# Solar Production Thread



## jowwy (21 Oct 2022)

The place to show/brag/report on your solar production for the day.............

Yesterday my solar produced 3.3kwh


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## Alex321 (21 Oct 2022)

jowwy said:


> The place to show/brag/report on your solar production for the day.............
> 
> Yesterday my solar produced 3.3kwh



Mine produced 13.8kWh 

It's already showing 1.34kWh for today, though with the way it shows that, the figure is really higher, but most going into charging the battery (currently at 62%).


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## kipster (21 Oct 2022)

I got 9.8kWh yesterday, and only 0.8 so far today. Lots of dark grey cloud overhead so it might not be a great day.


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## Milkfloat (21 Oct 2022)

This is my October figures so far - as you can see not a great day yesterday


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## Cycleops (21 Oct 2022)

You all need to move down here.


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## jowwy (21 Oct 2022)

We are producing enough at the moment to cover our hourly base load.....so im happy with that on what is a grey, wet day


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## jowwy (21 Oct 2022)

It was not a good solar day at all……just 1.3kwh produced, which did cover our day time use give or take a few pence from the grid


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## Alex321 (21 Oct 2022)

Poor day here too, only 7.12kWh (though that will rise as we draw down from the battery this evening). Most days recently have been 25+


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## Alex321 (21 Oct 2022)

Milkfloat said:


> This is my October figures so far - as you can see not a great day yesterday
> 
> 
> View attachment 665335



This is ours for October


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## Milkfloat (21 Oct 2022)

Alex321 said:


> This is ours for October
> View attachment 665396



How big is you system? You have really good yield.


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## Alex321 (22 Oct 2022)

Milkfloat said:


> How big is you system? You have really good yield.



10.14Kw - with a 16kWh battery.

When quoting, they estimated our annual production at 9,369.36 kWh (9.369 mWh). After having it installed in February, we have already hit 9.21mWh with over 3 months left to the full year, so I think their estimate may have been slightly conservative (or this has just been a very good year).


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## jowwy (22 Oct 2022)

We got clear blue skies this morning, currently pumping out 2.3kw. So hoping for a good production day.

i will update this post later……unless we get a few more added.


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## CXRAndy (22 Oct 2022)

Alex321 said:


> 10.14Kw - with a 16kWh battery.
> 
> When quoting, they estimated our annual production at 9,369.36 kWh (9.369 mWh). After having it installed in February, we have already hit 9.21mWh with over 3 months left to the full year, so I think their estimate may have been slightly conservative (or this has just been a very good year).



I take it you have a G99 installation not G98?


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## jowwy (22 Oct 2022)

Alex321 said:


> 10.14Kw - with a 16kWh battery.
> 
> When quoting, they estimated our annual production at 9,369.36 kWh (9.369 mWh). After having it installed in February, we have already hit 9.21mWh with over 3 months left to the full year, so I think their estimate may have been slightly conservative (or this has just been a very good year).



Dont they calculate at 85% effieciency???


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## jowwy (22 Oct 2022)

Big thick dark rain clouds came and we hit the wall at 3.8kwh


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## kipster (22 Oct 2022)

It got grey here as well and a little rain. Didn't quite charge the batteries as my wife put the towels in the tumble dryer.

Still 13kWh today and another hour to get a little more.


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## Alex321 (22 Oct 2022)

jowwy said:


> Dont they calculate at 85% effieciency???



They used the MCS standard method.



CXRAndy said:


> I take it you have a G99 installation not G98?


 
Yes.


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## CXRAndy (22 Oct 2022)

Are you limited to how much you can export back into the grid?


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## Alex321 (23 Oct 2022)

CXRAndy said:


> Are you limited to how much you can export back into the grid?



The limit is more than my system can produce. I think it is 16kW, but not too sure.


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## CXRAndy (23 Oct 2022)

Alex321 said:


> The limit is more than my system can produce. I think it is 16kW, but not too sure.



The DNO must have decent network up to substation or you're the only solar producer in the vicinity. Its a case of first come gets the allocation. 

If your neighbour wanted a big solar array and it tipped the DNO's network to over capacity all upgrade costs the DNO wanted would be down to him. Its seems unfair that all newer costs come down to the last system to be installed. 

I reckon from early communication with my DNO, I will be export limiting (if they agree) or off grid install


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## jowwy (23 Oct 2022)

Just the 5.8kwh for us today after a dark, wet slow start to the day


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## Alex321 (23 Oct 2022)

CXRAndy said:


> The DNO must have decent network up to substation or you're the only solar producer in the vicinity. Its a case of first come gets the allocation.
> 
> If your neighbour wanted a big solar array and it tipped the DNO's network to over capacity all upgrade costs the DNO wanted would be down to him. Its seems unfair that all newer costs come down to the last system to be installed.


I never knew that. It does seem unfair if that is true.

It seems odd that the limit is set high enough that is likely to be an issue.



CXRAndy said:


> I reckon from early communication with my DNO, I will be export limiting (if they agree) or off grid install



We haven't done either of those.


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## kipster (24 Oct 2022)

Yesterday was an odd day, a whole bunch of sunshine topped and tailed with thunderstorms and torrential rain. 

Still managed 15kWh and got the batteries fully charged.

Today is off to a great start ☀️


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## jowwy (24 Oct 2022)

kipster said:


> Yesterday was an odd day, a whole bunch of sunshine topped and tailed with thunderstorms and torrential rain.
> 
> Still managed 15kWh and got the batteries fully charged.
> 
> Today is off to a great start ☀️



i dont think i will get much today....its dark and wet


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## Alex321 (24 Oct 2022)

kipster said:


> Yesterday was an odd day, a whole bunch of sunshine topped and tailed with thunderstorms and torrential rain.
> 
> Still managed 15kWh and got the batteries fully charged.
> 
> Today is off to a great start ☀️



Ours got pretty well fully charged yesterday, even though as you say, it was thoroughly wet later - I got soaked on the last few miles of my bike ride 

At the moment, our battery charge is going down - mostly because the washing machine is running, and it is wet & dull.


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## jowwy (24 Oct 2022)

just refreshed todays production and my 3.2kwh system is pulling 2.8kw at the moment.....the system does surprise me now and again, with looking outside and seeing it not very sunny, but still pulling 2.8kw


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## ColinJ (24 Oct 2022)

jowwy said:


> just refreshed todays production and my 3.2kwh system is pulling 2.8kw at the moment.....the system does surprise me now and again, with looking outside and seeing it not very sunny, but still pulling 2.8kw



That is quite impressive!

Unless one of my premium bonds gives me a big win, I am unlikely to have the money to invest in solar energy, but it interests me.

How much power would it typically generate on gloomy days in December or January?


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## kipster (24 Oct 2022)

ColinJ said:


> That is quite impressive!
> 
> Unless one of my premium bonds gives me a big win, I am unlikely to have the money to invest in solar energy, but it interests me.
> 
> How much power would it typically generate on gloomy days in December or January?



HTTPS://Pvwatts.nrel.gov is calculator / prediction tool

It reckons I will get 407kWh for October and I'm currently at 418kWh for October but it's been a pretty sunny one so far.

It is predicting 148kWh for December (about 4.8kWh a day) and 216kWh for January (7kWh a day).

I have a 7kw array.


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## Phaeton (24 Oct 2022)

kipster said:


> HTTPS://Pvwatts.nrel.gov is calculator / prediction tool
> 
> It reckons I will get 407kWh for October and I'm currently at 418kWh for October but it's been a pretty sunny one so far.
> 
> ...



Interesting mine came back as 205 for October, system tells me we've already done 279, a 4.8 array.


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## kipster (24 Oct 2022)

Phaeton said:


> Interesting mine came back as 205 for October, system tells me we've already done 279, a 4.8 array.



It's far from perfect and bases it's calculations on historic weather data for the general area.


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## jowwy (24 Oct 2022)

kipster said:


> HTTPS://Pvwatts.nrel.gov is calculator / prediction tool
> 
> It reckons I will get 407kWh for October and I'm currently at 418kWh for October but it's been a pretty sunny one so far.
> 
> ...



Its telling 67 for december and 77 for january……but will see


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## CXRAndy (24 Oct 2022)

Alex321 said:


> I never knew that. It does seem unfair if that is true.
> 
> It seems odd that the limit is set high enough that is likely to be an issue.
> 
> ...



You must be only a few on your particular section of the network.

To give you a costing of what could be involved with an upgrade. There is the cabling back to the substation, any transformers that might be on the line. 

A friend has just had the DNO upgrade their street. Part of the upgrade was a new 3 phase transformer. Not a more powerful one just new. He was speaking with the installation team about getting solar. They said the transformer alone is £35,000. I know this is roughly correct because I wanted to build a new house which had a poor single phase . We asked for a price to 3phase. 13 poles, cabling and new transformer £75,000


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## jowwy (24 Oct 2022)

Just 4.8kwh for us today, rained for most of the day. But its still covering our daytime base loads. Will be selling the excess soon, so that can cover evening use then.


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## Alex321 (24 Oct 2022)

CXRAndy said:


> You must be only a few on your particular section of the network.



Either that or (more likely in my view) the network in our area has already been upgraded. I feel that is more likely because there are quite a few houses around with solar on their roofs.

Incidentally, I have just re-read the "offer" letter from Western Power Distribution (Our DNO) to Tile Energy, and it seems we are limited to 7Kw export on our 10Kw system.


> Basis of the Connection Offer
> 2.1 Customer’s Installation
> 2.1.1 WPD understands that, based on current information provided by the Customer, including
> within the Customer’s connection application, the Customer's Installation will comprise the
> ...


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## CXRAndy (24 Oct 2022)

Ah so they did specify export. In reality 3kW isn't going to overload the network. They just want to keep tabs on installations.


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## kipster (24 Oct 2022)

Regarding the 7kw export,.do you have a 7kw inverter? If you do the installer would have put that on the g99 document and then the DNO say that's your max export.

Mine max export is 5kw,.just so happens I have a 5kw inverter. If I increase then I would need to reapply.


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## CXRAndy (24 Oct 2022)

That would be a waste of solar panels if the inverter couldn't supply the peak capacity.

Inverters can be software controlled to limit output to grid-G100 compliant

Id suspect that it could be passive, the owner is possibly taking some energy or is hardly ever near peak, so 7kW is not reached that often


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## Alex321 (25 Oct 2022)

kipster said:


> Regarding the 7kw export,.do you have a 7kw inverter? If you do the installer would have put that on the g99 document and then the DNO say that's your max export.
> 
> Mine max export is 5kw,.just so happens I have a 5kw inverter. If I increase then I would need to reapply.



No, it is a 10kW inverter. I have seen 9.5Kw out of it, which is close to max expected.

It just won't export at more than 7kW.


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## Alex321 (25 Oct 2022)

CXRAndy said:


> That would be a waste of solar panels if the inverter couldn't supply the peak capacity.
> 
> Inverters can be software controlled to limit output to grid-G100 compliant
> 
> Id suspect that it could be passive, the owner is possibly taking some energy or is hardly ever near peak, so 7kW is not reached that often



That last is true. We have only had a few days in September/October when production has briefly hit 7kW. Going back to August, it hit 8kW on quite a few days, with most being between 7 & 8 maximum.


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## MrGrumpy (25 Oct 2022)

ColinJ said:


> That is quite impressive!
> 
> Unless one of my premium bonds gives me a big win, I am unlikely to have the money to invest in solar energy, but it interests me.
> 
> How much power would it typically generate on gloomy days in December or January?



Fortunately we have access to interest free loans up here . However I think that’s tempered with higher install costs ? Certainly looks like it ? £12/13k for 10kWh batt and 5kW solar array is standard. Max loan is £11k ! 
Not worth using all your own cash either way for me anyways . Thread digression !


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## MrGrumpy (25 Oct 2022)

Alex321 said:


> No, it is a 10kW inverter. I have seen 9.5Kw out of it, which is close to max expected.
> 
> It just won't export at more than 7kW.



Currently made a start on my loan application and have a quote from an installer . I doubt I’ll be exporting much from mine . We are high users , never below 10kWH a day , only drops below that when house is empty !


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## Alex321 (25 Oct 2022)

MrGrumpy said:


> Currently made a start on my loan application and have a quote from an installer . I doubt I’ll be exporting much from mine . We are high users , never below 10kWH a day , only drops below that when house is empty !



We use a bit less than that - average about 8kWh per day over the year, more in winter less in summer. We got such a big system partly to be future-proof if we later get an EV or switch to electric heating instead of gas.


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## Alex321 (25 Oct 2022)

MrGrumpy said:


> Fortunately we have access to interest free loans up here . However I think that’s tempered with higher install costs ? Certainly looks like it ? £12/13k for 10kWh batt and 5kW solar array is standard. Max loan is £11k !
> Not worth using all your own cash either way for me anyways . Thread digression !



We were in the fortunate position of having plenty of cash. Not sure interest free loans are available in Wales, and we'd rather not take out an interest bearing loan.

For us it was £20K for 10.14kW PV array and 16kWh battery plus all associated bits and install.


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## jowwy (25 Oct 2022)

Alex321 said:


> We were in the fortunate position of having plenty of cash. *Not sure interest free loans are available in Wales*, and we'd rather not take out an interest bearing loan.
> 
> For us it was £20K for 10.14kW PV array and 16kWh battery plus all associated bits and install.



not currently, unless your a Social housing landlord and then its only grants to upgrade old houses


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## jowwy (25 Oct 2022)

MrGrumpy said:


> Fortunately we have access to interest free loans up here . However I think that’s tempered with higher install costs ? Certainly looks like it ? £12/13k for 10kWh batt and 5kW solar array is standard. Max loan is £11k !
> Not worth using all your own cash either way for me anyways . Thread digression !



good luck on the loan request. but how long would it take to pay that money back if your a high end user and not exporting much??


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## MrGrumpy (25 Oct 2022)

jowwy said:


> good luck on the loan request. but how long would it take to pay that money back if your a high end user and not exporting much??



Could be a long might be short timespan . All the projected quotes I had saw me break even at approx 12 years. However energy is not going to get cheaper anytime soon ! So this will at least save me a few quid . At 6500kWh a year going by figures it’s going to save me something !


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## MrGrumpy (25 Oct 2022)

Alex321 said:


> We were in the fortunate position of having plenty of cash. Not sure interest free loans are available in Wales, and we'd rather not take out an interest bearing loan.
> 
> For us it was £20K for 10.14kW PV array and 16kWh battery plus all associated bits and install.



I have the money as well but I’d rather take it interest free . Even pay it off early if it’s annoying !


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## jowwy (25 Oct 2022)

With rain most of the day, it wasnt the best days for solar production, but still covered our daily usage of 2.8kwh


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## Phaeton (25 Oct 2022)

We had a good afternoon ended the day at 12.1kWh


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## jowwy (25 Oct 2022)

Phaeton said:


> We had a good afternoon ended the day at 12.1kWh



As we not exporting yet, im ok with the low production, as long as we cover the daytime usage.


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## Phaeton (25 Oct 2022)

jowwy said:


> As we not exporting yet, im ok with the low production, as long as we cover the daytime usage.



Yes it's very annoying, I've asked my installers to provide a 2nd battery until they get their fingers out, but it isn't going to happen.


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## jowwy (26 Oct 2022)

Just the 4.5kwh today……..


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## kipster (26 Oct 2022)

jowwy said:


> Just the 4.5kwh today……..



13.5 today and yesterday for me


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## jowwy (26 Oct 2022)

kipster said:


> 13.5 today and yesterday for me



Would love just a full day of sun to see what it could produce…..wishful thinking this time of the year lol


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## Phaeton (26 Oct 2022)

Yep another 12.1 again today, long may it continue, but I suspect it won't


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## Hebe (26 Oct 2022)

Just over 14kwh here, of which we used 9.06kwh. Everyone is at home for half term/working from home so it didn’t cover all our daytime usage. The battery is now covering evening usage nicely though. Our first full day of solar but did have the installers here for a couple of hours ironing out a couple of problems.


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## Alex321 (26 Oct 2022)

Yesterday 15.42kWh, today 20.17 (which will increase as we take from the battery during the evening). We exported 10.98kWh today, as the battery was full about 1:00pm.


