Solar Panels UK - is it worth it?

[WannabeOwner]

Me too PowerWalls charged and 100 miles add to the car. I'm going to really struggle to contain this if I have to drive around in a circle for 100 miles every day!

My PowerWalls were down to 35% by midnight E7 start. Might have to get another, that would help me in Winter when Powerwall isn't enough to get through the day until E7 starts again ... and maybe I could shift to a 4 Hour overnight, cheaper, off-peak

Supposedly overcast today. But Powerwalls full already and have had to increase car charge to 32AMPs to to prevent export.

 

[init6]

As someone who's investigating solar, it's interesting to note that too much sun can be as much a problem as too little. Batteries are certainly changing the game.

 

[ACarneiro]

As someone who's investigating solar, it's interesting to note that too much sun can be as much a problem as too little. Batteries are certainly changing the game.

It is not a problem at all. It's just that we're all slightly obsessive about using every little electron we generate.
If you're not bothered it is very much a set-it-and-forget-it kind of affair

 

[WannabeOwner]

it's interesting to note that too much sun can be as much a problem as too little

Well you can always export it ... or curtail. Or waste as much time as I am doing trying to avoid doing that! (Or just choose a Zappi charger and dump it into the car when it is both at home and has some spare capacity.

It is not a problem at all. It's just that we're all slightly obsessive about using every little electron we generate

Agreed but I need to work on only "slightly obsessive"

Batteries are certainly changing the game.

Expensive. I'm happy I paid for mine, but I can afford it and want to be eco as best I can, so a choice that I made. In addition I work from home and appreciate the lack of powercuts (most of them are the one-second variety, but that would reset all the clocks in the house and reboot all the routers, and anything else without a specific UPS (and those, in my experience, have a dreadfully short life ... so I now think that "whole house UPS" is better)

And gawd forbid that we had a one-second powercut whilst the Sky box was recording something really import ... maybe for someone else in the household!

 

[init6]

It is not a problem at all. It's just that we're all slightly obsessive about using every little electron we generate.
If you're not bothered it is very much a set-it-and-forget-it kind of affair

Sorry, I should have elaborated. If you're looking at getting solar then it's a bit more complicated than just saying I can generate XkW over the year. If you can't use all of that electricity then you need to remove that from your calculations.

No wonder @Avendit spreadsheet is so complex

 

[init6]

Expensive. I'm happy I paid for mine, but I can afford it and want to be eco as best I can, so a choice that I made. In addition I work from home and appreciate the lack of powercuts (most of them are the one-second variety, but that would reset all the clocks in the house and reboot all the routers, and anything else without a specific UPS (and those, in my experience, have a dreadfully short life ... so I now think that "whole house UPS" is better)

And gawd forbid that we had a one-second powercut whilst the Sky box was recording something really import ... maybe for someone else in the household!

How often are you folks getting power cuts? I've been in this house for 25 years and I don't think we've had more than 1/2 dozen of them.

 

[WannabeOwner]

How often are you folks getting power cuts?

We have a known problem in the area which is "shortly being upgraded to solve the problem." Been like that for as long as I can remember (rural here)

<fx:Checks Tesla APP)

7 this year
18 last year

All are "a few seconds" except for one that was 20 minutes and 1x5 hours, 1x8 hours. Can't remember the dates, but of the last two one was after a storm (battery was set to Storm Watch so was at 100% when the power went off), and the other was scheduled (trimming tree branches), so I manually increased reserve to 100% in good time beforehand.

 

[Dilly]

I’ve had 26 power cuts since July last year.
mostly a few seconds, some a few minutes and a couple were 2 hours and 5 hours.

 

[browellm]

I’ve had 26 power cuts since July last year.
mostly a few seconds, some a few minutes and a couple were 2 hours and 5 hours.

Do the PW logs differentiate between full-on power cuts and brown outs etc?

 

[Dilly]

Sorry, I should have elaborated. If you're looking at getting solar then it's a bit more complicated than just saying I can generate XkW over the year. If you can't use all of that electricity then you need to remove that from your calculations.

No wonder @Avendit spreadsheet is so complex

I n my case, It’s a question of maximising winter production. The downside is over-producing in summer.
That’s solar for you, but having batteries is a huge step forward.

 

[Dilly]

Do the PW logs differentiate between full-on power cuts and brown outs etc?

