HOME SOLAR

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69473

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With electricity prices rising, and a electric car arriving soon I'm starting to consider home solar.
On paper it looks favourable, we have a larger roof which is SE facing.
Just wondering if any Funsters have taken the plunge.
Realistically can a system have a 10 yr pay back time?
 
I would say so. We got our panels back in 2014 and they have already paid for themselves but of course we get reasonable FIT payments for 20 years so until 2034. Not sure whether FIT payments are still available for new installations but if they are then it's a no brainer with prices rising. Plus panels are probably cheaper now than they were 7 years ago.
 
Vanderek said:
Hampshire County Council have a scheme for interested parties, our quote would break even after 20 years !!!!
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That sounds like a scheme whereby you are paying interest on a loan to pay for the panels. That wouldn't be the case if the panels were paid for upfront as ours were.
 
Bought ours outright 11 years ago, only 1.2 as the position of the roof is small where it faces the right direction. We get 49 p a unit but that is no longer the case for new installations. Paid for it’s self I just over five years.

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We have 2kw solar panels facing sse.
On average our annual generation is 1600 kw.
Bear in mind you may not use all you generate, and when charging a car it may consume more than you generate.
Be carefull of anytall trees that may shade your proposed panels.
 
Realistically yes. But it depends on you consumption time of the day. If you use all your production rather than export it to the grid, you will bring the ROI forward. If you export it, you get peat nuts. Electricity will only go up in price. The calculations of today will not be the same in 2-4 years later. With a EV, I would have a battery storage, and use all I can harvest.
 
THREAD HIJACK

Sorry to hijack your thread but I'm interested in this, too. I live in France and would like to have solar power. How easy is it to buy ground fixed panels outright and have them connected to the house, please? I know absolutely nothing about electrics, so a simple reply would be great :)

Things to consider; I can't have roof panels but I have lots of open land around the house where I can site them :)
 
We have just had solar installed via a group buy scheme arranged by our county council called Solar Together.

20 panels to form a 6.8Kw system, with a 7.2 Kw LifePo4 battery pack all installed and setup for a little over £8800 and its owned outright by us.


Don't forget that your length of time to recoup your initial outlay shortens as the price of electricity goes up and up. (y)
 
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It's impossible to say without knowing the cost of the installation and your average electrical consumption. FITS for new installations has gone so the only savings are against the reduction of energy consumption from the supplier. There will be times when you will be producing more electricity than you would be using so I would suggest you consider having a battery bank and an invertor fitted at the same time as well as an automatic changeover switch. This will provide additional 'free power' when your not generating it.

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Weve just taken the plunge also. 6.4 kw of solar panels, plus an 8.2kw battery.
Payback was forecast at 9.5 yrs, but with the way prices are going, who knows.
With the battery weve hardly used anything off the grid in the last 5 days.
 
We had pc on previous house and this one. Different FIT rates. Definitely worth while. Money in savings not earning much at present. Outlay reduces ongoing costs, so being on pensions this is useful.
We have an EV car and use Octopus Go which means we charge at 5p a kWh. 16 p rest of time.
we do have a smart meter, just so we could get better tarrifs. It is fun to see that you are apparently using no electricity, but you know that besides background consumption other items are also on. The PV is doing its job!
we would like a battery, just haven’t got there yet.
 
You need a battery to shift the time of use. Like Two on Tour, not to small or two big. Perfect size for a daily average consumption is enough. If you can’t shift time of use, and have a poor feed in, it will take forever years to brake even.
 
I've only a modest 200w system on my garage roof feeding into an array of 400 ah AGM batteries it's a 24volt system with a 1500w sinewave inverter. It charges over the daylight hours and I run my domestic lighting circuit off it. It cost me £600 to install in 2012 and the AGM batteries are still the originals, I rekon it broke even this year. The real joy of this installation is that I can survive off grid, as the inverter can be switched to running the gas fire CH and the Fridge Freezer, So if I have a power cut I have about 2 hours from the batteries but I can top them up from either via a vehicle or the Honda genny.
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Things they don't tell you until it's too late: If you have a solar array and a 'grid-tied' inverter, the chances are if the grid power goes off, you can't use the power from the solar panels, that goes off as well, even if the sun is shining.

If you have an inverter that's capable of 'island mode', you can use the solar power even if the grid is down. The best solution is to get a 'hybrid' inverter that can connect to solar panels and storage batteries, so it can provide power from both solar and batteries when the grid goes down. You need to know this because if in the future you want a system that will function without the grid, you'll end up scrapping the grid tied inverter and buying a hybrid inverter.