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## Phaeton (27 Oct 2022)

I said it wouldn't last


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## Hebe (27 Oct 2022)

The battery is still half full after running the house overnight. Weather is a bit grim today, will be interesting to see how much charge the battery picks up from the panels, if any.


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## kipster (27 Oct 2022)

Hebe said:


> The battery is still half full after running the house overnight. Weather is a bit grim today, will be interesting to see how much charge the battery picks up from the panels, if any.



We dropped to 22% left in the batteries overnight, I don't think we will fully charge today.


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## Phaeton (27 Oct 2022)

Hebe said:


> The battery is still half full after running the house overnight. Weather is a bit grim today, will be interesting to see how much charge the battery picks up from the panels, if any.



That's brilliant, ours ends up each morning less that 10%, currently 7%, just looking it was depleted before 11pm last night, which is a little unusual it's normally 2am before it empties, but we used the cooker & washer after the sun went down.


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## jowwy (27 Oct 2022)

My installation documents will be with me in 2 days....so can set-up the octopus outgoing then, we wont export much at this time of the year......but as tesco says " every little helps"


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## kipster (27 Oct 2022)

jowwy said:


> My installation documents will be with me in 2 days....so can set-up the octopus outgoing then, we wont export much at this time of the year......but as tesco says " every little helps"



I'm expecting my electric and gas bills today, and fingers crossed my export credit. It will all help inform me what my direct debit should be set to moving forward. I haven't changed it since I had solar installed so have built up quite a credit with Octopus.


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## Alex321 (27 Oct 2022)

Phaeton said:


> That's brilliant, ours ends up each morning less that 10%, currently 7%, just looking it was depleted before 11pm last night, which is a little unusual it's normally 2am before it empties, but we used the cooker & washer after the sun went down.



If ours reached full charge during the day, it usually drops to something in the 60's overnight.

It has turned sunny here now, and it is charging up again, with 4.54kW being generated and only 680W being used.


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## kipster (27 Oct 2022)

Alex321 said:


> If ours reached full charge during the day, it usually drops to something in the 60's overnight.
> 
> It has turned sunny here now, and it is charging up again, with 4.54kW being generated and only 680W being used.



Cloudy here at the moment. Battery down to 16%, I drink too much tea and the dishwasher and washing machine are on.

Producing 410w and consuming 410w


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## jowwy (27 Oct 2022)

Alex321 said:


> If ours reached full charge during the day, it usually drops to something in the 60's overnight.
> 
> It has turned sunny here now, and it is charging up again, with 4.54kW being generated and only 680W being used.



still raining up here in the mountains


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## Phaeton (27 Oct 2022)

It's addictive, the rain has currently stopped & were up to 320W, but the grandkids have arrived so the TV has gone on so we're still in negative, but less so if we didn't have the panels


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## jowwy (27 Oct 2022)

Just the 1.1kw today……its been grey all day


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## kipster (27 Oct 2022)

Only 8.2kWh today, didn't even charge the battery very much so will be importing from the grid later


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## Phaeton (27 Oct 2022)

4.1kWh we might just see 4.2kWh, but we're already onto the battery which is below 20% so definitely going to be gridding, probably just to cook tea.


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## kipster (27 Oct 2022)

Anybody else on Octopus signed up for the Savings sessions? I got an invite today so signed up. I don't think it'll amount to much due to solar and not using much from the grid so not much to save.


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## Phaeton (27 Oct 2022)

kipster said:


> Anybody else on Octopus signed up for the Savings sessions? I got an invite today so signed up. I don't think it'll amount to much due to solar and not using much from the grid so not much to save.



Just arrived in my inbox, not opened it yet


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## Hebe (27 Oct 2022)

About 5.5 kwh, thanks to some late afternoon sunshine. Got the battery up to 61% but it’s discharging now while I use the oven. Weather looks a bit better tomorrow.


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## cougie uk (27 Oct 2022)

A question for you Solar peeps. 
We currently use about 9Kwh a day for the house and about 10Kwh for the car - so 19 total. 

Is it possible to charge the car direct from the Grid at night and not from say your battery attached to the solar ? As then I'd pretty much be able to run the house off of the stored electric on a good day and not have to import so much ? 

We would be looking at getting a 10kwh battery and I believe a 3.5 or 4kwh panel array.


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## kipster (27 Oct 2022)

cougie uk said:


> A question for you Solar peeps.
> We currently use about 9Kwh a day for the house and about 10Kwh for the car - so 19 total.
> 
> Is it possible to charge the car direct from the Grid at night and not from say your battery attached to the solar ? As then I'd pretty much be able to run the house off of the stored electric on a good day and not have to import so much ?
> ...



Are you with octopus? They have an octopus Go and intelligent octopus tariffs for EVs and you can charge up overnight for on cheaper rates than normal (12p a kwh for go and 10p on intelligent octopus) If you also get solar batteries you can also charge them overnight on the same tariff. The solar batteries can also charge from the panels but it would be beneficial to charge the batteries from the grid overnight as well.

I don't have an EV so not on either of those tariffs


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## cougie uk (27 Oct 2022)

kipster said:


> Are you with octopus? They have an octopus Go and intelligent octopus tariffs for EVs and you can charge up overnight for on cheaper rates than normal (12p a kwh for go and 10p on intelligent octopus) If you also get solar batteries you can also charge them overnight on the same tariff. The solar batteries can also charge from the panels but it would be beneficial to charge the batteries from the grid overnight as well.
> 
> I don't have an EV so not on either of those tariffs



Yes I am on an Octopus Go account. Thanks for that.


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## Hebe (27 Oct 2022)

cougie uk said:


> A question for you Solar peeps.
> We currently use about 9Kwh a day for the house and about 10Kwh for the car - so 19 total.
> 
> Is it possible to charge the car direct from the Grid at night and not from say your battery attached to the solar ? As then I'd pretty much be able to run the house off of the stored electric on a good day and not have to import so much ?
> ...



we have a 10kWh battery (it’s a bit smaller in practice) and an EV, plus panels on the roof. Our inverter is also an EV charger, and we can use the app to set whether we charge using solar first, topped up from the grid, or just pull straight from the grid without touching the solar. Re running the house, we started off today with just over 50% in the battery and zero sun. So far today we’ve used 8.69kWh of which 81% was from the battery, 15% was from Solar and 4% from the grid. The battery picked up a bit of charge during the afternoon so that helped.


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## cougie uk (27 Oct 2022)

Hebe said:


> we have a 10kWh battery (it’s a bit smaller in practice) and an EV, plus panels on the roof. Our inverter is also an EV charger, and we can use the app to set whether we charge using solar first, topped up from the grid, or just pull straight from the grid without touching the solar. Re running the house, we started off today with just over 50% in the battery and zero sun. So far today we’ve used 8.69kWh of which 81% was from the battery, 15% was from Solar and 4% from the grid. The battery picked up a bit of charge during the afternoon so that helped.



That set up sounds just what I need. Cheers.


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## PaulSB (28 Oct 2022)

MrGrumpy said:


> Could be a long might be short timespan . All the projected quotes I had saw me break even at approx 12 years. However energy is not going to get cheaper anytime soon ! So this will at least save me a few quid . At 6500kWh a year going by figures it’s going to save me something !



Can I ask a serious question. Do you truly believe this level of capital investment which takes 12 years to break even makes financial sense?

For the life of me I can't see how the capital expenditure solar users make justifies the return. Investing for ethical reasons, yes, for financial reasons it makes no sense to me.


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## Tenkaykev (28 Oct 2022)

PaulSB said:


> Can I ask a serious question. Do you truly believe this level of capital investment which takes 12 years to break even makes financial sense?
> 
> For the life of me I can't see how the capital expenditure solar users make justifies the return. Investing for ethical reasons, yes, for financial reasons it makes no sense to me.



I would like to install solar but as you mention it’s the payback period. In my case I almost certainly haven’t got enough years left on the clock for it to make sense in strictly economic terms. 
I did consider it quite a few years ago, the battery options weren’t really available back then so the current systems are more appealing.


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## jowwy (28 Oct 2022)

PaulSB said:


> Can I ask a serious question. Do you truly believe this level of capital investment which takes 12 years to break even makes financial sense?
> 
> For the life of me I can't see how the capital expenditure solar users make justifies the return. Investing for ethical reasons, yes, for financial reasons it makes no sense to me.



Myself and my partner decided it wasnt about the payback for us, but more the ethical grounds. Yes people will state that creating solar panels is not a very green process, but after that it really is.

Its also a chance to sell green energy back to the grid and if you can produce enough can lower the payback time and cover any excess grid uses. But my system is pretty small at 3.2kw and cost a little over 5k....but then we only use 5kwh a day, but at 33p/kwh its only going one way and that's more expensive over the next few years as we know.


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## Phaeton (28 Oct 2022)

I think that sort of covers it for us, you're probably right there is no financial reasoning to do it, I think I was quoted 5-6 years by the guy who struck me as an ex double glazing salesman, but I feel that 8-9 years is the actual numbers, but it's impossible to say as it's like nailing jelly to the wall, far too many variables & unknowns to really be able to work it out. I suppose the only way would be to log everything & at some point you'd be there.

But how do you monetise the feel good factor? whether rightly or wrongly it feels good turning sun into electricity & not having to pay for it (although I have & am). Is it really environmentally green bringing panels from the other side of the world, having batteries with components that have probably travelled more miles to be made & installed than I have in 10 years, don't know the answer to that either.

Our instal was lead by the heart & not by the brain, the money was from my late fathers estate, yes maybe a bizarre way to remember him, but I do everyday.


----------



## Alex321 (28 Oct 2022)

PaulSB said:


> Can I ask a serious question. Do you truly believe this level of capital investment which takes 12 years to break even makes financial sense?


Well I think it will be more like 8-10 years for us, less if energy prices continue to rise. This month alone, not counting export (still waiting for the MPAN for that), we have save £110 over what we would have spent on electricity at the price cap. If we had been paid for the export, that would have been another £65 or so. 

Based on a usage of a little over 3000 units a year, and export of around 6000 units, I'm expecting overall (at current rates) saving of 1100-1200 per year, and export payments of £1200 at a conservative estimate. Which give a payback of 8 years 4 months on a £20,000 investment.

When you think about it, that means you're getting 10-12% return on your investment. There aren't many places we could get that sort of safe return on that size of investment.

I also believe it adds about a third of the cost to the value of your house, so if you sell up in 5-6 years, you will be in profit overall.



PaulSB said:


> For the life of me I can't see how the capital expenditure solar users make justifies the return. Investing for ethical reasons, yes, for financial reasons it makes no sense to me.



It was more about the "green" element than payback for us, but we wouldn't have bought if we had thought the payback would be more than about 12 years.


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## jowwy (28 Oct 2022)

Alex321 said:


> Well I think it will be more like 8-10 years for us, less if energy prices continue to rise. This month alone, not counting export *(still waiting for the MPAN for that)*, we have save £110 over what we would have spent on electricity at the price cap. If we had been paid for the export, that would have been another £65 or so.
> 
> Based on a usage of a little over 3000 units a year, and export of around 6000 units, I'm expecting overall (at current rates) saving of 1100-1200 per year, and export payments of £1200 at a conservative estimate. Which give a payback of 8 years 4 months on a £20,000 investment.
> 
> ...



isn't your MPAN number on your electric bill


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## kipster (28 Oct 2022)

jowwy said:


> isn't your MPAN number on your electric bill
> 
> View attachment 666112



He needs an export MPAN which the DNO will supply..it's a different one to the import MPAN on the bill. Once he gets the export one there should be 2 on the bill.


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## Phaeton (28 Oct 2022)

kipster said:


> He needs an export MPAN which the DNO will supply..it's a different one to the import MPAN on the bill. Once he gets the export one there should be 2 on the bill.



The one I am fighting my installer for so that we can get paid


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## jowwy (28 Oct 2022)

Phaeton said:


> The one I am fighting my installer for so that we can get paid



ah ok.....im still awaiting my paperwork.


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## kipster (28 Oct 2022)

jowwy said:


> ah ok.....im still awaiting my paperwork.



My paperwork took some time to get, but that was because I kept some money back from them for works the installer hadn't completed etc.. once that was complete and paid the paperwork took about two weeks

Submitted everything to Octopus and they submit to the DNO for the export MPAN. That took another two weeks to get but after that it's just octopus admin which took a few days.

I was expecting an electric bill today with the export on it, but only received a gas bill from them so I'm still waiting to learn what I get paid for the export.


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## jowwy (28 Oct 2022)

kipster said:


> My paperwork took some time to get, but that was because I kept some money back from them for works the installer hadn't completed etc.. once that was complete and paid the paperwork took about two weeks
> 
> Submitted everything to Octopus and they submit to the DNO for the export MPAN. That took another two weeks to get but after that it's just octopus admin which took a few days.
> 
> I was expecting an electric bill today with the export on it, but only received a gas bill from them so I'm still waiting to learn what I get paid for the export.



its not as if we going to be exporting much at the moment


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## Alex321 (28 Oct 2022)

kipster said:


> He needs an export MPAN which the DNO will supply..it's a different one to the import MPAN on the bill. Once he gets the export one there should be 2 on the bill.



Indeed.

And when Octpus applied to the DNO for it, they couldn't find the records 

I've gone back to the installer, who are now chasing the DNO (Western Power Distribution). I've seen the letters from the installer to the DNO at installation time, and the offer letter from the DNO, so how they have lost the records I don't know.


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## jowwy (28 Oct 2022)

Its a good solar day.......just gone 12 and already produced 4kw, so done a load of washing and cooked lasagne for tonights tea


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## cougie uk (28 Oct 2022)

PaulSB said:


> Can I ask a serious question. Do you truly believe this level of capital investment which takes 12 years to break even makes financial sense?
> 
> For the life of me I can't see how the capital expenditure solar users make justifies the return. Investing for ethical reasons, yes, for financial reasons it makes no sense to me.



What would you be investing in otherwise ? I think my figures are about 11 years based on prices today - but it could be quicker if prices rise.
I'll also be able to keep the lights on in the home if we have powercuts. 
And the savings on fuel running an EV are hundreds each month compared to the petrol car we used to run.


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## Hebe (28 Oct 2022)

We ran our battery dry in the early hours of this morning. Sun came out about 11 though and the house and now washing machine are running off the solar plus battery, and the battery is back up to 99%.

Cost wise, it was a slight leap of faith for us but we’re heavy users and when we added an electric car to the mix, along with utility prices rocketing, solar plus battery started to look a lot more appropriate for us. The missing piece in the jigsaw will be switching to a time of use tariff so that we can top up the battery from the grid overnight at a cheaper tariff. I need to do some maths though to see if it’s worth taking the hit on moving away from our current relatively cheap two year fix before it finishes next winter.


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## Hebe (28 Oct 2022)

cougie uk said:


> …
> I'll also be able to keep the lights on in the home if we have powercuts.


It’s worth checking this - we can’t at present with our solaredge system but apparently the functionality will be added within a few months. AsI understand it, if our mains power goes down so does our solar and also the supply to the house from the battery. It might not be the same across all suppliers/countries though.


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## Alex321 (28 Oct 2022)

jowwy said:


> Its a good solar day.......just gone 12 and already produced 4kw, so done a load of washing and cooked lasagne for tonights tea



Yep. Our battery is full and we have exported 5.25kWh already.


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## Alex321 (28 Oct 2022)

Hebe said:


> It’s worth checking this - we can’t at present with our solaredge system but apparently the functionality will be added within a few months. AsI understand it, if our mains power goes down so does our solar and also the supply to the house from the battery. It might not be the same across all suppliers/countries though.



It is most of them, unless you specifically request one that can provide power-cut backup.

It needs a hybrid inverter to do that, but also needs other bits. Ours is the non-backup types, which I didn't initially realise.


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## cougie uk (28 Oct 2022)

Alex321 said:


> It is most of them, unless you specifically request one that can provide power-cut backup.
> 
> It needs a hybrid inverter to do that, but also needs other bits. Ours is the non-backup types, which I didn't initially realise.



Blimey this is more complicated than I thought.


