Solar Panels UK - is it worth it?

[Chimpy McChimp]

Joy of joys - after waiting over 6 months to have our smart meters gone dumb replaced, the guys showed up for 5 mins, said they are working fine and buggered off. Despite all our protests to the contrary !

Congrats SMA PLC (on behalf of OVO).
Hours more in the chat and on the phone again now….

….Slow clap - totally p***ed off.

I feel your pain. Ours were installed. Gas never worked. No readings at all for months. Couldn't even submit a reading as display on meter never worked. Came to install new ones. For some reason replaced the electricity one at same time. Then neither worked....,. Came back to managed to fix the electricity meter but still no gas readings. This has been going on for around years. I don't get why it has to be so difficult.

 

[gidster99]

I agree: I spent a few hours on the Smart Appointment WhatsApp with OVO Energy today to try and get my SMETS1 not so smart meter upgraded to SEMTS2. But apparently the system says "no" as it seems to think I have 3 phases (I wish!)
So they eventually recommended contacting customer services. Who promise to revert within 5 days.
Let us hope for good news then !

 

[RedMod3]

There are a few factors which will make or break whether its worth it for you:
-Cost of install
-How you are paying for it
-How much of the generated solar you will use
-How much you will use from the batteries
-Life expectancy of the install
-Warranty/reliability of installer

I would be looking at separating the savings of the solar and the battery so that you can work out whether having both or them individually will be worth it for you, despite some saying that solar is a no brainer, that isn't the case for everyone especially those who are also looking at financing it which will take a considerably chunk out of it. Feel free to send more details and I can try to work out some calculations.

Unless you are on 3-phase, they will be a limit on how much the DNO will allow your installer to add. The limit will be the generating capacity and that is calculated by adding the inverter output to the inverter outputs of the batteries. Where we are, the limits are around 12kW.

 

[Avendit]

Hi guys - I am also trying to figure out if it makes sense to go with a solar / battery combination.
The biggest challenge I have with regards to electricity (I have plenty of other non-electrical challenges, but we won't go into those here! ;-) is that I use too much of it - around 11,000 KwH per year. I have looked into how much per day, and it is between 26 - 32 KwH per day.
I have had a couple of solar quotes - and it seems my roof is not ideally set up for solar: too many velux windows / dormers etc.
So the best they seem to be able to fit will generate around 4,500 KwH per year (obviously with much of that generated over the brighter months). So that is around 6,500 KwH short of my needs
So I am wondering what my options are? I was naively thinking I can just get lots of battery storage - say around 30 KwH and simply charge the batteries using a low overnight rate and live off the batteries / solar during the day.
However, I have just been told this might not be so easy to do as my batteries may only allow me to power a certain amount of things at once... and once I go over this amount (which might be around 4KWs) I will be drawing from the grid.
Is my plan foiled? Or is there something that can be done - someone mentioned I might be able to set up a second inverter in parallel and thereby double my power output... This sounds like it might work...But would appreciate your thoughts - especially if any of you have done something similar.
Or should I simply try and move over to Octopus Agile and fit enough battery storage to allow me to run off battery during the expensive evening hours and just live with the Grid for most of the day, with its hopefully lower rates? I guess if I were to do this, we would need to try and make sure not to use heavy loads during the time we are on battery power... Right now I do not have a smart meter, so it is difficult for me to know what my maximum power usage is like.
Anyway, if anyone does have any thoughts on this I would be interested to hear them as this all seems to be less straightforward than I would like!
Many thanks!

I think @Wannabeanowner said most of what I would have, but you have to start with understanding where all your power is going. While I would also usually say smart plugs, for usage at this size it's probably worth the investment in something a little more systematic like How the Gen 2 Vue Energy Monitor Works which will let you ID the circuits that are causing the problem (and possibly sense check the flat user - nice doesn't mean well educated on power saving). Then when you find a problem circuit you can use plugs to track any devices if it's not obvious. The advantage of this is you aren't reliant on a dno to fit this - it's advanced DIY or just a call to your local sparky sounder your control.

It's not about forcing to turn things off, it's knowing the usage so you can choose.

