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Solar Panels UK - is it worth it?

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How many electric kW do these heat pumps actually consume per day in the real world?

I mean I can see the rating of a heat pump in kW (say a 4kW heat pump) but I assume that’s at full power. So depending on your home insulation/ weather it must vary quite a bit. Or would it just run constantly at 4kW unless you turned it off? Or (as I assume, they are on a timer and back off overnight).

Any ball park figures? Summer/winter?
 
I’m having a Zappi charger fitted soon. The plan was to connect it to a new small CU inside the meter box, so it won’t be connected to the main CU.

Do I need to rethink this if I will be fitting solar and battery?

The electrician fitting the charger is not connected to anyone who will fit the solar/battery.
 
I’m having a Zappi charger fitted soon. The plan was to connect it to a new small CU inside the meter box, so it won’t be connected to the main CU.

Do I need to rethink this if I will be fitting solar and battery?

The electrician fitting the charger is not connected to anyone who will fit the solar/battery.
Depends on whether you'd like the possibility of charging from the solar and battery system. If so, then yes you may well have to rethink that approach.
 
How many electric kW do these heat pumps actually consume per day in the real world?


Any ball park figures? Summer/winter?

Still waiting forine to be installed but as part of the initial survey they calculated the heat needed to keep the house at 21C, which is dependent on the fabric of the house ie insulation etc.

In my case estimated annual electricity usage for heating and hot water was 5500 kWh

Just installed a GivEnergy battery to try and ensure most of that is off peak electricity ie 7.5p per kWh with intelligent Octopus which comes to about £400 per year
 
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Had the Octopus survey done today, very thorough. I asked when they expect to offer the Givenergy 13.5kWh all-in-one but they didn't know. We don't have a lot of suitable wall space inside so my preference is to locate the battery outside on the side of the house. The installer of the Powerwall had no issues with this but the Octopus guys were not as keen. Said they prefer to locate inside but could go outside if there are no other options and it should really have a canopy to give it some protection from direct sunlight and rain (although I think this is more for the inverter).

I still don't think the 9.5kWh is enough and 2 x 9.5 is too much. From the quotes I've now had, 16 panels + Powerwall is only £1400 more than 16 panels + Givenergy 9.5. And I'd get almost 50% more battery storage with the PW.

Total quote for the panels and PW...
16 x Jinko 420W panels
16 x Solaredge optimisers
Solaredge 5kW inverter
Powerwall 2 and gateway
All fitted for £17800 (includes scaffolding front and back of house).

The only other possibility is to find an installer of the Givenergy 13.5 all-in-one battery but I don't think the cost would be that much less than the above. I don't really want to wait another 6+ months for Octopus to start offering it.

At this stage I'm leaning towards going for the Powerwall.
 
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16 x Solaredge optimisers
Solaredge 5kW inverter

On the solaredge stuff... do you suffer shading and the like? I not you can save plenty. Yes, I get that you have two aspects (front and back), but most inverters have 2 MPPT inputs, one for the front and one for the rear. Please entirely disregard this if you know, and are doing it for good reason. Just checking you're not spending for no reason.
 
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Sounds like a good deal on the PW, does that include the £350 rebate currently being offered?

With the PW you also get whole house backup and 5kw charge/discharge (subject to DNO approval?), so seems compelling vs a GE hybrid system. I'd expect the AIO to cost about the same, albeit with slightly better spec and more open/configurable software.

Neighbours have had a PW outside with additional shelter for a few years and all fine, as far as I know. Might be less performant on cold days.
 
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On the solaredge stuff... do you suffer shading and the like? I not you can save plenty. Yes, I get that you have two aspects (front and back), but most inverters have 2 MPPT inputs, one for the front and one for the rear. Please entirely disregard this if you know, and are doing it for good reason. Just checking you're not spending for no reason.
Yes, unfortunately we do have some shading. Early morning on the East side due to neighbours trees and then some late afternoon/early evening on the West side due to tall trees in a nearby copse.
 
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Update: seamless move to Octopus Outgoing at 15p (while on IO incoming) in under 24 hours using the online switch link and re-submitting my MCS details again - Just showed up about 20 mins ago. So that works, the customer phone agents don’t know what they are talking about and Zainub the email AI talks nonsense 👍🏻

Incidentally, this morning I just got an email back from “Zainub” who is definitely an AI bot 🤖 telling me I was on the 4p rate !

Thanks for the tip @browellm - put an end to me going nuts.

Ok, so this is very odd.

Looked at my Octopus app yesterday (Thurs morning) and I’ve been swapped back to the 4p export rate (after charging my batteries to 100% every night and exporting about 12kW every evening for a week 🤦🏻‍♂️). As soon as I saw it had changed back to 4p, I went through the online application for “Octopus outgoing” fixed 15p export rate again. Nothing else has changed. I’m starting to get very Frustrated with this.

On the phone they say this combination is not allowed. Their website still says the 15p export rate isn’t compatible with IO, I’m getting nonsense replies back from emails but on their website it has the announcement from their CEO on 6th Sept saying it is now possible for this combo.

Has anyone else had as much hassle with this? Or is it just me?
 
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Ok, so this is very odd.

Looked at my Octopus app yesterday (Thurs morning) and I’ve been swapped back to the 4p export rate (after charging my batteries to 100% every night and exporting about 12kW every evening for a week 🤦🏻‍♂️). As soon as I saw it had changed back to 4p, I went through the online application for “Octopus outgoing” fixed 15p export rate again. Nothing else has changed. I’m starting to get very Frustrated with this.

On the phone they say this combination is not allowed. Their website still says the 15p export rate isn’t compatible with IO, I’m getting nonsense replies back from emails but on their website it has the announcement from their CEO on 6th Sept saying it is now possible for this combo.

Has anyone else had as much hassle with this? Or is it just me?
nope, no hassle at all :/
 
Are you on Intelligent Octopus Flux? That one isn’t permitted with Outgoing Fixed, but Intelligent Octopus is. They messed up my tariff codes when I switched from IO to Flux previously, ending up with IO Flux Export instead of Flux Export for a bit (which messed up opening billing too)


No I’m on IO. And was briefly on Octopus outgoing fixed at 15p for a week. It just changed back by itself yesterday !

Interestingly, IO isn’t listed in your link above !