Rooster6655
Active Member
£900 labour seems decent, but sounds like they are pulling a fast one on the rest, especially seeing as the other guy said he paid £11.6k for a similar setup.
Definitely look at other quotes
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Solar Panels UK - is it worth it?
- Thread starter jdwuk
- Start date
Definitely look at other quotes
It's unlikely we would get through a day at present heating at night only. I'm aiming to heat it on cheap rate at night once the sun isn't quite so helpful but we're not there yet. We did have a cheaper unit than the Eddi but it died when just out of warranty. A false economy.
RedMod3
Member
Has anyone got two Solar Edge Inverters, and if so, can each be independently be viewed on the iPhone App? Thanks
Managed to get a survey and quote for a system with 16x380W panels, GivEnergy 9.5kw battery, hybrid converter, Zappi (to replace my “dumb” Podpoint) and hot water diverter for around 13k all in. They can get it done in 8 weeks as well apparently which surprised me.
However, I was basing the maths on the assumption that energy prices were going to keep on the up. The 2y price cap announced this week has made me think twice and wondered what anyone else in a similar situation is thinking? I reckon after the 2 years are up the prices are still going to be higher than historic averages but that is a gut feeling based on what is going on globally.
I know that there are other benefits around CO2 emissions reduction and having some grid independence etc.
Edit: oh I’m on 31/7.5p octopus I/O which I’m basing sums on. Probably use 10-12 kWh per day plus car charging.
Thanks
However, I was basing the maths on the assumption that energy prices were going to keep on the up. The 2y price cap announced this week has made me think twice and wondered what anyone else in a similar situation is thinking? I reckon after the 2 years are up the prices are still going to be higher than historic averages but that is a gut feeling based on what is going on globally.
I know that there are other benefits around CO2 emissions reduction and having some grid independence etc.
Edit: oh I’m on 31/7.5p octopus I/O which I’m basing sums on. Probably use 10-12 kWh per day plus car charging.
Thanks
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Even at 16p/unit it works for me, never mind 30 or 45. At the original 1st Oct rates I was down to 2.5 year pay off, still happy with the 4-5 year pay back.
Look at petrol - went up 20p, has come back down 5p after the 'emergency' is over. Will be the same for power I think. If we are lucky we might get back to today's rates between paying off the loans and profit mongering hydrocarbon businesses. Like petrol, the producers will look at the upcoming rates and say 'well, most people managed to pay the increased costs, I think we found a new price floor'.
Do what you can to off set future liabilities now I would say. Incidentally, it looks like you found a decent deal on that equipment!
Also, remember to count your cost offset from using overnight battery power during the day. If you can move a couple of kWh of usage into overnight, and charge the battery, your 10kw of 7.5p power should see you through the day? That's £70 a month of saving there, never mind what the solar brings. The battery also lets you buffer 3 hours of marginal solar into a blast of an oven while still staying off the grid and hopefully even the cheap power.
Solar is ludicrously well placed just now. There is little else you can do in life that pays back so quickly while also protecting the environment, sticking fingers up at utility companies and so on.
Run your projections out the 25 years the solar is supposed to run. In my system it has me up over £80k of avoided costs. That's another Model 3. For free.
Final thought (promise), if you are only using 12kw a day, run the numbers on a 5kw battery as per my post on pup of the topic. With solar support through most the year it might save you much the same but cost less up front?
That was my exact thinking for winter. Load up batteries overnight cheap and use them during the day to offset the peak rate and any solar shortfall. Will need to do some proper sums and guess even the potential 4p or so feed in during the summer adds up over time if you can avoid any draw from the grid. Have a directly south facing 35o pitched roof in the south of England which is pretty ideal.
Will need to do some propose sums using a spreadsheet I reckon.
Appreciate your detailed replies
, has put my mind at ease a bit. We have the cash sat in an account at the moment (supposed to be for fun stuff like holidays) basically losing value with bugger all interest so at least this makes it work harder for me. Plus, with the ongoing savings, might even hit that goal of getting mortgage paid down and retired early.Was also wondering, given the cost of the Zappi and challenges to get it to integrated with the GivEnergy battery to divert excess to car, could skip that and just put the granny charger on a smart plug and control it manually. Work from home most of the time anyway. Unless there is an easy way (without complex workarounds) to set up the Zappi so it doesn’t drain the battery that I haven’t found via Google yet.
