Solar Panels UK - is it worth it?

[yessuz]

so, an update.

after looking at things, looks like I will go with Otovo.

20 × 415 W Trina, TSM-415 DE09R.05​

Datasheet (PDF)
Total system power of 8.30 kWp.

2 × Inverters​

1 x Growatt, SPH 4000
1 x Growatt, SPH 3000
Growatt Datasheet (PDF)

1 × Battery​

1 × Pylontech US2000C x 4 (9.12 kWh)
Datasheet (PDF)


Priced a bit over 14.000 gbp...

 

[yessuz]

But you will have to convinced people of this including when you sell your home or wish to get a new mortgage etc.

yeah..
I got them saying: "Octopus is in talks with Flexi-orb and will sign up with them within a week or a month"

sounded like FSD in UK

 

[Chimpy McChimp]

so, an update.

after looking at things, looks like I will go with Otovo.

20 × 415 W Trina, TSM-415 DE09R.05​

Datasheet (PDF)
Total system power of 8.30 kWp.

2 × Inverters​

1 x Growatt, SPH 4000
1 x Growatt, SPH 3000
Growatt Datasheet (PDF)

1 × Battery​

1 × Pylontech US2000C x 4 (9.12 kWh)
Datasheet (PDF)


Priced a bit over 14.000 gbp...

Your price is better than for my 5.2kw system. I got three quotes all in same ball park price wise. I wonder if prices are higher in Scotland because there are interest free loans (or even grants dependent on what is being installed at the same time) available.

 

[yessuz]

Some energy providers did accept Flexi orb for export payment but I couldn't tell you if this still is the case - Octopus were one.

Octopus does not accept flexi orb.

I actually find only 5: British Gas, SSE, Scotish Power, Eno and Ovo which accept Flexi Orb.

all others do not (at the moment)

Smart Export Guarantee Tariffs in 2023 | Flexi-Orb

Get paid for your excess energy with the Smart Export Guarantee - see here the latest tariff rates, and which providers accept Flexi-Orb

www.flexi-orb.com

 

[Avendit]

so, an update.

after looking at things, looks like I will go with Otovo.

20 × 415 W Trina, TSM-415 DE09R.05​

Datasheet (PDF)
Total system power of 8.30 kWp.

2 × Inverters​

1 x Growatt, SPH 4000
1 x Growatt, SPH 3000
Growatt Datasheet (PDF)

1 × Battery​

1 × Pylontech US2000C x 4 (9.12 kWh)
Datasheet (PDF)


Priced a bit over 14.000 gbp...

Good price!

 

[Mrklaw]

Just checking out Otovo as the price you quoted seemed good and I’m getting frustrated with Eon. It’s giving an estimate of £8.5k with a 4kw array plus battery but doesn’t say the size of battery. Do you need to get a more specific quote to do that?

Also would likely need to be externally installed so not sure I can go with pylontech

 

[94jdh]

Octopus does not accept flexi orb.

I actually find only 5: British Gas, SSE, Scotish Power, Eno and Ovo which accept Flexi Orb.

all others do not (at the moment)

Smart Export Guarantee Tariffs in 2023 | Flexi-Orb

Get paid for your excess energy with the Smart Export Guarantee - see here the latest tariff rates, and which providers accept Flexi-Orb

www.flexi-orb.com

Octopus did a few years ago:

 

[yessuz]

I still decided to go with Otovo just because MCS as it will be easier in the future

 

[OneTinyFish]

Our DNO has recently announced a price hike ... going to just over 100% for us.

Last week I made another video on how much we expect our 13.51kWp of solar and 27.5kWh of Powerwalls will handle the impact of the massive price rises to our energy tariff.

On the Isle of Man we can't shop around, so the price is the price. I hope this content is useful to anyone researching how changes to pricing affects the ROI of home generation.

 

[OneTinyFish]

so, an update.

after looking at things, looks like I will go with Otovo.


Priced a bit over 14.000 gbp...

I've not heard of Otovo before - or know the specification of the system. Did they produce a simulation? Are you installing microinverters/optimisers?

But that price is very good on paper!

 

[yessuz]

I've not heard of Otovo before - or know the specification of the system. Did they produce a simulation? Are you installing microinverters/optimisers?

But that price is very good on paper!

Otovo is a marketplace, firstly launched in Norway and entered in UK in 2022.
I do not need optimisers (i think) as it is east) west roof, no shading.

Payment after finish of works. No down payment or deposits.

 

[Pete UK]

Our DNO has recently announced a price hike ... going to just over 100% for us.

Last week I made another video on how much we expect our 13.51kWp of solar and 27.5kWh of Powerwalls will handle the impact of the massive price rises to our energy tariff.