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## Phaeton (28 Oct 2022)

Ours should be the changeover type but currently isn't this is one of the things that I was advised it would do, but doesn't. From what I've picked up the Inverters are Grid Tied, which means they need to see 240V from the grid to operate, once that goes they shut down. Some have EMPS (I think) which means they have a circuit onto which you can add a couple of sockets that in the event of a power cut will keep working, to plug an extension lead in, not so good if it's in the loft or halfway up a wall outside, although they could be hard wired elsewhere.

However the other option is a physical switch either manual or automatic that if the grid drops, it isolates the grid & the PV & battery keep providing power to the house, although at a 3kWh Max, so you would likely to have to go around switching a few things off. You also need another dedicated Earth as you cannot use the Grid earth at this point for safety reasons, if a digger cut the cable in half up the street you may have no Earth so no protection in the house. Otherwise if you do not isolate the grid your battery is going to be sucked dry by all your neighbours, you are also putting out 240V into the network which is a safety hazard for anyone working on the cables, they would not expect power to be coming in that direction.

I have come across https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/403459960930 which I think might be a solution, any circuits on the unit would stay live, but I'm not 100% sure it will be an option if ever my installer actually gets back to me, I called around there yesterday the whole place was shut up, I rang today to get an answering machine, I did get to Whatsapp one of the installers who said they were all out on site & the secretary wasn't in this week, which as it's half term sounds plausible, which could also be why I haven't been getting any response to emails.

Okay Caveat time, I'm confident what I have put above is correct, but it may not be, so do your own research


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## cougie uk (28 Oct 2022)

Hebe said:


> It’s worth checking this - we can’t at present with our solaredge system but apparently the functionality will be added within a few months. AsI understand it, if our mains power goes down so does our solar and also the supply to the house from the battery. It might not be the same across all suppliers/countries though.



This article explains it well I think. It's not going to be safe to work on the grid and get it back up again if there's batteries powering it. I'd not thought of that. 

https://www.solarguide.co.uk/solar-back-batteries-power-cuts#/


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## MrGrumpy (28 Oct 2022)

PaulSB said:


> Can I ask a serious question. Do you truly believe this level of capital investment which takes 12 years to break even makes financial sense?
> 
> For the life of me I can't see how the capital expenditure solar users make justifies the return. Investing for ethical reasons, yes, for financial reasons it makes no sense to me.



It’s a question I’ve been asking myself Indeed but my proposed install is supposed to save me £1500 a year in leccy costs . 
How ever as someone else said , do you think about the payback on a new boiler or similar ? Currently being above average in usage without even an EV, it makes some sense and I’m not planning on moving either.


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## jowwy (28 Oct 2022)

New high for us today 6.9kwh


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## Phaeton (28 Oct 2022)

MrGrumpy said:


> It’s a question I’ve been asking myself Indeed but my proposed install is supposed to save me £1500 a year in leccy costs .
> How ever as someone else said , do you think about the payback on a new boiler or similar ? Currently being above average in usage without even an EV, it makes some sense and I’m not planning on moving either.


When did you last put a new kitchen or bathroom in, what was the payback time on those?


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## Phaeton (28 Oct 2022)

We got up to 10.4kWh but didn't get the battery above 80%, already down to 76%


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## MrGrumpy (28 Oct 2022)

Phaeton said:


> When did you last put a new kitchen or bathroom in, what was the payback time on those?



Indeed , which is why I’ve tried not to think too much about payback. The point is it will be saving me money every year .


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## Hebe (28 Oct 2022)

Today’s numbers. We’re running on the battery now.


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## kipster (28 Oct 2022)

11.4kWh produce and the battery went from 10% to 87% before the sun disappeared.


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## PaulSB (28 Oct 2022)

cougie uk said:


> What would you be investing in otherwise ? I think my figures are about 11 years based on prices today - but it could be quicker if prices rise.
> I'll also be able to keep the lights on in the home if we have powercuts.
> And the savings on fuel running an EV are hundreds each month compared to the petrol car we used to run.



At 68 I don't really have the time to wait 11 years and it's conceivable I will need the capital in the future. Where else would I invest? I'd add it to my investments with Prudential which have continued to grow throughout Covid and the current economic crisis.

I can see why generating one's own electricity for an EV is very attractive but does it really save hundreds per month? The petrol cost for +/- 1400 miles per month is +/- £200. To save that your electricity must be absolutely free.

I am genuinely interested in this and not trying to be clever. I do though find it difficult to grasp how the finances stack up. We recently replaced wife's petrol Fiat 500 with another. The EV equivalent 500 was £30000, we paid £8300 for her new car.

To convince society to move to green solutions these should make financial sense. If we'd purchased an EV and installed solar our capital outlay would be +/- £40k. To my mind that doesn't stack up financially.


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## PaulSB (28 Oct 2022)

It's heartening to read people are making solar power investment for ethical rather than financial reasons. I applaud you all for this.

I do believe though, as above, until the cost of green solutions become affordable for the majority we will make very little progress. That is the challenge for all first world governments.


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## cougie uk (28 Oct 2022)

PaulSB said:


> At 68 I don't really have the time to wait 11 years and it's conceivable I will need the capital in the future. Where else would I invest? I'd add it to my investments with Prudential which have continued to grow throughout Covid and the current economic crisis.
> 
> I can see why generating one's own electricity for an EV is very attractive but does it really save hundreds per month? The petrol cost for +/- 1400 miles per month is +/- £200. To save that your electricity must be absolutely free.
> 
> ...



Well the average life expectancy in the UK is over 80 years old - and it's probably higher than that for cyclists - so chances are you'd get the cash back ! 

That is some good MPG you're getting there ? Over 50 mpg - very efficient car. OK my EV was twice as expensive as your Fiat - but it's bigger and about the same size as the SUV it replaced. 

We charge our EV cheap rate at night as we don't yet have our solar - and it's cost us £222 for the year. For about 13,000 miles. No road tax and cheaper servicing and it's a dream to drive. One foot driving and all of the safety mod cons. 

The solar will definitely reduce our monthly electricity bills - the money could be invested - but I doubt you could double your 10k in ten years - that's about the level you'd need to see the return at ? And investments can go up and down. 

And it's not just about the cost - do you have any children or grandchildren ? Do you care about the world you're leaving for them ? 

"Sure little grandkid - I DO care about your future - but it has to make financial sense to me..."


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## Phaeton (29 Oct 2022)

cougie uk said:


> "Sure little grandkid - I DO care about your future - but it has to make financial sense to me..."


I don't think this comment was necessary


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## jowwy (29 Oct 2022)

Phaeton said:


> I don't think this comment was necessary



Agree….its supposed to be a thread about the solar production of our systems


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## Phaeton (29 Oct 2022)

cougie uk said:


> That is some good MPG you're getting there ? Over 50 mpg - very efficient car. OK my EV was twice as expensive as your Fiat - but it's bigger and about the same size as the SUV it replaced.


Our 2007 Toyota Rav4 does more than 50mpg, so it's not a very high smaller cars these days are doing over 70mpg, also which EV SUV have you bought for under £17K?


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## jowwy (29 Oct 2022)

Phaeton said:


> Our 2007 Toyota Rav4 does more than 50mpg, so it's not a very high smaller cars these days are doing over 70mpg, also which EV SUV have you bought for under £17K?



I think he may be talking about the 30k EV fiat……..but lets try and get the thread back on track with Solar PV production

Hows the weather with you today and is production likely to happen???? Its pretty wet and grey here and only getting around 100watts at the moment.


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## Hebe (29 Oct 2022)

Cloudy and wet earlier but starting to brighten up a bit. Currently generating 2.5-3.5kw and battery is up to 61%.


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## PaulSB (29 Oct 2022)

cougie uk said:


> Well the average life expectancy in the UK is over 80 years old - and it's probably higher than that for cyclists - so chances are you'd get the cash back !
> 
> That is some good MPG you're getting there ? Over 50 mpg - very efficient car. OK my EV was twice as expensive as your Fiat - but it's bigger and about the same size as the SUV it replaced.
> 
> ...


Thank you for the information, it makes very clear how such investment can and does make sense.

The two sentences I have highlighted are unnecessary and harsh. Yes, I care about the world we will leave behind. In my household we do all we can to live a green life but both our financial and housing situation limit this. The £40k I mentioned would come from savings set aside for later life. Should my wife pre-decease me the loss of her pension would leave me reliant on those savings. If I had put this capital into solar panels and an EV it's likely I would become financially reliant on the state.

There is more to this discussion than people appreciate. Your post shows households able to afford a £60k vehicle have their motoring costs effectively subsidised by others, in reality by people who cannot even afford their own energy costs. Possibly there are households more in need of cheap, almost free energy.

To me this is unfair, underlining the deep inequalities which exist in our society. To achieve a greener society we need to enable everyone to contribute. Possibly instead of a 100% subsidy on fuel costs for those able to spend £60k on a vehicle it would be better to tax the subsidy in some way to contribute say 50% of the savings to supporting others who cannot do the same? Should green credentials include using savings in "the hundreds each month" as a contribution towards saving the planet?

Another thought. My wife's car was 12 years old when we replaced it, mine is 7. I trust you will be keeping your EV for 12 years. Our UK habit of changing vehicles every three years is hardly green.

I'm going to move to solar and suggest another view. I'm fortunate to live in a conservation area subject to an Article 4 Direction. Solar is out of reach as the A4D means solar panels cannot be installed on the property. Possibly I could get planning for an installation on my allotment 500 meters from the house. At what cost? 500 metres of trenching through the garden? I am not allowed by law to make changes to the external appearance of the house. Replacement windows and doors have to be handmade at a cost of £1000 each. An investment we recently made. I'm not complaining but there are no grants, subsidies etc. available to help this effort to reduce energy use.

Perhaps sufficient reward for a solar installation should be free or low cost energy? Should income from spare capacity be taxed with that revenue invested in helping lower income families enjoy a greener or more sustainable life? We've been told these investments are largely for ethical reasons. Perhaps those ethics need to stretch further?

It's not as simple as "Sure little grandkid - I DO care about your future - but it has to make financial sense to me..."

Things are rarely as simple as they might appear.

I apologise for what I'm sure will be viewed as an off topic post. It will probably be removed but given the question asked of me I feel its worth asking just how green and ethical are these investments? I'd argue as a society we are failing miserably in our efforts to save the planet.


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## cougie uk (29 Oct 2022)

Sorry if I went near the knuckle there but didn't we all just have a summer with the hottest days of our lives there ? 
This is deadly serious and sticking your head in the sand doesn't mean it's gone away.


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## jowwy (29 Oct 2022)

PaulSB said:


> Thank you for the information, it makes very clear how such investment can and does make sense.
> 
> The two sentences I have highlighted are unnecessary and harsh. Yes, I care about the world we will leave behind. In my household we do all we can to live a green life but both our financial and housing situation limit this. The £40k I mentioned would come from savings set aside for later life. Should my wife pre-decease me the loss of her pension would leave me reliant on those savings. If I had put this capital into solar panels and an EV it's likely I would become financially reliant on the state.
> 
> ...



So you want individuals who invest in solar energy for their properties, to be taxed for excess solar sold back to the grid and taxed for any grid energy they used from their supplier. Surely it should be the companies making excess profits from energy sales, that should be taxed more and put towards more green investment, rather than individuals doing what they think is ethical………talk about having your cake and eating it.

So i got taxed on…

installation
Production excess sold
Import tax from the grid

Yet my Excess is sold at 15p and i have to import it at 33p + vat……so i have to sell 2.5kwh of excess just to cover 1kwh of import. Energy companies making even more money.


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## Phaeton (29 Oct 2022)

The sun has just got out, I've jumped from 70W-120W of this morning to 1.43kW but I can't see it lasting very long, 1.07kW is going into the battery but it's only at 14% so I can't see that getting above 30% today, the wife's just gone in the shower so when she gets out that 30 minutes of hair drier at 2000w to look forward to. She did ask yesterday if she ought to wait until the washing machine had finished before putting on the tumble drier, so I thought I was getting through, until she waited until the sun went down before putting on the drier, the oven & 2 hobs  I know we had to have food to eat.


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## kipster (29 Oct 2022)

Phaeton said:


> The sun has just got out, I've jumped from 70W-120W of this morning to 1.43kW but I can't see it lasting very long, 1.07kW is going into the battery but it's only at 14% so I can't see that getting above 30% today, the wife's just gone in the shower so when she gets out that 30 minutes of hair drier at 2000w to look forward to. She did ask yesterday if she ought to wait until the washing machine had finished before putting on the tumble drier, so I thought I was getting through, until she waited until the sun went down before putting on the drier, the oven & 2 hobs  I know we had to have food to eat.



It's tricky trying to find the right balance with changeable weather.

It's been an ok day today, currently at 10kWh and the battery is 75%. It's taken a bit of a bashing with the kettle since I got back from a ride.


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## Hebe (29 Oct 2022)

we had some sun! The panels powered the house and charged the battery by early afternoon. Plugged in the car for overflow charging and that’s got about 3kwh worth of charge in just over an hour, before the rain started. Sunny again now, ish, and the dishwasher is on.

I get where Mrs @Phaeton is coming from - it’s a real mental shift. I’m going to have to get better organised at meal planning and cooking earlier in the day. I’ll be doing a lot more with the slow cooker. Sunshine always used to trigger the laundry on the line reflex in me, now I have to think about is the battery charged and can I also run the washing machine or dishwasher or charge the car or do some cooking without dipping into the grid…. I realised last night that it makes more sense to charge phones, tablets etc during the day now to mop up some of the overflow.

@PaulSB I wish there was broader support to help everyone. Insulating homes that need it would seem to be a relatively quick win. My cookie-cutter new build home in a nice but relatively unremarkable area means that there were no planning barriers to solar, whereas friends in more scenic villages with older less well insulated homes have far fewer options available to them. I know I can’t fix the crisis on my own, and agree that as a species we’re not doing much either. I did want to make the changes that seemed sensible for us though and that were sensible within our economic remit. A year ago we were running a 13 year old diesel and a very uneconomic petrol hottish hatch on pcp. Those have now been replaced with a petrol hybrid and a leased EV (and a lot more walking and cycling). The plan is to go to one car at the end of the 4 year lease though we don’t yet know whether that will be the hybrid or another EV. Our panels have only been in for a few days but so far so good. They are working for us, let’s see what happens in winter. Solar isn’t a universal solution on its own, any more than EVs are a silver bullet for ICE issues. We need other options that are’t restricted to home-owners with cash or to those with a certain kind of house/drive/roof/postcode.
Hand on heart, ethics were a part of our decision but not all of it - probably more so with the cars as the diesel needed replacing anyway, the vw was nearing the end of its contract and doing far fewer miles than pre covid and our town has regular air quality issues. An EV gives us a car that can (probably) still be fuelled even when all the local fuel stations temporarily run dry. With the panels and battery we wanted to stabilise our electricity costs and reduce dependency on the grid.

Anyway, apologies to @jowwy for the lengthy digression. Back to numbers now.


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## jowwy (29 Oct 2022)

Worsed day since installation after yesterdays best day lol

Just 0.8kwh production


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## Hebe (29 Oct 2022)

We had a surprisingly sunny day, and started it with a half full battery, which helped. Working out how to charge the car on excess solar was a highlight.


----------



## classic33 (29 Oct 2022)

Hebe said:


> We had a surprisingly sunny day, and started it with a half full battery, which helped. Working out how to charge the car on excess solar was a highlight.
> 
> View attachment 666262
> 
> ...


You're sure the battery wasn't half empty?


----------



## cougie uk (29 Oct 2022)

I remember we had British Gas round to insulate our loft and cavity wall insulation a few years ago. I know we didn't pay. 

Was that not some national initiative or something?


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## Phaeton (29 Oct 2022)

classic33 said:


> You're sure the battery wasn't half empty?



No he has an optimistic battery, ours on the other hand


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## Hebe (29 Oct 2022)

cougie uk said:


> I remember we had British Gas round to insulate our loft and cavity wall insulation a few years ago. I know we didn't pay.
> 
> Was that not some national initiative or something?



I don't know - I think provision has been patchy and dependent on what individual councils and suppliers decided to offer. Some were grants towards the costs rather than covering the whole amount. I looked into it when I had my first mortgage in the early 90s and just didn't have the cash to spare, even with the grant.


