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Energy prices - gone nuts.

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Fantazia2 said:
I did my own panels DIY, bought the inverter from eBay and the panels were from somewhere call the Green Power Shop Online but they dont seem to exist anymore.

I used https://midsummerwholesale.co.uk/ to look at options to put something together and then shopped around for the best prices for all the parts.

This company does kits but I think their prices are a bit steep for what you get https://www.pluginsolar.co.uk/?product_cat=ground-mount-kits

Putting a system together is fairly easy, the solar panels have male and female connectors on them the same as the inverter and its just a case of daisy chaining them making sure the specs match, and there is usually a plug on the inverter to wire the AC into, This AC your supposed to wire into a lockable Dual Pole switch for the regulations which you can get pretty much at any electrical store, screwfix etc, and depending on whats on the inverter you might want to put a DC isolator inbetween the panels and the inverter if there isnt one built in.

If you are adding on you will need to be careful what you add in terms of what the original installer has registered with the DNO to make sure you dont push more power back to the grid that theyve been informed of, but not sure if they do any checks on this and there will probably be a little bit of wiggle room in it but I wouldnt risk it myself.

Im planning at some point to add a few more panels and will be at the limit of the 16A you can add for free with just notifiying so have will have to setup but I have the option on my current inverter to limit its output so that I wouldnt export more than Ive registered with them, shouldnt really be much of a problem for my usage as my panels already produce more than I can use in Summer, just wanting some more to extend the solar season a couple of more months in and out of winter.
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Any brands of panels and invertors to recoomend?
 
Okay so taken the plunge, MCS installer putting a system in for me next week. Two batteries Hybrid invertor and 16 panels, also have some hot water emersion heater, energy transfer going on as well when appropriate

Currently with shell. What is the recommended tariff and provider these days please?

Cheers.

JB
 
Biff said:
Okay so taken the plunge, MCS installer putting a system in for me next week. Two batteries Hybrid invertor and 16 panels, also have some hot water emersion heater, energy transfer going on as well when appropriate

Currently with shell. What is the recommended tariff and provider these days please?

Cheers.

JB
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I’m with Octopus which have some decent export tariffs.
 
My solar/battery system is booked for installation at the start of June, it’s going to be quite interesting seeing how it performs and my thoughts.

Currently with EDF on a tariff that ends in August, I’ve also been looking at the Octopus tariff, it’s the best I’ve found so far, peak evening import rate is a bit heavy, but with batteries I can’t think I’d ever import energy during that period, flip coin is the export rate during that period seems very good.

Roll on June!

Chris.
 
Is anyone else still waiting on their Alternative Fuel Payment? We had to apply on the government's website and it said we'd get it within 6 weeks of application, but we are now at 6 weeks and 2 days and haven't heard anything. And there's no contact information to find out what is going on or if they've screwed it up either :hmm:
 
What sort of PV generation are people producing?

Mine are:

2020 4,279 KWh
2021 4,579 kWh
2022 4,307 kWh

4Kw of panels
 
3500kW in 2022 from a 4.18kW array
8 panels SSE facing
3 panels SSW facing. I have noticed that these get a lot less due to the roof angles causing more shadow.

@ianw, your figures look very good, especially as they are 11 years old.
 
So how does a smart meter measure export, is it a directional current thing? I presume with modern systems, they can now meter exactly what you supply to the grid, not guesstimate on usage / separate meter out of the invertor.

I have a SMETS2 and i assume with modern systems i am only going to export when my demand is low and when i have energy to export that outstrips my demand. Thefore the flow of current will be out of my property and not in.

Is that how they do it? It would also be (as far as reasonably practical) secure too. In other words they would not do it via secure local comms to the invertor (or cloud) that will measure output?

Cheers

JB
 
Yeah the smart meter knows which direction the power is going and how much of it there is and will record the kw hour being exported then your tariff will give you a price per kw.

My system exports once battery’s are full and immersion tank is hot and the house does not need it.

House->Batteries->HotWater->Export
 
ianw said:
What sort of PV generation are people producing?

Mine are:

2020 4,279 KWh
2021 4,579 kWh
2022 4,307 kWh

4Kw of panels
Click to expand...

3.36kw of panels (part of roof is lower, was recommended to only put on one roof), pretty steady

2013 2900kw
2014 3100kw
2015 3200kw
2016 3000kw
2017 2700kw
2018 2950kw
2019 3100kw
2020 2900kw
2021 2900kw
2022 2900kw
 
russdx1 said:
Yeah the smart meter knows which direction the power is going and how much of it there is and will record the kw hour being exported then your tariff will give you a price per kw.

My system exports once battery’s are full and immersion tank is hot and the house does not need it.

House->Batteries->HotWater->Export
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Thought that's how it was. Same as mine re priority as well.

I wonder if it will still register as export on the display even though I don't yet have an export tariff - will check in a bit?

Also will the export be back datable with the new provider?

JB
 
2019: 5720 kWh
2020: 6110 kWh
2021: 5420 kWh
2022: 5980 kWh
2023 to date: 1390 kWh

16 Panel System, inverter is my bottle neck peaking out at about 3.8 kw. I suspect I could be generating far greater with a larger inverter:


Even with todays bleak weather it capped out:

Capping out.JPG
 
Biff said:
Thought that's how it was. Same as mine re priority as well.

I wonder if it will still register as export on the display even though I don't yet have an export tariff - will check in a bit?

Also will the export be back datable with the new provider?

JB
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For me it took about 6-8 weeks to setup the export tariff and none of that energy was back dated, grid got it for free :(
 
s000m said:
2019: 5720 kWh
2020: 6110 kWh
2021: 5420 kWh
2022: 5980 kWh
2023 to date: 1390 kWh

16 Panel System, inverter is my bottle neck peaking out at about 3.8 kw. I suspect I could be generating far greater with a larger inverter:


Even with todays bleak weather it capped out:

View attachment 200787
Click to expand...
Sounds like you need a bigger inverter :D what wattage are your panels?
 
5.6k of panels facing directly South
Not had them a calendar year yet but so far this year I’ve generated 1986.5 KWh as of today.
 
Quick Q. Signing up to Octopus Export. Fixed or variable? I see we can change, but takes 30 days. Any pros cons for each?
Cheers

JB
 
Biff said:
Quick Q. Signing up to Octopus Export. Fixed or variable? I see we can change, but takes 30 days. Any pros cons for each?
Cheers

JB
Click to expand...
I went with variable as the rates seem to average out better from what I could work out. And if you can export in there peak times you get much better £ per kw
 
Wintonmartin said:
Are you on fixed or variable for your import?
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Import is fixed at the moment, Just my export is variable. Iv signed up to the new plan Octopus have to let you charge your batteries at night, which I think takes care of import / export but not swapped over to that yet

1682688418037.png
 
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