Solar panels and battery - any real world reccomendations?

[HungryHippos]

I have an ex-work colleague who went off-grid with a very tiny house (basically 5M x 5M with en-suite and tiny kitchen/lounge + bed in the attic bit).

They have a generator that kicks in when the batteries run low, so yes you probably need something to cover you for more extreme cases.

 

[The Angry Welshman]

@Welshman you need to do a reality check, we're in the UK, the weather's very poor in the winter, the average house doesn't have the room for the amount of panels you'd need to go off grid, and just because you don't use much, doesn't mean others don't, we all have different needs.

As a comparison, we have 200 panels on the roof here at work, which amounts to 50kw, in December 2021 we generated 775.5kwh of electric, or an average of 23kwh a day, but the worst day was only 4.2kwh, that's with 50kw of panels.

In this country you have to have substantial amount of storage and batteries, or at least a back up generator.

I've watched some of the off grid family, and I think they have a generator.

I need zero reality check……off grid with solar was what was mentioned, no one said you cant use gas or a generator, which would also mean your off grid.
maybe someone needs to learn to read.

 

[VaderDSL]

I need zero reality check……off grid with solar was what was mentioned, no one said you cant use gas or a generator, which would also mean your off grid.
maybe someone needs to learn to read.

To be fair, I think it was because we were replying to jonneymendoza in relation to asking about off grid in a 3 bed victorian terrace, rather than stating it as a generalisation.

 

[HungryHippos]

I need zero reality check……off grid with solar was what was mentioned, no one said you cant use gas or a generator, which would also mean your off grid.
maybe someone needs to learn to read.

Based on your replies here I'd say you were talking about off-grid with solar only

Solar panels and battery - any real world reccomendations?

How much is the outlay in installing a solar panel roof and battery on say a typical 3 bedroom terraced Victorian 1930’s property ? Like ball park figures? Is it soo much that its pointless? I always thought that because we don’t get much clear sky sun, solar panels are useless in this...

forums.overclockers.co.uk

Solar panels and battery - any real world reccomendations?

How much is the outlay in installing a solar panel roof and battery on say a typical 3 bedroom terraced Victorian 1930’s property ? Like ball park figures? Is it soo much that its pointless? I always thought that because we don’t get much clear sky sun, solar panels are useless in this...

forums.overclockers.co.uk

 

[The Angry Welshman]

Based on your replies here I'd say you were talking about off-grid with solar only

Solar panels and battery - any real world reccomendations?

How much is the outlay in installing a solar panel roof and battery on say a typical 3 bedroom terraced Victorian 1930’s property ? Like ball park figures? Is it soo much that its pointless? I always thought that because we don’t get much clear sky sun, solar panels are useless in this...

forums.overclockers.co.uk

Solar panels and battery - any real world reccomendations?

How much is the outlay in installing a solar panel roof and battery on say a typical 3 bedroom terraced Victorian 1930’s property ? Like ball park figures? Is it soo much that its pointless? I always thought that because we don’t get much clear sky sun, solar panels are useless in this...

forums.overclockers.co.uk

Again, he was assuming he would use more electric in winter and therefore maybe thinking he had electric heating and not gas………or maybe cooking with electric, were again he could be using gas.

which could mean, if you cook with gas and heat with gas…..then you could go offgrid with solar for your electricity needs and yes ive seen the programmes that also do it.

 

[HungryHippos]

By your own measure you said 6kwh of electric, so assuming gas heating isn't part of that figure, and based on the 4k system generating as little as 2.29kwh in a day in December, you'd have to drastically reduce your electric usage on a really bad day or risk running out.

I assume some critical stuff will use electric even if you turn stuff off, things like fridge/freezer which you'd not want off for hours at a time if battery ran out of juice.

Even with gas you'd probably need some kind of alternative energy source such as a generator beyond just solar to cover basic electrical needs even at 6kwh usage per day. I think using gas as a substitute isn't great either as they want to phase out new gas boilers soon, and gas cookers exist now but may not forever.

I'd love to remove gas supply if I could even if I still needed grid for electric as it's one less standing charge to pay for.

 

[The Angry Welshman]

By your own measure you said 6kwh of electric, so assuming gas heating isn't part of that figure, and based on the 4k system generating as little as 2.29kwh in a day in December, you'd have to drastically reduce your electric usage on a really bad day or risk running out.

I assume some critical stuff will use electric even if you turn stuff off, things like fridge/freezer which you'd not want off for hours at a time if battery ran out of juice.

Even with gas you'd probably need some kind of alternative energy source such as a generator beyond just solar to cover basic electrical needs even at 6kwh usage per day. I think using gas as a substitute isn't great either as they want to phase out new gas boilers soon, and gas cookers exist now but may not forever.

I'd love to remove gas supply if I could even if I still needed grid for electric as it's one less standing charge to pay for.

