Solar Energy
North Facing Solar Panels in the UK – a Waste of Money? April 2024 stats and review.
Big thanks to Dorset Solar Solutions Ltd for an excellent installation. Definitely give them a call if you’re in the Hampshire/Dorset …
source
Big thanks to Dorset Solar Solutions Ltd for an excellent installation. Definitely give them a call if you’re in the Hampshire/Dorset …
source
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I did an OpenSolar illustration of the exact same components that DSS have quoted me for, and their quote seems very competitive! Did you find that OpenSolar overestimated the costs?
Also are your spreadsheets available to download?
5kW SSE array in Stratford-upon-Avon.
Per panel in Apr I got 48.6kWh compared to your SE panels getting 50kWh.
My best day also 30th getting 38.8kWh compared to your 42.7kWh.
My total in Apr was 583kWh compared to your 893kWh.
Filling my north roof eventually when next gen panel tech arrives seems logical ☀️
We’ve been 10-30% below solar pv average forecast for our system since installation late Sept 2023. Looking at production it’s simply not getting the sunlight, cloudy & rainy, bit of sunlight & it performs above forecast quite nicely. So hoping it can only improve, although with global climate forecast it might not! However, my headline stats are last April our gas/elec £191, this year elec (gas gone, heat pump & EV charging, increased standing charge!) April £22. So still happy. For us our home battery (just 10kw) has really helped offset Winter peak hr costs, in total all bills against grid used meant 13.5p per grid KW. Essentially offsetting 7.5p overnight to save peak daytime 28p, because we have used substantially more KW with EV & HP. But saved massively on driving & house heat/hot water costs.
I thought that I was doing well making £45 in April! 11 panels on my roof, 5 to the SE and 6 to the SW.
I have: 5.18kWp array, 5kW Inverter, 5kWh battery , based in the midlands
April 2024 I generated 450kWh
April 2023 I generated 511kWh
So 12% lower this year compared to last year
My total for April was 907 kWh, compared to last April which was 966 kWh, that's with 8.74kW of panels pointing various directions. For me the best month is usually May, last year it was 1325 kWh, June was 1305, July 1069 and August 1078.
Interesting video, espacially the figures for when in the day you are starting and stopped generation. In your example of the 21st April, we started getting power at 6:15am and finshed at 19:45 and we have a 16 south, 10 east and 10 west panels with a SolarEdge inverter. It could be location in the country, we have 05:51 as sun srise and 20:18 as sun set, I just wonder if the north face panels are getting "earlier" and maybe later light. April 2024 yield was 982KWh and our best yield was April 2020 with 1342KWh. As you can see there is a massive difference. I know that our east and west help at the beginning and end of the day, but I am now wondering if the north west face is helping with the yield for your installation.
5:34 Actually the south panels produce 50% more electricity, 33% points, which I'd say is a lot
Would love to see the imported Kwh's in the monthly tables
Our first April figures are 885kwh from 15 x SW (6.5kw) + 9 x SE (3.9kw) facing pnels, 10kw solaredge system in West Yorkshire. Best day 30th (67kwh!) Worst 22nd (10kw) Had a few days when the wifi extender was on the blink but its sorted now so May's should be more accurate. I think Givenergy under reports and solaredge over reports so going with the lowers figures. Exported 450kwh, consumed 594kwh. Our installer dropped the ball with export mpan so hope to get that sorted soon as we have enough paperwork and have asked octopus to get it for us. Anyway we hope to hit our first 1Megawatt month in May too. 👍
Fantastic video series, thanks for this. (There's a great video on YT by Martyna in Dallas with real world tests showing no benefit of optimisers vs panel bypass diodes with hard shading i.e. gables, buildings etc.)
Im on Intelligent Go hich i want to stay on because we have 2 EVs, i alo have a FIT deemed solar 50% export, currenly paying 6.8p/kwh i also have a 9.5kwh battery. Question.. is it possibl to forgo the deemed export and have my export paid for by Octopus @ 15p/kwh? Whether its worth it is another Q of course, we export very little in winter but eg last month we exported 74kwh which will increase massively over the summer.
difference in generation may be a couple of things: your SE panels won’t be as efficient as pure south, and the NW will be more efficient than pure north, so it’ll bring the numbers closer. Also in winter with low sun you’ll probably get closer to that 2:1 with the low sun. But also you’ll still get benefits of overcast (and your optimisers may come into their own)
Short and sweet. 15p per kWh seems like a steal for export. At what point in the year do you have enough power to cover heat pump needs? I believe that "Tim & Kat's Green Walk" said that it was March when that happens for them.
It's definitely interesting to use Octopus Agile for import as it's possible to optimise some of the loads during the day. I considered Flexible Outgoing for export but as I can't really control when I export, I decided to go with fixed.
I have recently installed 7 440W panels on a SW roof in London and a Tesla battery. I am using the battery to avoid paying for peak power. Overall, as far as I can tell, it makes less than 10% difference in the financial returns. If you have limited capital, I wouldn't bother with a battery.
EDIT: the issue with batteries is that there is usage cost. Let's say the battery system (including inverter) costs £5000, is 10kWh is size, is charged once a day (365), every day (assuming a full charge) and has a lifetime of 10 years, with no degradation or other system losses. That's £5000 / ( 10 * 365 * 10) = £0.14. So, per kWh, that's 14p.
Given that you can export a kWh at 15p, 15p is your opportunity cost. It's worthwhile discharging if you can do so for at least (14p + 15p) 29p per kWh. For Octopus Agile this is normally only between 4pm and 7pm. So the battery should be sized for the peak load only, in my view.
In the winter, it's possible to charge the battery in the middle of the night for a slightly lower cost. Let's not forget that energy prices are still high by historic standards (even though they are less than they were recently).
So my first full month with the East 8 panel 3360w/ West 10 panel 4200w solar and we made 587Kwh exporting 154Kwh of it and the battery's taking 238Kwh and house taking 194Kwh of it. We had one day when the battery's fell short and had to import 4Kwh till the solar picked up two real dark days in a row knocked the 19KW battery's down. All in all a bad month solar wise the weather was bad for the month hear in Devon predictor for the month was 700Kwh so a short fall of 113Kwh made in the month. But I'm happy with how the Givenergy system is working
Love your solar videos – it’s been an inspiration for me as I move house and starting to plan a system. Thanks!