Solar / battery systems

[Big Dave]

So, I have decided to take the plunge and get a solar and battery system fitted.  20 panels giving about 10kw of power, a 10kw inverter and 14.4kwh of batteries.

We have recently bought an EV as well, so will be charging overnight.

 

Current electricity usage - 8500kwh per year

EV charging likely to be around 7500kwh per year.

 

Im a bit confused about solar tariffs.  Do you get an all-in-one tariff that covers EVERYTHING, or do you get a standard tariff, and then have an additional export tariff?

If anyone has any knowledge, info would be greatly received.

 

[PAULCFC]

Only know about Solar for our camper Van,but it's suprising how long you can stay off grid with just a couple of panels and an inverter........sorry probably doesn't help you much!       My Parent's had panels on the roof of their house just to heat the water and was a real pain when we came to sell the house.....Mortgage providers don't like them unless you have all the papers for them!

  

Edited Wednesday at 14:58 by PAULCFC
grammer

[FoyleFox]

We have Intelligent Octopus Go, that gives us cheap rate 23.30 - 05:30, when we fill our battery and charge the car. So, yes, that's your standard tariff.

Separately, we then have an Octopus export tariff. The credits are paid straight to your Octopus account. 

 

The battery has been the game changer cost wise for us, we never use full price electric anymore. 

[Stadt]

18 hours ago, Big Dave said:

Current electricity usage - 8500kwh per year

Blimey, big house or are you running any high load appliances like a hot tub (excluding the EV charger)?

[Stadt]

18 hours ago, Big Dave said:

Do you get an all-in-one tariff that covers EVERYTHING, or do you get a standard tariff, and then have an additional export tariff?

If anyone has any knowledge, info would be greatly received.

You can get a second export tariff but the best rates are when you have an all in one, e.g you might 10p /kWh with say Octopus but only if you use them for energy.

[Big Dave]

1 hour ago, Stadt said:

Blimey, big house or are you running any high load appliances like a hot tub (excluding the EV charger)?

4 adults often working from home.  AC and underfloor heating in my wifes work studio.

3 womens all using the trumble drier daily!!

Im sure you get the picture.

You can get now why we are going solar and battery!

Edited Thursday at 09:14 by Big Dave

[Big Dave]

59 minutes ago, Stadt said:

You can get a second export tariff but the best rates are when you have an all in one, e.g you might 10p /kWh with say Octopus but only if you use them for energy.

Thanks - think I will ring a couple of suppliers - will be easier than going through the websites.  Some wont give you the export info on-line until you are a customer!

 

 

[kenny]

7 minutes ago, Big Dave said:

4 adults often working from home.  AC and underfloor heating in my wifes work studio.

3 womens all using the trumble drier daily!!

Im sure you get the picture.

You can get now why we are going solar and battery!

You won't be exporting anything really. That battery is plenty big enough and you will be using most of it as you generate.

 

We have a 4.8kw battery and don't work from home. So we do tend to export half of our power generated in the summer months. We now have a heat pump which will be using that to heat the hot water.

[FoyleFox]

2 minutes ago, Big Dave said:

Thanks - think I will ring a couple of suppliers - will be easier than going through the websites.  Some wont give you the export info on-line until you are a customer!

 

 

MSE and Which have some online comparison charts. It also shows if you need to be an energy customer. 

 

Another thing to explore is using 3rd parties to sell extra, like Axle or Octopus are doing their own now called charge pack.

[FoyleFox]

15 minutes ago, Big Dave said:

4 adults often working from home.  AC and underfloor heating in my wifes work studio.

3 womens all using the trumble drier daily!!

Im sure you get the picture.

Buying a washing line would probably halve your electricity consumption!!

 

We use about 5-5500kwh per year and that includes charging the EV, with 2 adults, home all day. 

[Big Dave]

31 minutes ago, FoyleFox said:

Buying a washing line would probably halve your electricity consumption!!

 

We use about 5-5500kwh per year and that includes charging the EV, with 2 adults, home all day. 

 

Think our EV charging will be about 7500kwh per year on its own (30,000 miler per year).

[Trav Le Bleu]

4 hours ago, Big Dave said:

.

3 womens all using the trumble drier daily!!

 

Do they sit on it?

[VLC86]

I’ve got similar solar wise and battery and I’d second intelligent octopus.

 

In the 2 previous years I’ve switched to the octopus tariff with very high export rates between 4pm and 7pm but this increases the price of import. Best month I had paid me £200 export but last year it didn’t fully seem to work so this is the first year I’ve left it on Intelligent. Because of the weather, I’ve been credited with about £80 a month and that’s with an EV (20k miles a year) and a hot tub. I do wonder if I’d have been better off this summer on the other tariff but I’m happy with what it’s done.