Solar panels and battery - any real world reccomendations?

[benbird7]

Been on flux for the summer and go since October. Been great and certainly is much better than flux as long as you charge battery 00.30-4.30.
Helped offsetting the bill with the octopus power ups and got about £70 back so cost me about £40 a month on electric.
Generation of my system Vs pvgis has been poor but January looking like it may hit its target, the other months have fallen well short.

I have got a hybrid I charge, but would still be on go if I didn't , the 10kwh battery cost a pretty penny and want to help reduce its ROI.
In the spring will switch to flux and hopefully the excess export will cover my winter import

Lowestoft, Suffolk.
System Installed 31/03/23
5.5kW PV - 14No JA panels, 5kW Huawei inverter, 10kWh Huawei Luna battery.
Mercedes A250e hybrid.
Octopus Go - winter, flux - summer

 

[MrRockliffe]

Looking at moving to a property with solar. Only predicament is that the panels are on the north-east facing roof.

Are there any tariffs I should look at, or would you stick with the tracker tariff I'm currently on?

 

[Siliconslave]

Is it just panels or is there a battery as well? Do you have an electric / plug in hybrid car?

Your export contract doesn't need to be tied to the import so you can sign up for that separately with who ever is doing a reasonable rate, import wise it really depends on your setup and usage.

 

[IvanDobskey]

I guess the pricing for solar panels is unlikely to come down whilst the energy crisis is still raging

And I can't see an end to that anytime soon.

 

[b0rn2sk8]

I’d lay the opposite is true in reality. Prices have dropped significantly since last year.

Prices for the equipment are similar, except batteries which have dropped a healthy amount, the biggest drop had been from installer margin and mark up. They are actually having to work for the customers now and as such they are pricing accordingly.

When I was shopping around late last year, most installers were available within 2-3 weeks. The lead times were 3-4 months a year ago.

 

[Journey]

I guess the pricing for solar panels is unlikely to come down whilst the energy crisis is still raging

And I can't see an end to that anytime soon.

The exact opposite is true, less than 12 months ago a decent 400w panel was over £200+VAT, a 430w panel can now be had at under £70+VAT, inverters are cheaper than ever and the prices of battery storage per KWh is dropping continuously.

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

I think in reality panels are probably where they should be again in regards pricing
Maybe some more movement on batteries to come
As said installation was the thing most taking the **** until recently

The history of solar panels has been slowly decreasing prices whilst performance has also been slowly increasing, for now that trend seems likely to continue

I had my system since late 22. I have so far had 16% of the original cost back in savings.
I would probably get my current system 15-20% cheaper so in effect I have you could argue lost a year, but then who knows what will come in the future.

IMO solar is one of those things you just need to bite the bullet on when you are ready. Far too many ifs and buts you can use to argue to not do it.
As it stands right now I am on schedule for something around 6-7 year payback. Elec prices look likely to drop some however so that may move out.
For me solar was mainly economic, but also partly wanting to do my own bit.
I am not ready to give up everything like travel yet, but I could at least offset some of my impact by reducing my carbon footprint in some self generation.

 

[Coran]

Help me understand how to use Octopus Agile with my battery and solar panels.

Agree with others - it’s a bit of a pain to setup. However, there are instructions here using Home Assistant: https://github.com/springfall2008/batpred
It covers the Octopus API setup, solar prediction setup etc.

It’s worth it though if you’re fairly technically minded. As standard it’ll charge during cheapest times and use the battery when appropriate. It’ll also automatically opt you into the Octopus saving sessions, charge and export at the right times.

*Edit:* it produces a few graphs and a plan so you can see what it expects to do, based on the half hourly rates.

Spoiler: Battery plan

 

[Axeboy]

I just got an email from Puredrive and Axle Energy. Im not on Octopus Intelligent so this seems like a decent alternative, paying up to £2ish per Kwh fired back into the grid during savings sessions

Will try it and see how it goes for a few months

 

[katie279]

Hey guys!

Just got an email from Octopus regarding Octopus Intelligent Flux - seems to be same rate export as import as it's USP. Anyone thinking about this? Need to do the maths myself to see how it stacks Vs intelligent go....!

 

[Oh Ed not again.]

Hey guys!

Just got an email from Octopus regarding Octopus Intelligent Flux - seems to be same rate export as import as it's USP. Anyone thinking about this? Need to do the maths myself to see how it stacks Vs intelligent go....!

Tried it, hated it. Had to relinquish full control of battery settings and Octopus don't give you any wiggle room to change anything.

If you change it on the inverter, octopus reset it 30 mins later by remote API call.

Went back to Flux standard.

