-
Want to remove ads? Register an account and login to see fewer ads, and become a Supporting Member to remove almost all ads.
Solar Panels UK - is it worth it?
- Thread starter jdwuk
- Start date
Sorry for the late reply, I've been finalising bird mesh and other last bits and pieces most of today.
The installed inverter is a 5kw gen 1 hybrid - the gen 2 will be going in but it's a few months away. The support brackets add no more than an inch of extra depth. It's recommended to have the batteries installed off the floor in case of flooding and I went with that.
There is no independent device installed to prevent an inverter trip in case of too much load on the EPS but I asked the question and was assured that the inbuilt protection of the inverter is sufficient. That said, I have seen the odd report of the inverters not liking repeated over current trips. We had opted for a manual changeover but were persuaded to go with the auto fail-over. When the gen 2 is in place we'll have 3.6kw to draw on and we don't run too much concurrently that would exceed that. We also have very few power cuts so hopefully we won't have too many issues.
Yes, exhausted! Lots of chasing but worth it in the end. The fitting guys were top notch and so far all is performing nicely - we managed over 5kwh today and the sun was only out for a relatively short time. Battery has done the rest and pretty much zero grid import during the day.
Yes, all earthed. Thanks for your help along the way!
Yes, having held off on PV for some time because I didn't have a South facing roof, I now realise my error! I think we'll be generating quite a lot come summer so now I need to start investigating export tariffs. Although on Octopus Go Faster I don't think it's particularly stunning.
The other half caught me looking at wind turbines the other day and she wasn't amused. I think we'll run with what we've got for now before I get in trouble: )
I would LOVE a domestic wind turbine that didn't suck ass. 1kW would be lovely.
I've also been looking. Looks like a bit of a no go unless you have the land for a standalone unit. Attaching to the roof makes the model 3 suspension look like a series of good NVH decisions apparently. Some domestic options showing up on line, but at the level of PHd or design studio studies rather than commercial avaliability sadly.
Does it also auto fail back to the mains input? Do you know how much that element cost from First4Solar?
I'm currently asking them to just fit a couple of sockets to the EPS when mine is fitted but they are saying this will cos £500.
WannabeOwner
Well-Known Member
I spend a ridiculous amount of my precious time trying to figure out how NOT to export anything, during the Summer ...
... how to have cars on the driveway on sunny days, AND have been somewhere so that the batteries are empty.
"Can you come for a BBQ on XXX?"
"Is the middle of the night OK?"
I have the land, and have thought about it. From all the research I've done "domestic size" seems unlikely to be a good idea. Any obstruction anywehre nearby is bad news (turbulent air) - solvable by going higher, but it won't then be "domestic" in terms of cost or maintenance
Also need a record of windspeed over 12 months to be confident. There are "average windspeed data / charts" but unless you are in a wind funnel valley, or coastal, most of UK is a bit borderline ... so "actual data" is then prudent. Just needs a tower and a recording anemometer (both of which I have, but have not erected as I reckon unlikely to want to ACTUALLY do it ... I have clear line-of-sight across farmland in prevailing wind direction, but a few trees either side of the site on my perimeter, but trees on 100M away the other perimeter side and they would cause turbulence
I think easier to move to a house with an adjacent fast-flowing 24/7/365 watercourse!!
Remember the B&Q ones that were going to provide all the energy your house could need? ...
I've seen quite a cool idea without any moving parts. Can't find a link to it ... but I'll check some more ... I'll have a go at an explanation:
A box with a central gap and the two vertical sides shaped like wings to accelerate the air through the gap, and the venturi sucks air through pipes/holes in the inside surfaces of the side-wings, and the intake for those pipes turns a (horizontally mounted) turbine.
Fixed in position, so only works when the wind is coming from prevailing direction (within 45 degrees I think), so needs a site with high probability of prevailing-wind-direction (mine qualifies for that)
I wish when I recently did whole-house-rewire the (high end
) sparkies had said "Sir needs to have essential-power circuits and non-essential on separeate sub-ssytems". Ho!Hum!
