Solar Energy
The best investment of my life. North Facing Solar Panels. August 2024. UK.
Would you consider north facing solar panels in the UK? Big thanks to Dorset Solar Solutions Ltd for an excellent installation.
source
Would you consider north facing solar panels in the UK? Big thanks to Dorset Solar Solutions Ltd for an excellent installation.
source
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Doe it mean that you are on agile tariff for import and on fixed 15p/kwh for export?
I have two years of experience and I believe adding a battery would be an even better investment.
what is peak rate for electricity?
I guess battery economic model depends much on initial investment. If you are keen diy'er then a seplos diy 15KWh kit is less than £1400 and two free hours of assembly. With those costs consuming 100% at £0.07 and selling 100% of generation at £0.15 is making alo lot more sense.
Your data literally shows you how wrong you are about having a battery. How have you missed this?
Standing charges must in my opinion be included as 60p ish a day can not be ignored, come winter it will be even more important as your export may struggle to cover it.
Look at using home assistant (can run on raspberry pi) as it has a load of tool for co2 and generation tracking (will probably integrate with your inverter)
I’m currently getting quotes for solar and whether to include a battery or not is my biggest question mark. I can see the sense during the winter of topping up during the night and using during the day. I was thinking of having it all installed at once but I’m beginning to think we should do the solar first, see how that goes for a good full year, and then calculate if a battery is worth the investment. Decisions, decisions! Thanks for the videos, really helpful. 👍🏼
Posted in early Sep for later readers.
My average rate on IOG for August was 7p because i was 98%+ off peak. TBF starting with an EV that uses half of my consumption helps as thats 100% off peak.
Yesterday with high household use (family round, two ovens on at times) my battery dropped to 6% just minutes before the off peak period kicked in.Thats the closest Ive got to the GE battery 4% bottom limit.
I do have solar (£110 for export) but if i could only have one then id go for batteries as thats a more predictable cost saving. £70 in August and I'll expect that to continue.
Whereas solar is obvously subject to the vagaries of weather. Maybe over time that does even out but every day is a battery day whereas in September Ive already had two no export days. On the upside today is a rainy spells, quite dull with a few bright spells and I'm going to be 10kWh exported. So if that turns out to be common thats still around £50/month.
how much kw's did the DNO allow you to export…thanks
I like your view on return on investment by not having a battery. It interesting as I believe my battery saves me more than my solar. I charge my battery @ 7p per KWh and run off that all day. Then export all my solar at 15p per kWh.
Winter is here, Thursday 5.09 kWh generated, Friday 7.31kWh. Its going to be very interesting how you fair through winter, as this is when a battery would be very useful, although that depends how much your heat pump uses. So far this year, for gas and electric I'm £306 in profit, and that includes standing charges and VAT, as it should, as that's a part of the cost of having a electricity supply. I'm very close to having the additional panels installed – just waiting on the electrician and the weather, just need to get them on the roof, rails and cabling all installed.
Morning, these are the videos I watch when thinking of getting solar on my north facing rear part of my property. I'm waiting to see what you will get into the winter months. Sorry if you have mentioned but what deg is your roof on the rear of your property, I believe mine is quiet low. Thanks
I've gone for a similar setup with solar, heat pump and no batteries. I had an east facing solar system installed in June this year, 20 panels of 430w with a 6kW inverter, and exported 711kwh in August, and imported 136 kwh, so its generating way more than I use at the moment. I went for the same approach as you to export what I don't use in the summer months and build up a credit on my bill for the winter months when there is less solar and the heating is on. I also have the Octopus Agile tariff which for me on average is about the same rate for import and export at 15p per kwh, so am essentially using the grid as a giant battery. Time will tell if it averages out over the year, but I'm impressed with the generation on an east facing roof.
For the heat pump and Agile tariff, I'm using a set back temperature between 4-7pm so that the heating doesn't kick in during the peak period, which definitely helps, and it doesn't noticeably affect the temperature in the house.
Carry on making clear, informative videos. I enjoy seeing other people's data and how it compares with my set up in Cambridgeshire.
Im getting so frustrated watching these solar and battery videos. I've been trying to get Octopus to fix my smart meter for over six months now but they just don't seem to be I any hurry and means we can't get solar or battery, because the are time of day tariff depen. I wish I could go off grid and tell them to just take the useless thing out…
👍👍👍
Could I ask a question about the NW facing array please; MCS regs state there should be 400mm space from edge of panels to edge of roof? Your installation looks a lot less than 400mm?
I ask because I'm in the middle of getting quotes, and one or two the less scrupulous suppliers suggest it doesn't matter. If it's installed out with accreditation society regs, it opens up all sorts of insurance & warranty issues.
Thanks for the video.
Surprised you think standing charges aren't applicable
As a low ultra low user of electricity they make up 80% of my daily costs
Personally i think Standing charges should be scrapped and a fair use rate on the kWh either in consumption or generation should be applied 🤔
Thanks again, love the NW results! Did you ever consider bifacial for the NW array?
If it does not make you money a home battery does not make sense.
In the Netherlands the energy suppliers are not giving a cent for our surplus anymore as dynamic tariffs often go negative when the sun shines.
My panels produced 794 kWh in August 2024. I really want the battery I ordered, even if it is just to make the energy import as close to 0 kWh as possible.
Nice results. Have you started charging your EV from solar?
I've had solar for quite a few yrs now but because i have only just gone on a night tariff as i had the gas removed since Tuesday all my sun is going straight to the grid and not the powerwall . they added a wire last week with a CT clamp the day before to stop me makeing more than 6kw peek , they dont seem to be in a hurry to come out to see whats wrong .