Solar Panels and Home Battery

[Walder]

Quick one.... Anyone ideas how much it would cost to add a home battery to an existing system. The company that installed ours believe it or not went bust after the roc payments gravy train ended.

As i see no benefit to sending any to the grid it at present probably makes us about £70 / £90 a year which is minimal when you consider how much you get paid for it and how much you oay for it when you are buying back.

I have an iboost system for the. Imersion heater albeit its lay down at the minute saying the boiler is permenantly hot so it doesnt come on. But given the poor weather now there is very little to gain, it will be added to the to do list.

 

[stevieturbo]

Don’t think Tesla the solar roof is available in the UK yet. It’s been promised for years but not appeared to date.

Wind is great if you can get the eyesore of a huge turbine away from the house- they need to be massive to make decent power it seems.

Normal solar and batteries is intriguing though.

Given the amount of wind we get, smaller turbines should still be viable in conjunction with storage. But they are fairly brutal looking compared to solar panels which are more discreet if they were to appear on every house.

Quick one.... Anyone ideas how much it would cost to add a home battery to an existing system. The company that installed ours believe it or not went bust after the roc payments gravy train ended.

As i see no benefit to sending any to the grid it at present probably makes us about £70 / £90 a year which is minimal when you consider how much you get paid for it and how much you oay for it when you are buying back.

I have an iboost system for the. Imersion heater albeit its lay down at the minute saying the boiler is permenantly hot so it doesnt come on. But given the poor weather now there is very little to gain, it will be added to the to do list.

Plenty of videos on youtube about DIY installs. I guess depends on the type of battery setup you want, whether old lead acids, or new fancy Lithium.

But for the Lithium, I'm sure fire risk considerations would need them installed somewhere away from the house itself.

Haven't watched many myself, not sure how it all integrates into the house, or whether it's best to try and keep it separate for things like heating water only or the likes.
Maybe for powering stuff like tumble dryers or high energy items only

 

[Jecks]

We just got in before the rocs payments were reduced approx 5-6 years ago on our build.
4kw system with the iboost for hot water.
Of the top of my head the install was around 4K could be wrong though .
I haven't actually kept track of what we have made back or when We will break even.
Last payment a few weeks back was about £550
Does definitely help with hot water having the iboost in place

 

[Mark Irwin]

My first system (5.75kwh) paid for itself after 7 years (£12.5k) including interest on the loan with the feed in tariffs, export payments and savings on electric and oil. I then added another system (3.4kwh) to the garage last year with batteries (14.4kwh) which cost about £9.5k including a Zappi charger. As previously stated this is a longer term investment and pay back without the previous incentives but I can safely say solar and batteries is working very well for me. From March to October I can charge my electric car mostly from solar surplus and both systems are now saving/making over £2.5k per year excluding second system purchase price. My electric bill would be horrendous if it were not for this set up and going forward it looks as if energy costs are only going to rise. System can divert excess solar to charge the car and heat water.

 

[Mark Irwin]

Quick one.... Anyone ideas how much it would cost to add a home battery to an existing system. The company that installed ours believe it or not went bust after the roc payments gravy train ended.

As i see no benefit to sending any to the grid it at present probably makes us about £70 / £90 a year which is minimal when you consider how much you get paid for it and how much you oay for it when you are buying back.

I have an iboost system for the. Imersion heater albeit its lay down at the minute saying the boiler is permenantly hot so it doesnt come on. But given the poor weather now there is very little to gain, it will be added to the to do list.

I have Pylontech batteries and it works out about £1500 for 4.8 kwh batteries. The beauty of these is that they are about the size of an old video recorder and you can add to them in 2.4 kwh batches. This is exactly what I did this year when I added 2 batteries to the system. Easy to connect to existing system with the right installer. Definitely shop around as one supplier was quoting me the same price for a 10kwh battery that another supplier gave me the 3.4 kwh solar system, 9.6 kwh batteries and a Zappi charger all in!!!

 

[Cooper]

Your garage system sounds great @Mark Irwin - what sort of daily Kw do you get from both of your systems, and is it much less in winter for example.

 

[Mark Irwin]

Your garage system sounds great @Mark Irwin - what sort of daily Kw do you get from both of your systems, and is it much less in winter for example.

