Solar panels and battery - any real world reccomendations?
- Thread starter GinG
- Start date
Soldato
Panels have gotten very good recently, they claim to produce even on east or west facing roofs almost as well as that of a south facing one and still generate from reflected light when not in view of the sun. I don’t think Solar is going to make much of an improvement in efficiency any time soon but battery tech is on the cusp of really moving forward which is what I am hopeful for as I intend to go with a small 5kwh battery for the time being and then replacing it all a few years down the line with 16kwh of something far more substantial. I’m looking forward to what is to come!
Associate
Anyone know how much the average cost of Solar has gone up by due to problems after Covid? I am thinking of going the solar route due to my energy bills going from £150ish a month in 2021 to £500 now. We use about 8500kwh per year in electricity.
Soldato
@Harbz Its gone up more due to the fact everybody wants it now, and if you're electric bill is £500 a month and your only using about 8500kwh something is seriously wrong, 8500 x £0.30 / 12 = £212 a month + standing charge
Associate
£500 combined electric and gas. I was on Avro energy before they went bust, now on Octopus standard rate.
Soldato
That makes more sense (I missed the bit where you said energy bills), but seems a lot of gas.
Associate
Sorry for lack of info, house is quite big. I just re-checked bill, its more like £450. I was on Avro energy before they went bust, now on Octopus standard rate. Hopefully solar can heat up some of our hot water as we have an immersion heater. The whole rear of our house is south facing and gets full sun from dawn to around 5pm when the sun goes to the side of the house which also has a roof. Only concern is the little roof vents - guess the panels will have to go around them.
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Soldato
Nice, you could certainly get some panels on there, it might be OK to put the panels over the vents, most panels have plenty of space under them for air to circulate.
Associate
I don't think you can cover those vents as it will lower air circulation and risk problems in the loft, that's what I read anyway. Anyone recommend any installers around Wolverhampton? I might get some quotes.
Associate
I’m paying about £8K for 4.4KW of solar and an 8.2kwh battery system on two roofs (SE and SE). This was ordered March / April. I’m still waiting for the battery but when it comes the combination Solar + battery + Octopus GO will equal tiny bills.
From what I see most are paying at least 20% more now (if not higher) it was still a supper competitive market when I got about 5 quotes. Lurking on the solar groups on Facebook suggests it’s now otherwise.
How are you using 8500kwh per year. ASHP or EV? I was at around 4400kwh before geting a PHEV and now it’s around 6500kwh.
That's a great price, thought I'd got a good deal - who did you go with in the end?
Associate
The octopus app is saying we used 22.9kwh yesterday. We generally use a lot of electric, ovens, 2 fridge freezers, computers on due to wfh. The house is always occupied during day time.
Honestly wouldn't worry about the vents.Sorry for lack of info, house is quite big. I just re-checked bill, its more like £450. I was on Avro energy before they went bust, now on Octopus standard rate. Hopefully solar can heat up some of our hot water as we have an immersion heater. The whole rear of our house is south facing and gets full sun from dawn to around 5pm when the sun goes to the side of the house which also has a roof. Only concern is the little roof vents - guess the panels will have to go around them.
Depending on access, you could core some holes into the underside soffits and put vents in there. Those should give you enough airflow into the loft space for the ventilation requirements.
That roof is gagging for a large array of 400W black panels in one lovely long line and being south facing is the cherry on top.
Instead of a fancy solar converter for your immersion, consider getting on a tariff with cheap overnight rate then get an immersion timer from Screwfix for £20 to heat it up during the cheap leccy.
The ROI on a solar immersion thingy is a lot considering their £300+ cost and additional labour rate. Sounds great, but in practise isn't a good investment. Better to have more batteries considering the size of your house.
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Soldato
It’s really quite interesting seeing the power use go up with the Phev. Bills haven’t gone up on octopus by 70% for using 70% more units, instead it’s up by 25% give or take due to the much more favourable rate. Given the miles I get from the charge side and the units I am using between fill ups I can see I’m only getting about 2.4-2.7m a unit (crappy town driving mostly) which equates to around 2p a mile. On the daily rate I’d be better off with a diesel. At an annual consumption rate of circa 9600units as a rough estimate and a good chunk of those from the daily are multiple appliances on and in use.
Soldato
"Crappy town" driving is where the battery part of your car is most efficient.
I struggle with the logic of the iboosts and similar when you can export at an average of circa 18p kwh (my experience in June) on octopus and buy gas for heating hot water at 7p kwh. So an iboost or Eddi would cost me 11p kwh plus it’s ~£400 cost to get one?!
In winter I’ll be on GO so can only export at 4.1p kwh but I don’t see how an an Eddi would ever pay for itself?
Soldato
Best export is 5.5p/kwh on seg at the moment, tesla has a slightly better one, but you'd need older fit rates to be hitting that level on a new install.
Caporegime
Such a shame they offer so little. Any reason these are not adjusted? Would certainly make it a lot more attractive installing solar panels.