Solar + Battery thoughts

[Trilby]

With the ID3 arriving sometime in 2024, I figured I’d explore solar and battery setups.

I’ve had a (just a few £ short of) £20k all in quote for
15 x perlight 400w delta series panels (black)
6kw solar edge invertor
5.5kwh Alpha smile 5 battery
May 23 installation

These all seem high spec components with decent multi year warranties, but the £20k hurts to look at even with c. £4k bills on the way.

Wondering what other folks here have done, will do, thinking of doing….?

[Turquoise]

I'm hoping to have solar and a battery installed in November (contract is signed but battery delivery is currently long lead time). I'm looking at a little over £7k for 11x405W JA Solar panels and just under £8k for a 7.5kwh Sonnen Hybrid battery (includes invertor). So about £15k all in.

[sidehaas]

That first quote looks expensive to me. We are going through a similar process. My first quote is for 10*405W JA solar panels, 9.5kwh GivEnergy battery, 3.6kw GivEnergy inverter (although a 5kw version isn't much more) plus mounting kit (flat roof) - for £12.5k. The material costs for our quote are I think about £7.5k. Admittedly I haven't discussed installation dates yet, I'm going to get some more quotes first. We live in the North West.

[bazmac]

I am currently in the middle of installation, it has been a drawn out process due to availability of components.
I think the £20k price is a bit high but maybe some of that is local tradesmen costs.
I have 10x Trina Solar 410w panels and a Sonnen 9.53 Hybrid system with 7.5kw battery option and all in we are paying £11k.

[johnmfriend]

Hopefully, this will be useful.

In January, I paid £4.4k in January for 12 panels that at peak can generate 3.6kwh. No battery.

In 7 months, I have generated 3.1mwh. Two thirds of that has been exported. I get paid just 5p per kWh for that.

Roughly, half of what I use, is generated from solar.

When I had the panels installed, the electrician recommended that the cheapest form of storage was to get a myenergi Eddie to use the solar to heat the hot water. This will cost about £700. It should pay for itself in eighteen months. I’m waiting for it to be installed.

I’ve recently got a myenergi zappi charger just before my id3 arrived 2 weeks ago. I’ve so far been able to charge the id3 so far just from solar.

I’m going to see how much solar I’m still exporting once the Eddie is in to see if it’s still worthwhile as batteries are expensive. I’m hoping at some point to swap the id3 for one that can do bi-directional charging so for me the case for battery will have to take that into account.

[DumfriesDik]

Interesting thread. Being old I always thought paying north of £10k unrealistic for me, as that could reduce my energy bill by £1k a year and I will be in the ground around the time it ends. 3 Score and ten. BUT now, right now, I wish I had the funds as I would love to reduce my energy bill. It is looking a lot more viable for 'older' folk now.

[OB1CCFC]

I had a bad experience recently with a solar company who were very pushy to the point of bullying. And came up with the ‘sign today and we’ll knock £3k off’ nonsense. Sad these practices are still going on. Obviously I didn’t proceed and hammered them on trustpilot.
What I found interesting is their design model seemed very centred on just battery storing cheap off peak Octopus Go energy rather than on the solar aspect!
Not that sensible being so dependent on a 3rd party I think, you want to have a decent level of self sufficiency.

[Trilby]

Some great comments, thanks folks.

In my case I think the Solar Edge is pushing up the cost. Its the system where you have mini invertors per panel to avoid any shading issues or the whole array going down when one panel has issues. 15 panels means 15 mini controllers and invertors, very smart, but costly.

The Sonnen 9.53 Hybrid system looks very neat and looking at potential location for the unit it needs to look OK rather than a pile of kit and cables. The Alpha smile 5 fit this, but more capacity would be good. We have no loft space to install in so its going in the utility room.

I’ll carry on shopping around and see what I can find.
Cheers - Ben

[Trilby]

I am currently in the middle of installation, it has been a drawn out process due to availability of components.
I think the £20k price is a bit high but maybe some of that is local tradesmen costs.
I have 10x Trina Solar 410w panels and a Sonnen 9.53 Hybrid system with 7.5kw battery option and all in we are paying £11k.

Would you be happy to share your installer/supplier contact details @bazmac ?

[bazmac]

I am currently in the middle of installation, it has been a drawn out process due to availability of components.
I think the £20k price is a bit high but maybe some of that is local tradesmen costs.
I have 10x Trina Solar 410w panels and a Sonnen 9.53 Hybrid system with 7.5kw battery option and all in we are paying £11k.

Would you be happy to share your installer/supplier contact details @bazmac ?

Sure, although it might not help, I am using a local company from Dundee, Greystone Energy. So far they have done everything they said when they said they would,.
Only issues have been the availability of some components.

[Trilby]

Would you be happy to share your installer/supplier contact details @bazmac ?

Sure, although it might not help, I am using a local company from Dundee, Greystone Energy. So far they have done everything they said when they said they would,.
Only issues have been the availability of some components.

Thanks for that. Yes it’s quite a trek to here from Dundee, but you’ve kicked me into looking more locally and there are a few companies round here that seem to offer PV services. Let’s see what the surveys and quotes come back like.