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## Hebe (29 Oct 2022)

Phaeton said:


> No he has an optimistic battery, ours on the other hand



I'm a battery half-full kind of woman . If its charging it's half-full, if it's discharging it's half-empty.


----------



## Alex321 (29 Oct 2022)

PaulSB said:


> Thank you for the information, it makes very clear how such investment can and does make sense.
> 
> The two sentences I have highlighted are unnecessary and harsh. Yes, I care about the world we will leave behind. In my household we do all we can to live a green life but both our financial and housing situation limit this. The £40k I mentioned would come from savings set aside for later life. Should my wife pre-decease me the loss of her pension would leave me reliant on those savings. If I had put this capital into solar panels and an EV it's likely I would become financially reliant on the state.
> 
> There is more to this discussion than people appreciate. Your post shows households able to afford a £60k vehicle have their motoring costs effectively subsidised by others, in reality by people who cannot even afford their own energy costs. Possibly there are households more in need of cheap, almost free energy.


This is something I've said before, in another thread. Solar (And even EVs, though les so) is something which will save you money in the long term, but in order to save that money, you have to have the capital (or ability to get and pay for a loan) to fund it in the first place.

So only the reasonably well off are able to take advantage of the saving. Like quite a lot of things.



PaulSB said:


> To me this is unfair, underlining the deep inequalities which exist in our society. To achieve a greener society we need to enable everyone to contribute. Possibly instead of a 100% subsidy on fuel costs for those able to spend £60k on a vehicle it would be better to tax the subsidy in some way to contribute say 50% of the savings to supporting others who cannot do the same? Should green credentials include using savings in "the hundreds each month" as a contribution towards saving the planet?


There is no "100% subsidy" on EV fuel costs. I don't know where you get that from.

Anybody with an EV who doesn't have solar with sufficient generating capacity will pay for the electricity they use to charge it (Some Tesla opwners got "free" charging included as part of the exorbitant cost of purchase, but that is not really subidised)




PaulSB said:


> Another thought. My wife's car was 12 years old when we replaced it, mine is 7. I trust you will be keeping your EV for 12 years. Our UK habit of changing vehicles every three years is hardly green.



Do we really have such a habit? I now that company cars and other fleet vehicles tend to be sold off at that sort of age, but not usually scrapped, they go into the 2nd hand car market.

I think most private buyers buy 2nd hand to start with, and tend to keep them for more than 3 years then. I know we do, and I don't believe we are atypical in that respect.

According to this page, the average age of cars on the road is 8.6 years, with 20% being 13 years or older.



PaulSB said:


> I'm going to move to solar and suggest another view. I'm fortunate to live in a conservation area subject to an Article 4 Direction. Solar is out of reach as the A4D means solar panels cannot be installed on the property. Possibly I could get planning for an installation on my allotment 500 meters from the house. At what cost? 500 metres of trenching through the garden? I am not allowed by law to make changes to the external appearance of the house. Replacement windows and doors have to be handmade at a cost of £1000 each. An investment we recently made. I'm not complaining but there are no grants, subsidies etc. available to help this effort to reduce energy use.


That sucks, although I suppose to an extent it comes with where you choose to live.




PaulSB said:


> Perhaps sufficient reward for a solar installation should be free or low cost energy? Should income from spare capacity be taxed with that revenue invested in helping lower income families enjoy a greener or more sustainable life? We've been told these investments are largely for ethical reasons. Perhaps those ethics need to stretch further?


No.

These investments need to be encouraged, and that would discourage them. While many of us are making them as much for ethical reasons as for the financial reasons, fewer would do so if they couldn't see any real benefit to themselves.

Having said which, If you install solar expecting it to generate significantly more than you use, the sale of surplus energy is theoretically subject to income tax.
Income Tax (Trading and other income) Act 2005
"782ADomestic microgeneration
(1)No liability to income tax arises in respect of income arising to an individual from the sale of electricity generated by a microgeneration system if—

(a)the system is installed at or near domestic premises occupied by the individual, and

(b)the individual intends that the amount of electricity generated by it will not significantly exceed the amount of electricity consumed in those premises.

(2)In subsection (1)—


“domestic premises” means premises used wholly or mainly as a separate private dwelling, and
[F1“microgeneration system” has the same meaning as in section 263AZA of the Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992.]"




PaulSB said:


> It's not as simple as "Sure little grandkid - I DO care about your future - but it has to make financial sense to me..."
> 
> Things are rarely as simple as they might appear.
> 
> I apologise for what I'm sure will be viewed as an off topic post. It will probably be removed but given the question asked of me I feel its worth asking just how green and ethical are these investments? I'd argue as a society we are failing miserably in our efforts to save the planet.



Well anything which discourages the take up of renewable energy can only make that worse.


----------



## Beebo (29 Oct 2022)

How much does a domestic system cost? My roof faces WSW - ENE. 
I feel that my cash in the bank would be better spent on solar panels. 
How invasive is it. Do they have to drill lots of holes?


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## Alex321 (30 Oct 2022)

Beebo said:


> How much does a domestic system cost?



Varies a lot. It depends on how big a system you get, whether you want a battery as well, how easy the access is for installation, and which installer you use (you can't legally do it yourself, because only registered installers can get the MCS certificate).

It can be anything from about £5,000 up to £20,000 or more. Ours was 20,000, but ours is a much larger installation than the average domestic one, at 10.14kW, and a 16kWh battery.



Beebo said:


> My roof faces WSW - ENE.



Panels would need to go on the WSW face I think, you won't get much generation from ENE



Beebo said:


> I feel that my cash in the bank would be better spent on solar panels.
> How invasive is it. Do they have to drill lots of holes?



Not really invasive at all, though that will depend to an extent on where you want the inverter (and battery if you have one).


----------



## Hebe (30 Oct 2022)

Beebo said:


> How much does a domestic system cost? My roof faces WSW - ENE.
> I feel that my cash in the bank would be better spent on solar panels.
> How invasive is it. Do they have to drill lots of holes?



We have a SolarEdge system comprising 14 x 395Wp panels on a south facing roof, a 9.7kwh battery, and a combined inverter/EV charger. Quote was for £14.5k for slightly lower rated panels and no ev charger but the supply chain dictated either changes or a much longer wait. Quote included scaffolding. We have the battery and inverter on the side of the house so there's a bit less space on the drive, and cabling on the wall too. The panels went up in a day, the electrics took a bit longer but it was surprisingly low stress compared to all the delays with supply.


----------



## jowwy (30 Oct 2022)

Beebo said:


> How much does a domestic system cost? My roof faces WSW - ENE.
> I feel that my cash in the bank would be better spent on solar panels.
> How invasive is it. Do they have to drill lots of holes?



Mine was circa 5k…….took 2 guys one day to fit it all.

Roof tiles slid back and racking added to roof, tiles slid back forward in place to hide said brackets in the roof joists. As for inside, inverter is in the attack and cable run through trunking up gable end of property, all neat and tidy job indeed.


----------



## Phaeton (30 Oct 2022)

@Moderators Don't want to stop the thread as it's all very interesting but if one of you has a spare 10 minutes, yeah I know who has spare time these days, but could you highlight the OT comments & move them over to https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/solar-panels….283863 which would suit them better, then we can have a pre & post thread. Thanks, oh you can then delete this post then.


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## jowwy (30 Oct 2022)

Just the 3kwh today……was on/off rain all morning


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## Hebe (30 Oct 2022)

Here’s today’s. Not as high as yesterday but consumption down a bit too. We’ll burn though a bit more battery this evening what with cooking and Strictly. Still, two loads of washing done and the battery recharged fully.


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## Phaeton (30 Oct 2022)

4.7 & I'm surprised at that, it's been bleak here today


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## kipster (30 Oct 2022)

I got 7.8kWh today, batteries no where near charged.


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## cougie uk (30 Oct 2022)

Hebe said:


> We have a SolarEdge system comprising 14 x 395Wp panels on a south facing roof, a 9.7kwh battery, and a combined inverter/EV charger. Quote was for £14.5k for slightly lower rated panels and no ev charger but the supply chain dictated either changes or a much longer wait. Quote included scaffolding. We have the battery and inverter on the side of the house so there's a bit less space on the drive, and cabling on the wall too. The panels went up in a day, the electrics took a bit longer but it was surprisingly low stress compared to all the delays with supply.



Batteries on the outside of the house? I'd prefer that option as that wouldn't clog up my garage.


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## Hebe (30 Oct 2022)

cougie uk said:


> Batteries on the outside of the house? I'd prefer that option as that wouldn't clog up my garage.



Yes, on the outside near the smart meters.


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## Alex321 (30 Oct 2022)

cougie uk said:


> Batteries on the outside of the house? I'd prefer that option as that wouldn't clog up my garage.



Yes, ours is on the outside too. Underneath the inverter.


----------



## Alex321 (30 Oct 2022)

Not a great day today, although there was a sunny period in the middle - battery only ever got up to 79%, after a low point of 28% just after 8AM.


----------



## jowwy (31 Oct 2022)

I have today applied for my Octopus outgoing fixed at 15p......just sent the MCS cert and DNO letters. So hope to get it all sorted soon


----------



## jowwy (31 Oct 2022)

This may be a stupid question, but how will i know how much im exporting back to the grid???

I am having a new Smets2 smart meter being fitted on wednesday


----------



## Alex321 (31 Oct 2022)

jowwy said:


> This may be a stupid question, but how will i know how much im exporting back to the grid???
> 
> I am having a new Smets2 smart meter being fitted on wednesday



Whatever app you are using to monitor your production & usage should also show export.

You should also be able to cycle through options on the meter display to show export values.


----------



## jowwy (31 Oct 2022)

Alex321 said:


> Whatever app you are using to monitor your production & usage should also show export.
> 
> You should also be able to cycle through options on the meter display to show export values.



theres no export being show on my app - only production


----------



## Alex321 (31 Oct 2022)

I don't know that app, but I'm surprised at that.
The solar edge one does, and posts I have seen from people with other systems appear to have done. The graph bit doesn't actually show export, but the bars above it do, and if currently exporting there would be an arrow from the house to the pylon.


----------



## Phaeton (31 Oct 2022)

It is a Growatt that you have?

Do you not have something like






But you need CT clamps for the inverter to understand whats being sent where, but like all these things Octopus I suspect will only pay what the meter tells them. Just to add the reason mine shows nothing coming from the PV panels is I'm missing a CT clamp on that feed


----------



## jowwy (31 Oct 2022)

Phaeton said:


> It is a Growatt that you have?
> 
> Do you not have something like
> 
> ...



yeh i dont have any ct clamps on my system at all


----------



## Phaeton (31 Oct 2022)

That was from the Mac but the Android shows the same


----------



## Phaeton (31 Oct 2022)

jowwy said:


> yeh i dont have any ct clamps on my system at all


Speak to your installer pretty sure you should have one on at least the inbound feed, you may not need one on your PV generation as that goes straight into your Inverter, mine doesn't as I have a separate inverter for the PV to the batteries.


----------



## jowwy (31 Oct 2022)

Phaeton said:


> That was from the Mac but the Android shows the same
> 
> View attachment 666551



i have the same app - but mine just shows solar >>>>>>inverter>>>>>grid and how much is being produced. i dont have batteries and no ct clamps monitoring usage


----------



## jowwy (31 Oct 2022)

Phaeton said:


> Speak to your installer pretty sure you should have one on at least the inbound feed, you may not need one on your PV generation as that goes straight into your Inverter, mine doesn't as I have a separate inverter for the PV to the batteries.



so yours is AC coupled to the battery


----------



## jowwy (31 Oct 2022)

This is basically all mine shows me - it doesnt split it between usage and export


----------



## Milkfloat (31 Oct 2022)

Phaeton said:


> That was from the Mac but the Android shows the same
> 
> View attachment 666551



You might want to hide your address..


----------



## Phaeton (31 Oct 2022)

Milkfloat said:


> You might want to hide your address..


Not my address  Don't tell them you name Spike


----------



## Phaeton (31 Oct 2022)

jowwy said:


> so yours is AC coupled to the battery



Yes, PV to one inverter, then another which is connected to the battery, both are then teed back into the house supply between the meter & the CU.


----------



## jowwy (31 Oct 2022)

ok - so i have now found out how to display it on my smart meter which is good 

We have generated 49kwh so far and exported 27kwh .......so on the octopus outgoing plan i would have 27x0.15= £4.05 towards my leccy bill


----------



## Phaeton (31 Oct 2022)

jowwy said:


> ok - so i have now found out how to display it on my smart meter which is good
> 
> We have generated 49kwh so far and exported 27kwh .......so on the octopus outgoing plan i would have 27x0.15= £4.05 towards my leccy bill





jowwy said:


> I am having a new Smets2 smart meter being fitted on wednesday


If you're not having it fitted until Wednesday how did you?


----------



## jowwy (31 Oct 2022)

Phaeton said:


> If you're not having it fitted until Wednesday how did you?



My smets1 still stores export data and submits at half hour intervals


----------



## Phaeton (31 Oct 2022)

jowwy said:


> My smets1 still stores export data and submits at half hour intervals


TBF we had ours fitted on the 20th August & I don't think I've ever pressed a button on it


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## jowwy (31 Oct 2022)

Phaeton said:


> TBF we had ours fitted on the 20th August & I don't think I've ever pressed a button on it



Mine is on my desk up in my office


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## Phaeton (31 Oct 2022)

jowwy said:


> Mine is on my desk up in my office



You mean the display not the meter itself?


----------



## Hebe (31 Oct 2022)

3.87kWh from the solar for us today and 1.7 off to the grid. Better than I expected. Been running off the battery since about 2:15 though.


----------



## Phaeton (31 Oct 2022)

We ended at 4.6kWh, but the battery in now 10% so all the current 0.48kW is coming from the grid


----------



## kipster (31 Oct 2022)

8.9kWh today battery got to 53%, down to 39% now so we will be importing from later tonight.


----------



## jowwy (31 Oct 2022)

5.9kwh for us today


----------



## Alex321 (31 Oct 2022)

14.7kWh for us today. Battery only got up to 72%, now at 28%. That should last us the night, but we'll need a little more sun tomorrow to be sure of having enough for tomorrow night I think.


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## Hebe (1 Nov 2022)

Not too shabby considering the weather.
I've emailed Octopus to ask about signing up for their export only. There's no point in switching our supply side as we've got another year of an unexpectedly welltimed two year fix to run. I think we'll be switching to them when it's up though as then we can top up the battery and car on cheaper overnight rates.


----------



## kipster (1 Nov 2022)

I got 11.1kWh today. It all started off great and ended well, but there was a few hours in the middle of the day which was wet and dark.

I've been chasing Octopus on when I will see a credit on my export as I was expecting one with the recent electricity bill, but apparently it won't be until the 22nd November.


----------



## jowwy (1 Nov 2022)

A very poor 1.7kwh today, weather was atrocious


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## Alex321 (1 Nov 2022)

Well ours is showing 12.58kWh today, but that is because we have been drawing from the battery - 8.66kWh is consumption from battery, so only about 4kWh generated. 

As you say, very poor generation today. Battery is now down to 5%, so we are going to be drawing from the grid until it starts generating tomorrow.


----------



## jowwy (1 Nov 2022)

Alex321 said:


> Well ours is showing 12.58kWh today, but that is because we have been drawing from the battery - 8.66kWh is consumption from battery, so only about 4kWh generated.
> 
> As you say, very poor generation today. Battery is now down to 5%, so we are going to be drawing from the grid until it starts generating tomorrow.



Weather is looking better for the morning for us south walians


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## Alex321 (1 Nov 2022)

jowwy said:


> Weather is looking better for the morning for us south walians



But turning bad again in the afternoon, with 90 - 100% chance of rain depending on which forecast I Iook at. And probably windier than today, which doesn't matter for the solar, but does for my commute.

EDIT - Actually, looking at the BBC and Met Office forecasts, the wind doesn't look as bad, and the cloud cover even in the afternoon not quite as bad as today either. For the above, I was looking at two different forecasts on my phone.


----------



## jowwy (2 Nov 2022)

kipster said:


> I got 11.1kWh today. It all started off great and ended well, but there was a few hours in the middle of the day which was wet and dark.
> 
> I've been chasing Octopus on when I will see a credit on my export as I was expecting one with the recent electricity bill, but apparently it won't be until the 22nd November.



will the credit go on your bill or just be added to the account instead???


