octopus Intelligent Dispatching' entity and when it switches on, charge the battery, when it switches off, go back to eco mode. As you can get 7.5p import overnight and 15p export, you want to charge your battery to 100% daily and use the grid whenever 7.5p is available.

* How much do octopus control in terms of charging the car and exporting to grid?

Only charging the car on Octopus Intelligent Go, only the battery on Intelligent flux.

* I have read of people saying that the zappi drains their battery and a solution being to put CT clamps in ?places? to overcome the inverter seeing the zappi as a electrical load to satisfy by pulling from battery.

See above, charge the battery whenever the car is charging, problem solved.

It may be good practice to split your incoming electricity cables just after the meter and install the charger there anyway. You can then place the CT clamp for the hybrid inverter on the cable that goes to the house consumer unit so it will not 'see' the chargers load because its power supply is split out before the point the CT clamp is measuring. The downside of this is the energy consumption to the car will not show up in the GivEnergy dashboard. This may also not be possible depending on your electrical installation and the best place to install the chargers wiring.

Does anyone have this setup and some tips of what to ask for regarding the zappi install??

I don't have one but if you are using IOG, you just leave it in dumb mode and let Octopus control the charger. You don't want to charge the car from solar as it will lower your return.

Givenergy are also in the process of getting their charger certified with Octopus Intelligent but as far as I am aware, there is no launch date - just a thought should you want the two devices to better talk to each other. The Zappi is certainly the better product at the moment though.

 

[Pickers]

You just need an automation which monitors the 'Octopus Intelligent Dispatching' entity and when it switches on, charge the battery, when it switches off, go back to eco mode. As you can get 7.5p import overnight and 15p export, you want to charge your battery to 100% daily and use the grid whenever 7.5p is available.

So when does octopus intelligent charge the EV? I thought the intelligent part means they control when it charges, otherwise it's simple octopus go, which is cheap overnight?

 

[b0rn2sk8]

So when does octopus intelligent charge the EV? I thought the intelligent part means they control when it charges, otherwise it's simple octopus go, which is cheap overnight?

On octopus intelligent it’s always 7.5p between 11.30 and 05.30.

They can also decide to charge your car outside of these times and when they do, each 30 min slot when they are charging your car all your power is 7.5p.

You have to ‘smart charge’ at least once per month but it’s better to leave it on all the time as you can get extra slots outside the 11.30-5.30 core time, these are particularly handy in winter.

If you have home assistant, you can deploy a basic automation to ensure that when the car is charging, your battery is also charging. I can post mine if you think it would be helpful.

 

[Pickers]

On octopus intelligent it’s always 7.5p between 11.30 and 05.30.

They can also decide to charge your car outside of these times and when they do, each 30 min slot when they are charging your car all your power is 7.5p.

You have to ‘smart charge’ at least once per month but it’s better to leave it on all the time as you can get extra slots outside the 11.30-5.30 core time, these are particularly handy in winter.

If you have home assistant, you can deploy a basic automation to ensure that when the car is charging, your battery is also charging. I can post mine if you think it would be helpful.

That would be awesome. I am not sure I could readily find the HA entity to turn on givenergy charging as I only use the "enable timed charge" and the start charge timeslot and end charge timeslot entries.

 

[b0rn2sk8]

Are you using GivTCP?

You have to use the charge start and end times for controlling the battery charge.

Essentially my automation monitors for the octopus dispatching flag and when it turns on, it sets the battery to charge between 00:00 and 23:59.

When it turns off, it changes the charge times back to 11.30-5.30.

Technically it’s 2 automations (one for on, one for off), you’ll need to update the sensor/entity names to reflect your inverter and octopus account. I set up the blow in the GUI, below is the YAML code it created.

Spoiler: Octopus Intelligent On

alias: Octopus Intelligent On (charge battery)
description: ""
trigger:
- platform: state
entity_id:
- binary_sensor.octopus_energy_a_XXXXXXXX_intelligent_dispatching
from: "off"
to: "on"
condition: []
action:
- device_id: <your inverter>
domain: select
entity_id: <your charge time start slot 1>
type: select_option
option: "00:00:00"
- device_id: <your inverter>
domain: select
entity_id: <your charge time end slot 1>
type: select_option
option: "23:59:00"
mode: single

Spoiler: Octopus Intelligent Off

alias: Octopus Intelligent Off (Eco Mode)
description: ""
trigger:
- platform: state
entity_id:
- binary_sensor.octopus_energy_a_XXXXXXXX_intelligent_dispatching
to: "off"
condition: []
action:
- device_id: <your inverter>
domain: select
entity_id: <your charge time start slot 1>
type: select_option
option: "23:30:00"
- device_id: <your inverter>
domain: select
entity_id: <your charge time end slot 1>
type: select_option
option: "05:30:00"
mode: single