Solar Panels?

[Bowks]

Sanity check.

I've been quoted just under 10k for;

10 x 375w Eurener Zebra panels
Huawei inverter
One Huawei LUNA battery
The thing to send unused power to my storage tank inverter
Fitting and bits and bobs associated.

Is that reasonable? This would put us on electric for everything bar heating, except where the emersion didn't power the storage tank

[OutInTheShed]

Uncle boshy said:

I’ve got a 5kW system, and using octopus agile outgoing. During august that paid me an average of 36p per kWh.

That tariff doesn’t suit everyone since it restricts what incoming tariff you have, eg can’t have GO and agile outgoing, so can’t use cheap overnight to top up a battery or EV, but works for me as I don’t currently have either.

It’s also variable so not guaranteed, but today as an example they are paying between 25p and 30p in my main generating hours.

My incoming tariff is 30p per kWh plus standing charge

That makes things a bit clearer.

If Tariffs like that continue to offer good deals, the payback sums would have to consider 'having solar and being on the optimum tariff' vs 'not having solar and being on a different optimum tariff'.

There's also the value/cost of risk, people pay a premium to 'fix', to limit the risk of the cap increasing.

This Summer, grid demand has been high during daylight hours, taking a simple view, lots of scope for more solar.
But as we see on here, lots of solar is being installed, planned etc, the industry is booming.
Seems all the local farmers are looking at a few hundred kW each.
How many years until we have 'enough' solar and the likes of Octopus will only pay a smaller price?

I don't think many people would disagree that the UK electricity market is in need of reform, but predicting the shape of it in 3, 5, 10..years is not easy.

[Evanivitch]

Condi said:

Uncle boshy said:

I’ve got a 5kW system, and using octopus agile outgoing.

Very frustratingly they require you to be an Octopus customer as well on the buy side. I'd sign up with them on the Agile outgoing but it's not worth breaking my current supply fix with a different provider.

Surely that would just be a licence to print money?

Octopus have already said that they've lost millions on Agile 'as a tariff'. I'm sure as a data source and proof of their Kraken system it's been valuable.

[Traffic]

Evanivitch said:

Surely that would just be a licence to print money?

Octopus have already said that they've lost millions on Agile 'as a tariff'. I'm sure as a data source and proof of their Kraken system it's been valuable.

Wait?

In the UK can't sell to who you want and buy from who you want?

FFS

[nunpuncher]

Traffic said:

Wait?

In the UK can't sell to who you want and buy from who you want?

FFS

No, that sort of free trade and opportunity is reserved for industry, not plebs like us.

[Condi]

Traffic said:

Wait?

In the UK can't sell to who you want and buy from who you want?

FFS

Only 1 company does an outgoing tariff which is connected to wholesale prices, at least at domestic level, and they're entitled to put whatever conditions they like on the contract.

[AyBee]

Arnold Cunningham said:

Based on my calcs, I was looking at 17 months payback. Now I’ll obviously be looking at a longer payback, but this is still fine. I think it’s a good thing to do.

I think your calcs are wrong or you're a very special case to get a predicted 17 months payback.

[AyBee]

g40steve said:

OutInTheShed said:

To pay back in 5.5 years, that means what? in simple terms? about a grand decrease in electricity bill per year.
A lot of people are not paying a grand in the first place.

Seriously?

I'm currently c.£800 for elec kWh usage. Without Truss stepping in, I'd (2.1 people, 4 bed semi, both wfh but no EV or other large draw) have been at about £1,400 on kWh alone (standing charge exc.), so even if I saved all of that, based on some of the quotes here, I'd be looking at a 7 year payback. I'd quite like solar/battery from a tech perspective but it just doesn't make sense for my current usage, more so now the price cap is lower (and I think prices are currently high because of supply chain issues and demand so I'll likely wait a few more years).

[Sheepshanks]

Truss has "saved" us a bit, but I feel a bit daft that it never occured to us (or our architect) to have solar panels integrated into our south facing lean to extension roof. I've always dismissed solar as the main house roof faces due east / west.

Looks like a breeze to fit the integrated panel mounting system at the roof constructon phase and all the wiring would have been easy while the house was in bits. Finding a location for the inverter and battery would have been a bit challenging though.

[Arnold Cunningham]

I’d just like someone to quote me.

One lot, turned up, measured up. Says we can fit 20 panels. Never quoted. Spoke to him this morning. Sorry….but still no quote.

Another lot don’t return my calls.

And a final lot have quoted me based on a satellite pic of my roof. And when I said we’ve measured, we can fit more than that so please quote me based on that worst case. They then refused to quote.

FFS.

[Arnold Cunningham]

AyBee said:

I think your calcs are wrong or you're a very special case to get a predicted 17 months payback.

A very special case. Well, the extreme but not impossible case.