Other than that, if you want to up the solar coverage, consider maxing out the capabilities - pay some extra for higher efficiency panels? Add tigo optimisers to ensure you are maxing every panel installed, even if they wouldn't normally be called for. Any garages or unused bit of gardens you could use? There is even a house I drive past regularly that have incorporated panels into their walls looks pretty awesome actually (
Google Maps) - done sympathetically it could work? My parents live way north and their south facing roof is too cluttered for panels but they have garden to spare, so they have their name down for this Solivus Arc - the New Solar Energy Solution.

Work out where the usage is going and see if you could cut it, then max that generation.

 

[Mrklaw]

Unless you are on 3-phase, they will be a limit on how much the DNO will allow your installer to add. The limit will be the generating capacity and that is calculated by adding the inverter output to the inverter outputs of the batteries. Where we are, the limits are around 12kW.

you can set export limits too

 

[Avendit]

Hi guys - I am also trying to figure out if it makes sense to go with a solar / battery combination.
The biggest challenge I have with regards to electricity (I have plenty of other non-electrical challenges, but we won't go into those here! ;-) is that I use too much of it - around 11,000 KwH per year. I have looked into how much per day, and it is between 26 - 32 KwH per day.
I have had a couple of solar quotes - and it seems my roof is not ideally set up for solar: too many velux windows / dormers etc.
So the best they seem to be able to fit will generate around 4,500 KwH per year (obviously with much of that generated over the brighter months). So that is around 6,500 KwH short of my needs
So I am wondering what my options are? I was naively thinking I can just get lots of battery storage - say around 30 KwH and simply charge the batteries using a low overnight rate and live off the batteries / solar during the day.
However, I have just been told this might not be so easy to do as my batteries may only allow me to power a certain amount of things at once... and once I go over this amount (which might be around 4KWs) I will be drawing from the grid.
Is my plan foiled? Or is there something that can be done - someone mentioned I might be able to set up a second inverter in parallel and thereby double my power output... This sounds like it might work...But would appreciate your thoughts - especially if any of you have done something similar.
Or should I simply try and move over to Octopus Agile and fit enough battery storage to allow me to run off battery during the expensive evening hours and just live with the Grid for most of the day, with its hopefully lower rates? I guess if I were to do this, we would need to try and make sure not to use heavy loads during the time we are on battery power... Right now I do not have a smart meter, so it is difficult for me to know what my maximum power usage is like.
Anyway, if anyone does have any thoughts on this I would be interested to hear them as this all seems to be less straightforward than I would like!
Many thanks!

You could also wait for something like this Unique perovskite solar pilot line | Oxford PV to become avaliable - probably an extra 30% generation in the same footprint? Supposedly avaliable later this year, but no idea how you grab some for yourself as I assume demand will be mad to start with.

Equally, the founder of that company has also said the best panels are the ones installed on your house and generating.

 

[yessuz]

I feel your pain. Ours were installed. Gas never worked. No readings at all for months. Couldn't even submit a reading as display on meter never worked. Came to install new ones. For some reason replaced the electricity one at same time. Then neither worked....,. Came back to managed to fix the electricity meter but still no gas readings. This has been going on for around years. I don't get why it has to be so difficult.

same... same.
Octopus is coming to fix gas meter again. home display, only worked on electric before - they replaced IHD and never worked

waiting them to come again

 

[yessuz]

i was quoted bird proofing £500 for 12 panels system and then £50 for any additional panel above 12 panels. So, for my 20 panel system I am looking at £750.



wonder how this stacks up and if I need it at all

 

[thewishy]

i was quoted bird proofing £500 for 12 panels system and then £50 for any additional panel above 12 panels. So, for my 20 panel system I am looking at £750.

This seems about the sort of prices I see on the GivEnergy Facebook Group (Tradesmen will say they're doing the rounds in region x this week, etc)

wonder how this stacks up and if I need it at all

If you're getting the system fitted, I would definitely put netting on at this point, bird nesting can be a general PITA, and it's much easier to do when the scaffolding is up. If you're doing a retrofit, well, see if you get birds...

 

[Avendit]

i was quoted bird proofing £500 for 12 panels system and then £50 for any additional panel above 12 panels. So, for my 20 panel system I am looking at £750.



wonder how this stacks up and if I need it at all

Can't comment on cost, but if you need it seems to be down to whether you have Rock pigeons - the slightly smaller ones you usually find in town. Big good looking wood pigeons are OK, but the Rock ones will treat your panels as a lovely cliff to live under, peck and generally ruin.