----------



## kipster (2 Nov 2022)

The money gets credited to the account balance. From what I've read elsewhere I'll get all the info regarding days, amounts exports and the price etc.. on a bill.

I've not received one yet so I'm not 100% sure.


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## jowwy (2 Nov 2022)

kipster said:


> The money gets credited to the account balance. From what I've read elsewhere I'll get all the info regarding days, amounts exports and the price etc.. on a bill.
> 
> I've not received one yet so I'm not 100% sure.



glad its going on the account balance, it can build up ready for next winter then and go towards both leccy and gas if we export enough


----------



## jowwy (2 Nov 2022)

Just the 2.7kwh for us today and octopus has been and fitted my new smart meters too.


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## kipster (2 Nov 2022)

8.2 today, started off sunny but got progressively greyer and wetter as the day went on. It covered all our daily usage including washing machine and dishwasher as well as me working from home and charged the batteries to 50%


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## Phaeton (2 Nov 2022)

Just scraped over the 4kWh today, seems to be a but better now it has the correct information, the installer didn't return with the changeover/isolation switch & more importantly the DNO letter


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## Hebe (2 Nov 2022)

Beautiful morning, overcast afternoon. Battery fully charged and a wash done by early afternoon. Hoping to get some charge in the car tomorrow, once the battery is charged.


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## Phaeton (2 Nov 2022)

Our battery didn't get above 35% today so logically it's going to be a few months before it does. Trying to work out if it'd be better with Octopus economy 7 7p extra during the day but 16p cheaper over night. We could put 5.5Kw in overnight costing 40p, which theoretically would save us 50p but if we import more than 8kWh's then we'd be equal. Although we could do the washing overnight.


----------



## jowwy (3 Nov 2022)

Had the smart meters fitted yesterday - the new IHD now tells me what im exporting back to the grid


----------



## Phaeton (3 Nov 2022)

jowwy said:


> Had the smart meters fitted yesterday - the new IHD now tells me what im exporting back to the grid



Where is that, I couldn't find it?


----------



## jowwy (3 Nov 2022)

Phaeton said:


> Where is that, I couldn't find it?



its the main display - when it exports the electric dial changes to an arrow and points at a pylon. So mine us currently displaying an export of 2.1kwh


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## Phaeton (3 Nov 2022)

jowwy said:


> its the main display - when it exports the electric dial changes to an arrow and points at a pylon. So mine us currently displaying an export of 2.1kwh



Ah, I was looking for a display which gave me a daily number,


----------



## jowwy (3 Nov 2022)

Phaeton said:


> Ah, I was looking for a display which gave me a daily number,



i wish there was lol.....no, sadly its just current export at a point in time........its a good sunny day today and we have done 3kwh already, im hoping to break our 6.9kwh record


----------



## Phaeton (3 Nov 2022)

jowwy said:


> i wish there was lol.....no, sadly its just current export at a point in time........its a good sunny day today and we have done 3kwh already, im hoping to break our 6.9kwh record



We've just snuck over 1 so it's not looking good


----------



## jowwy (3 Nov 2022)

Phaeton said:


> We've just snuck over 1 so it's not looking good



we are at 3.9kwh now....but some clouds have started to show up in the sky, its been pretty clear the last 2hrs


----------



## Alex321 (3 Nov 2022)

I wish the SolarEdge app actually showed Generation today, rather than (or as well as) "Production", where it doesn't count anything going into the battery as production, but counts anything drawn from it as "production".

Our production today is shown as 1.7kWh so far, but the battery has gone from 5% to 19%, so about another 2.4kWh gone into that.


----------



## Phaeton (3 Nov 2022)

Do you have the option to add additional CT clamps? The 2nd one fitted on our system the other day now isolates the PV generation, if you can add a CT clamp the correct way round would monitor going into the battery.


----------



## Phaeton (3 Nov 2022)

jowwy said:


> we are at 3.9kwh now....but some clouds have started to show up in the sky, its been pretty clear the last 2hrs


The SW wind has finally pushed the clouds away, I'm saying it quietly so as to not scare the sun away, we've just jumped to 1.61kW generation


----------



## jowwy (3 Nov 2022)

Phaeton said:


> The SW wind has finally pushed the clouds away, I'm saying it quietly so as to not scare the sun away, we've just jumped to 1.61kW generation



its pushed the clouds our way lol......we have stalled at 4.2kwh


----------



## Phaeton (3 Nov 2022)

jowwy said:


> its pushed the clouds our way lol......we have stalled at 4.2kwh


No, you've got my clouds which I will get once it goes dark, I'm East of you, well North East of you, we're motoring above 3.3kW currently but I don't expect it to last long


----------



## jowwy (3 Nov 2022)

Phaeton said:


> No, you've got my clouds which I will get once it goes dark, I'm East of you, well North East of you, we're motoring above 3.3kW currently but I don't expect it to last long



how big is you system again??


----------



## Phaeton (3 Nov 2022)

jowwy said:


> how big is you system again??



4.8kWh 12x panels, it's actually 12x415W (4980kW theoretically) assuming what they say they have put on the roof as what they say they are, not been up to look TBH


----------



## jowwy (3 Nov 2022)

Phaeton said:


> 4.8kWh 12x panels, it's actually 12x415W (4980kW theoretically) assuming what they say they have put on the roof as what they say they are, not been up to look TBH



i did check the panels they were fitting to mine before they put them up there lol......i got 8 x 410w panels, so 3.28kw.

We are up over 5.1kwh now....i would say maybe around 3hrs of decent sun left ( maybe lol )


----------



## Phaeton (3 Nov 2022)

I was mega busy with a work issue whilst they were here, I intended to grab one of the box labels but it didn't happen, but all the rest of the stuff is as per the invoice so I don't think they will be anything other than what they are supposed to be.


----------



## jowwy (3 Nov 2022)

Stalled at 6.6kwh


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## Phaeton (3 Nov 2022)

We turned the corner as well, 6.1kWh with 51% battery, but looks like either the oven or the tumble drier has been put on


----------



## Hebe (3 Nov 2022)

Judging by the export figures I should have been in doing the laundry rather than outside generating laundry  Weather was thoroughly not to plan today. At least I got home to a fully charged battery and a dishwasher full of clean dishes. Yesterday I got the bedding laundered using our solar and then mainly dried on the line, so that was satisfying


----------



## jowwy (4 Nov 2022)

full on sunny day planned today...the record is on lol


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## Phaeton (4 Nov 2022)

Until the rain which is not forecast arrives, on saying that we're already on 1.5kW, shame the load is 2.65kW


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## jowwy (4 Nov 2022)

Phaeton said:


> Until the rain which is not forecast arrives, on saying that we're already on 1.5kW, shame the load is 2.65kW



we are on the same...then the Mrs put the washing machine on a hot wash ggrrrrrrrr lol


----------



## kipster (4 Nov 2022)

My roof, being SW isn't quite full sun yet, but still providing 810w. Load is 260w so the batteries are charging. It's forecast to stay sunny all day so hope to get the batteries fully charged today.


----------



## jowwy (4 Nov 2022)

We have just hit 6kwh and its only just past 11am.....


----------



## Phaeton (4 Nov 2022)

But are you using it or giving it away


----------



## jowwy (4 Nov 2022)

Phaeton said:


> But are you using it or giving it away



washing machine is on, hoovering is all done...but the rest is being given away, but thats how it is at the moment as i wait for my mpan. 

But at least i know what spring/summer production will be like


----------



## jowwy (4 Nov 2022)

I'm taking a guess that we will probably be giving away around 10kwh of solar today


----------



## kipster (4 Nov 2022)

Mine is in full flow, 7.2kWh, batteries at 75% and still charging even though the washing machine and dish washer are on.


----------



## jowwy (4 Nov 2022)

My MPAN has now been accepted at octopus and we will start selling back on monday.......if only it was today


----------



## Phaeton (4 Nov 2022)

jowwy said:


> My MPAN has now been accepted at octopus and we will start selling back on monday.......if only it was today



Do you have a copy of your letter from the DNO? Your MPAN is on your account already?


----------



## Hebe (4 Nov 2022)

Battery at 92%, car largely charged, dishwasher on and we've drawn less than £1 worth from the grid all day. It looks like there was a bit of a glitch first thing when the house drew from the grid rather than the battery but all good since then. The Mr is just back from a work trip with loads of laundry though.


----------



## kipster (4 Nov 2022)

Finished at 14kWh, batteries to 100%, only a tiny bit exported


----------



## Phaeton (4 Nov 2022)

Hebe said:


> The Mr is just back from a work trip with loads of laundry though.


Always the way, my better half did it all on Wednesday in the grey & gloom, nothing to do today, not washing, drying or even dishwater.

Managed 15kWh & still trickling in at 20w, battery was 100% but is now having to supplement up to 350w, it's fish & chips tonight so no oven or hob, should get half way through the night before we start to pull from the grid again.

Although we gave away 4.2kWh


----------



## Milkfloat (4 Nov 2022)

I have been stuck on 'Export readings are available' for over a month, it looks like there is one more stage. The only bill I have had since signing up with Octopus on 22nd Sept has been for the single day I was on a standard rate before I switched to Octopus Go. Do those of you successfully exporting show a different status? I would call them up, but the wait time is horrible and I don't particularly want them to looking too carefully into my account as I don't think I should be able to buy electricity at 7.5p and sell back at 15p by having Go and Outgoing Fixed.


----------



## kipster (4 Nov 2022)

Milkfloat said:


> I have been stuck on 'Export readings are available' for over a month, it looks like there is one more stage. The only bill I have had since signing up with Octopus on 22nd Sept has been for the single day I was on a standard rate before I switched to Octopus Go. Do those of you successfully exporting show a different status? I would call them up, but the wait time is horrible and I don't particularly want them to looking too carefully into my account as I don't think I should be able to buy electricity at 7.5p and sell back at 15p by having Go and Outgoing Fixed.
> 
> View attachment 666871




Mine says the same.

I sent them an email earlier this week and was told I would get my first export statement and payment on the 22/11

That will be 2 months from when the export went live.


----------



## Phaeton (4 Nov 2022)

I found twitter was the easiest way to contact them, I signed up just to use it, as I have no idea how otherwise


----------



## Milkfloat (4 Nov 2022)

kipster said:


> Mine says the same.
> 
> I sent them an email earlier this week and was told I would get my first export statement and payment on the 22/11
> 
> That will be 2 months from when the export went live.



Phew at least they are consistent - it would be nice to know what exactly is going on though regarding costs.


----------



## jowwy (4 Nov 2022)

Phaeton said:


> Do you have a copy of your letter from the DNO? Your MPAN is on your account already?



There was no mpan letter on there, but its all sorted now.

topped off at 12.7kwh today. Thats going to be tough to be beat over the winter months i think.


----------



## Phaeton (4 Nov 2022)

Milkfloat said:


> Phew at least they are consistent - it would be nice to know what exactly is going on though regarding costs.


They've probably pulled all the developers off any work that doesn't involved onboarding (hateful yank word) Bulb customers


----------



## Phaeton (4 Nov 2022)

jowwy said:


> There was no mpan letter on there, but its all sorted now.
> 
> topped off at 12.7kwh today. Thats going to be tough to be beat over the winter months i think.


I have my MPAN number as that is the premises number it's nothing to do with exporting, on the page I found on octopus's website they asked for a copy of the letter from the DNO to be uploaded. I wonder if I'm on the wrong page?


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## jowwy (4 Nov 2022)

Phaeton said:


> I have my MPAN number as that is the premises number it's nothing to do with exporting, on the page I found on octopus's website they asked for a copy of the letter from the DNO to be uploaded. I wonder if I'm on the wrong page?



No there is two different numbers….import and export. The one on your dno letter is you standard import from the grid number. When you export, they supply you with a different number.


----------



## kipster (4 Nov 2022)

When I did my export I uploaded a response from the DNO re the G99 application. It was an email saying they had updated their records etc...

Octopus were happy with that email as notification to the DNO.


----------



## jowwy (4 Nov 2022)

kipster said:


> When I did my export I uploaded a response from the DNO re the G99 application. It was an email saying they had updated their records etc...
> 
> Octopus were happy with that email as notification to the DNO.



They were also happy with my letter from my dno…..but they then asked my dno to supply an export mpan number. Now my import and export has different account numbers, in case i want to switch one account and not the other. Makes sense to me


----------



## Alex321 (4 Nov 2022)

Phaeton said:


> I have my MPAN number as that is the premises number it's nothing to do with exporting, on the page I found on octopus's website they asked for a copy of the letter from the DNO to be uploaded. I wonder if I'm on the wrong page?



There are two separate MPANs. One is for importing, one for exporting. The DNO Letter will give the export MPAN.


----------



## Hebe (5 Nov 2022)

0.59kwh today... Just burning through the remainder of yesterday's battery charge to make tea.


----------



## Phaeton (5 Nov 2022)

Our battery ended at 4:15 this morning, but what a difference a day makes, yesterday is showing 15kWh & today is just 0.9kWh


----------



## kipster (5 Nov 2022)

3.6kWh today, I think that is my lowest ever day.


----------



## jowwy (5 Nov 2022)

I just beat @Phaeton with 1.1kwh today after yesterdays record day


----------



## jowwy (6 Nov 2022)

Very wet and grey day….just the 1.7kwh


----------



## kipster (6 Nov 2022)

Not sure what the weather was at home today as we've been visiting parents.

Got 4.3kWh and because we were out the batteries charged a little.


----------



## Phaeton (6 Nov 2022)

Would this be more relevant of we used a percentage of the installed system.

So my todays number of 3.8 from my 4.8 system would be 78%


----------



## jowwy (6 Nov 2022)

Phaeton said:


> Would this be more relevant of we used a percentage of the installed system.
> 
> So my todays number of 3.8 from my 4.8 system would be 78%



That makes mine 53%


----------



## jowwy (7 Nov 2022)

My octopus export is online today - and im exporting zero KWH.....its darker than my oakley prism sun glasses outside


----------



## Hebe (7 Nov 2022)

Barely anything generated here the last couple of days and the battery is sitting on 0.


----------



## Phaeton (7 Nov 2022)

Still managed a reasonable 3/65.5% battery got up to 18% but already down to 12%


----------



## jowwy (7 Nov 2022)

Phaeton said:


> Still managed a reasonable 3/65.5% battery got up to 18% but already down to 12%



Crap for us again today…..just the 0.6kwh


----------



## jowwy (8 Nov 2022)

@Alex321 did you switch to octopus outgoing agile after or are you not exporting at all???


----------



## jowwy (8 Nov 2022)

Octopus outgoing all set-up and today we are actually getting paid for the export.....7 days since sending them all my certs, which isn't bad to be fair and only really had one good sunny day during that time. This weekend is supposed to be mighty fine for solar, from wednesday to sunday


----------



## Alex321 (8 Nov 2022)

jowwy said:


> @Alex321 did you switch to octopus outgoing agile after or are you not exporting at all???



Still waiting for my installer to get the MPAN. I'll be chasing them today, since it is now over two weeks since they said they were asking for it.

At the moment, anything I export is just lost.

Your referral finally came through yesterday, BTW.


----------



## jowwy (8 Nov 2022)

Alex321 said:


> Your referral finally came through yesterday, BTW.



That's 8 days after the credited my account with it


----------



## jowwy (8 Nov 2022)

Alex321 said:


> *Still waiting for my installer to get the MPAN*. I'll be chasing them today, since it is now over two weeks since they said they were asking for it.
> 
> At the moment, anything I export is just lost.
> 
> Your referral finally came through yesterday, BTW.



My mpan came from my DNO not my installer......i sent off the dno letter to octopus and they did the rest


----------



## Alex321 (8 Nov 2022)

jowwy said:


> My mpan came from my DNO not my installer......i sent off the dno letter to octopus and they did the rest



Yes, but when Octopus contacted the DNO, the installer couldn't find a record of receiving the G99 form, which has to be completed by the installer.

I have seen all the documentation prior to that, which includes the offer from the DNO for the installation to go ahead, but it looks like the installer may have missed actually sending in the final form after installation (or the DNO mislaid it).

This was the relevant text of the email I had from Octopus:
------------------------------------------------------------------
We've hit a snag getting your Outgoing export set up.