Obviously my 6kwh of electric doesnt include gas usage, cause i stated electricity……..could use a propane gas fridge/freezer ( which again, would mean your offgrid) and propane cooker. There options available.

could also add in wind generation, to go along with the solar, even hydro if your land has access to a river…..see theres many options available to off gridders

 

[BUDFORCE]

Yup, I'm going to commission a small nuclear reactor in my garden to go off grid.

Perfectly feasible, you can mine the uranium from natural sources if you know where to look.

 

[Doobedoo]

We generate very little in the winter so we have to pretty much fill up our battery with off peak electric. Off peak for us is 10p, peak is 23p. Week days is fine but weekends are tricky as we have no gas central heating just electric. Air to air source heat pump is worth its weight in gold for us though.

 

[Ron-ski]

I need zero reality check……off grid with solar was what was mentioned, no one said you cant use gas or a generator, which would also mean your off grid.
maybe someone needs to learn to read.

Perhaps someone needs to understand the context of the posts in discussion

By the time you've purchased all the petrol/diesel to run the genny, and the propane to run the fridge you might as well just use the grid, almost certainly cheaper, well given the cost of the standing charge that's debatable if connected all year round, but using a genny and/or bottled gas isn't environmentally friendly is it. Surprised you didn't suggest firing up the wood burning stove - yes I do have one.

 

[darael]

I wish I could afford this sort of setup and on a slightly bigger scale.

 

[The Angry Welshman]

Yup, I'm going to commission a small nuclear reactor in my garden to go off grid.

Perfectly feasible, you can mine the uranium from natural sources if you know where to look.

Theres always one that takes it that little bit to far……

 

[The Angry Welshman]

Perhaps someone needs to understand the context of the posts in discussion

By the time you've purchased all the petrol/diesel to run the genny, and the propane to run the fridge you might as well just use the grid, almost certainly cheaper, well given the cost of the standing charge that's debatable if connected all year round, but using a genny and/or bottled gas isn't environmentally friendly is it. Surprised you didn't suggest firing up the wood burning stove - yes I do have one.

Wood burning stove, yes….can cook on that easily enough and heat the home and water. See your getting there now

off grid is available to us all. I mean you can offset the wood burner, by creating the solar and wind energy, you be carbon neutral before you know it.

 

[Ron-ski]

Trouble is the 5kw wood burning stove gets the lounge / dinner (about 4.5 x 8.5 meters) supper toasty, 23c even with the doors open to the hallway, and kitchen, but even with a fan very little heat goes to the rest of the house, it's just not practical to heat a five bedroom house with one wood stove, and we certainly won't be cooking on it.

Me carbon neutral - not for a long time, I've no intention of replacing my VW Diesel for a long time yet

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

Im not sure burning wood counts as carbon neutral unless you plan on planting a wood

 

[OllyM]

I have 4kw array and generated only 71kw in December 2021, an average of 2.29 kWh a day. So would need a lot more panels, and the battery capacity to store it.

I'm always disappointed by my winter generation but that is horrific - I guess it highlights how much less sunlight the UK gets, particularly in the winter!

My 8.2kW array generates 3-400kWh in December depending on how much snow we get (and if it sticks around or thaws quickly).

 

[SoliD]

Guessing the restrictions of the roof space in many UK houses doesn't help @OllyM presume you have good direction and angles. I hope my pretty much southern 30deg angled 7.2KW array generates a good amount, although the cloudy humid nature of the UK doesn't help.

 

[Ron-ski]

I'm always disappointed by my winter generation but that is horrific - I guess it highlights how much less sunlight the UK gets, particularly in the winter!

My 8.2kW array generates 3-400kWh in December depending on how much snow we get (and if it sticks around or thaws quickly).

I was surprised how much you generated, then looked to see where you are. On 22 December the shortest day we get just 7 hours and 52 minutes of day light, started generating at 08:30 and stopped at 15:30, so just 7 hours, and that looked like a good graph so was probably sunny.
The longest day, 21 June we get 16 hours and 35 minutes of light, we actually get slightly longer day than New York which get 1 hour 30 minutes less, but your shortest day is 9 hours 15 minutes, you must get better weather/sun strength as well.

I looked back at previous years.

2015 68.14 installed 3rd December
2016 121.93
2017 106.15
2018 103.2
2019 120.81
2020 111.18
2021 71.08

So 2021 was a particularly bad December, similar to 2015

 

[The Angry Welshman]

Im not sure burning wood counts as carbon neutral unless you plan on planting a wood

I said offset it by creating solar and wind energy. No one said it was carbon neutral

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

I said offset it by creating solar and wind energy. No one said it was carbon neutral

Thats not really offsetting at a domestic scale.

Offsetting is doing something to actively absorb the carbon elsewhere to "offset" the carbon your releasing.
So as I said, growing trees to offset the carbon your releasing by burning it.

Its possible someone could do what you say but as we have been over thats incredible difficult to do in the uk due to the generation profile.
Going carbon neutral is very difficult without a very low usage lifestyle, or purchasing a very large array. I havent yet seen anyone who I have looked at (youtube etc) who is carbon neutral
They all seem to use more than they generate even people with large arrays.