 

[katie279]

Tried it, hated it. Had to relinquish full control of battery settings and Octopus don't give you any wiggle room to change anything.

If you change it on the inverter, octopus reset it 30 mins later by remote API call.

Went back to Flux standard.

Ah good to know, that's a no-go for me! I like control!

I imagine it's best aimed at folks with very low usage and high export?

 

[Oh Ed not again.]

Ah good to know, that's a no-go for me! I like control!

I imagine it's best aimed at folks with very low usage and high export?

Add in large battery stores. It does a full export from the battery between 4-7pm, which depleted our 9kw battery just as the period ended leaving us to draw from the grid for the evening.

I'd rather take advantage of Flux's early morning rates, survive the peak period on battery and still have some left to run the house until we go to bed.

I guess it would all balance out over time with the higher export returns, but like you I'd prefer the control.

 

[b0rn2sk8]

Intelligent flux is about as close to the virtual power plant concept as you’d get in the U.K.

If you export more than you import and have a decent sized battery it can make sense. It depends on how many EV miles you do and how much you can benefit from that lower import cost overnight.

 

[Oh Ed not again.]

Intelligent flux is about as close to the virtual power plant concept as you’d get in the U.K.

100%. It's a crowd sourced, distributed micro generating grid.

I don't doubt it's innovation, it's a great idea fairly well implemented. Maybe in the next iteration there will be more user settings to entice me back.

 

[200sols]

The Tarrif makes no sense in winter, summer it will be a different story.

 

[Tavis75]

I just got an email from Puredrive and Axle Energy. Im not on Octopus Intelligent so this seems like a decent alternative, paying up to £2ish per Kwh fired back into the grid during savings sessions

Will try it and see how it goes for a few months

Most suppliers offer the same i.e. Octopus through Octoplus, with similar returns, in fact I believe Octopus were generally paying slightly more, though it did vary. The issue with the Axle scheme (at least with their version for GivEnergy battery owners, the Puredrive one may be different) was that they would take control of your battery, nice if you didn't wan't the hassle of doing it manually but maybe didn't always do what you would ideally want i.e. force charging the battery from the grid at peak rates prior to a saving session.

 

[Bomster]

Just bought a house with a decently sized garage with a south facing roof that will support ~12 panels, which I would then like to accompany with a home battery (shame V2L/V2G hasn't materialised sooner).

I like to DIY as much as I can, and whilst I'm relatively confident I could do all that is involved, from a quick research it seems maybe not possible due to the requirement for certificates to allow for export. Has anyone had any experience DIYing a solar/battery system? I'm hoping at the least I could so some of the donkey work i.e. fitting the panels on the roof, positioning and fitting the inverter/battery etc.

Finally, regarding the G99, how can I find out what my DNO will allow me to export? Do you have to specify the exact kit you end up installing?

 

[b0rn2sk8]

MCS is basically a requirement if you wan to be paid for export at the moment.

There was an announcement that Octopus was going to ditch MCS requirements but that hasn’t materialised outside of a small trial as far as I am aware.

Apparently a certain group were not happy about that and kicked off and nothing has happened since. Could it happen in the future, sure, is it happening right now? No.

Even if Octopus formally dropped it as a requirement, you’d effectively be locked into one supplier and this is a 25+ year investment. A lot can change over time, including Octopus not being the best supplier for you.

You can do some of the work yourself but if you need a local MCS installer to get a certificate to enable you to export, you will probably have difficulty finding one to work with you as they’d be giving up the most profitable part of the job (design and installation).

I guess it depends on how desperate they are for the work.

The other issue with lack of MCS will be when it comes to sell the property.

 

[Bomster]

Been on flux for the summer and go since October. Been great and certainly is much better than flux as long as you charge battery 00.30-4.30.
Helped offsetting the bill with the octopus power ups and got about £70 back so cost me about £40 a month on electric.
Generation of my system Vs pvgis has been poor but January looking like it may hit its target, the other months have fallen well short.

I have got a hybrid I charge, but would still be on go if I didn't , the 10kwh battery cost a pretty penny and want to help reduce its ROI.
In the spring will switch to flux and hopefully the excess export will cover my winter import

Lowestoft, Suffolk.
System Installed 31/03/23
5.5kW PV - 14No JA panels, 5kW Huawei inverter, 10kWh Huawei Luna battery.
Mercedes A250e hybrid.
Octopus Go - winter, flux - summer

Hey Ben, I'm very local to you.. just wondered if you were happy with your installer for your setup? and glad you went Huawei?

I was trying to DM but seems you can't do that on this site anymore. I'm on Discord with my username if easier to chat there!