WannabeOwner
Well-Known Member
This has shown up in my feed a fair bit, looks really smart, although the marketing is slightly dodgy. Its not no moving parts, its generating a pressure differential and putting a concealed small turbine in the middle of that. On the bright side it is apparently almost infinitely scalable from 3d-printable up to industrial building sized. At industrial scale its pretty sizable and looks like it need a flat roof.Doh! Found it. Aeromine Technologies ... I rather like the company name
Others I have seen were
- Ridgeblade from Home but looks like a hard retro-fit and a vibration nightmare.
- Wind wall from JOE DOUCET x PARTNERS JDXP, but looks like one of those early designs with no testing or production plans yet. Could be used on the property line in time potentially.
- Have just found Tesup (not playing on a well known power/transport company name at all) TESUP London | Wind Turbines & Solar Panels Manufacturer | TESUP UK, England which I need to investigate more.
WannabeOwner
Well-Known Member
I was assuming, quite possibly ignorantly wrongly!, that a horizontal rotation device is a lot less vibration strain on the building than the vertical one on a wind turbine?
But I suppose having one of these up-a-stick, rather than roof-mounted, would avoid some of the issues of a turbine - noise and turbulence inefficiency ...
A breakthrough would definitely help, but the laws of physics will still apply, sadly.
I suspect these are a good step forward, just pointing out it isn't some magic with no moving parts - still a spinner at its core, but well hidden, smaller, protected and protective.
The demo they did for me showed that it did revert back to mains. It was all a bit 'up-to-the-wire' (cough) late on a Friday afternoon so I've asked for some procedures so I can do my own testing.
I originally paid around £700 for the version 3 configuration - manual changeover, whole house. However they persuaded me to upgrade to auto-failover and indicated it would be an extra £200. However it hasn't appeared on my bill. They owe me around £150 for unused MyEnergi kit so I'll offset that is they ask. I also think that they may be doing it as a bit of a favour as I let them do quite a lot of jiggering about to set it all up - I believe it's a new design and one of the first in the field for them. Hence why I want to do a bit more testing of my own! The two guys who designed and built it were knowledgable (degree and masters) and have worked in the industry for a while.
The EPS is very neat and sits in a separate CU near the rest of the kit. Lots of breakers and some other modules in there - it still needs to be labelled up so I'll post a pic when that's complete.
Have F4S given you a date yet and when did you order? I have some insight into their order backlog and so may be able to give you an idea when to expect it. It also helped that I know another guy on here who effectively referred me and so we had a bit of collective clout. It may be worth mentioning us in relation to this forum as it may give you a bit more traction - that said, they are quite frustrating to deal with! PM me if necessary. Cheers.
Matt Ferrell covered the Aeromine a couple of weeks ago on his Undecided YouTube channel How Can A Wind Turbine Be Motionless?
I've seen that but reckon it wouldn't go down too well with the neighbours. I've also seen something that fits along the ridge line and raises/lowers but it all sounds quite expensive. It does sound ideal for harvesting the wind which howls up our road and batters the house head on. I suspect in ten years time we'll all be sporting kit like this, particularly if Putin is still around and being a twot!Doh! Found it. Aeromine Technologies ... I rather like the company name
I was told up £500+ for EPS with just a couple of sockets. The main cost being the installation an earth rod.
Manual EPS switchover (depending on how the electricians done the wiring) can also give you more options on which circuits/load can 'keep going' when needed.
Example - auto-switchover might be restricted to 30 Amps (single inverter) so you have to pick and choose which load circuit are hooked on to it, whereas manual switchover units could give you the option to 'attach' the EPS circuit to the entire property mains unit rail, at your discretion.
Note: no idea how Tesla Powerwalls are usually wired up with the gateway units, if its witchcraft for whole home kr specific elements
Swings<>roundabouts
Good to have and not need 'EPS' on principle regardless.
Just for those waiting, I ordered my PW in April, installer called today saying it’s due in between Christmas and new year and have booked install for 4th Jan.
Regarding EPS for Tesla, they divert the incoming feed after the meter to the gateway, and then feed it back to the house via. The Zoe is connected to the gateway, which means the gateway can cut power from the grid physically.
Regarding EPS for Tesla, they divert the incoming feed after the meter to the gateway, and then feed it back to the house via. The Zoe is connected to the gateway, which means the gateway can cut power from the grid physically.
You've done better than me then! PW ordered in mid January 22, originally due in September, repeated delays, delivery now Feb 23!
