Solar Panels UK - is it worth it?

[Fat Wolfie]

By way of an update from last Friday’s post, everything is now fully up and running. I’m really happy with todays performance, which was the first full day of Solar/Powerwall and Grid being available.

Despite it being January and a mix of cloud and sun, we produced 6.9kw, 38% of which powered the house, 42% went to refill the battery and 20% went out to the grid. For which of course I got nothing as the paperwork isn’t in place..

anyhow, if anyone is interested in what we had done and how well the installation went, I posted a Vlog on YouTube, channel @WolfiesWheels

 

[Avendit]

By way of an update from last Friday’s post, everything is now fully up and running. I’m really happy with todays performance, which was the first full day of Solar/Powerwall and Grid being available.

Despite it being January and a mix of cloud and sun, we produced 6.9kw, 38% of which powered the house, 42% went to refill the battery and 20% went out to the grid. For which of course I got nothing as the paperwork isn’t in place..

anyhow, if anyone is interested in what we had done and how well the installation went, I posted a Vlog on YouTube, channel @WolfiesWheels

Congrats and welcome to the (next) revolution!

Definitely turned a corner over the last couple of days - we are over 7.5kw production 3 times in the last 7 days now which is enough to make a decent dent in the consumption each day. Roll on the brighter days!

 

[SimonV]

Hi everyone
I’m a recent owner of a 23 MY and looking at getting panels installed. Just had a quote of £13k for under 4kw of system and a 5.8kw battery which seems rather expensive to me. I’m in Bristol for reference. Any views on whether that seems about right?

 

[Fat Wolfie]

Hi everyone
I’m a recent owner of a 23 MY and looking at getting panels installed. Just had a quote of £13k for under 4kw of system and a 5.8kw battery which seems rather expensive to me. I’m in Bristol for reference. Any views on whether that seems about right?

As someone who has recents had a system installed, I found a wide variety of prices and that it was impossible to compare quotes as the three quotes I got all had different equipment. And different things included (some included DNO application costs, one didn’t, the panels were different makes and outputs, two had optimisers and one didn’t, batteries different makes and sizes to name but a few!).

all I really know is I had a price in mind and ended up spending almost double my initial planned for cost!

there’s a great Facebook group with such a long name Ive screen shot it, and lots of good advice there about what equipment is good, which installers are trustworthy, and of course plenty of people to bounce quotes off.

good luck with it all!

 

[PITA]

Hi everyone
I’m a recent owner of a 23 MY and looking at getting panels installed. Just had a quote of £13k for under 4kw of system and a 5.8kw battery which seems rather expensive to me. I’m in Bristol for reference. Any views on whether that seems about right?

I used to have a pricing guide rule of...

£1000 for every 1 kWp of Solar Panels

£600 for every 1 kWh of Battery Storage

So for your quote, about £7,500 for the kit plus installation (£1000)... £8,500 :

But that was back in 2020 before the pricing went mad

 

[Avendit]

Hi everyone
I’m a recent owner of a 23 MY and looking at getting panels installed. Just had a quote of £13k for under 4kw of system and a 5.8kw battery which seems rather expensive to me. I’m in Bristol for reference. Any views on whether that seems about right?

That seems expensive, but if you get a few quotes and all have availability and equivalent guarantees, then that's the price I guess? We were 7kw of panels installed and a 10kw battery for a similar price, but that was also locked in just before it all went mad.

 

[YYY2022]

Hopefully I will have my Powerwall fitted in March. I’ve had confirmation from my installer that’s its arrived with them. I ordered in April last year for those that are interested or comparing lead times on delivery. Looking forward to it to complimenting my solar!

 

[Zilla91]

Generated 4.74 kWh today, not bad going for a winter's day. Can't wait to see how much power I'll be generating in the spring and summer

 

[YYY2022]

Generated 4.74 kWh today, not bad going for a winter's day. Can't wait to see how much power I'll be generating in the spring and summer

A lot better than me. I generated a mere 1.9kwh.

 

[Hessles]

The ROI for PV and batteries was longer (10 years) for me compared to batteries only (6.5 years). With the ROI being significantly larger, the aesthetics and potential to put off house buyers, I went with batteries only.

2 inverters in parallel gives me 7kVA of power output coupled with 14.4kW of batteries covers my household use which I charge up during the IO cheaper period at 10p. The setup is modular and I can add more batteries should my daily usage increase (teenagers).

 

[SimonV]

Fat Wolfie, PITA, Avendit thank you for your advice, appreciated. I’ve got other quotes coming in (hopefully) which will give some other perspectives

 

[kelvin 660]

The ROI for PV and batteries was longer (10 years) for me compared to batteries only (6.5 years). With the ROI being significantly larger, the aesthetics and potential to put off house buyers, I went with batteries only.

2 inverters in parallel gives me 7kVA of power output coupled with 14.4kW of batteries covers my household use which I charge up during the IO cheaper period at 10p. The setup is modular and I can add more batteries should my daily usage increase (teenagers).

View attachment 900577View attachment 900578

So, can I assume you are running your gas heating 24/7?

 

[PITA]

Generated 4.74 kWh today, not bad going for a winter's day. Can't wait to see how much power I'll be generating in the spring and summer

10x that...

 

[WannabeOwner]

Can't wait to see how much power I'll be generating in the spring and summer

Mid summer, Autumn, Mid winter.

My Summer Peak is 15kW and useful generation for 12 hours, in Winter it is 4kW and 6 hours

In Winter the generating-day is short, and frequently overcast etc., and because the sun is lower there is more chance of it not being strong enough at start / end of day to do anything meaningful

I cherry picked some "sun all day" examples here

10x that...

Indeed

December for me 250 kWh, June and July were 2,250 kWh - put 1,000 miles in the cars during the Summer months and pretty much SFA Nov-Jan

 

[Hessles]

So, can I assume you are running your gas heating 24/7?

I believe it shuts off at around 22:30 until around 5:30. I have weather compensation controls, oversized rads and the temperature set to 18. Seems pretty efficient running it that way.

 

[Tonybvi]

Got just over 7kw up here in NE Scotland today out of a 3.8kw array - not too shabby for this part of the world at this time of year.

 

[Zilla91]

I'm sure this has been asked before but how long does it usually take to get an expert mpan?

 

[Garry TheBiz]

I'm sure this has been asked before but how long does it usually take to get an expert mpan?

Took me less than 2 weeks with Octopus. That was a few months ago, so fairly recently.

 

[Hessles]

I'm sure this has been asked before but how long does it usually take to get an expert mpan?

Depends on a few things. Your DNO will ultimately raise the MPAN for Octopus and will need all the commissioning docs for your PV so make sure your installer has returned them to the DNO to ensure there’s no stumbles.

 

[RedMod3]

Generated a measly 7.2kWh today, well below the 17.2 we made 6 days ago. Let's hope Feb will be more generous.