To correctly measure your export I have to get something called an Export
MPAN generated, which is an extra identifier for your meter. Normally when
a solar system is installed, the installer sends a G59/G83/G98 Notification
form to the Distribution Network Operator (DNO).

In your case either the notification has been lost or wasn't completed.
Because of this, the DNO has rejected our request for the export MPAN.
Please either pursue this with your solar system installer or re-submit the
notification, as until it's complete we're unable to progress with your
application.

Let us know once you've had confirmation back from the DNO, and we can
reapply to have your export registered.

Your DNO is National Grid Electricity Distribution and they have a useful
guide on what is required here
https://protect-eu.mimecast.com/s/1NuGCV5ZBhJRZmxSGzQXS?domain=connections.nationalgrid.co.uk
https://protect-eu.mimecast.com/s/xjB5CWwBDfEW4Z5fxXV02?domain=click.octopus.energy

National Grid Electricity Distribution has taken over from Western Power
Distribution. Any documents sent to Western Power will have been received
by National Grid, and we're happy to accept confirmation of commissioning
letters addressed from either party.


----------



## jowwy (8 Nov 2022)

Alex321 said:


> Yes, but when Octopus contacted the DNO, the installer couldn't find a record of receiving the G99 form, which has to be completed by the installer.
> 
> I have seen all the documentation prior to that, which includes the offer from the DNO for the installation to go ahead, but it looks like the installer may have missed actually sending in the final form after installation (or the DNO mislaid it).
> 
> ...



thats bad form from the installer tbh.....


----------



## Alex321 (8 Nov 2022)

jowwy said:


> thats bad form from the installer tbh.....



Either them or the DNO. I have no way of knowing which was at fault. The DNO has changed in the meantime (as described in that email), and it isn't impossible that files got lost in the process. The files and data SHOULD have all been transferred, but mistakes happen.


----------



## jowwy (8 Nov 2022)

Alex321 said:


> Either them or the DNO. I have no way of knowing which was at fault. The DNO has changed in the meantime (as described in that email), and it isn't impossible that files got lost in the process. The files and data SHOULD have all been transferred, but mistakes happen.



Yeh my DNO letter came from the national grid.....but i didn't need permission to fit my system as its under 3.7kw, we only needed to tell them after it was fitted. So a lot easier to deal with a no paperwork to lose


----------



## Phaeton (8 Nov 2022)

I've just been onto the DNO to try to find out what is happening with my MPAN, it appears it has been requested as a 4.8 system G99, which is the size of the panels, but the Inverter is only a 3.6 therefore should have gone through G98 not G99. also as it's under G99 it should not have been installed until after it was approved. The fun continues


----------



## Hebe (8 Nov 2022)

Just ordered a second battery. Leap of faith really as it won’t really start paying its way until we either get a lot more sunshine or until our current fixed rate tariff expires. But batteries probably won’t get any cheaper in the meantime, and the supplier has them in stock, so we’re going for it.
That all sounds a bit of a mess @Phaeton . Is your installer going to sort it all out?


----------



## MrGrumpy (8 Nov 2022)

Hebe said:


> Just ordered a second battery. Leap of faith really as it won’t really start paying its way until we either get a lot more sunshine or until our current fixed rate tariff expires. But batteries probably won’t get any cheaper in the meantime, and the supplier has them in stock, so we’re going for it.
> That all sounds a bit of a mess @Phaeton . Is your installer going to sort it all out?



How big ? I’ve been quoted for a 10kWh


----------



## Hebe (8 Nov 2022)

MrGrumpy said:


> How big ? I’ve been quoted for a 10kWh



A second 10kWh, which is 9.something in reality.


----------



## Phaeton (8 Nov 2022)

I've been thinking about a 2nd 6.5kWh battery, as we had topped the existing one up in September by lunch, I know we'll be getting 15p back (hopefully) but it's trying to work out if it's better to store & then use later.

Also just found this on the inverter looks like they did install a 5 not a 3.6 so G99 it is then.


----------



## jowwy (8 Nov 2022)

Phaeton said:


> I've been thinking about a 2nd 6.5kWh battery, as we had topped the existing one up in September by lunch, I know we'll be getting 15p back (hopefully) but it's trying to work out if it's better to store & then use later.
> 
> Also just found this on the inverter looks like they did install a 5 not a 3.6 so G99 it is then.
> 
> View attachment 667288



thats a bit of a mess phaeton. hope it gets sorted soon for you


----------



## Hebe (8 Nov 2022)

We can’t switch tariff at the moment so I can only get 4.1p for export. We’re heavy users so it makes sense to store a bit more in the daytime then have a bit more available for laundry etc overnight. When our current tariff finishes we’ll go for something like Agile or whatever the equivalent is by then.


----------



## Phaeton (8 Nov 2022)

jowwy said:


> thats a bit of a mess phaeton. hope it gets sorted soon for you





Hebe said:


> That all sounds a bit of a mess @Phaeton . Is your installer going to sort it all out?


I think what has happened reading between the lines, they are commercial installers, 100+ panels are their normal installs, but they saw an opportunity to get into the residential market, we were the first attempt & as they were expanding new people who really didn't understand this side of the market have made mistakes. They've then realised the mistakes but not recified them, in some respects I'm in a good position as the kit installed is better than quoted. 

I called into the office earlier & explained the position to one of the Directors, he thought the install was finished & said he would look into what has gone wrong. Hopefully this will get something moving


----------



## MrGrumpy (8 Nov 2022)

Hebe said:


> A second 10kWh, which is 9.something in reality.



Fair enough that’s a fair bit of storage . Do you max out your existing battery spring/summer ?


----------



## kipster (8 Nov 2022)

I'm contemplating adding batteries to take me up to 20kWh but I feel it will only work when I can get onto one of the octopus cheap rate overnight tariffs.

Prices have gone up from what I paid at install and I'll have to include vat on any additional batteries. Hopefully the prices will stabilise next year.

In the summer my current batteries are fully charged by 11am. 20kWh would be charged by about 3pm leaving me an export of about 10-20kWh when the agile outgoing prices are highest.


----------



## jowwy (8 Nov 2022)

Just 2.6kwhs today…..but around 2kwh was exported, will no tmrw when i check my octopus account


----------



## Hebe (8 Nov 2022)

MrGrumpy said:


> Fair enough that’s a fair bit of storage . Do you max out your existing battery spring/summer ?



It only went in a couple of weeks back but yes, on sunny days we're filling up what we have by 2/3 ish. The plan eventually is to have the kind of tariff that will allow us to top up batteries and/or car from the grid at cheaper rates. So we'll be able to store cheaper grid electric when the weather is not great.


----------



## Phaeton (9 Nov 2022)

Is the Growatt monitoring website & App down?


----------



## kipster (9 Nov 2022)

Phaeton said:


> Is the Growatt monitoring website & App down?



It is for me


----------



## kipster (9 Nov 2022)

Just refreshed the app and got some data


----------



## jowwy (9 Nov 2022)

Phaeton said:


> Is the Growatt monitoring website & App down?



all up and working for me


----------



## Phaeton (9 Nov 2022)

Need to go look at the inverter/dongle then, stopped at 08:05


----------



## Phaeton (9 Nov 2022)

Back online now, note to self, ignore it, get on with life


----------



## jowwy (9 Nov 2022)

Nice bright sunshine up here currently......hopefully for next few days too


----------



## Alex321 (9 Nov 2022)

And here, a few miles South of you. Battery over 50% now for the first time since Friday.


----------



## jowwy (9 Nov 2022)

looks like growatt servers are down again


----------



## Alex321 (9 Nov 2022)

jowwy said:


> Yeh my DNO letter came from the national grid.....but i didn't need permission to fit my system as its under 3.7kw, we only needed to tell them after it was fitted. So a lot easier to deal with a no paperwork to lose



The DNO sent my installer a form for me to sign, accepting the contract before they will issue the MPAN. Normally this is done by the supplier on behalf of the end customer, the end customer never sees it, so not too sure why I am doing so here. But I had to print it off, sign it and scan it back in to send back to the installer, who have now sent it on to the DNO.

The DNO (who were then Western Power Distribution) did have to be told about mine before installation, which was on a G99 rather than G98 because of the size. But I know that happened properly, because I've seen the letter from the DNO confirming it.


----------



## jowwy (9 Nov 2022)

Alex321 said:


> The DNO sent my installer a form for me to sign, accepting the contract before they will issue the MPAN. Normally this is done by the supplier on behalf of the end customer, the end customer never sees it, so not too sure why I am doing so here. But I had to print it off, sign it and scan it back in to send back to the installer, who have now sent it on to the DNO.
> 
> The DNO (who were then Western Power Distribution) did have to be told about mine before installation, which was on a G99 rather than G98 because of the size. But I know that happened properly, because I've seen the letter from the DNO confirming it.



at least its getting sorted now....

for me octopus are now showing my export figures, so it will be nice to see how that goes over the next few weeks and months.


----------



## Hebe (9 Nov 2022)

Battery at 84% and still trying to charge despite a leaden sky. Might be able to get some charge in the car too if the showers pass.


----------



## Alex321 (9 Nov 2022)

Hebe said:


> Battery at 84% and still trying to charge despite a leaden sky. Might be able to get some charge in the car too if the showers pass.



Currently at 64%, with 4.54kW being generated, and only 50 watts being used (I'm not at home, or it would be 150-200 watts being used).


----------



## MrGrumpy (9 Nov 2022)

50 watts when nobody is at home , the stuff of dreams


----------



## Alex321 (9 Nov 2022)

MrGrumpy said:


> 50 watts when nobody is at home , the stuff of dreams



My wife is at home.


----------



## MrGrumpy (9 Nov 2022)

Alex321 said:


> My wife is at home.



In the shed


----------



## Phaeton (9 Nov 2022)

MrGrumpy said:


> 50 watts when nobody is at home , the stuff of dreams


yep ours is is at least 250W, spiking to 400w as presumably the freezer kicks in hourly(ish)


----------



## kipster (9 Nov 2022)

WFH today and noticed that I get some shading from the neighbouring property as the sun is lower at this time of year. It's impacting what would otherwise be lovely sunshine from about 2:30 onwards. 

I might need to look into installing solar optimisers


----------



## Phaeton (9 Nov 2022)

kipster said:


> I might need to look into installing solar optimisers


Check this out first 
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GvhDhCSJgo


----------



## jowwy (9 Nov 2022)

We got 5.2kwhs in the end and i reckon around 3kwhs was exported….

our base overnight is 35w kicking to 145w when the freezer kicks in, then i switched the office on, it kicks to around 275w


----------



## kipster (9 Nov 2022)

12.7kWh here today, batteries nearly full.


----------



## Phaeton (10 Nov 2022)

Rang the DNO yesterday to ask what is happening, lady took a message & said that somebody would get back to me in a couple of days, had the call this morning, it is going via G99 & that they have 9 working weeks or 45 working days to respond to any application. The due date is the 16th November, but he expects to make a decision on Monday, he says a quick scan at the maps doesn't bring any red flags, but he has to do some calculations before he can confirm any decision. He also advised there is also a matter of a £365+vat fee to be paid which will be billed to the installer.

At least I know whats happening, I would have been okay with it, if the installer had advised this was the case, as it is I've worked all of this out myself reading on here & FB, but potentially the light is at the end of the tunnel.


----------



## jowwy (10 Nov 2022)

its a poor grey, wet, overcast day here.....not expecting much production


----------



## Hebe (10 Nov 2022)

We've just emptied the last 20% of battery charge into the car. I think we'll be on the grid until Saturday, judging by the weather forecast.


----------



## jowwy (10 Nov 2022)

Yesterdays export figures have come through....we produced 5.1kwh and exported 3.7kwh of it...72.54% export rate


----------



## Alex321 (10 Nov 2022)

Hebe said:


> We've just emptied the last 20% of battery charge into the car. I think we'll be on the grid until Saturday, judging by the weather forecast.



Ours is still on 46%, and even a tiny bit going into it. Forecast here is showing some sun for tomorrow & Saturday.


----------



## Phaeton (10 Nov 2022)

I think I need to put my Inverter into my Blacklist of website, not sure it's doing me any good looking at it all the time


----------



## jowwy (10 Nov 2022)

Today was a bad day 0.7kwh……no export today lol


----------



## kipster (10 Nov 2022)

jowwy said:


> Today was a bad day 0.7kwh……no export today lol



Likewise, 3.9kWh today, no real charge into the batteries.


----------



## Hebe (10 Nov 2022)

Empty battery, nothing exported and barely anything generated. Oh well.


----------



## Phaeton (11 Nov 2022)

Octopus have now lost connectivity with our smart meters for the past 3 days


----------



## jowwy (11 Nov 2022)

Just the 1kwh today, its been pretty dark and cloudy all day


----------



## kipster (11 Nov 2022)

jowwy said:


> Just the 1kwh today, its been pretty dark and cloudy all day



We had a spurt of sun for a few minutes which managed to get me to 5kWh today


----------



## jowwy (12 Nov 2022)

another over cast day and its only 1.5kwh for us


----------



## Hebe (12 Nov 2022)

Just over 5kwh for us today, a good day once the cloud lifted. The battery didn’t quite make it to 100% because I got ambitious and ran the washing machine at the same time. Hopefully there’s some more sunny weather due tomorrow.


----------



## kipster (12 Nov 2022)

11.2kWh today, batteries to 87%. We had sun from 10am ish


----------



## Phaeton (12 Nov 2022)

8.9kWh today battery saw 100% but is dropping now, but as life would have it no washing or dryer as we were both out, but I reckon tomorrow when it's raining we'll have both on


----------



## jowwy (12 Nov 2022)

Whats this sun you all speak of????


----------



## kipster (12 Nov 2022)

jowwy said:


> Whats this sun you all speak of????









It's somewhere up there in the blue sky


----------



## jowwy (12 Nov 2022)

kipster said:


> View attachment 667783
> 
> 
> It's somewhere up there in the blue sky



Not seen that there blue sky in a while or the sun lol


----------



## Alex321 (12 Nov 2022)

jowwy said:


> Whats this sun you all speak of????



Something that happens outside Wales 

We did get a little sun today, but too late to be any use. 4.36 kWh for us today.


----------



## Phaeton (12 Nov 2022)

Alex321 said:


> Something that happens outside Wales
> 
> We did get a little sun today, but too late to be any use. 4.36 kWh for us today.



If you don't want your 4.36 I'll have it if you're giving it away


----------



## Alex321 (12 Nov 2022)

Phaeton said:


> If you don't want your 4.36 I'll have it if you're giving it away



Oh no, we used it all. 

I meant the sun was too late to be any use, you get virtually nothing out of it after about 3PM this time of year.


----------



## jowwy (13 Nov 2022)

We got plenty of sun today…..already at 2.5kwh


----------



## Phaeton (13 Nov 2022)

jowwy said:


> We got plenty of sun today…..already at 2.5kwh


We've got your yesterday only 0.6 for far & yes i was right, dishwasher, washing machine & tumble dryer all on the go


----------



## kipster (13 Nov 2022)

It was a gloomy start but it is full sun now.


----------



## Hebe (13 Nov 2022)

3.66kwh so far today, battery is at about 90% and one load of washing done. We should now have an afternoon of full sun ahead which will largely go into the car. There’s definitely a balancing act to be done in terms of prioritising what gets to use the power every day.


----------



## jowwy (13 Nov 2022)

We are upto 10kwh and what a power curve


----------



## Hebe (13 Nov 2022)

We got a fair few miles into the car from the panels this afternoon before they gave up and returned to charging the battery instead. Funny how there’s *sun *and there’s sun.
Lovely graph @jowwy !


----------



## jowwy (13 Nov 2022)

We’ve topped out at 11kwh and exported approx 9kwh of it……..not bad for november


----------



## jowwy (15 Nov 2022)

Was supposed to be really heavy rain today but we got sun in the end….3.8kwh


----------



## jowwy (17 Nov 2022)

5.2kwh for me today, started badly then picked up through the day.


----------



## kipster (17 Nov 2022)

jowwy said:


> 5.2kwh for me today, started badly then picked up through the day.



We had a good day, 12.6kWh and batteries to 98% then the cloud came over and it all stopped.


