Solar Production Thread

[Alex321]

Full Sun this freezing day and so far 6 kWH.

I can see from my graph that the sun came out at about 10:45 here, and since then we have been generating around 2kW. Battery is full, immersion is at max temp, so we are now exporting.

 

[chris-suffolk]

I can see from my graph that the sun came out at about 10:45 here, and since then we have been generating around 2kW. Battery is full, immersion is at max temp, so we are now exporting.

Been exporting all day, and the past few days too. Too costly to retrofit a battery, and I suspect would impact our tarrif too.

 

[Tenkaykev]

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Been exporting all day, and the past few days too. Too costly to retrofit a battery, and I suspect would impact our tarrif too.

From February home battery installation will no longer be liable for VAT ( it used to be that you had to have the battery installed at the same time as SolarPV to avoid paying VAT )
Battery prices have been steadily declining. The real benefit is load shifting so you can charge it up at off peak rates and draw from it during peak times. I am on a fixed export tariff and get 15p per kWh exported. You can have a battery and keep your FIT tariff.
Last month, with very little solar generation due the awful weather my electricity bill was minus £6 which they knocked off our gas bill.

 

[chris-suffolk]

`


From February home battery installation will no longer be liable for VAT ( it used to be that you had to have the battery installed at the same time as SolarPV to avoid paying VAT )
Battery prices have been steadily declining. The real benefit is load shifting so you can charge it up at off peak rates and draw from it during peak times. I am on a fixed export tariff and get 15p per kWh exported. You can have a battery and keep your FIT tariff.
Last month, with very little solar generation due the awful weather my electricity bill was minus £6 which they knocked off our gas bill.

Might have to have a look then. Our current annual export is about £2500. Our combined gas and elec bill about £1000 (so nett surplus of about £1500). If we had batteries, our export wouldn't alter, but our bill would go down, say by half our elec usage, so prob save another £200 (ish). Have to do the maths.

 

[Tenkaykev]

Might have to have a look then. Our current annual export is about £2500. Our combined gas and elec bill about £1000 (so nett surplus of about £1500). If we had batteries, our export wouldn't alter, but our bill would go down, say by half our elec usage, so prob save another £200 (ish). Have to do the maths.

"Gary does Solar" on YouTube some excellent content, plus a couple of utilities where you can plug in your own figures, play around with various scenarios and see the effect on pay back time. Using one of the utilities made me realise that the Solar diverter that I was considering would never pay for itself, and I was better off selling the surplus electricity to the grid.

 

[chris-suffolk]

"Gary does Solar" on YouTube some excellent content, plus a couple of utilities where you can plug in your own figures, play around with various scenarios and see the effect on pay back time. Using one of the utilities made me realise that the Solar diverter that I was considering would never pay for itself, and I was better off selling the surplus electricity to the grid.

Thanks, will have a look.

I fitted a solar diverter, as I get paid whether I export or not, so can have my cake and eat it.

 

[MrGrumpy]

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From February home battery installation will no longer be liable for VAT ( it used to be that you had to have the battery installed at the same time as SolarPV to avoid paying VAT )
Battery prices have been steadily declining. The real benefit is load shifting so you can charge it up at off peak rates and draw from it during peak times. I am on a fixed export tariff and get 15p per kWh exported. You can have a battery and keep your FIT tariff.
Last month, with very little solar generation due the awful weather my electricity bill was minus £6 which they knocked off our gas bill.

Tempted to price up another 5kW Puredrive battery to take me to 15 ! Do I need to declare it ?

 

[MrGrumpy]

Should also mention the last two days have been great for solar , been exporting a bit which is nuts. In January but having access to the cheap overnight rate , it bodes well for spring/summer . Payback for some of my outlay should speed up .

 

[Legs]

Thanks, will have a look.

I fitted a solar diverter, as I get paid whether I export or not, so can have my cake and eat it.

We fitted a smart switch on our immersion heater at the weekend so we can turn it on remotely (by the power of Alexa, from our phones). Doesn’t that effectively do the same thing? £22 from Amazon.

 

[Tenkaykev]

We fitted a smart switch on our immersion heater at the weekend so we can turn it on remotely (by the power of Alexa, from our phones). Doesn’t that effectively do the same thing? £22 from Amazon.

This one?

View: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Immersion-Heater-Switch-Boiler-Google/dp/B0BTCPBQ7N/ref=sr_1_3?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.uzjbEgsk6gDx2aaq3WJIAZuiIUuPGITtoF-weDMkxqUT6dWV7OPx5ekYQ4X5SPIMfC6xCnQAffWiyiws1lcVhwVKbfGUfucxU_pw-3GuIrM1bZSL-wjV1GDQIHU6IA-Ib_4fMF1ywLFG5a2QCY59SlADhbW2bLzLjyAX1W1aUK6HTn6xWhuejXr25gKkSCcABAqisLZSocWIFUTvCaL20vTIVkvukwq6ZVYAu7NVCTUfE0k4yQW6JpETP5Kokfkx0gTACT0AOqEwc8UAKpKo45hgqo6uETtrH-3XSL5sjVQ.RWPJ8K33tZQEC50N5Faw3ewWUFPLl50lwXMW-yZP_Gc&dib_tag=se&keywords=smart+immersion+heater&qid=1705607075&s=diy&sr=1-3

 

[Legs]

Yup, that’s the one.

 

[MrGrumpy]

We fitted a smart switch on our immersion heater at the weekend so we can turn it on remotely (by the power of Alexa, from our phones). Doesn’t that effectively do the same thing? £22 from Amazon.

Maybe me but smart switches of unknown brands of Amazon give me the fear !? 3Kw cheapy smart switch ?

 

[chris-suffolk]

We fitted a smart switch on our immersion heater at the weekend so we can turn it on remotely (by the power of Alexa, from our phones). Doesn’t that effectively do the same thing? £22 from Amazon.

No, I don't think it does do the same thing. Ours constantly monitors what both the Solar panels are producing, and what the background load from the house is. It then diverts the spare to the immersion heater. So may only be 100w diverted if solar is low, but 4kw if high and we've very little turned on in the house. No need for me to monitor or do anything. Paid for itself in about 2 years.

 

[Tenkaykev]

Might have to have a look then. Our current annual export is about £2500. Our combined gas and elec bill about £1000 (so nett surplus of about £1500). If we had batteries, our export wouldn't alter, but our bill would go down, say by half our elec usage, so prob save another £200 (ish). Have to do the maths.

This guy posts some very useful content.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHeRbY8BzBc

 

[chris-suffolk]

Best day of the year so far - over 13.5kwh, so that's nearly £10 !!