Daily Kwh varies considerably from day to day and from winter to summer; but to give you a rough idea see below.

Dec 2020 - 6.5 kwh daily
June 2021 - 36 kwh daily

May can be quite a good month and you can get some interesting variations from year to year. Nov-Feb not great but the rest of the year it really pumps out the electrons. Today both systems managed 16kwh so it ran the house during daylight hours and charged the batteries.

 

[Cooper]

That’s great! 16kwh sounds like a days usage. With enough battery I take it you could go without touching the grid - I’m thinking just with one “normal” system around 4kw.

 

[Mark Irwin]

That’s great! 16kwh sounds like a days usage. With enough battery I take it you could go without touching the grid - I’m thinking just with one “normal” system around 4kw.

With a big enough battery you could go off grid but would probably need a bigger solar array to feed it. I also charge my batteries overnight with Economy 7 so they are running the house in that early bit of the day before the sun gets strong enough. They also kick in for peak surges like when someone has a shower during the day or it gets very dark/cloudy which can happen in our four seasons in a day climate!

 

[hutchy_belfast]

Sounds good @Mark Irwin do you mind sharing who installed yours?

 

[Mark Irwin]

Sounds good @Mark Irwin do you mind sharing who installed yours?

KB Electrical Enniskillen. Does a good job and does not stick the arm in. Aftersales from some EV charger fitters is not good but this was not my experience with Kenny.
Just checked my Iboost for the immersion heater today and it has done over 13200 kwh in less than 8 years which is a massive amount of electric. To put that into perspective it is equivalent to your immersion heater being on for 4400 hours or 183 days constant and all supplied by solar.

 

[hutchy_belfast]

KB Electrical Enniskillen. Does a good job and does not stick the arm in. Aftersales from some EV charger fitters is not good but this was not my experience with Kenny.
Just checked my Iboost for the immersion heater today and it has done over 13200 kwh in less than 8 years which is a massive amount of electric. To put that into perspective it is equivalent to your immersion heater being on for 4400 hours or 183 days constant and all supplied by solar.

That is great going, absolute no brainer getting it in the good old days of good feed in tariffs etc too.
I've a gas combi boiler so the water heating doesn't appeal, but I'd love a load of batteries to charge up via sun and eco7 as you do then charge the cars and run appliances. I've a great unshaded south facing near flat triple garage waiting for the panels too. I'll give him a shout thanks for the advice.

 

[cupraricky]

BUMP

Any companies recommended? Brands of panels? Thinking of a 4kw system, no battery, no water heater. Just simple panels with a feed into the grid should we generate excess.

Would like to get a few quotes ASAP.

 

[mk2driver]

BUMP

Any companies recommended? Brands of panels? Thinking of a 4kw system, no battery, no water heater. Just simple panels with a feed into the grid should we generate excess.

Would like to get a few quotes ASAP.

Why no water heater? If you have a hot water tank it’s a no brainer to have it installed

 

[Mark Irwin]

BUMP

Any companies recommended? Brands of panels? Thinking of a 4kw system, no battery, no water heater. Just simple panels with a feed into the grid should we generate excess.

Would like to get a few quotes ASAP.

KB Electrical Enniskillen excellent. Put in 340 watt panels for me on garage which work really well but as mk2driver says if you have a hot water tank get an Iboost or some sort of other diverter to heat your water with excess - much more efficient than selling back to the grid. This saves me hundreds of pounds on oil every year.

 

[cupraricky]

KB Electrical Enniskillen excellent. Put in 340 watt panels for me on garage which work really well but as mk2driver says if you have a hot water tank get an Iboost or some sort of other diverter to heat your water with excess - much more efficient than selling back to the grid. This saves me hundreds of pounds on oil every year.

Did they do your entire install? What size of system did you get? Approx price if you don't mind me asking? What brand are the panels?

Thanks

 

[impact]

What brand are the panels?

The installation crowd I've talked to via work who do the installs for a lot of the solar companies say the panels are all much of a muchness if you are sticking with a Tier 1 type.
They will all have their preferences based on what discounts and availability of the brand they are punting ie what they have already coming over in a shipping container for multiple jobs.
No need to pay for a household brand name when companies like JA Solar are actually one of the biggest players with good supply and backup.