The logs just say a few seconds or x number of minutes or hours

 

[PITA]

Yesterday was the best day this year.
Generated over 47kWh but still exported 13kWh
still, can’t grumble, water heated, 2 cars topped up, free day trip and another £6.77 in the FIT kitty
Happy bunny

That's a very nice setup Dilly.

Winning nicely there.

Yesterday we produced 29 kWh and only exported 1.4 kWh to Grid (which was annoying enough)

 

[PITA]

How often are you folks getting power cuts? I've been in this house for 25 years and I don't think we've had more than 1/2 dozen of them.

Mine was two nights ago... right in the middle of my car charging.

Now I'm not saying I caused the blackout... but I bet my Neighbours wonder WTF is going on when all our lights stay on while their Alarms are going off.

I will start to turn off our garden lights, and wall lights so not to attract 'gatherings' with pitchforks

I only knew about it next day when I looked at the Tesla App... as the Tesla Gateway 2 "The Drawbridge" had been activated.

Interesting to see the car chargers jumped straight back on it (although sheepishly) once the Grid restored after 5 minutes... this system is savage

 

[Avendit]

How often are you folks getting power cuts? I've been in this house for 25 years and I don't think we've had more than 1/2 dozen of them.

Ssshhhhhhh! You'll ruin the manmaths!

 

[RedMod3]

Yesterday was the best day this year.
Generated over 47kWh but still exported 13kWh
still, can’t grumble, water heated, 2 cars topped up, free day trip and another £6.77 in the FIT kitty
Happy bunny

Today I've produced 22kWh and currently generating 4.0kW, Tesla is fully charged and soon our Smart car will be fully charged; the PW is at 98%, and soon the free water heater cuts in. Life is very good, and i'll only get £5.00 FIT.

 

[PITA]

Sorry, I should have elaborated. If you're looking at getting solar then it's a bit more complicated than just saying I can generate XkW over the year. If you can't use all of that electricity then you need to remove that from your calculations.

No wonder @Avendit spreadsheet is so complex

Yep I agree.

In Summer, at 100% of production figures... in Winter you'll only get about 10% of that.

It's such a massive difference you're either way under what you need, or way over.

Batteries help balance that out very well... and using cheap Grid power during Winter is icing on the cake.

In Summer, having multiple Ev's outside for excess storage balancing is perfect.

 

[init6]

We have a known problem in the area which is "shortly being upgraded to solve the problem." Been like that for as long as I can remember (rural here)

<fx:Checks Tesla APP)

7 this year
18 last year

All are "a few seconds" except for one that was 20 minutes and 1x5 hours, 1x8 hours. Can't remember the dates, but of the last two one was after a storm (battery was set to Storm Watch so was at 100% when the power went off), and the other was scheduled (trimming tree branches), so I manually increased reserve to 100% in good time beforehand.

I’ve had 26 power cuts since July last year.
mostly a few seconds, some a few minutes and a couple were 2 hours and 5 hours.

Blimey! That's a lot. I can see why the power cut protection is an important feature for some.

 

[init6]

Today I've produced 22kWh and currently generating 4.0kW, Tesla is fully charged and soon our Smart car will be fully charged; the PW is at 98%, and soon the free water heater cuts in. Life is very good, and i'll only get £5.00 FIT.

I'm still getting free public charging so dumping to the car currently - no pun intended - would be of limited value. I'm sure this will eventually change, but it's another factor I need to account for.

Mmm, I wonder if I could put a powerwall in the boot and charge via CCS

 

[PITA]

Blimey! That's a lot. I can see why the power cut protection is an important feature for some.

In my opinion... it'll be an important feature for everybody during this coming Winter...

Blackout threat potential is rising. More demands on the Grid, more Electricity Margin Notice's being sent out...

The Tesla Gateway 2 keeps you operational.

 

[RedMod3]

Yep I agree.

In Summer, at 100% of production figures... in Winter you'll only get about 10% of that.

It's such a massive difference you're either way under what you need, or way over.

Batteries help balance that out very well... and using cheap Grid power during Winter is icing on the cake.

In Summer, having multiple Ev's outside for excess storage balancing is perfect.

Yes, and key to the winter savings is being able to fill a PW or two up with a cheap rate, and using that cheap rate in the off-peak period. In summer the focus is on filling the PW and cars up for free.

Our cheap rate now is 5p, from October I'll be paying 7.5p kW/hr so the savings will still be huge with batteries.

I think it is easier to design your own spreadsheet for your own particular circumstances as there are so many variables on the business case.