----------



## jowwy (18 Nov 2022)

A wet cloudy start, but the sun finally came out and we got 4.5kwh


----------



## Hebe (18 Nov 2022)

8.86kwh today which mainly went into the car, and then a bit into the battery.


----------



## Alex321 (18 Nov 2022)

We got 7.88kWh today, plus 28% currently in the battery. The battery didn't gain *all* that much because the Christmas cake was being cooked, so the oven was on for quite a while this afternoon, and the battery never got above 54% today.


----------



## kipster (18 Nov 2022)

We got 10.2kWh and got the battery fully charged. Mind you that's probably because we were out all day and evening.


----------



## jowwy (19 Nov 2022)

A nice 8.2kwh today……used the washing machine while the sun was shining, so may not have exportee much today


----------



## jowwy (21 Nov 2022)

A poor 0.6kwh today in the rain


----------



## jowwy (22 Nov 2022)

9.1kwh today…….


----------



## kipster (22 Nov 2022)

jowwy said:


> 9.1kwh today…….



That's a bit more than I managed @ 8.9kWh


----------



## jowwy (22 Nov 2022)

kipster said:


> That's a bit more than I managed @ 8.9kWh



We had a pretty sunny day today from the off, so was good to see the kwh climb


----------



## Alex321 (22 Nov 2022)

Ours is currently saying 8.55kWh, but the battery has gone from 5% to currently at 36%, so that is about another 4kWh. 

It was sunny most of the day, but quite misty for the first couple of hours, which reduced it a bit.


----------



## jowwy (23 Nov 2022)

A good start was shattered by thunder, lightning and hailstones…..just 3kwhs today


----------



## Hebe (23 Nov 2022)

North of 10kWh here today - weather much better than forecast and we got plenty of charge into the car. Battery didn’t make it above 15% before the rain started again though.


----------



## Alex321 (24 Nov 2022)

jowwy said:


> A good start was shattered by thunder, lightning and hailstones…..just 3kwhs today



We got more than that, but similarly, the reasonably sunny morning was followed by hail and thunderstorms all afternoon. It is showing 12.8kWh, but some of that was discharging hat was left in the battery from yesterday.


----------



## jowwy (24 Nov 2022)

Not a good day with only 0.5kwh……should be good tmrw though


----------



## jowwy (25 Nov 2022)

Supposed to be sunny all day today....lets see how the panels do. Although the growatt website is shite at the moment and not showing any data. Yet its showing on the phone App


----------



## kipster (25 Nov 2022)

Yesterday was rubbish @ 4.4kWh but I feel todays gonna be a good day.


----------



## jowwy (25 Nov 2022)

so far in the 7wks i have had the solar installed i have saved £46.80, based on the 33p/kwh rate......we have exported according to octopus since 7th November - 40kwh of solar to the grid. 

To be fair its been a pretty wet and miserable November


----------



## kipster (25 Nov 2022)

I'll scrape about 11.6kWh today.

I've exported very little this month as all the excess goes to the batteries which have only fully charged two or three times in November


----------



## jowwy (25 Nov 2022)

6kwh today……2 full washes done in washing machine and a little export on top. Love a sunny day


----------



## mistyoptic (25 Nov 2022)

7kwh produced. Not sure how much went outwards


----------



## Alex321 (25 Nov 2022)

I really wish the Solar edge app would report the amount generated each day, rather than listing "system production" which doesn't count anything going in to the battery, but only counts it when used.

We have been out almost all day, it is showing only 1.71 kWh, but the battery started at 5% and is now on 62%, so that is about another 8.5kWh


----------



## Phaeton (26 Nov 2022)

I suppose it depends on the App, I understand there are some 3rd party ones, whether they work with Solar Edge not sure, this is the Growatt one, you can add or remove each of the elements to view them individually


----------



## Alex321 (26 Nov 2022)

Phaeton said:


> I suppose it depends on the App, I understand there are some 3rd party ones, whether they work with Solar Edge not sure, this is the Growatt one, you can add or remove each of the elements to view them individually
> 
> View attachment 669159



That is quite similar to how ours reported it before we had the battery. With the battery, it now shows "system production" as being the total of self-consumption, export to grid, and consumption from battery.

It classes the battery as part of the "system", and only counts it as production when it leaves the "system" either through consumption or export.


----------



## jowwy (26 Nov 2022)

0.6kwh today, was very wet and dark today though


----------



## kipster (26 Nov 2022)

4.2kWh here, pretty grey and miserable all day. Wrecked a tyre on a ride and had to get the wife to come and collect me from the middle of nowhere. Was cold through but kept the heating on the lowish setting.


----------



## chris-suffolk (26 Nov 2022)

Loads of folks reporting north of 10kw for days in Nov. What size systems are you running, as I've only managed over 10kw four times this month and typically less than 5kw? Only 118kw for the month to date, which is 4.5kw per day on average.


----------



## Alex321 (27 Nov 2022)

chris-suffolk said:


> Loads of folks reporting north of 10kw for days in Nov. What size systems are you running, as I've only managed over 10kw four times this month and typically less than 5kw? Only 118kw for the month to date, which is 4.5kw per day on average.



Mine is nominally a 10.14kW system. Which is pretty large for a domestic installation, but we asked them to cover the whole of the rear roof of both house and and garage. We wanted it as future proof as possible. 

We have had 9 days in November with over 10kWh. And 201.8kWh for the month so far (so an average of 7.76kWh per day)


----------



## kipster (27 Nov 2022)

Mine is a 7kw array, pointing SSE i've had 4 days over 10kWh in November, with a few more close @ 9.6 or 9.7.

For the month so far 200.8kWh


----------



## Phaeton (27 Nov 2022)

4.8kW array, managed this month 104kWh, 4kWh per day average so not too bad.


----------



## jowwy (27 Nov 2022)

3.2kwh array and so far 99.6kwh for the month….in not so sunny south wales
average of 3.685kwh


----------



## jowwy (28 Nov 2022)

We maxed out at 3.6kwh today, was quite a grey, wet start to the morning…so not bad really


----------



## jowwy (29 Nov 2022)

Today might be a good day...2.1kwh at 10am


----------



## jowwy (29 Nov 2022)

When one cloud ruins what could have been a good solar production and export day


----------



## jowwy (29 Nov 2022)

7kwh in the end and probably exported 5 of that, but octopus will tell me tmrw


----------



## kipster (29 Nov 2022)

My worse day so far 1.9kWh, grey and overcast all day


----------



## MrGrumpy (29 Nov 2022)

This is like confession time at the chapel!


----------



## jowwy (1 Dec 2022)

a poor 1.9kwh for yesterday....but today has started well. Not a cloud in the sky and planned for sun all day

Just put the solar generator onto charge, will use that to run the tv, sky box and internet during tonight's power saving session, its charging off solar right now, so not costing anything to charge it up.


----------



## jowwy (1 Dec 2022)

9.6kwh today….great start to december


----------



## kipster (1 Dec 2022)

We had fog all day so we won't have got much at all. I can't find out how little as the internet at home is down so no data going to the growatt servers.


----------



## Hebe (1 Dec 2022)

Foggy all day here. 2.22kwh generated and the battery charged to 16%. However, looking at the stats for November, we produced 44% of all the electricity that we consumed. Two thirds of that 44% was via the battery which gets charged with any excess solar after the house is run. We exported 12.8kwh to the grid over the whole month.


----------



## jowwy (2 Dec 2022)

Looks like its going to be another top solar day.......


----------



## Alex321 (2 Dec 2022)

Much better day here. The fog has lifted, and we now have clear sun.

Yesterday our total for the day was 2.69kWh, and our battery never got above 19%. Today it is already at 18% and rising.


----------



## jowwy (2 Dec 2022)

Alex321 said:


> Much better day here. The fog has lifted, and we now have clear sun.
> 
> Yesterday our total for the day was 2.69kWh, and our battery never got above 19%. Today it is already at 18% and rising.



and we got the opposite now...started well and now cloudy. I'm getting a big fan out in the garden, to push the clouds away lol

BUT - we are covering the base load, so no increase in leccy use


----------



## Hebe (2 Dec 2022)

2.58kwh so far today and a whopping 1% charge in the battery. We have covid in the house again so I’m getting all the washing done and dried today in case I catch it next.


----------



## jowwy (2 Dec 2022)

2.6kwh in the end…..the clouds came


----------



## kipster (2 Dec 2022)

jowwy said:


> 2.6kwh in the end…..the clouds came



4.2kWh today, sorry for sending them your way


----------



## Phaeton (3 Dec 2022)

We've had more production in the last 1.5 hours than we've had for the past 3 days


----------



## jowwy (3 Dec 2022)

Phaeton said:


> We've had more production in the last 1.5 hours than we've had for the past 3 days



We have one of those days today, where its cloudy out front and sunny out back…..so solar production will be a slow process today


----------



## jowwy (3 Dec 2022)

A slow 2.1kwh today……but it is december


----------



## Phaeton (3 Dec 2022)

5kWh best this week in fact I think it matched the last 5 days


----------



## Hebe (3 Dec 2022)

3.23kwh today. I miss sunny days.


----------



## jowwy (4 Dec 2022)

Dark, cold and snowing today. Dont think we getting much solar today


----------



## Hebe (4 Dec 2022)

No snow here, but equally no sun and correspondingly little solar.


----------



## jowwy (4 Dec 2022)

0.2kwh today…..dreadful, but its been quite dark, wet and cold today.


----------



## chris-suffolk (4 Dec 2022)

jowwy said:


> 0.2kwh today…..dreadful, but its been quite dark, wet and cold today.



Well, first time I can remember, except when covered in snow - 0kwh today - ouch !!


----------



## Hebe (4 Dec 2022)

0.17kwh today.


----------



## kipster (4 Dec 2022)

1.3kWh today.


----------



## Alex321 (4 Dec 2022)

1.98kWh here today. Dull and cold all day.


----------



## jowwy (5 Dec 2022)

Another dark cloudy day - 0.2kwh


----------



## Alex321 (5 Dec 2022)

We had a bit more sun, but still not very much - 4.07kWh here.


----------



## kipster (5 Dec 2022)

No sun but squeezed 2.3kWh today

Only 16 days left before the days start getting longer


----------



## jowwy (5 Dec 2022)

kipster said:


> No sun but squeezed 2.3kWh today
> 
> Only 16 days left before the days start getting longer



We now have six days of sun according to the bbc….so lets see what happens


----------



## JB052 (5 Dec 2022)

We managed 2.4kWh today here in Bedfordshire on a fairly cloudy day


----------



## jowwy (6 Dec 2022)

JB052 said:


> We managed 24kWh today here in Bedfordshire on a fairly cloudy day



what size system you got there in bedfordshire???


----------



## Hebe (6 Dec 2022)

Our app is a bit off today but battery seems to be at 39% and climbing.


----------



## jowwy (6 Dec 2022)

Hebe said:


> Our app is a bit off today but battery seems to be at 39% and climbing.



we started well and then someone sent a huge cloud over my roof


----------



## JB052 (6 Dec 2022)

jowwy said:


> what size system you got there in bedfordshire???



Just had 18x panels installed at 7.11kWp. Decimal point missing from yesterday (2.4 rather than 24kWh) managed 11.2kWh in todays winter sunshine.


----------



## jowwy (6 Dec 2022)

Just the 2.1kwhs today……


----------



## Alex321 (7 Dec 2022)

5.31kWh here today (Yesterday at this time of morning) - with battery at 16% at the end of the day, so about another 2.5 kWh on top of that.


----------



## Hebe (7 Dec 2022)

4.97kWh for the whole day yesterday, which includes solar from the roof and solar via the battery. The battery went from empty to 83% (at late afternoon) and saw us through the night, currently at 18% and discharging. Forecast is not too bad for the next few days. We were able to decrease our monthly Ovo direct debit by £24.


----------



## jowwy (7 Dec 2022)

Supposed to be a clear sunny day up here on the hills today - lets see how that goes


----------



## Phaeton (7 Dec 2022)

Just looked on the PV inverter which normally reads low to the CT clamp, but it's reporting to 1MWh having been produced since it was commissioned on the 22nd August which I think logically means it's already saved ne £337 although not strictly true as we've exported 134kWh which we haven't been paid for.


----------



## Hebe (7 Dec 2022)

Our battery has just tipped over 95% charged. Everyone at home has had covid over the last few days so there’s precious little household usage.


----------



## kipster (7 Dec 2022)

I got my batteries to 75% before the sun dipped down too far.


----------



## kipster (7 Dec 2022)

Just got my first credit for my SEG after being messed about by Octopus. £60.65 for 411.7kWh


----------



## jowwy (7 Dec 2022)

kipster said:


> Just got my first credit for my SEG after being messed about by Octopus. £60.65 for 411.7kWh



How did they mess you about???


----------



## jowwy (7 Dec 2022)

3.9kwh today, but we had a 3hr spell with pretty thick cloud cover between 11 and 2


----------



## JB052 (7 Dec 2022)

7.5kWh today, managed to get the battery up to 80% which is useful and unexpected for this time of year.


----------



## kipster (7 Dec 2022)

jowwy said:


> How did they mess you about???



Initially told they would credit it on 22 Nov, when that never happened I chased and got no reply. Chased again yesterday and got an email today saying it didn't go live until the 22 Nov. Then I called and they sorted it, it went live September 22, bill sent though (all 78 pages of it) and credit on the account.


----------



## kipster (7 Dec 2022)

9.3kWh today and a fair bit of charge in the battery


----------



## Alex321 (7 Dec 2022)

Showing 4.17kWh today, but battery also gone up from 7% to 42%, which means another 6.08kWh gone into that.


----------



## Hebe (8 Dec 2022)

8:18am and the battery is charging.


----------



## jowwy (8 Dec 2022)

Hebe said:


> 8:18am and the battery is charging.



yup we already exporting at 700wh's......lets hope it stays this way today


----------



## Hebe (8 Dec 2022)

jowwy said:


> yup we already exporting at 700wh's......lets hope it stays this way today



It should do, some small compensation for the  temperatures. Fingers crossed.


----------



## jowwy (8 Dec 2022)

Hebe said:


> It should do, some small compensation for the  temperatures. Fingers crossed.



yup its been good so far


----------



## Alex321 (8 Dec 2022)

We are st6ill importing a bit at the moment - but the dishwasher, washing machine and tumble drier are all on. When they finish, we should start charging the battery.


----------



## Hebe (8 Dec 2022)

Cracking day for solar. Battery fully charged by lunchtime, 4.5kwh added to the car, house largely run - our ovo display unit says 45p from the grid (0.78kwh) for the day so far. The battery should see us through overnight again as it's sitting happily at 100%.


----------



## jowwy (8 Dec 2022)

we had cloud cover from around 1:30 so we stalled at 7.6kwhs


----------



## Hebe (8 Dec 2022)

That's still not too shabby for December @jowwy ! It looks like we had the best of the sun today here, tomorrow and Saturday are sunny but not that sunny.

I was just looking at our monthly Ovo leccy figures. We had the panels and battery fitted at the back end of October this year. November was our cheapest month of the year - even less than June or August when the house was empty for 10 days! Very happy with that.


----------



## kipster (8 Dec 2022)

Currently at 10.8kWh for the day, I might get a little bit more. Batteries to 85%


----------



## jowwy (8 Dec 2022)

Hebe said:


> That's still not too shabby for December @jowwy ! It looks like we had the best of the sun today here, tomorrow and Saturday are sunny but not that sunny.
> 
> I was just looking at our monthly Ovo leccy figures. We had the panels and battery fitted at the back end of October this year. November was our cheapest month of the year - even less than June or August when the house was empty for 10 days! Very happy with that.



Yes we are saving money on the leccy bill and accrueing export towards the gas bill too. So im happy so far….

i may invest in an ac coupled battery next year, but will see…….ac coupled due to having a string inverter currently and can place the ac coupled battery and inverter elsewhere away from the attic.


----------



## chris-suffolk (8 Dec 2022)

11kw, best so far this month - so that's £7 towards the leccy bill !! And I used the watts generated to run the kettle and toaster for lunch and the washing machine.


----------



## JB052 (8 Dec 2022)

12.5kWp today but payback is its -9 degrees outside at the moment.


