Solar panels and battery - any real world reccomendations?

Ron-ski said:
With a 4kw array produced 5.61kWh on the second best December day, it peaked at 1.77kw. There was a slightly better day but peak was lower.
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so with the news atm about power shortages. im thinking do we jump in?
I.e. protecting against winter power outages (yes i know there is more work required to operate off grind in a power cut etc)

so when you say it peaked at 1.77kw generation, over what period was that? i.e. 1 min?
so in an average day from the 4kw array - what was the total generation of the panels?
 
You'll still need a grid connection to cover shortfall and a backup in case battery/panels die.

If you can get the battery to be able to power local kit if grid dies, then that would be a bonus. If we suffer brown outs you could also force charge the battery from the grid even in the winter (paying cost per kwh of course) which would give you a backup in case of grid failure even during low generation.

I do know that the default install of a Givenergy battery won't work off grid though, would need some kind of modification to allow it.
 
adencool said:
so with the news atm about power shortages. im thinking do we jump in?
I.e. protecting against winter power outages (yes i know there is more work required to operate off grind in a power cut etc)

so when you say it peaked at 1.77kw generation, over what period was that? i.e. 1 min?
so in an average day from the 4kw array - what was the total generation of the panels?
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Winter power outage will not be resolved by Solar.

re the average day, his second best day was 5.61kwh so not a lot.
 
adencool said:
so with the news atm about power shortages. im thinking do we jump in?
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Solar isn't really the best thing for this.

I bought a petrol generator for this, just a 700w job, but will power all the homeworking IT equipment, and then a TV/lights in the evening.

Could plug in the freezer if I needed to.

I have a gas BBQ and portable stove etc I could cook on.

Depends how bad they get, guess it'll be max few hours a day. Hopefully not at all.
 
adencool said:
so when you say it peaked at 1.77kw generation, over what period was that? i.e. 1 min?
so in an average day from the 4kw array - what was the total generation of the panels?
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Peak means peak, it could be as short as a second or less. Average per day for December 2021 was 2.29kwh, January average per day was 5.09 kWh. This is with 4kw of panels.

To go off grid totally with only solar you'd need a huge array and a huge battery. We have 50kw of panels on the roof at work, and IIRC the worse day in December produced just 6kw.
 
not looking at total off grid - just thinking about - hopefully note needed thou

thou avg for household is 8kw a day - so 5.09kw would cover most stuff to be honest

BUDFORCE said:
Solar isn't really the best thing for this.

I bought a petrol generator for this, just a 700w job, but will power all the homeworking IT equipment, and then a TV/lights in the evening.

Could plug in the freezer if I needed to.

I have a gas BBQ and portable stove etc I could cook on.

Depends how bad they get, guess it'll be max few hours a day. Hopefully not at all.
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say you had a power cut, would you turn off the main breaker and back feed via the generator (thou i guess that is the wrong way to do it??)
 
adencool said:
not looking at total off grid - just thinking about - hopefully note needed thou

thou avg for household is 8kw a day - so 5.09kw would cover most stuff to be honest
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Are you going battery? If the majority of the 8kw usage is during non generation times, you aren't technically utilising the generation, when a kWh unit is around 27p (currently) to buy and around 5p (for example) to sell you'll need to either store the energy in batteries to minimise the amount you export. It does get a bit tedious estimating production/usage/times/storage etc. I think the general consensus is if you can afford and will be staying long term, just buy it, eventually it'll pay for itself. Also batteries will pay off quicker once energy costs increase more and more, the less you can use from the grid, and the more you can use from day production or stored capacity the better. And you might also be able to get yourself onto a tariff where overnight cheap electricity is available, so getting a system you can schedule to pull down cheap electricity to the battery in winter might also be a good idea.
 
8kwh per day is quite low usage but with the rates going the way they are it'll payback eventually. Depending on how you use it, you'll probably need a small battery to ensure you're able to use it in the evenings especially through late autumn, winter and early spring.
 
Got our install done today. Generated 6.5kwh since about half 2 this afternoon.

Get a full days figures tomorrow I guess.

Just glad it's done and everything the house is using right now isn't costing us anything and full tank of hot water.

The Solis inverter we got is a little basic though, and the app isn't great, only criticism.
 
BUDFORCE said:
Got our install done today. Generated 6.5kwh since about half 2 this afternoon.

Get a full days figures tomorrow I guess.

Just glad it's done and everything the house is using right now isn't costing us anything and full tank of hot water.

The Solis inverter we got is a little basic though, and the app isn't great, only criticism.
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How big is the tank? Can you have a bath or shower with it?
 
I have 7.2kw of solar, 10kw battery storage.

We use around 14k a year, this time of year we are exporting 20-30kwh a day when it's sunny so it keeps our energy account topped up for the winter costs.

During winter there won't be much generation but we can atleast charge the batteries overnight at 6p / kwh then use for the morning at least.
 
TNA said:
Awesome. Let us know, also the cost. Maybe a picture or make and model so I can look it up. Cheers :)
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IMG-20220707-WA0002.jpg


Those are the panels, they are coming back to put the end caps on the end of the aluminium rails tomorrow.

The hot water tank is 210 litres, that was already part of our heating system I hasten to add, we have oil fired heating because we live out in the middle of nowhere but the hot water tank has an imersion element as a backup, so we got a diverter installed that puts the excess generated into the hot water tank first before exporting it, for which we are getting nothing, at the moment.

Its a 4.5kw system, 5kw inverter, no battery, £7k.

Bit dissapointed with the inverter, its a bit basic in terms of features.
 
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BUDFORCE said:
Those are the panels, they are coming back to put the end caps on the end of the aluminium rails tomorrow.

The hot water tank is 210 litres, that was already part of our heating system I hasten to add, we have oil fired heating because we live out in the middle of nowhere but the hot water tank has an imersion element as a backup, so we got a diverter installed that puts the excess generated into the hot water tank first before exporting it, for which we are getting nothing, at the moment.

Its a 4.5kw system, 5kw inverter, no battery, £7k.

Bit dissapointed with the inverter, its a bit basic in terms of features.
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No anti-bird stuff installed?
 
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