 

[cupraricky]

The installation crowd I've talked to via work who do the installs for a lot of the solar companies say the panels are all much of a muchness if you are sticking with a Tier 1 type.
They will all have their preferences based on what discounts and availability of the brand they are punting ie what they have already coming over in a shipping container for multiple jobs.
No need to pay for a household brand name when companies like JA Solar are actually one of the biggest players with good supply and backup.

Yea not being brand fussy just curious to see what others had installed.

Why no water heater? If you have a hot water tank it’s a no brainer to have it installed

Hot water ain't really an issue, showers electric heated, but also have a back boiler stove...... Not sure how the solar heater would work when using the back boiler, wouldn't want overheating

 

[mk2driver]

Yea not being brand fussy just curious to see what others had installed.

Hot water ain't really an issue, showers electric heated, but also have a back boiler stove...... Not sure how the solar heater would work when using the back boiler, wouldn't want overheating

The immersion should have a temperature cut off so wouldn’t send any electricity to the water if it’s at temp

In the summer it’s great - no need for the boiler to come on at all.

 

[Mark Irwin]

Did they do your entire install? What size of system did you get? Approx price if you don't mind me asking? What brand are the panels?

Thanks

KB did the entire install which was 3.4 kwh. Excluding batteries it cost around £3800 which included fitting and all electrical work with 340 watt JA panels and a solis hybrid inverter. 25 year efficiency guarantee and 10 year warranty on panels. I got a Zappi charger and solar batteries at the same time and some companies were quoting me the same price for batteries that I got the Zappi, solar and batteries from KB Electrical!!

 

[cupraricky]

So got a few quotes today's, not a million miles apart price wise. However seems to be big differences in workmanship warranty / productivity warranty / unit warranty. Still some more quotes to get, and hopefully get few out to survey the house to see what size of system my roof will accept. Don't mind going up a KW if moneys not horrific.

 

[Mark Irwin]

So got a few quotes today's, not a million miles apart price wise. However seems to be big differences in workmanship warranty / productivity warranty / unit warranty. Still some more quotes to get, and hopefully get few out to survey the house to see what size of system my roof will accept. Don't mind going up a KW if moneys not horrific.

After sales service is also a big issue; the firm that fitted my first charger did not reply to any of my phone calls or emails when the charger tripped 3 times in one day. KB Electrical after sales was excellent including when I had an issue with the wifi connection to the solar array and this was quickly sorted.

 

[cupraricky]

After sales service is also a big issue; the firm that fitted my first charger did not reply to any of my phone calls or emails when the charger tripped 3 times in one day. KB Electrical after sales was excellent including when I had an issue with the wifi connection to the solar array and this was quickly sorted.

Who did u first use? Feel free to pm, just so I know who to look out for.
Nothing worse than sheite aftersales.

Is there anything else needed? I see companies mention an MCS cert / NIE registration. Then I'd obviously have to notify my electric supplier with regards an account for money when power goes into the grid. Did u notify building control or did they? Does it affect house insurance? Is there any issue with selling the house years down the line, heard some stories of people having issues with solar company 'renting' the roof so to speak but I suspect that was more when u did it via grants etc.

Sorry for all the questions but like to know as much as possible

 

[Mark Irwin]

Who did u first use? Feel free to pm, just so I know who to look out for.
Nothing worse than sheite aftersales.

Is there anything else needed? I see companies mention an MCS cert / NIE registration. Then I'd obviously have to notify my electric supplier with regards an account for money when power goes into the grid. Did u notify building control or did they? Does it affect house insurance? Is there any issue with selling the house years down the line, heard some stories of people having issues with solar company 'renting' the roof so to speak but I suspect that was more when u did it via grants etc.

Sorry for all the questions but like to know as much as possible

Prefer not to name and shame but all of the good installers will take care of all the paperwork. If you buy the system outright there is no issue with selling and my insurance company and mortgage company were fine about it too. Building control only required for big systems I think.

 

[cupraricky]

Prefer not to name and shame but all of the good installers will take care of all the paperwork. If you buy the system outright there is no issue with selling and my insurance company and mortgage company were fine about it too. Building control only required for big systems I think.

Quick look online, appears no planning permission required, however building control / regulations, do need to be informed.
Good to know about mortgage company and insurance though.