How do I know? I've had a 4kW solar array with grid-tied inverter for a few years, and am looking at battery storage and power when the grid fails.
 
Two on Tour said:
We have just had solar installed via a group buy scheme arranged by our county council called Solar Together.

20 panels to form a 6.8Kw system, with a 7.2 Kw LifePo4 battery pack all installed and setup for a little over £8800 and its owned outright by us.


Don't forget that your length of time to recoup your initial outlay shortens as the price of electricity goes up and up. (y)
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I was thinking of owning outright and battery storage along with heat source for heating
 
Yes, hybrid inverter is what you need for complete independence, if required and is what weve had installed.
 
DC4JC said:
Weve just taken the plunge also. 6.4 kw of solar panels, plus an 8.2kw battery.
Payback was forecast at 9.5 yrs, but with the way prices are going, who knows.
With the battery weve hardly used anything off the grid in the last 5 days.
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You’ve got to be looking at around 500 to 600 gbp a year for electric.

I hate paying a standing charge for the meter.
Wtf is that all about 🤷‍♂️
 
autorouter said:
In the UK any installation bigger than 4kW needs planning permission, so most house arrays are just less than 4kW to avoid that process.
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We did not require planning permission for our 6.8kW array as they were classed as "permitted development", and only had to get approval from our Distribution Network Operator to confirm the maximum amount it is safe for us to export to the grid.
 
Indeed is permitted development. The only place you have restrictions, is in conservation areas. Most don’t want the panels to be seen. I have fitted on conservation areas on the flat roof of the dormer, on crown roofs, and simply hide them so they not visible from the footpath or street. It’s down to the council guy, but workable. The 4kwp is to do with DNO, distribution network operator. When you put the application in, if it exceeds 4kw it results in more than 16A feed in. They need to know their grid can take it. I have fitted 8 and 9kwp residential with DNO approving it. The 4kw was a limit where almost anywhere will be no issue with unbalancing the grid. Some places can not take more, but some can take even 20kwp.
 
EuroTrotters said:
8.2kw battery ?
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8.2kWh, I presume. A 100Ah leisure battery is 100 x 12 = 1200 = 1.2kWh. Average house consumption is about 5 to 10 kWh, so 8.2kWh is enough for some households, remembering there's still some solar when the sun is shining too. I know people who manage well with 5kWh of battery.
 
Raul said:
The only place you have restrictions, is in conservation areas.
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Providing there is no Article 4 in a Conservation Area any PD rights should stand.

HTH any one thinking of doing similar in a Conservation area.

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Raul said:
You need a battery to shift the time of use. Like Two on Tour, not to small or two big. Perfect size for a daily average consumption is enough. If you can’t shift time of use, and have a poor feed in, it will take forever years to brake even.
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Is it advisable to be able to feed back or just have batteries for own use.
 
Had 4kw put on my roof in 2015 with ”solar together” buying scheme, cost £4300, just about had money back through feed in tariff, current electric bill £35/ month. Currently with solar together auction to add battery storage to system, don’t know how much of the £35/ month can be saved, or payback yet.
 
Silver-Fox said:
Is it advisable to be able to feed back or just have batteries for own use.
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Sometimes the electricity company will pay you for any electricity that you feed back into the grid. However sometimes they don't. If the batteries are full and the solar power is more than the load, any excess can feed into the grid, If it's all properly installed I don't think a UK energy company will stop you feeding back into the grid. But some countries don't allow any feed-in.

The big advantage of batteries is shifting the time of use. If you work 8 hours, with a 1 hour commute, you won't get much opportunity to use solar power during daytime. But you can run off the batteries and inverter when it's dark.
 
My thoughts are I can install and possibly buy the materials a lot cheaper than getting a company in.

Just get someone in to do the clever stuff of connection work.
 
Silver-Fox said:
My thoughts are I can install and possibly buy the materials a lot cheaper than getting a company in.

Just get someone in to do the clever stuff of connection work.
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Not quite, the micro generation scheme MCS approved contractor needs to put the system in use. You can diy hardware, but, last time I worked with materials, had to be new backed by manufacturer warranty.
And certain items are not approved but can be integrated if is part of the system and installed by a approved MCS contractor. We have never accepted third party input, but had 100% full responsibility for labour and hardware backed by the manufacturer.
As for feed in worthiness, it’s down to your electricity supplier what it pays for it. Ofgem publishes the rates and you can see what’s to expect. Last time I looked( long time ago) it was down to 3,6 pence per kWh for a 4kwp system. At that price, storage battery makes economic sense to shift time of use, and use all your production, instead of buying it in, at 17 pence per kWh.

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