Solar panels

[Railwaygun]

Our roof was 95 yrs old, and the tiles were sound, as long as none breathed on them!

We had the roof done first ( 2018) , then 17 panels. + 2.5 kw battery..we used the same scaffolding for both jobs.

This summer, Solar century had to come and redo the work done by a particular fitting gang all over Ealing - they had to fork out for scaffolding to sort out the roof panels wiring!

We had pigeon guards fitted at the saMe time. - worth doing on initial fitting - they breed and c**p all over the wiring otherwise.

We make £350pa from the FIt payments - better return than the avg. savings accounts!

[Papyrus]

I've had a back-of-the-envelope estimate from the company - installation cost just shy of £6000 for 10 panels, should produce about 70% of our electricity needs. All subject to a man coming and crawling around in our loft, of course, but it's beginning to look worthwhile.

Cheers,

Chris

[TrevL]

I've had a back-of-the-envelope estimate from the company - installation cost just shy of £6000 for 10 panels, should produce about 70% of our electricity needs. All subject to a man coming and crawling around in our loft, of course, but it's beginning to look worthwhile.

Cheers,

Chris

I have to say that 70% sounds like optomistic sales speak.  I have 10 x 285w panels and  I've just checked my consumption against production for full years 2018, 2019 & 2020 and it works out at almost exactly 53% (within £1).

[GrahamB]

I've had a back-of-the-envelope estimate from the company - installation cost just shy of £6000 for 10 panels, should produce about 70% of our electricity needs. All subject to a man coming and crawling around in our loft, of course, but it's beginning to look worthwhile.

Cheers,

Chris

I'd agree that sounds optimistic. Mine make sense because of the payments but the panels don't do much during the winter when my energy consumption is highest. 

[woodbury22uk]

70% may be optimistic unless you are home during the day and able to use what you generate. We have regularly used 75% from our 2.2 Kw.hr system during the summer, and 100% in the winter when we tend to holiday. But it takes planning to use high consumption appliances, sometimes, individually when generation is at its highest. There is a gradient of generation over the day from low at sunrise to highest in the middle of the day and then declining to sunset.  £6000 for a 3.5kw.hr system ought to include battery storage to offset the night consumption.

[Papyrus]

Update

Thanks once again for everybody's contributions. They were very helpful in coming to a decision.

In short, we now have 12 panels on our roof - the surveyor said we had enough room for a couple more than I estimated. They were fitted a couple of weeks ago at a cost of about £5500, including the scaffolding. We were very impressed by how efficiently it was all done - the fitters had finished by lunchtime. We decided against a battery - it wouldn't have made economic sense at present. The fitter agreed and he said the prices are bound to fall in the next few years and they are easy to add on. We had a couple of peerless sunny days either side of the solstice when we generated over 30 Kwh, most of which went to waste because the feed-in hasn't been set up yet, but it shows what our maximum will be. We are very impressed by how much we have saved already - we've used virtually no gas and we have not spent more than 50p a day on electricity. All right, it is the height of summer; things will be different in winter, but so far we feel we have made the right decision.

Cheers,

Chris

[GrahamB]

@Papyrus I'm glad you've got solar panels. I got mine at the start of the FIT payments and am very happy but I'm a bit confused by a couple of your comments.

I would go for batteries in a flash but easy to add on? Not really. Unless they have sold you an inverter that already supports batteries, you will need a new inverter. They're not cheap.

"Feed in hasn't been set up yet"? Are you expecting a payment for exported electric? I thought that had stopped and the electric company simply smiled and thanked you for your contribution. Another reason to get batteries and keep all you can.

This is the best time of the year for solar. It really drops off in the winter.

[Papyrus]

@Papyrus
"Feed in hasn't been set up yet"? Are you expecting a payment for exported electric? I thought that had stopped and the electric company simply smiled and thanked you for your contribution. Another reason to get batteries and keep all you can.

You are correct that the government-backed scheme has finished, but what payments you can expect depends on which power company you are with. I think most offer you something, but the big companies are notoriously stingy, only 1 or 2p per Kwh. I'm with Octopus, and they buy your spare for 7.5p per Kwh. Even if I only sell them 10 Kwh, that will more than cover what I am buying from them at present.

Cheers,

Chris

[Nigel Cliffe]

Update

Thanks once again for everybody's contributions. They were very helpful in coming to a decision.

In short, we now have 12 panels on our roof - the surveyor said we had enough room for a couple more than I estimated. They were fitted a couple of weeks ago at a cost of about £5500, including the scaffolding. We were very impressed by how efficiently it was all done - the fitters had finished by lunchtime. We decided against a battery - it wouldn't have made economic sense at present. ......

The other one (which I'm studying very closely) for batteries is "vehicle to grid".  ie. use your electric car as the storage battery.   Whether it works for you depends on (a) having a suitable car, and place to plug it in and (b) how you use it.    Nissan have run trials of this for a few years now, and it looks like no impact on vehicle battery longevity.  A number of electric cars on sale can do V2G, but not all by a long chalk.    The charger hardware for V2G is currently quite expensive (£5K vs under 1K for a normal charge point).


- Nigel

[GrahamB]

@Papyrus
"Feed in hasn't been set up yet"? Are you expecting a payment for exported electric? I thought that had stopped and the electric company simply smiled and thanked you for your contribution. Another reason to get batteries and keep all you can.

You are correct that the government-backed scheme has finished, but what payments you can expect depends on which power company you are with. I think most offer you something, but the big companies are notoriously stingy, only 1 or 2p per Kwh. I'm with Octopus, and they buy your spare for 7.5p per Kwh. Even if I only sell them 10 Kwh, that will more than cover what I am buying from them at present.

Cheers,

Chris

That's useful to know. Thanks for that.

[Railwaygun]

Another option is to use excess power to heat the hot water ie when battery is full or not using power otherwise ( instead of gas / mains electric) - better value  than exporting

An  option is to install install either the Marlec iBoost or Myenergi Eddi;( wireless control)

https://www.marlec.co.uk/product/solar-iboost/

https://myenergi.com/product/eddi/

[Papyrus]

Yes, I forgot to mention that our installation included an immersion heater diverter. That's mainly why we have spent so little on bought gas and electricity since!

Cheers,

Chris

[TrevL]

You've picked a good time to do it, especially as the cost of lecy has risen so suddenly.  The savings will so much more now, which is really what it's all about. 

[GrahamB]

Batteries are going to become more important if this happens (And I've no doubt it will) https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-61949246

[Papyrus]

Yes, I've seen Octopus's scheme on their website. The details can make your brain hurt but in simple terms the price you pay varies on a half-hourly basis, depending on demand in the wider world. As you would expect, it tends to be most expensive in the early evening and cheapest in the middle of the night. They say that, in the very cheapest periods, you can actually be paid to use surplus electricity! It does seem very complicated, and we don't use sufficient in the quieter periods to make it worthwhile, but anybody with night-storage heaters would probably do well.

Cheers,

Chris