Solar panels….?

[Chislenko]

I suppose everyone with Solar and therefore reduced bills should tell the Government they don't need the £400 help and give it to more needy recipient's.



Dons tin hat😀

 

[kipster]

I suppose everyone with Solar and therefore reduced bills should tell the Government they don't need the £400 help and give it to more needy recipient's.



Dons tin hat😀

I don't disagree but I don't think there is a way to opt out? I get nothing from the government (not does my wife even though she had a disability), so it is a bit of a novelty to get something from them (although I would have paid it to them through taxes one way or another).

 

[Deleted member 26715]

I suppose everyone with Solar and therefore reduced bills should tell the Government they don't need the £400 help and give it to more needy recipient's.



Dons tin hat😀

I'll be honest I don't understand the Governments logic on this one, maybe it's not for this thread & one for the dark place, but instead of causing themselves a huge headache to pay each household the money, why not force Ofgen to cap the price in the first place.

 

[jowwy]

I suppose everyone with Solar and therefore reduced bills should tell the Government they don't need the £400 help and give it to more needy recipient's.



Dons tin hat😀

helps with gas bill though

 

[jowwy]

I'll be honest I don't understand the Governments logic on this one, maybe it's not for this thread & one for the dark place, but instead of causing themselves a huge headache to pay each household the money, why not force Ofgen to cap the price in the first place.

im guessing its because ofgem are supposed to be an independant regulator and the government are not supposed to get involved

 

[jowwy]

I suppose everyone with Solar and therefore reduced bills should tell the Government they don't need the £400 help and give it to more needy recipient's.



Dons tin hat😀

it also pays towards the cost of fitting the solar in the first place, cause we aint getting grants for it anymore and the payments back to the grid are shoot

 

[Alex321]

i get that......at the mo, im only using 269watts of power, so thats fridge freezer, chest freezer, TV, sky box, soundbar, BT router. so with a 3kw system on the roof i would wasting 2700watts if it was producing at 100% which we know doesnt happen.

I could got to a 4kw system for £6995

100% doesn't happen, but we have had a peak of 9.11Kw from a nominal 10.14Kw system. (At 13:00 on 26/06). You definitely only get the best out of the system with a battery though, because the point where you are generating the most tends to be around the time you use the least.

 

[Alex321]

So far this month I've produced 876kwh of solar, consumed 405kwh and imported 60kwh from the grid.

The batteries where installed mid way through the month and since then I've imported about 8kwh from the grid, so in a summer month I should only import 15-20kwh from the grid plus standing charges, so about £20 a month.

I WFH about half the week, my wife is retired and about most of the day, two sons at home at the moment. One WFH everyday, the other a student home from uni and as the electric is free he seems to think that leaving every electrical appliance he has on is ok.

A lot of the consumption is for the batteries charging. We seem to deplete the batteries by 60% between 6pm and 7am but the boys are awake until silly o'clock in the morning.

We run the dishwasher, washing machine and tumble dryer (for towels) during the day.

We've produced 1.29Mw so far this month, of which we have consumed 208Kwh and imported 105 from the grid. When the battery is finally installed, I wouldn't expect to be importing anything between April and September, and not much in October or March. (In March this year we produced 985kWh and used a total of 385 (223 of which was imported)

 

[Alex321]

it also pays towards the cost of fitting the solar in the first place, cause we aint getting grants for it anymore and the payments back to the grid are shoot

They aren't bad if you go with Octopus Agile.

In fact there are times when you get paid more than you would be charged, as they apply a cap of 55p/kWh on import (was 35p until recently), but there is no cap on export (both are tied to the half hourly wholesale price with multipliers).

If you look at their blog, they say the outgoing price is typically between 4p and 10p, but that was in 2018, and prices have risen dramatically since then. If you look here you can see the rates - at one point last year you (briefly) got as much as £2.36 per unit.

Today's prices vary between 25.22p in the middle of the night, and 44.38p at 17:30 - with batteries, you can choose to export at the most expensive times (usually between 4pm and 8pm).

 

[MrGrumpy]

I suppose everyone with Solar and therefore reduced bills should tell the Government they don't need the £400 help and give it to more needy recipient's.



Dons tin hat😀

Means tested would have been better maybe , either way it’s not going to make a dent in my energy bills. I’m now 100% certain I’ll be getting solar panels . Looking at the sun just now I could nearly cover the rear my roof as well.

Looking to the rear it faces WNW , so still capable of generating power I’d think , in spring summer. Winter might be a hard push.

 

[Solocle]

Solar only generates during daylight, and only a decent amount in bright daylight.

So the battery stops you having to take power from the grid when you aren't generating enough for your use.

And taking power from the grid is usually more expensive than what you get paid for sending power to the grid, which is why it makes more economic sense to store as much as you can of your surplus.

The other consideration is V2G technology. Probably an incredibly naïve MSPaint diagram, but something like this would surely reduce the need for additional battery capacity:

 

[Deleted member 26715]

im guessing its because ofgem are supposed to be an independant regulator and the government are not supposed to get involved

That's a joke I raised a complaint with them earlier in the year about British Gas & their abuse of their position & Ofgem sided with them after leaving 2 pensioners in a house with no heat for 10 days last December.

 

[Alex321]

The other consideration is V2G technology. Probably an incredibly naïve MSPaint diagram, but something like this would surely reduce the need for additional battery capacity:

Yes. You are there effectively using your vehicle as a storage battery.

Effective if you don't actually drive much, not so effective if you frequently spend most of the day with the vehicle away from the house.

And of course if you don't already have an EV with that capability, a lot more expensive up front than adding a battery.

 

[Solocle]

Yes. You are there effectively using your vehicle as a storage battery.

Effective if you don't actually drive much, not so effective if you frequently spend most of the day with the vehicle away from the house.

And of course if you don't already have an EV with that capability, a lot more expensive up front than adding a battery.

Yeah, storing excess solar and having the battery at the office 9-5 isn't a great combination...

Although it would work well for my parents, which is sort of where the idea came from. They already have a Nissan Leaf, and being retired, if the car is away from the house, then generally it's not going to be an issue (you don't need as much power!).

 

[CXRAndy]

I'm trying to get an inverter with VTG capability.

Our Nissan is VTG compliant with a capacity of 7kW peak supply capacity and around 50kW storage