Are you able to island ?
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As it’s currently set up no, but fairly easy to configure it. I don’t really see much need as I can’t remember the last time we had a power outage here.
Chris.
The end of my first full month of having my system, I must say, so far very impressed with it all.
Total generation for the month was 1555Kw/h, on the 31 day average that equates to 50Kw/h per day. Best day was 78Kw/h and the worst today, cloudy and non stop rain was 16Kw/h.
For 11 days of that we haven’t been at home however the MiL has been there dog sitting, consequently only charged the car once, for those 11 days we’ve been totally off grid, there have also been many other off grid stints over the month, which is nice.
Just waiting for the costs on the 3 extra batteries and possibly one more inverter.
Let’s see what the next month brings…
Chris.
Total generation for the month was 1555Kw/h, on the 31 day average that equates to 50Kw/h per day. Best day was 78Kw/h and the worst today, cloudy and non stop rain was 16Kw/h.
For 11 days of that we haven’t been at home however the MiL has been there dog sitting, consequently only charged the car once, for those 11 days we’ve been totally off grid, there have also been many other off grid stints over the month, which is nice.
Just waiting for the costs on the 3 extra batteries and possibly one more inverter.
Let’s see what the next month brings…
Chris.
You have a fantastic system there and if it’s done those figures over this ****ty month I’d love to see what it does when we actually get some decent sun
all my figures are down half of previous month still off grid but not exported much / heated much hot water 
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Wow your monthly is nearly half of my yearly generation for my little system. Sounds like I need to update my Solar game.
Hot off the back of the recent news that Octopus was dropping the requirement of needing an MCS Certificate for solar export payments I tried to sign up and they were still asking for an MCS certificate on their site so I emailed them and was told the new Terms and Conditions had been changed but they weren't using them yet and I would have to go on a waiting list to possbily be a beta tester, I decided then to apply anyway on their site and upload an " MCS certificate" that was just a text page explaining its not needed due to their new terms and conditions and today received this. Annoyingly just in time for the production to start dropping off and not export much, but still I managed to sign up to their 15p per Kwh export tariff so roll on next year.
I’ve got a G99 application in for a larger than average solar system with tesla powerwall batteries. 45 days is the timescale i’ve been quoted for a response from the DNO
Hmmm, got mine up and running 2 days ago and also looked at that and am awaiting my cert. I have a 6kw array and 12kw batteries so went with the Go tarrif instead - don’t think i have much to export until i get more batteries - given the last 2 days i’ve made absolutely no electric
Gotta love automated systems
Made or exported no electric? Even on grim days over summer with a 6kw array should cover your house load?
My total export for last year was 800Kwh but looking to add a few more panels at some point to improve winter performance and being able to get export payments will be a huge bonus as will be massively over capacity in summer.
it’s very new to me so need to get used to it. For the last 2 days i have managed 0.6kw max. The sky was constantly grey
Today patches of blue sky and getting 5kw
Looking to get an electric car very soon. Just was advised by my electrican friend who is the authorised installer that the octopus tarrif that is variable requires a lot of management of my system and the feedback tarrif isn’t really worth it at 7.5p so best to have the night time 9.5p 4 hours charge tarrif and use my batteries and panels for day / evening use
At the moment i have a 1kw air source pool heater and that is on all day. Once the pool goes in october that will change our useage
I’m on the Octopus Flux tariff, I charge the storage batteries from the grid between 02.00-05.00 at a cost of 18.6p/KWh regardless of expected usage/solar production as I can the sell any excess back at 20.1p/kWh day rate or 32.5p/kWh peak rate. So management/maths is then easy. I also charge the car between 02.00-05.00.
I just had 3 more 5.12Kw batteries fitted yesterday, so just over 40Kw of storage which is nice, consequently we don’t really ever need any buy in electric outside of the off peak times.
Our worst day of solar generation in the two months since installation was 20Kwh, it rained most of that day, admittedly this is on a fairly large system, but your <1kwh is confusingly low.
Chris.
^ sorry, I now understand this 0.6Kw was your hourly generation.