 

[yessuz]

Can't comment on cost, but if you need it seems to be down to whether you have Rock pigeons - the slightly smaller ones you usually find in town. Big good looking wood pigeons are OK, but the Rock ones will treat your panels as a lovely cliff to live under, peck and generally ruin.

ah, mine is wood ones..

 

[RedMod3]

you can set export limits too

You can, but the DNO ignores export limitation, so even if your Powerwalls are set to zero export, they will take the 3.68/5.0kW inverter power as available when doing their calculations, Ours does this.

 

[ElectricPolice]

i was quoted bird proofing £500 for 12 panels system and then £50 for any additional panel above 12 panels. So, for my 20 panel system I am looking at £750.



wonder how this stacks up and if I need it at all

Never had it mentioned on my original install so it never crossed my mind. I wasn't on this forum then so ignorance is bliss.

Having had 12 months of the little critters scratching around under the panels, crapping everwhere and filling the gaps underneath with nesting twigs and leaves I paid for my own scaffolding and intalled the birdproofing myself using this https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B081CXWXQH/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

If I'd known at the start, I would probably still have done it myself as I'm tight, seeing how the scaffolding was up for about a month.

Weigh up the cost of not doing it now and what it will cost you again next time? It's a job done once thankfully.

 

[RedMod3]

i was quoted bird proofing £500 for 12 panels system and then £50 for any additional panel above 12 panels. So, for my 20 panel system I am looking at £750.



wonder how this stacks up and if I need it at all

We are in a bungalow and in 12 years, the critters have never nested under the panels, although there are loys of birds about. I have no bird netting.

 

[Mrklaw]

£400 here for the panels we just had done. Lesson learned the hard way with everything being fine for a few years then the buggers nesting under our south panels a few years back so we had someone come round to do those. This time we had them done at install time.

only indirectly solar related - but for batteries.. Anyone have a leanto/roof installed for the side passage or rear of house to help protect from rain? Mine are IP65 rated but I would prefer to shelter them from the worst of the weather. Only quote so far was a guy came round, gave a quick look and went '£800'. This was for a 3m length perspex roof to let some light in, flashing on the wall and guttering/downpipe to drain water away into the gravel down the side. just the width of a passageway so maybe 80cm?

 

[RedMod3]

£400 here for the panels we just had done. Lesson learned the hard way with everything being fine for a few years then the buggers nesting under our south panels a few years back so we had someone come round to do those. This time we had them done at install time.

only indirectly solar related - but for batteries.. Anyone have a leanto/roof installed for the side passage or rear of house to help protect from rain? Mine are IP65 rated but I would prefer to shelter them from the worst of the weather. Only quote so far was a guy came round, gave a quick look and went '£800'. This was for a 3m length perspex roof to let some light in, flashing on the wall and guttering/downpipe to drain water away into the gravel down the side. just the width of a passageway so maybe 80cm?

I wanted to keep my aircon unit a bit dry so bought and fitted this cover for £250; aircon units don’t like weather extremes; I think they’d work with a Tesla battery.

 

[Dilly]

We are in a bungalow and in 12 years, the critters have never nested under the panels, although there are loys of birds about. I have no bird netting.

Never had birds nest under mine in 9 years. …until this year! There is a sneaky wagtail nesting right up the top. Once it’s gone I’ll get the drain rods on it!

 

[WannabeOwner]

it's probably worth the investment in something a little more systematic like How the Gen 2 Vue Energy Monitor Works which will let you ID the circuits that are causing the problem

That looks awesome ... I feel some retail therapy coming on!

 

[thewishy]

Looking back through last few weeks consumption I have no spikes over 10kW

I worried a lot about the size of the inverter and loads before I got mine installed. We're generally good at avoiding multiple loads at the same time (Well, I'm good, and the wife has me do the washing / dishwasher loads now...). The main time we "run over" is cooking, but actually if you have a few kw run over while you cook, it's doesn't generally add up to a lot in terms of kWh.
Certainly looking into setting things up so immersion doesn't happen at the same time as cooking makes sense, but you've got to be careful you don't let the spec run away with you, it's an investment at the end of the day

 

[Mrklaw]

I wanted to keep my aircon unit a bit dry so bought and fitted this cover for £250; aircon units don’t like weather extremes; I think they’d work with a Tesla battery. View attachment 938216

ooh do you have a link?