I'd guess the catch is you'll need to turn on Smart Charging to keep IO.
Selling or shedding generation or demand must be worth more tha. 7.5p per unit to Octopus.
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Solar Panels UK - is it worth it?
- Thread starter jdwuk
- Start date
Selling or shedding generation or demand must be worth more tha. 7.5p per unit to Octopus.
Pete UK
Member
Try 5A, set a couple of percent more on the car, check how the batteries/import/export are doing then add a couple more percent if it’s working out ok for you.
WannabeOwner
Well-Known Member
I don't have any panels on my West roof. Its a nice rectangle, no dormers
, I could get 32 panels on therePVWatts says that would generate 8,000 kWh / year. My existing PV covers my needs (let's assume).
@ 15p Export that would be £1,200 p.a. Its not far off being attractive
Does that take into account export limits removing the top production on the best days?
PITA
Model 3 Performance
Hopefully most installers are dimensioning systems to avoid clipping too much. Personally would rather have better efficiency in the low output solar days the UK specialises in
Hopefully most installers are dimensioning systems to avoid clipping too much. Personally would rather have better efficiency in the low output solar days the UK specialises in
I don't have big solar but I can imagine throttling the battery charge rate based on predicted solar to maximise export (under your limit) and spreading that over the day. Rather than charge quickly with no export, then have too much export. All gets complicated
Yeah you can do that. I was commenting more on the efficiency characteristics of overly large inverters.
WannabeOwner
Well-Known Member
No, and it would indeed depend on that but (in my case) I already have 48 panels, 2x PowerWalls, 2 x wall charger, and DNO happy with that ... so if they deny me any export on some new PV I could, presumably, use the new to generate "for home consumption" and export all the other stuff.
ACarneiro
Active Member
So the new Outgoing Octopus rate seems to be live on my account.
They’re indeed buying juice from me at 15p/kWh!
Interestingly enough, when I tried to configure my Tesla Gateway with the new utility prices, it wouldn’t let me input the 15p sell-price for the off-peak slot. Errored with “Sell price should not be higher than buy price”.
Seems like even Tesla can’t quite believe it…
They’re indeed buying juice from me at 15p/kWh!
Interestingly enough, when I tried to configure my Tesla Gateway with the new utility prices, it wouldn’t let me input the 15p sell-price for the off-peak slot. Errored with “Sell price should not be higher than buy price”.
Seems like even Tesla can’t quite believe it…
Pink Duck
Active Member
Sort of agree with them as the losses involved essentially means less useful energy available for others.
ACarneiro
Active Member
it’s probably more important to have energy available when it’s needed rather than the total amount of energy available (if I’m making any sense).
Fat Wolfie
Member
odd - I changed it on the app successfully a couple of days ago, before I actually got the 15p rate (but had received the e mail).
however I have noticed that during the day, all solar is going to running the house and the remainder is being exported, although the battery is sitting at 56% . Previously it only started to export after the battery was full.
Im hoping that the algorithms are predicting that the charge in the battery will be sufficient to run the house from around 18.30 until 23.30, and it will then charge up from the cheap rate overnight. It being more advantageous to me to charge the battery at 7.5p per unit and export everting I’m not using during the day at 15p per unit. Time will tell!
phil4
Member
I've been on self powered since I got the PWs, and it would just suck up solar until full, then export. Changed the utility tariff and then changed to ToU and within a few minutes it was exporting all solar and just powering the house.
Last night, still in that mode, the PW charged itself up to 100%. Today, today is a voyage of discovery. It's at 91% now, it's still exporting all solar and powering the house itself. I have no idea if it'll make it to 23:30, whether it'll start to bleed off some of the solar to get itself there... I have no idea, and it'll be very interesting to watch.
Super interesting that Tesla's algorithm flipped just like that. Makes sense and matches my manual plans once I've switched the export to octopus, but impressive that it's been thought about or coded well enough not to need thinking about.
I'm my case, I think I'll fill the battery to full over night, live on solar as much as possible, then forcibly dump any excess after 9pm. Probably not the behaviour they want, but it's actively profitable for me so quite incentivised to behave like that. As @ringi said above, what they really need is to offer an extra couple of p in the 4-8 slot to persuade me to dump the power then.
phil4
Member
I'd have loved to to do that, but I'm not allowed to export from battery, hence need to export solar like it's going out of fashion.