Ah I see makes sense. Which octopus traffic has the 9.5p night rate? I’m n flux which is 21p or something.
Ah no 18p
Attachments
I think the explanation was that to not see a car ( if and when i get one ) as a car and more as another set of batteries. And that for the minimal amount of money i’ll earn back the additional cost in tariff and balancing work isn’t worth my time. And as i don’t have an ohm charger and already run my power cable out there a couple years ago ready i would need to also run a date cable to the charger so having the go tariff just lets me charge everything up at night and then if poss during the day. He mentioned about staggering the car either before or after the batteries ? can’t remember - but that would mean running the data cable. But for now all charging is done at night
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I'm on Octopus Cosy Tariff, it's designed for people with heat pumps but they don't check you have one, but I am currently installing one.
Between 4am and 7am and the between 1pm and 4pm you get a cheap rate of about 15p kWh, then other times it's just above the standard rate except for between 4pm and 7pm where it's just over 40p.
Idea being you shift most of your use to the low rates to run your heat pump. My plan is to do that and then charge batteries during winter when solar drops off so pretty much just pulling from the grid during low rate.
Also the export tariff I've signed up to is a fixed 15p per kWh at all times.
Between 4am and 7am and the between 1pm and 4pm you get a cheap rate of about 15p kWh, then other times it's just above the standard rate except for between 4pm and 7pm where it's just over 40p.
Idea being you shift most of your use to the low rates to run your heat pump. My plan is to do that and then charge batteries during winter when solar drops off so pretty much just pulling from the grid during low rate.
Also the export tariff I've signed up to is a fixed 15p per kWh at all times.
My solar system being installed today, it’s taken me a long time to find a decent supplier.
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- Jul 21, 2011
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What have you opted for milky way or alpha centuri?
Pinbot...
The DNO
When my system was fitted the DNO told me due to the size of the system they would need to come out and safety check the full instal, a good idea IMO! The cost of £500-600, the not so good bit.
When repeatedly asking for a date for them to come they were very silent, they finally said as it was only 12Kwh of panels and less than 50Kwh there was no need for a site visit!
Flat refusal for the visit fee to be returned as they had signed the job off which is what the fee was for!
My DNO is Scottish Power, they have a bit of a rep as a nightmare to deal with for things like this.
Why Tesla power walls? I looked at them but went away from them on cost grounds and the Tesla energy tariff by Octopus had come to an end , the Octopus tariff that replaced it didn't require Tesla batteries.
Chris.
I didnt like the look of the other batteries that were being offered.
The Tesla batteries were reasonably priced per kW but people often quote the Tesla Gateway price in with it. The Gateway does the intelligence, is a PSB and allows approved islanding. I can isolate in a power cut and keep generating solar too.
Tesla haters will rant on about them, but our Powerwall/Gateway was been in nearly 2 months and it's genuinely a brilliant bit of kit. So much more than just an AC-Coupled battery. Add some solar generation, sign-up to an off peak import tariff plus an export tariff; and it just takes care of everything. Predicts solar gain, learns your array size and behaviour, imports off-peak if the solar forecast looks iffy, allows you to keep the lights on in a powercut and also recharges if there's solar available by safely isolating your entire house. GivEnergy has released a similar product (the All-In-One) but it's relatively immature compared to the Powerwall.
September 2023 electric bill (excluding standing charges) was £22, Sept 2022 was £178. That includes charging 2x electric cars (1 more than we had in 2022).
September 2023 electric bill (excluding standing charges) was £22, Sept 2022 was £178. That includes charging 2x electric cars (1 more than we had in 2022).
How much is something like this and the expected returns? It's something I've been interested in for a while.
Parisno
Registered
I have a solar system with 18 Kw battery storage, drive an electric car and have Inteligent Octopus (7.14p per Kwh 23:30 to 05:00) my last electricity bill was £43 for the month, I used to put more than that in the petrol car every week
I need to get off Go and onto intelligent as soon as they'll let all Zappi owners join, not just the Beta testers...