New to solar panels - advice needed

[CXRAndy]

Me and Mrs are installing our panels now the weather has stopped raining.

Slow going, but steady progress

 

[Mike_P]

If on the roof just make sure they are top quality, well installed and whatever maintenance they need is carried out
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd7ld4zynq5o

 

[bikingdad90]

That’s rubbish news for a trust which is already in a fight over PFI contacts and the state of its mental health services. The sister organisation that runs the hospitals is in crisis, making over 500 job cuts.

 

[Regular.Cyclist]

My home has solar panels that were installed a number of years ago at the peak of the FIT rates. I recently added battery storage to the system with it finally being commissioned last Friday. The weekend was a bit drab and not great for solar generation so we had to import approximately 25% of our normal daily usage from the grid at off peak times.

The past 24 hours have been much better with zero imports so running the house on entirely solar energy stored in the batteries.

 

[Tenkaykev]

My home has solar panels that were installed a number of years ago at the peak of the FIT rates. I recently added battery storage to the system with it finally being commissioned last Friday. The weekend was a bit drab and not great for solar generation so we had to import approximately 25% of our normal daily usage from the grid at off peak times.

The past 24 hours have been much better with zero imports so running the house on entirely solar energy stored in the batteries.

The battery will make a big difference. We have just over 5kWp of panels ( in hindsight should have put them on the north facing roof too )

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

Our battery is the main part of the system

without them the panels would mostly be producing electric at times of fay when we don;t need it
so it just gets pumped out onto "The Grid" - at a much lower rate then we pay later on to bring other electrons in

Especially at the border line times like Spring and Autumn when they fill up during the day but then the electrons are needs after they are most effective


and, of course, sometimes it is worth charging them from the grid off peak and reducing the import during otehr times when it is more expensive

I have been wondering about getting more - but I am wondering about the "plug in" ones - which would be easier to install and probably cheaper

 

[Regular.Cyclist]

The battery will make a big difference. We have just over 5kWp of panels ( in hindsight should have put them on the north facing roof too )

We currently get paid over 70p for every kW that the panels produce regardless of whether it’s used for self consumption or exported. There is then an additional payment of around 5p for what is exported.

We had two options for export payments. One was that they paid for what was actually exported as read from the smart meter. The second was that they assume 50% of the power generated gets exported. The home wasn’t on a smart meter until recently so has remained on the assumed 50%,system and there is no requirement for us to change that.

This means that we can charge the batteries using solar whilst maintaining the 70p plus payment and an additional 5p for 50% on top. The aim therefore is to store as much as possible and keep exports to a minimum.

I nearly got it spot on yesterday as we were able to fulfill the house load and top us the batteries to 100% but only export 0.25kW to the grid.

 

[Tenkaykev]

Although we're on the Octopus export tariff ( currently 12p, was 15p ) we're building up a load of credit. Our 20+ year old gas boiler was swapped for a heat pump last August and was transformative, proper high pressure showers and so much more comfortable with the whole house at 21 degrees 24/7 over winter. In hindsight I would have gone for Air to Air as that would have given us cooling too.