cougie uk
Guru
Yes I am on an Octopus Go account. Thanks for that.
Solar Production Thread
- Thread starter jowwy
- Start date
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Yes I am on an Octopus Go account. Thanks for that.
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.
cougie uk
Guru
That set up sounds just what I need. Cheers.
PaulSB
Squire
- Location
- Chorley, Lancashire
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.
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.
D
Deleted member 26715
Guest
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.
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
Guru
- Location
- South Wales
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.
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.
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.
D
Deleted member 26715
Guest
The one I am fighting my installer for so that we can get paid
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.
its not as if we going to be exporting much at the moment
Alex321
Guru
- Location
- South Wales
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.
