Solar Panels and Home Battery

[-herc-]

I had a few out and ended up going with BS Solar 07514726950, I was apprehensive as I wanted to go with one of the big well known companies but........I've subsequently seen and read what the other companies have done and glad I went with BS. No issues and nothing is a bother, 100%

Had a big company in from a friend I knew. He ended up doing it on the side and f**ked it up.

Had bs solar in last week and I’ve to move the inverter, the Harvey, the Eddi and all 8 panel that are 270• north and doing nothing for me. All panels are being moved to south side of house.

Cables thrown over the peak of the house instead of under the slates and phase boxes outside need moved inside.

Basically it’s costing me few quid to rectify now. Barry seems like a decent bloke so have went for him to fix.

 

[Ged]

See the power ni export rate 2023/24 is over 14p better than I thought it would be. Also decided to get a few more panels. Need to get them up, takes my upto 16kw of PV.

Pushing the 10kw inverter to max pv capacity.

 

[Ged]

Thats them all up, few bits and peices of wiring to get done by the spark. Should be up and going tomorrow. Got another couple of batterys in when there was a deal to be had.

Think thats my final setup now for the solar, pleanty of excess even in winter. Some cable tray and bonding to get sorted tomorrow.

Now just the AC project for the house and workshop to start next year to make use of the extra electric.

Cheers,
Ged

 

[Ghost]

W

Thats them all up, few bits and peices of wiring to get done by the spark. Should be up and going tomorrow. Got another couple of batterys in when there was a deal to be had.

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Think thats my final setup now for the solar, pleanty of excess even in winter. Some cable tray and bonding to get sorted tomorrow.

Now just the AC project for the house and workshop to start next year to make use of the extra electric.

Cheersw

What deals was there to be had?

 

[Ged]

Supplier had 2 v1 battery's accidentally ordered extra and I got them for cheap same as my stack but most are using the V2 now since the shortage of chips worked out well.

 

[Mark Irwin]

Export payments rates good this year. Just got a payment of over £250.00 whereas last year it was less than £100.

 

[Crow555]

We managed £206 for our first full year of export. That will help cover the bills over the winter a bit.

 

[Ghost]

Just got ours in the bank. £446. But that's with no battery.

Looking to buy a battery this month

Any suggestions?

 

[Terry]

Mine landed in @ around 850. No battery but do try to use as much as possible with water heater, car charging & timing the use of appliances. Will look at batteries soon though.

When all is said and done, I think I’ve paid somewhere between £200-£300 for the year, net cost, for electric.

 

[-herc-]

I got squat all as it was never set up!!

 

[Terry]

I got squat all as it was never set up!!

It’s maybe a blessing in disguise since your kit needed moved and improved a bit. You might never have known about the other issues.

 

[-herc-]

It’s maybe a blessing in disguise since your kit needed moved and improved a bit. You might never have known about the other issues.


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Very true. BS Solar is out next Monday all being well. he had to cancel last minute so only date I could manage off work was a fortnight away.

At least from 2024 I’ll be running 100%

 

[RWL]

£438 here for 9 months of export. Trying to make a conscious shift to using more of it during the day now that I do some working from home i.e. running appliances like washing machine / tumble dryer / dishwasher during peak production. Batteries just don’t seem viable yet - by the time it’s paid for it would need replaced!

 

[mike150]

I got squat all as it was never set up!!

I got nothing either as BS Solar had set it up but I never went onto Power NI to put the details in so by the time I did and they processed it I missed the deadline.

As this years claim was missed It just means more next year!

 

[KyleR]

£438 here for 9 months of export. Trying to make a conscious shift to using more of it during the day now that I do some working from home i.e. running appliances like washing machine / tumble dryer / dishwasher during peak production. Batteries just don’t seem viable yet - by the time it’s paid for it would need replaced!

Why would it need replaced? Batteries don't spontaneously combust on their 10th birthday when the warranty runs out.



I got £300 back for 10 months which I thought was reasonable considering I charged the car exclusively from solar from April to September.