On the Isle of Man we can't shop around, so the price is the price. I hope this content is useful to anyone researching how changes to pricing affects the ROI of home generation.

Awesome vid. Sums it up nicely.

This is pretty much where I am at.

About to jump in to Solar and batteries. Your usage seems almost identical to mine. I’m about 19,000pa including 4,500 for the Model Y.

I can fit lots of panels but in non ideal locations.
ie about 27 panels (420W) to generate an estimated 7,000kW pa. I’d love to be able to get your sort of generation, that’s sweet. But alas, no.
I’m planning on 4x 9.5kW GivEnergy batteries to give 38kW total to grab from the 6 hour IO off-peak window. Which should work in the shoulder months but might be a slight stretch in winter. It’s all a bit guess work isn’t it?

Best quote (two now in the same ball park) I’ve had is about £33,000 for a 3 day full install. I’m a bit nervous to push the button in case prices come down again. It’s a tough one. All in or nothing !

Have you thought about Intelligent Octopus? Appears your on some kind of economy 7 tarring.
Seems like IO would likely be a cheaper option. I’m thinking Agile wouldn’t really work well for me. But it’s so hard with all the unknowns !

I like the POOPR acronym

I guess in Summer you’ll be covering your load nicely from Solar?

How are you finding the winters? Have you got your POOPR up ?

 

[Avendit]

Awesome vid. Sums it up nicely.

This is pretty much where I am at.

About to jump in to Solar and batteries. Your usage seems almost identical to mine. I’m about 19,000pa including 4,500 for the Model Y.

I can fit lots of panels but in non ideal locations.
ie about 27 panels (420W) to generate an estimated 7,000kW pa. I’d love to be able to get your sort of generation, that’s sweet. But alas, no.
I’m planning on 4x 9.5kW GivEnergy batteries to give 38kW total to grab from the 6 hour IO off-peak window. Which should work in the shoulder months but might be a slight stretch in winter. It’s all a bit guess work isn’t it?

Best quote (two now in the same ball park) I’ve had is about £33,000 for a 3 day full install. I’m a bit nervous to push the button in case prices come down again. It’s a tough one. All in or nothing !

Have you thought about Intelligent Octopus? Appears your on some kind of economy 7 tarring.
Seems like IO would likely be a cheaper option. I’m thinking Agile wouldn’t really work well for me. But it’s so hard with all the unknowns !

I like the POOPR acronym

I guess in Summer you’ll be covering your load nicely from Solar?

How are you finding the winters? Have you got your POOPR up ?

Wow, what a system! At that level of sacrifice (cost plus presumably not the most aesthetically pleasing install hinted at), might a track in the garden be viable instead of some of the edge case roof mounters?

 

[yessuz]

Awesome vid. Sums it up nicely.

This is pretty much where I am at.

About to jump in to Solar and batteries. Your usage seems almost identical to mine. I’m about 19,000pa including 4,500 for the Model Y.

I can fit lots of panels but in non ideal locations.
ie about 27 panels (420W) to generate an estimated 7,000kW pa. I’d love to be able to get your sort of generation, that’s sweet. But alas, no.
I’m planning on 4x 9.5kW GivEnergy batteries to give 38kW total to grab from the 6 hour IO off-peak window. Which should work in the shoulder months but might be a slight stretch in winter. It’s all a bit guess work isn’t it?

Best quote (two now in the same ball park) I’ve had is about £33,000 for a 3 day full install. I’m a bit nervous to push the button in case prices come down again. It’s a tough one. All in or nothing !

Have you thought about Intelligent Octopus? Appears your on some kind of economy 7 tarring.
Seems like IO would likely be a cheaper option. I’m thinking Agile wouldn’t really work well for me. But it’s so hard with all the unknowns !

I like the POOPR acronym

I guess in Summer you’ll be covering your load nicely from Solar?

How are you finding the winters? Have you got your POOPR up ?

32kwh battery system is something...

My high days during peak times are up to 15 kwh so 9 kwh looks OK at the moment and in reality it will be easy to upgrade battery pack later (easy and cheaper)..

 

[WannabeOwner]

My high days during peak times are up to 15 kwh so 9 kwh looks OK

I'm sure you've thought of it - probably discussed up-thread - but will your battery be able to handle your peak kW (less household usage at that time)? Maybe you have Zappi/similar and won't care and just "spill" any excess over to EV

 

[yessuz]

I'm sure you've thought of it - probably discussed up-thread - but will your battery be able to handle your peak kW (less household usage at that time)? Maybe you have Zappi/similar and won't care and just "spill" any excess over to EV

What you mean?

Idea for me is: use 8 kwp solar (4 kwp east + 4 kwp west) for household usage and to top up batteries (9kwh) for the time when sun is not there until 23:30 when IO kicks in.
Once IO off peak ends - use battery which is top upped during IO off peak time until sun is back on (5:30 to 10 am..?)

