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Solar Panels UK - is it worth it?

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Had to drop the optimisers and the 4 panels at different angles they enabled. It was that or wait 3 months for stock, with the scaffolding still up. Can always retro-fit at a later stage if we want, but for the moment the most valuable panels are the ones that are on your roof and generating.

I had concerns about 2 of the 4 odd panels anyway in terms of wiring them, so I'm not too sore about losing them. Have also dropped the inverter to a slightly more reasonable 5kw model. I still think a 3.6 would be fine, but the company's design tool wouldn't let them go below this due to the installed DC size, and that would take the inverter out of warranty support. And -that- isn't work fighting about.
 
I too have a SolarEdge system with panels on 3 roof angles, all panels have optomisors. Hope that helps
I have a SolarEdge system as well with panels on 3 roof angles, all panels have Sunpower optimizers.

I had the Solaredge inverter installed outside at ground level on the North wall (to keep it cool, and keep any electronics out of the roof space and 'noise' away from bedrooms).
 
I have good news. My second PW will be installed two weeks on Monday, and with 5.1kW net solar, this should result in us only using the 5p GO rate between mid-Spring and mid-Autumn. When PW3 goes in, in October, I should only be using limited peak power in the coldest parts of winter. I've only charged PW1 up to 62% so far as the air-con is using so much power. Beginning to wish I'd had an extra 1kW of solar installed, as you can never have too much.

At least I'm sitting inside at 22C, when it is like a furnace outside. 😄
 
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Beginning to wish I'd had an extra 1kW of solar installed, as you can never have too much.

I've exported a fair bit this week :) ... and that's despite managing to drive far enough to put 75 kWh into the cars, as well as filling the PWs each day. Had the immersion on (we have solar thermal for hot water, so I doubt that had to work very hard!) and wheeled out the AirCon and ran that flat out whilst the sun was up ... but the house is well insulated, so that's barely needed - and it only seems to need about 1kW anyway

I think I might take up aluminium smelting ... :)
 
Well I've finally had a quote through for solar PV & battery (from EOn) - what do the hive mind think?

11x 390W panels in an East-West configuration (7 on east, 4 on west - south doesn't have a viable roof space) giving 2.73kWp & 1.56kWp respectively, for a total 4.29kWp. These panels are all they quote for, apparently.
Estimated annual output 3082 kWh
Givenergy hybrid inverter & 9.5kWh battery (sustained charge/discharge is approx 3kWh apparently)
Installation inc. scaffolding
Price: £13.2k

There is scope to add an 8th panel on the east, but the scaffolding & install would be more as it would have to bridge our conservatory, and the EOn consultant felt it wouldn't necessarily add enough to make up for the difference in cost. I'm of the opinion that more generation is always better, so am going to ask for the additional costing on that just to see.

For reference, our annual 'leccy use for April '21 - April '22 was 9675kWh due to working from home, M3 charging, and lots of laundry & cooking due to young kids!
 
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Well I've finally had a quote through for solar PV & battery (from EOn) - what do the hive mind think?

11x 390W panels in an East-West configuration (7 on east, 4 on west - south doesn't have a viable roof space) giving 2.73kWp & 1.56kWp respectively, for a total 4.29kWp. These panels are all they quote for, apparently.
Estimated annual output 3082 kWh
Givenergy hybrid inverter & 9.5kWh battery (sustained charge/discharge is approx 3kWh apparently)
Installation inc. scaffolding
Price: £13.2k

There is scope to add an 8th panel on the east, but the scaffolding & install would be more as it would have to bridge our conservatory, and the EOn consultant felt it wouldn't necessarily add enough to make up for the difference in cost. I'm of the opinion that more generation is always better, so am going to ask for the additional costing on that just to see.

For reference, our annual 'leccy use for April '21 - April '22 was 9675kWh due to working from home, M3 charging, and lots of laundry & cooking due to young kids!
Hi there, from what I and others have been quoted and placed orders on it would seem quite expensive.
However, I placed an order at the end of March possibly just as interested was starting to increase above the norm.
I think it's been mentioned before on here, rule of thumb was 1k per kW of solar, then 1k plus £500 per kW of battery - in your case let's say £5k for solar and £5750 for battery, giving a total of £10,750.
That would mean a increase of around 25% but this could be a reflection of demand and increase in solar and battery prices at the moment.
 
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That sounds like.a rip-off. I've got a similar quotes for £8400 from other installers, albeit for 4.5kW of panels and 5.2kWh batteries. I've gone for Pylontech batteries, partly because you can very easily increase capacity, but mostly because they're the only ones in stock.

Scaffolding costs are included in the quotes, but if not budget on an extra £800 per face. My installation is also east-west, but with a slight southerly component.
 
I've increased the spec of my order recently to include more panels etc and I'm now up to £16.2k. For comparison purposes, for this I'm getting 25 panels on an east/west split, 5kw inverter, 2 x 9.5kwh batteries, Zappi, Eddi, Harvi, Hub and also a "full house" EPS so we can operate fully off-grid in a power cut.