 

[ilovequo]

What batteries wouldn't need replaced after 10 years?? My iPhones jiggered after 18 months!

 

[KyleR]

What batteries wouldn't need replaced after 10 years?? My iPhones jiggered after 18 months!

Different battery tech, plus your iPhone doesn't have a 10 year warranty.

Batteries don't just stop working, generally a small number of the many cells that it's made up of fail reducing the overall capacity. If this were to happen there is no need to remove and dump the battery, you can merely add another module or unit and significantly less cost. This is of course dependent on what system you have. My system for example has 6 separate modules totalling 14.4kwh, even if one completely failed I could replace it for around £750.

 

[Mark Irwin]

Different battery tech, plus your iPhone doesn't have a 10 year warranty.

Batteries don't just stop working, generally a small number of the many cells that it's made up of fail reducing the overall capacity. If this were to happen there is no need to remove and dump the battery, you can merely add another module or unit and significantly less cost. This is of course dependent on what system you have. My system for example has 6 separate modules totalling 14.4kwh, even if one completely failed I could replace it for around £750.

Sounds like you have Pylontech same as me.

 

[ilovequo]

They’ll not be scrap, but they’ll be nowhere near as effective. Could probably do the maths with an EV, but otherwise I can’t see it stacking up

 

[Daviddunlop83]

Finally getting my export meter fitted on Tuesday

 

[RWL]

Why would it need replaced? Batteries don't spontaneously combust on their 10th birthday when the warranty runs out.



I got £300 back for 10 months which I thought was reasonable considering I charged the car exclusively from solar from April to September.

Was advised by a few, refreshingly honest, sellers of them that after 10 years they aren’t near as effective and realistically you are looking at replacement. They said that the technology is nowhere near far enough along yet, and since I’ve no intention of getting a milk float anytime soon, the maths doesn’t stack up!

 

[KyleR]

Sounds like you have Pylontech same as me.

Close - Dyness B4850's, basically the same thing, though.

Was advised by a few, refreshingly honest, sellers of them that after 10 years they aren’t near as effective and realistically you are looking at replacement. They said that the technology is nowhere near far enough along yet, and since I’ve no intention of getting a milk float anytime soon, the maths doesn’t stack up!

They have an 80% warranty at 10 years, so even if they just scraped inside that after 10 years you would have only lost 20% capacity, so adding a fresh module pretty much negates that in my case where I have 6 modules. Most people have less, 2 - 4 modules, so purchasing a new one after 10 years will actually increase their capacity.

Something to note is that most battery degradation happens in the first couple of years, so any deg after year 10 will be minimal.

Waiting on newer battery tech is kind of like sitting with an iPhone 13 at the moment and thinking you won't buy the 15, you're going to wait for the 16 as it will be better, then when the 16 comes along you also know the 17 will be better. Battery tech will always get better and no matter when you make the leap there will be better options later down the line.

 

[Mark Irwin]

Absolutely -my first solar panels 10 years ago were state of the art at 250 watts, 3 years ago industry standard was 340w and then this year they were 430w. Never be so afraid of making the wrong decision that you don't make any decisions! All of my friends/family now wish they had taken the jump when I told them 10 years ago.

 

[mike150]

Absolutely -my first solar panels 10 years ago were state of the art at 250 watts, 3 years ago industry standard was 340w and then this year they were 430w. Never be so afraid of making the wrong decision that you don't make any decisions! All of my friends/family now wish they had taken the jump when I told them 10 years ago.

Indeed, I've mine a year now mounted on my shed which is up 2 years. I regret not doing it years ago when ROCs was going. I didn't do it as I didn't want panels on the front of the house but I could have loads of panels in the field behind the house on ground mounts.

Worse was the fact years ago I could have had a big wind turbine put up in my field by another company and they'd have been paying me thousands every year

 

[-herc-]

So had NIE out this morning to run export.

I am with SSE so assume I contact them to set up export payments then?

Thankfully I had a meter that read both import and export or I would have lost the whole year. I gave 1400units back to the grid.