Rince and repeast

In winter cloudy days I might struggle to live with solar during peak and will dip in battery during day and might even import a bit

All other excessive solar will spill into car (pod point charger .. so dunno how this will go) or will be exported

I might increase battery capacity in the future as it woll be significantly easier to do as no scaffolding or expensive solar installation is needed, just plug in additional batteries

I rarely need more than 4 peak KW (kettle + washing machine or oven). Kettle + oven would be 4 kw
Pylon battery will output 6 kw

 

[Pete UK]

Wow, what a system! At that level of sacrifice (cost plus presumably not the most aesthetically pleasing install hinted at), might a track in the garden be viable instead of some of the edge case roof mounters?

Aesthetically it should look ok. (All black). Garden is too small !

Problem I have is South facing roof I can only get 5 panels on due to dormers. I can fit 14 on the west and 8 on the North facing roof (I know, I know !). £16k of the quote is the batteries alone.

So I could generate 7,000kW+ pa in total;

South: 2,100pa
West : 4,600pa (80% weighted for west)
North: 1,700pa (50% weighted for north)
- losses !

We have high usage, so hence the 38kW of battery needed. Only way to get close to a low on-peak most of the year.

What do you reckon? Seems sensible or have I gone OTT? . Of course I haven’t got it yet. This is just the best proposal I’ve come up with so far that saves the most. Seems close to what @OneTinyFish has got.

 

[Avendit]

Aesthetically it should look ok. (All black). Garden is too small !

Problem I have is South facing roof I can only get 5 panels on due to dormers. I can fit 14 on the west and 8 on the North facing roof (I know, I know !). £16k of the quote is the batteries alone.

So I could generate 7,000kW+ pa in total;

South: 2,100pa
West : 4,600pa (80% weighted for west)
North: 1,700pa (50% weighted for north)
- losses !

We have high usage, so hence the 38kW of battery needed. Only way to get close to a low on-peak most of the year.

What do you reckon? Seems sensible or have I gone OTT? . Of course I haven’t got it yet. This is just the best proposal I’ve come up with so far that saves the most. Seems close to what @OneTinyFish has got.

Again, I'd run it through solar.nrel.gov to check the peaks n troughs, get a feel for the generation curves. I've always said more is more, but do check what those north facing are really contributing. Could be they are making big differences on cloudy days - my NE ones help with this and get charging started early in the morning, or it could be they don't contribute enough if they need expensive scaffold to fit. Not saying one way or another, just advising to run the numbers to check! Cheaper to do it in excel rather than reality, and I've not mucked around with actual north facing arrays enough to have an opinion.

I ran it by numbers of days I could be completely independent, number I could manage with overnight plus solar, and number that I would be stuck using the grid. My 8 NE shifted a lot more days into category 2, and even squeezing 1 extra SW panel on fitting day moved about 10 days.

Check peak production and that your batteries can absorb it fast enough. Otherwise I'd say go for it if you have the capital spare, will save in the long run!

 

[WannabeOwner]

What you mean?

My PV generates 15kW peak, PowerWall will only charge at max 10kW ...

My high days during peak times are up to 15 kwh so 9 kwh looks OK

So my point was will the peak kW (not day-average kWh) exceed the charge rate for your battery? (if you have e.g. Zappi that would push any excess to EV then no need to care (assuming car is parked at home / isn't already full / etc. etc.)

Just wanting to consider what the kW peaks are (from PV and into Battery) to check that you will actually be able to store, in battery, all that your PV produces. (Seems likely ... the figures aren't "big" so to speak ... but ... )

 

[WannabeOwner]

do check what those north facing are really contributing

I only tried a North projection recently - I was really surprised at how good it was. More than 50% in mid-Winter (and of course that's 50% of pretty-much-nothing), and 80+% of Summer ... definitely not to be sneezed at!

Also, I suspect (no evidence) that North is better (than South) for Sun Rise / Set in Mid Summer (as the Sun is well North of true East / West) - so if that's right it will lengthen the Solar Day (and shorten the duration of Solar-night-without-PV/from-Battery )

West : 4,600pa (80% weighted for west)
North: 1,700pa (50% weighted for north)

I think that's pessimistic

I had a go with PVWatts for my Lat / Long using the default "System Size"

Comparison of North, East, Wets against South:

I think it is worth measuring the roof "Tilt" accurately, as that might make a significant difference (much more so on North elevation prediction than South)

Assuming that PVWatts is accurate ...

EDIT: Modified last spreadsheet to show percentage difference for Roof Slope,. compared to (top image) 20% roof

Negligible for East, South, West but significant gain for a "flatter" North roof, and significant reduction for a steeper pitch North roof.