I also ordered a few months ago just before the real mad rush arrived. That said, I'm still having to wait until late Sept for the install.

I was also quoted by EOn and they were about 15% over compared to the installer I've selected. That price quoted above looks very steep.
 
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I've increased the spec of my order recently to include more panels etc and I'm now up to £16.2k. For comparison purposes, for this I'm getting 25 panels on an east/west split, 5kw inverter, 2 x 9.5kwh batteries, Zappi, Eddi, Harvi, Hub and also a "full house" EPS so we can operate fully off-grid in a power cut.

I also ordered a few months ago just before the real mad rush arrived. That said, I'm still having to wait until late Sept for the install.

I was also quoted by EOn and they were about 15% over compared to the installer I've selected. That price quoted above looks very steep.
Who did you go with? (PM me if you don't want to name them openly). EOn is the only company I've contacted which has even responded so far.
The EOn price likely includes "hidden" interest as they offer 0% financing over 3 years on the package, and an element of cost projection as they are indicating installation in early 2023.....
 
Who did you go with? (PM me if you don't want to name them openly). EOn is the only company I've contacted which has even responded so far.
The EOn price likely includes "hidden" interest as they offer 0% financing over 3 years on the package, and an element of cost projection as they are indicating installation in early 2023.....
That's chunky price from EOn. I have almost the exact same sized array and battery from them (but only a single array) and I paid £9k in March '21.
 
Does anyone on the Tesla energy plan know if/how strictly they enforce the 9 kWp solar array per powerwall requirement? I’m due to get a 9.6 kWp array and 1 powerwall installed, but I want to be on TEP so if it’s a hard requirement I will need to scale back the solar to <= 9 kWp. I’ve emailed octopus to check but currently awaiting a reply.
Did you get a reply to this by any chance? I am in a similar position but about 30% of my panels are not optimally orientated (some are vertically mounted on a wall) so the system will never hit the headline kWp output.
 
Did you get a reply to this by any chance? I am in a similar position but about 30% of my panels are not optimally orientated (some are vertically mounted on a wall) so the system will never hit the headline kWp output.
Yes, I did:

The 9kW limit is strictly enforced, however it's determined by the declared net capacity (DNC) of the installation as opposed to the total installed capacity.
The DNC is restricted by, most commonly, an inverter so despite the total capacity planned being 9.6kW, it might pay to check what the DNC will be before making any changes.


Our inverter is 8 kW so we are fine as-is. Solar has been installed 3 weeks now, and Powerwall is expected in September.
 
Yes, I did:

The 9kW limit is strictly enforced, however it's determined by the declared net capacity (DNC) of the installation as opposed to the total installed capacity.
The DNC is restricted by, most commonly, an inverter so despite the total capacity planned being 9.6kW, it might pay to check what the DNC will be before making any changes.


Our inverter is 8 kW so we are fine as-is. Solar has been installed 3 weeks now, and Powerwall is expected in September.
I reduced my installation to 8.96kW befpore moving to TEP.
 
Had to drop the optimisers and the 4 panels at different angles they enabled. It was that or wait 3 months for stock, with the scaffolding still up. Can always retro-fit at a later stage if we want, but for the moment the most valuable panels are the ones that are on your roof and generating.

I had concerns about 2 of the 4 odd panels anyway in terms of wiring them, so I'm not too sore about losing them. Have also dropped the inverter to a slightly more reasonable 5kw model. I still think a 3.6 would be fine, but the company's design tool wouldn't let them go below this due to the installed DC size, and that would take the inverter out of warranty support. And -that- isn't work fighting about.
Well, that was an... intersting... experience, but it's all in and generating.

A 2 day install turned into 3, 22 panels into 18 and finally 19 installed, and the greatest crime against crimping Cat5 ever was committed. We also still have an 8kw inverter instead of a 5, but the 5 is coming on Monday.

Not sure why it took soo long tbh. There was one cable routing problem where we couldn't find the inwall trunking through our insulation, but otherwise it was pretty straightforward I thought.

Annoyingly we aren't even home this weekend to properly monitor, but remote monitoring shows it all works:
Screenshot_2022-06-25-20-11-04-95_d5befa1dae8ff8d13ac4e40aeb5e6a98.jpg
Since it all powered up we have paid for a charge of the car (due to the commissioning delay there wasn't time to solar charge for the trip this weekend), and that's it! Pretty happy.

Do have to work out how to get the Andersen A2 to not suck power out of the battery when it's doing solar charging tho - any ideas? It's got a CT clamp only on the main feed, so when it demands power, the battery starts supplying and the charger just thinks the sun came out on some imaginary massive solar array. I'd rather not waste charge cycles on charging the car so need to figure how to stop this.

Oh, and that cat5 crimp, shudder:
IMG_20220623_212016.jpg
From a qualified sparky too 🙄
 
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