----------



## jowwy (9 Dec 2022)

Was so hoping for double figures and ended up with 9.9kwhs……..gutted. But a lovely smooth power curve.


----------



## Hebe (9 Dec 2022)

We used 6.92kwh from the panels, 3.98kwh from the battery and just under 1kwh from the grid. That includes a wash cycle, a dishwasher cycle, some overflow solar into the car and a bit of ironing to mop up the last few bits of excess. The battery got fully charged too. Something was off last night, our dishwasher pulled from the grid instead of the battery despite the battery being 70% full. It’s done that once before. Waiting to hear back from the installers.


----------



## JB052 (9 Dec 2022)

12.4 today


----------



## Phaeton (9 Dec 2022)

jowwy said:


> Was so hoping for double figures and ended up with 9.9kwhs……..gutted. But a lovely smooth power curve.
> 
> View attachment 670578



Prefer yours to ours


----------



## jowwy (9 Dec 2022)

Phaeton said:


> Prefer yours to ours
> 
> View attachment 670617



How much you get???


----------



## Phaeton (9 Dec 2022)

jowwy said:


> How much you get???



8.9 but used 17.4 so far today


----------



## jowwy (9 Dec 2022)

Phaeton said:


> 8.9 but used 17.4 so far today



Ive not even used 3 today yet……was on solar from half 8 til - half 3 and only used 1.1kwh since then and 1.7kwh before that.


----------



## JB052 (10 Dec 2022)

Another 12.4kWh day today


----------



## chris-suffolk (10 Dec 2022)

JB052 said:


> Another 12.4kWh day today



Wow - less than 1kwh here


----------



## Hebe (10 Dec 2022)

Good day here. Battery charged, house run, car topped up.


----------



## jowwy (10 Dec 2022)

3.7kwh here after yesterdays december high


----------



## kipster (10 Dec 2022)

9.4kWh here, mostly sunny but for a bit of cloud for an hour. A bit in the battery but mostly used up on washing machine, tumble dryer and dishwasher.


----------



## Hebe (10 Dec 2022)

I did put the tumble dryer on, saw how much power it was eating, then switched it off and put the washing on the airer instead.


----------



## MrGrumpy (10 Dec 2022)

Hebe said:


> I did put the tumble dryer on, saw how much power it was eating, then switched it off and put the washing on the airer instead.



My very smart No3 son , is no dafty . Decided to Nick the fuse out of the washing machine switch to use it in the tumble dryer ! He’s been telt !!


----------



## jowwy (11 Dec 2022)

0.6kwh today - snow stopped play


----------



## Hebe (11 Dec 2022)

We didn’t make enough to register on the graph today… did get the battery up from 36% to 38% very briefly. Running off the grid since 5ish and not expecting to see any significant charge on the battery until Wednesday or Thursday.


----------



## JB052 (11 Dec 2022)

A rather pathetic 1.9kWh today on a rather cold and foggy day


----------



## JB052 (12 Dec 2022)

Looks like snow covered PV panels are affective at stopping any stray photons, a paltry 0.1kWh today


----------



## jowwy (12 Dec 2022)

JB052 said:


> Looks like snow covered PV panels are affective at stopping any stray photons, a paltry 0.1kWh today



Mine are covered in snow and ice and we got 1.9kwh today


----------



## Hebe (12 Dec 2022)

0.5kwh today, and the battery’s stayed at 0% all day.


----------



## Alex321 (12 Dec 2022)

1.8kWh today, with it cloudy all day.


----------



## jowwy (13 Dec 2022)

Only a 1kwh today….hoping for better over the next four days, supposed to be cold, but sunny


----------



## kipster (13 Dec 2022)

It's been pretty grim here but had a few rays of sunshine today and managed to get 5.3kWh


----------



## Hebe (13 Dec 2022)

1.82kwh from the panels today, plus the battery made it up to 11% (albeit briefly).


----------



## t_rifles (13 Dec 2022)

Hebe said:


> 1.82kwh from the panels today, plus the battery made it up to 11% (albeit briefly).


Do you charge the battery overnight from the grid?


----------



## Hebe (13 Dec 2022)

t_rifles said:


> Do you charge the battery overnight from the grid?



Not at the moment, we’re half way through a two year fix with the same unit price all day/night. The battery charges from the solar panels during the daywith anything left over from running the house. We’ll probably switch to a tariff with cheaper overnight tariffs next autumn though so we’ll get the option to charge battery and/or car overnight.


----------



## jowwy (14 Dec 2022)

What was a sunny start to the day, turned in to grey, cold cloud…..2.7kwh


----------



## Hebe (14 Dec 2022)

1.95kwh here, and the battery up to 28% but now discharging fast.


----------



## kipster (14 Dec 2022)

We had a reasonable amount of sun and got to 6.7kWh


----------



## Hebe (15 Dec 2022)

Very bright here with no cloud forecast so should hopefully get a full charge on the battery for the first time in a few days.


----------



## cougie uk (15 Dec 2022)

For you guys who have had solar for a year or more - how are you finding it delivering versus the forecasts ? 
My survey reckons on 3770 kWh from 12 panels but I believe they err on the low side ?


----------



## jowwy (15 Dec 2022)

cougie uk said:


> For you guys who have had solar for a year or more - how are you finding it delivering versus the forecasts ?
> My survey reckons on 3770 kWh from 12 panels but I believe they err on the low side ?



how big is the whole system?? ive read somewhere that its around 1000kwh per kw of panels


----------



## Alex321 (15 Dec 2022)

cougie uk said:


> For you guys who have had solar for a year or more - how are you finding it delivering versus the forecasts ?
> My survey reckons on 3770 kWh from 12 panels but I believe they err on the low side ?



Yes. Mine estimated 9,369.36 kWh/annum. It was installed mid February, and has so far generated 9.66 mWh (about 9,600,000 kWh), with two months to go.

Ok, those two months will be the lowest of the year, but we are already above the estimate, and I think will finish up at about 10mWh by mid Feb 2023.


----------



## Alex321 (15 Dec 2022)

jowwy said:


> how big is the whole system?? ive read somewhere that its around 1000kwh per kw of panels



That is I think the best possible, if you have the perfect direction and angle of roof, while most installations are a bit less than that.

Though having said that, it looks like ours is going to come very close to 10mWh on a 10.14kW system. Ours must be close to perfect


----------



## jowwy (15 Dec 2022)

Alex321 said:


> That is I think the best possible, if you have the perfect direction and angle of roof, while most installations are a bit less than that.
> 
> Though having said that, it looks like ours is going to come very close to 10mWh on a 10.14kW system. Ours must be close to perfect



well my system is currently producing an average of 1.10kwh/kw.....which would make it above perfect if it keeps running this way for a year. 

but time will tell..


----------



## chris-suffolk (15 Dec 2022)

Got a 4kw system, and get on average (over last 10 years) 4200kwh over the year


----------



## jowwy (15 Dec 2022)

10.2kwh today from a 3.2 system….happy with that in december. We probably exported around 8kwhs


----------



## JB052 (15 Dec 2022)

2.4 kWh today, nice and sunny here today, but panels still hibernating under a blanket of frozen snow!


----------



## kipster (15 Dec 2022)

10.6kWh today, happy with that and a good amount into the batteries


----------



## chris-suffolk (15 Dec 2022)

10.5kwh today, no idea what I used vs exported, but doesn't worry me as they pay anyway!


----------



## Hebe (15 Dec 2022)

5.56kwh and a fully charged battery.


----------



## jowwy (16 Dec 2022)

Looks like another clear sunny day today.....might hit the double again, lets see


----------



## jowwy (16 Dec 2022)

Hoping for this again today, a lovely smooth solar production curve


----------



## Alex321 (16 Dec 2022)

Given the number of clouds in the sky today (zero), that looks quite likely here.


----------



## jowwy (16 Dec 2022)

Clouds stopped play at 8.9kwhs……but two good days in a row for december


----------



## Alex321 (17 Dec 2022)

jowwy said:


> Clouds stopped play at 8.9kwhs……but two good days in a row for december



We got 11.49kWh. But used 12.83.


----------



## jowwy (18 Dec 2022)

A very poor 0.100kwh today


----------



## Hebe (18 Dec 2022)

That’s more than we did here


----------



## Phaeton (18 Dec 2022)

I didn't think I'd be bragging about a mere 0.9kWh


----------



## Alex321 (18 Dec 2022)

We got nothing measurable today at all. First time that has happened since the panels were installed in February.


----------



## jowwy (19 Dec 2022)

only 3 days away from the shortest day of the year....onwards towards longer days for production and hopefully better weather too


----------



## Hebe (19 Dec 2022)

I don’t think we’ll generate anything today but tomorrow and Wednesday look promising.


----------



## jowwy (19 Dec 2022)

Hebe said:


> I don’t think we’ll generate anything today but tomorrow and Wednesday look promising.



same here to be honest


----------



## Phaeton (19 Dec 2022)

We've scraped together 0.3kWh so far, might just get to 0.5kWh if we're lucky


----------



## Alex321 (19 Dec 2022)

We have got a bit today. Not much, but better than yesterday, at 0.147kWh so far.


----------



## Milkfloat (19 Dec 2022)

0.8kWh for me so far, mind you the kids are at home so my battery is already down to 30% when normally it would be fully charged.


----------



## Hebe (19 Dec 2022)

Zero. Hoping for a better day tomorrow!


----------



## Alex321 (19 Dec 2022)

Finished up with 407Wh today (0.47kWh).


----------



## kipster (20 Dec 2022)

I got 1.3kWh yesterday which is more than I thought I would with the dark grey clouds and rain all day.

Today is much better and I could get close to 9.5kWh.


----------



## Alex321 (20 Dec 2022)

Much better day today, 5.11kWh showing, plus battery up to 21% which means another2.5kWh roughly.


----------



## JB052 (20 Dec 2022)

11.4kWh today, not bad considering weather forecast was for rain which so far we haven't seen.


----------



## jowwy (20 Dec 2022)

2.6kwh today……


----------



## Phaeton (20 Dec 2022)

7.1Kwh produced but 11.7Kwh hour used so far


----------



## Alex321 (20 Dec 2022)

7.24kWh the final figure for us today, with the battery now down to 5% (it doesn't normally discharge below that).


----------



## jowwy (21 Dec 2022)

Shortest day of the year today - onwards and upwards to longer, sunnier days ahead


----------



## Hebe (21 Dec 2022)

3.25 kwh used straight from the roof, and the battery charged to 88% from 0. We did have sun all day yesterday. Hoping for enough today to charge most of the battery again.
Edit - just seen today's forecast. We won't be charging the battery today...


----------



## Phaeton (21 Dec 2022)

Getting excited battery is up to 78% need to go tie the wife to a chair to stop her putting the tumble dryer, washing machine or oven on, she can wait until it's dark & gloomy tomorrow


----------



## Phaeton (21 Dec 2022)

She slipped the knots & tumble dryer is now draining the batteries, Ho hum


----------



## jowwy (21 Dec 2022)

Phaeton said:


> She slipped the knots & tumble dryer is now draining the batteries, Ho hum



at least its the batteries and not from the grid


----------



## Hebe (21 Dec 2022)

Just over 3kw today, battery made it up to 12% briefly. I think that's us out until Boxing Day now, looking at the weather forecast.


----------



## kipster (21 Dec 2022)

6.8kWh today, a real mix of sunshine and grey cloud.


----------



## jowwy (21 Dec 2022)

Only 1.2kwh for me today and not looking good for the next few days……but ive finished now for xmas and not returning to the office until 9th january, so that saves me a few kwh of electric.


----------



## mistyoptic (21 Dec 2022)

Between 3 and 4 kWh here. Did my best to use most of it 😉 but on FIT so not that concerned


----------



## Alex321 (21 Dec 2022)

3.03kWh here. Been very poor week, but today was the shortest day, so hopefully will start improving soon.


----------



## Hebe (23 Dec 2022)

1.42kwh today, battery limped up to 6%. Yesterday was 0.4kwh, battery on 0 all day.


----------



## jowwy (23 Dec 2022)

Just the 0.6kwh for us today


----------



## Alex321 (23 Dec 2022)

Very slightly better today at 3.49kWh


----------



## jowwy (24 Dec 2022)

Got this solar prediction chart, to see what i might produce based on my size of system….its not that far off 
Its says 81kwh for december and im on 74 currently with a few days left and what looks to be a sunny boxing day.


----------



## jowwy (24 Dec 2022)

Only 0.5kwh today, its pretty grey and wet.


----------



## Phaeton (24 Dec 2022)

6.7kWh but was gobbled up by pre Christmas washing & drying,


----------



## Alex321 (24 Dec 2022)

We had a bit of sun today, so got out for a nice (but fairly short) bike ride.
5.81kWh plus about 2.5 in the battery


----------



## Phaeton (26 Dec 2022)

Yippee we're producers!!!


----------



## Hebe (26 Dec 2022)

The Mr plugged the car in to charge with spare solar this morning, at which point the sky clouded over. So I’ve put a wash on instead. Battery is at 46% and charging, we won’t see a full charge today but there might be enough to get us through to early morning tomorrow.

Yesterday was 1.12kwh and nothing added to the empty battery.


----------



## Phaeton (26 Dec 2022)

We've got to 7.4kWh today & it's still getting a little bit more, it got the battery up to 75%, it's now starting to drop as we're using it, down to 72% then I'm sure the hob will go on & we'll cain it.


----------



## JB052 (26 Dec 2022)

After a couple of rather poor (<2kWh) days, we managed to harvest 12.6kWh today including topping the battery back up to 100%


----------



## jowwy (26 Dec 2022)

6.8kwh for us in the end, after a dodgy middle part of the day


----------



## jowwy (27 Dec 2022)

Poor 0.4kwh today


----------



## Alex321 (27 Dec 2022)

0.87 kWh for us today. Dull and raining all day.


----------



## Hebe (27 Dec 2022)

Not enough to register today  somehow the battery made it up to 7% though.


----------



## Phaeton (27 Dec 2022)

1.1kWh quite surprised really


----------



## jowwy (28 Dec 2022)

We are producing just enough to nearly eliminate grid draw today……keeps the costs down during the wet, cold weather


----------



## jowwy (28 Dec 2022)

Phaeton said:


> 1.1kWh quite surprised really



Good to see your now exporting….we have now done 82.4 kwh in december and exported 49.6kwh of it. So keeping the bills down and accruing a nice pot against the bill itself.


----------



## jowwy (28 Dec 2022)

0.4kwhs again today……


----------



## JB052 (28 Dec 2022)

jowwy said:


> Good to see your now exporting….we have now done 82.4 kwh in december and exported 49.6kwh of it. So keeping the bills down and accruing a nice pot against the bill itself.



To save me reading the whole thread again, who are you exporting to? at the moment we are giving our surplus away.


----------



## jowwy (28 Dec 2022)

JB052 said:


> To save me reading the whole thread again, who are you exporting to? at the moment we are giving our surplus away.



We are with octopus and we get 15p/kwh on export as we are current customers for duel fuel……


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## jowwy (29 Dec 2022)

2.3kwhs today…….


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## Phaeton (29 Dec 2022)

6.4kWh


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## Alex321 (29 Dec 2022)

Very mixed weather down here, but enough spells of sun to get 6.01kWh


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## Phaeton (Today at 14:32)

Just moved over to Octopus Agile for our incoming, managed to get octopus to fill our battery overnight & pay us for the privilege, they had 2x 1/2 hours at 0p & 3x at -2.1p just going to be intensive if I want to do it everyday


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## JB052 (Today at 19:18)

Phaeton said:


> Just moved over to Octopus Agile for our incoming, managed to get octopus to fill our battery overnight & pay us for the privilege, they had 2x 1/2 hours at 0p & 3x at -2.1p just going to be intensive if I want to do it everyday



Was the move to Octopus Agile fairly painless? we are currently with Shell and need to move our account to take advantage of the PV's


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## Phaeton (Today at 19:44)

JB052 said:


> Was the move to Octopus Agile fairly painless? we are currently with Shell and need to move our account to take advantage of the PV's


Moved to Octopus from British Gas, we had been a customer before & our account was still active, they moved us over very quickly, within a few days, then organised smart meters which were fitted within 2 weeks after BG had promised them for 18 months & not able to supply.


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