Edit: thanks and will look at the 5kw option.
Thanks!
Feedin is generally to be avoidedThat was my exact thinking for winter. Load up batteries overnight cheap and use them during the day to offset the peak rate and any solar shortfall. Will need to do some proper sums and guess even the potential 4p or so feed in during the summer adds up over time if you can avoid any draw from the grid. Have a directly south facing 35o pitched roof in the south of England which is pretty ideal.
Will need to do some propose sums using a spreadsheet I reckon.
Appreciate your detailed replies
Was also wondering, given the cost of the Zappi and challenges to get it to integrated with the GivEnergy battery to divert excess to car, could skip that and just put the granny charger on a smart plug and control it manually. Work from home most of the time anyway. Unless there is an easy way (without complex workarounds) to set up the Zappi so it doesn’t drain the battery that I haven’t found via Google yet.
Edit: thanks and will look at the 5kw option.
Thanks!
. Dump the power I to the battery, car or hot water. I also have the problem of the car charger stealing from the battery, found the best way is just to manually eyeball the excess and use the Tesla app to control the charge rate.In the summer you should be on 100% solar, do the washing etc at mid day and get some charge in the car, run the battery down over night. In winter you swap and do everything over night and run the battery down during the day. We have no gas so using electric for HW and cooking, and even then did June and July on pure solar other than the car. Saved £200 both months. Instant WAF at that point.
RedMod3
Member
I'm on 5p/15.59p Octopus GO, and our third Powerwall should be installed next month. I'll also be supplementing our 5.1kW net solar with an extra 3.0kW net. This will give us free power from April to October and only off-peak power usage during the winter. The savings are huge as we are all electric. and use heat pumps for heating/cooling. I've done the maths.
Go for it; energy prices will never fall to what they were IMO.
Same here, it no longer works. The proposed 15 panels would produce the same annual solar as we use during the daytime at higher rates, even if we managed to use every KWH that would be £1.5K a year, installation cost was £17k so an 11 year payback. Not expecting to live here more than 7 or 8 years and I don't believe it would add sufficient value to the property. I'll wait say 6 months and see if suppliers have calmed down, return calls, and are more competitive on price.
Powerwall availability might head up a little on the back of this?
, linking through to the paywalled A Tesla executive says battery supply has improved so much that the company can buy all the cells it needs for the first time in years
, linking through to the paywalled A Tesla executive says battery supply has improved so much that the company can buy all the cells it needs for the first time in years
PITA
Model 3 Performance
RedMod3
Member
Absolutely right. We will be charging 40kWh of battery at the cheap Octopus GO rate and will use 95% of it during winter instead of the peak rate. With enough battery, you can go off grid for months with the free solar. The key is calculating the solar and battery you need with your own consumption profile. All our profiles will be very different.That was my exact thinking for winter. Load up batteries overnight cheap and use them during the day to offset the peak rate and any solar shortfall. Will need to do some proper sums and guess even the potential 4p or so feed in during the summer adds up over time if you can avoid any draw from the grid. Have a directly south facing 35o pitched roof in the south of England which is pretty ideal.
Will need to do some propose sums using a spreadsheet I reckon.
Appreciate your detailed replies
Was also wondering, given the cost of the Zappi and challenges to get it to integrated with the GivEnergy battery to divert excess to car, could skip that and just put the granny charger on a smart plug and control it manually. Work from home most of the time anyway. Unless there is an easy way (without complex workarounds) to set up the Zappi so it doesn’t drain the battery that I haven’t found via Google yet.
Edit: thanks and will look at the 5kw option.
Thanks!
RedMod3
Member
Be careful with installers I had a company sell me a solution and they didn't have the stock and made out they had just to get my deposit and didn't tell me that there was a shortage on batteries. They were called first 4 solar be aware I ended up getting my deposit back. They then said upon cancellation that they would have installed the panels only then I would have to wait for the batteries and them to be installed once back in stock. I kept asking all the time about battery shortages and they wouldn't answer anything until I cancelled the order. So be aware that most companies cannot get the stock and promise the earth just to fill there order books. Very naughty typical sales strategy I have decided not to bother now with the 2 year cap because the payback would have been around 10 years opposed to 5. I ordered 16 panels 9kwh giv energy battery plus a 5k battery.
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