Max prices (now superseded) combined with our 2020 usage
vs
All electricity comes from solar or off peak charging.

So I was originally looking at up to an 18k combined bill with about 10k of that on lecky. So the massive saving is not just solar, but off peak charging too.

Edited by Arnold Cunningham on Monday 12th September 20:06

[Evanivitch]

Traffic said:

Evanivitch said:

Surely that would just be a licence to print money?

Octopus have already said that they've lost millions on Agile 'as a tariff'. I'm sure as a data source and proof of their Kraken system it's been valuable.

Wait?

In the UK can't sell to who you want and buy from who you want?

FFS

Sellers have to have buyers. So, equally you can't force your generation/export on any business either...

[Arnold Cunningham]

Order placed. 21 x 400W panels, 9.5kwh Giv energy battery & 5 kwh hybrid inverter.
Hopefully should be able to produce about 50% of our electrical power in a year from solar with the other 50% coming from off peak charging.
Fingers crossed.

[Tesco]

I'm seriously looking into solar with battery storage and am currently waiting for a quote to be finalised.
I notice that a few on this chat are talking about "off peak" battery charging and it's something that the sales guy I had round the other day spoke about. In particular the "Octopus" tariffs that offer a 4 hour period overnight at very low kWh rates.

Thring is, looking at the Octopus website you have to have an EV (or have one on order) in order to be able to get these tariffs. I don't have an EV, nor do I intend to buy one any time soon (I'm not against one, its just purely financial reasons).

Are their other suppliers that offer much cheaper off peak rates in that could be used to charge / top up domestic battery storage or is the statement on the Octopus site a bit wrong / misleading?

[markiii]

Pay a refundable deposit against new ev, get tarrif using paperwork, cancel order

[Tesco]

markiii said:

Pay a refundable deposit against new ev, get tarrif using paperwork, cancel order

That is one option, funds allowing!

[SunsetZed]

Sheepshanks said:

Truss has "saved" us a bit, but I feel a bit daft that it never occured to us (or our architect) to have solar panels integrated into our south facing lean to extension roof. I've always dismissed solar as the main house roof faces due east / west.

Looks like a breeze to fit the integrated panel mounting system at the roof constructon phase and all the wiring would have been easy while the house was in bits. Finding a location for the inverter and battery would have been a bit challenging though.

It is indeed, that's why it really annoys me that developers aren't mandated to include as much solar generation as possible on suitable new build properties.

[Road2Ruin]

Tesco said:

I'm seriously looking into solar with battery storage and am currently waiting for a quote to be finalised.
I notice that a few on this chat are talking about "off peak" battery charging and it's something that the sales guy I had round the other day spoke about. In particular the "Octopus" tariffs that offer a 4 hour period overnight at very low kWh rates.

Thring is, looking at the Octopus website you have to have an EV (or have one on order) in order to be able to get these tariffs. I don't have an EV, nor do I intend to buy one any time soon (I'm not against one, its just purely financial reasons).

Are their other suppliers that offer much cheaper off peak rates in that could be used to charge / top up domestic battery storage or is the statement on the Octopus site a bit wrong / misleading?

Octopus energy never checked we had an EV, we do, but they didn't check. Although, in their terms and conditions, they do have the right to put you on a standard tariff if you do not meet their conditions.

[V-spec]

Arnold Cunningham said:

Order placed. 21 x 400W panels, 9.5kwh Giv energy battery & 5 kwh hybrid inverter.
Hopefully should be able to produce about 50% of our electrical power in a year from solar with the other 50% coming from off peak charging.
Fingers crossed.

I’m interested in the off-peak charging.
How does the system know when to charge and when not to because the next day will be sunny?
Is it somehow linked to the weather forecast? Or does it just assume that Solar will be insufficient during certain months of the year, and charge the battery every night during those months only?

[Arnold Cunningham]

V-spec said:

I’m interested in the off-peak charging.
How does the system know when to charge and when not to because the next day will be sunny?
Is it somehow linked to the weather forecast? Or does it just assume that Solar will be insufficient during certain months of the year, and charge the battery every night during those months only?

It may be possible to get very creative, but I think my view would be to start the day with the battery fully charged and then run off as much solar as possible during the day, supplementing it from battery when needed. ie in priority order run off solar, then battery, then grid. But then if you know it's going to be a mega sunny day, maybe you don't want to charge off the grid overnight. That's possible. So if on a flat rate, you only charge the batteries off solar, never off the grid. I'm not sure yet, more research required.

re. off peak charging. Hmm. Between when I first looked some months back and now, the T&Cs have been updated to say Octopus Go is only for EV users. That's not great is it. Still, we're proceeding anyway. And I've emailed Octopus to ask if they have any plans in this area.

Otherwise I'll be buying either an old milk float or an electric Peel P50.

Edited by Arnold Cunningham on Tuesday 13th September 16:15