I am seriously thinking of investing in some solar panels as I have quite a large roof and seeing some of the generation graphs posted online it seems that they really do generate a fair amount more of electricity than I expected them to do in a country like ours. Does anyone have any experience of them or a particular installer they would recommend. Also wondering how much electricity anyone with them generates.
I'm hoping to get some soon. The most important thing to remember is that the feed-in tariffs (what they pay you for feeding power into the grid) are absolutely dire these days. Make sure your system includes a decent capacity battery so that you store the power for use during the hours of darkness rather than feeding the grid, thus reducing the power you draw from the grid. Another thing to consider is a small wind turbine so that you generate power even when it's peeing down and overnight if there's a breeze. They are surprisingly cheap compared to solar. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Vertical-M...9046421&hvtargid=pla-1656432512387&th=1&psc=1
Yeah we use them a lot at work and have swapped from paying into the grid which only gets 5p pkwh and are storage in batteries. Stupid short termism and we wonder why our own energy costs are so high. Just makes sure you do a cost benefit analysis based on cost and payback time.
Not true have a look at Octopus Energy in particular their flux, a no brainer if you have panels and a battery. The price I get for the energy generated by my panels means it’s more economic for me to buy electricity at their cheap 2 am to 5 am rate to fill my battery, charge my car and then feed all my solar in to the grid. I buy at 19 p then sell at 22 p up to 4 pm then 39 p from 4 to 7 in the evening (I’m still generating after 4 pm this time of the year). It is true that many companies offer peanuts but not all. Also note that flux from octopus has no contract term you can leave when it suits. However, you will need a smart meter. The return on panels is fantastic, cannot think of any investment that comes close to matching the returns.
I’m not in Barnsley so cannot help with installer. Electricity generated of course depends on the number of panels. I’m currently venerating c. 30kwh on a sunny April day, that’s with 16 385W panels on a south facing roof in rainy Cumbria. I can pass you my pre installation quote if that would help , let me know.
Octopus is the only supplier that pays anything like a decent amount for feed-in (3 times all the others). 22p is very good, the last time I looked into it, Octopus was 15p, all the rest 5p. When did it go up?
You need to look at the orientation and size of your roof. Ideally it needs more or less to be south facing with a minimum surface area of 30m2. You should also consider an air heat source pump and if your budget stretches to it a ground heat source pump.
The company that did mine in 2020 was a company called First4Solar. They were pretty good with me. I have had no dealings with them recently but because I am on their mailing list, I have had a few emails recently about how they are improving their resourcing and internal procedures to alleviate customer issues - I get the impression that they became overwhelmed by the volume of work and customer satisfaction in terms of response times suffered but they are rectifying it. May be worth looking at them? I really need to sort out my export tariff because its pathetic at the moment. I didn't get batteries at the time because I couldn't make the payback work, but in hindsight, it was probably a mistake, but back in 2020, no-one saw the increase in energy prices coming down the track. Lots of home batteries were around 4kwh, and to me, that seems a waste of time when the house uses around 13kwh - 20kwh a day depending on various factors. But I was at the Fully Charged Live show yesterday and was talking to the guys on the GivEnergy stand - they have now got a 13kwh battery with a 6kw peak load capability for £6400. That's starting to look interesting - need to look into it. For anyone who hasn't got the ability to put solar up, worth also looking into Ripple Energy. They crowd source the funds to build wind farms and you then own a small share of it when it comes onstream and get the rewards in the form of credits on your energy bill. You have to be with one of a list of suppliers who they interface with, but possibly a good long term alternative to solar.
While I remember … Biggest learning point for me is how important getting the right location for your ‘kit’ is. Especially if you go for a battery option up front, or indeed if you want to leave the battery as a longer term option (former better if you can because the initial install is vat free). With a battery you will want to charge the battery on low price grid electricity especially in winter. I put my kit in the attic space which I boarded and further insulated. The insulation is good so the battery drops to whatever temperature at night, critically below 10 degrees. That’s good news for home insulation but not so good for the charging of the battery. The battery limits the current it will accept below c. 10 degrees, the specs are not precise. Result being I don’t get a full or even half full battery on cold nights. Well not in my cheap 2 - 5 period. That’s a bit of a blow. Come colder weather I’m going to have to move to an alternative Octopus offering that lets me charge the battery cheaply longer. When I do that my outgoing rates will not be so good. Ideal world, accessible location but house warm, and well ventilated. I did have a walk in wardrobe I could have used. Live and learn.
Worth mentioning that, for anyone interested in the whole renewable energy / electric cars world, you might fancy a day out at the Fully Charged Live North show in Harrogate over the weekend of 19-21 May. I have just been to the South event in Farnborough yesterday as at the time of booking, I thought we were going to be away for the North event - transpires that it is now the weekend of the home leg of the play offs so I need to re-arrange and could have done Harrogate but never mind. It is the first time they have held the event in the North but I have been to the Farnborough one 3 times and it is always a great day out but then, I am into all things EV. There are loads of car companies with stands outside where you can nosy around them - many of them do test drives, which you have to there early for to book at each stand. I took a Hyundai Ioniq 6, Mustang Mach E and Kia EV6 out for a drive. There are also loads of stands there with companies showing off their wares. Many of them are related to EVs of course (charger companies, those that do solutions for people with no driveway) but there are several there showing off other renewable energy wares (heat pumps, batteries, Ripple mentioned above). They also do several interesting discussions in the 'Theatre'. Take a picnic - the food from the large variety of food vans is extortionate. Fully Charged LIVE UK North 2023 - Fully Charged Show
What type of battery Ken? You certainly need good ventilation for lead-acid but not for Lithium Ion (as far as I know). Some friends of mine had solar panels about 15 years ago and recently replaced the lead-acid batteries with Lithium Ion saving a huge amount of space in their garage...
Capital cost is high but then again Gas (GPL tank as we are in the 'sticks') is extortionate and so is Electricity. We were able to get a 50% Govt grant on the PV and 70% on the hybrid boiler just before Meloni stopped transfer of tax rebate to banks companies allowing the 50% discount to be up front rather than claimed back over 5-10 years due to the scheme being subject of alleged fraud on an industrial scale (it is Italy after all) We opted to go with EoN for a 7Kw solar panels system with 10Kw battery system with a hybrid boiler(air heat pump/gas) HW/CH (Underfloor). The total cost to us is around 22k euros after the discount. They buy back surplus output and our historic usage shows we use around 4kw so plenty spare . The surveyor suggested we would have zero electric bils (although I assume since we still have to be connected to the grid we will still have to pay a standing charge?) Overall though, ignoring inflation and disregarding any buy back (which the Govt consider as 'income' so it is taxed as such) we should break even after only 5 or 6 years. The drawnback is that the waiting list is so long we signed up last August ad are still waiting to have it installed after which we may then have another 60 days for the grid to connect. Given this is Italy and whilst summer days are shorter than UK, winter nights are slightly shorter and light levels are generally higher so there should be fewer occasions when the batteries are discharged and the hybrid boiler switches to gas. Some neighbours have a similar system and their bills are zero so here's hoping! Currently our energy bills are around 2k for gas, 2k for electric and about 400 for the 2 wood burners (albeit some of that is used for the outdoor pizza oven).
Lithium batteries get hot and while they’ll work at high and low temperatures (-20 to 50 often quoted) they are more efficient in a narrower temperature band, ideal world good ventilation house temperatures. As I say below 10 degrees the current in or out of my lithium battery is restricted and it will be the same at higher temperatures.