I’m really aware of the solar scammers from a few years back so hesitant to reach out to random google results!

[steve]

Would you be happy to share your installer/supplier contact details @bazmac ?

Sure, although it might not help, I am using a local company from Dundee, Greystone Energy. So far they have done everything they said when they said they would,.
Only issues have been the availability of some components.

Thanks for that. Yes it’s quite a trek to here from Dundee, but you’ve kicked me into looking more locally and there are a few companies round here that seem to offer PV services. Let’s see what the surveys and quotes come back like.

I’m really aware of the solar scammers from a few years back so hesitant to reach out to random google results!

But not a long trek from here in Invergowrie! I have been struggling to get any supplier to even engage with me (the house is listed so not a simple case of bunging the panels in the roof). I will give them a call.

Steve

[Repfigit]

Sure, although it might not help, I am using a local company from Dundee, Greystone Energy. So far they have done everything they said when they said they would,.
Only issues have been the availability of some components.

Thanks for that. Yes it’s quite a trek to here from Dundee, but you’ve kicked me into looking more locally and there are a few companies round here that seem to offer PV services. Let’s see what the surveys and quotes come back like.

I’m really aware of the solar scammers from a few years back so hesitant to reach out to random google results!

But not a long trek from here in Invergowrie! I have been struggling to get any supplier to even engage with me (the house is listed so not a simple case of bunging the panels in the roof). I will give them a call.

Steve

Installers will be swamped with enquiries now. They will be prioritising the most profitable jobs first, which will largely exclude complex jobs like listed buildings.

[van]

I found the best quote came from my "one man band" local company. Any issues I know he is just down the road. But get at least 3 quotes.

I had ours installed over a year ago now and Covid, Putin etc have affected prices, but ours is 15x half cell 370w panels with Solaredge optimizers, Solaredge inverter, Tesla Powerwall 13.5kw (usable) cap. Paid around £15k all in. Half cells and optimizers were important to me as panels are split over two roofs and there's some shading over the day. If you don't have those issues optimizers may not be so important. Also had an iBoost installed (£300) for hot water.

[bazmac]

Sure, although it might not help, I am using a local company from Dundee, Greystone Energy. So far they have done everything they said when they said they would,.
Only issues have been the availability of some components.

Thanks for that. Yes it’s quite a trek to here from Dundee, but you’ve kicked me into looking more locally and there are a few companies round here that seem to offer PV services. Let’s see what the surveys and quotes come back like.

I’m really aware of the solar scammers from a few years back so hesitant to reach out to random google results!

But not a long trek from here in Invergowrie! I have been struggling to get any supplier to even engage with me (the house is listed so not a simple case of bunging the panels in the roof). I will give them a call.

Steve

Well I am in Inchture but thought I would save people looking up some maps.
Let me know how you get on with them.

[Huffalot]

Having 11x 385w panels and 6.5Kwh battery installed at the end of September. Paying just under 12K, ordered in June. When we eventually get a date for our ID.3 (probably next year now) intention is to get a Zappi installed so we can charge from Solar.

One thing we have done recently is change our chest freezer (about 25 years old) and dishwasher (which failed) and that alone has cut our consumption by about 20% a day. Just a tip its probably worth looking at individual devices you have and their age.

[Raxacorico]

Having 11x 385w panels and 6.5Kwh battery installed at the end of September. Paying just under 12K, ordered in June. When we eventually get a date for our ID.3 (probably next year now) intention is to get a Zappi installed so we can charge from Solar.

One thing we have done recently is change our chest freezer (about 25 years old) and dishwasher (which failed) and that alone has cut our consumption by about 20% a day. Just a tip its probably worth looking at individual devices you have and their age.

Interesting thing about the freezer and dishwasher!
Via our Zappi I can tell that our "normal" background load [various items on standby, three fridge/freezers and computers] is between 200 and 300 watts.
Our solar panels cover this, and more, nearly all of the time. During the Summer I get most of my mileage from sunshine.

[boshy]

I had 5kw installed in the summer for £7,700

I had originally intended to get a battery, but costs were more than the budget I had in mind, so chose a system I could add to later.

my previous electric company car went back when I changed jobs and the ID3 is certainly not here this year ( tour on order since sep 21), so continuing with Octopus go wasn’t a big issue for me.

I went onto octopus agile outgoing and since install have had an average sale price of 36p kWh. Importantly for me this is more than my fixed price import tariff of 30p kWh, so without planning it have found myself in a position where I get a better return selling than using, ie the battery in the current scenario would be costing me money to use.

This of course may change and july and august were unusually sunny but for now is great and resulted in a bill last month where they paid me.

Overall I’ve found my panels have reduced my imported electricity by about half and then I have export tariff on top.

No current plans for a battery now.

[MattgID3]

with no Gas supply we have an immersion so im looking at the iboost timer so excess energy is stored as hot water and also have the hypervolt with solar charging to catch whats left so minimal loss of produced energy. the batteries seem to me to not be great value in terms of payback but just my view. im looking at 3.5KW solar (due to available roof space) next year once i see what payrise my company give and the cost of energy so i know i can afford.
our central heating is 7KW electric so not sure a battery would help anyway.

[Turquoise]

I am currently in the middle of installation, it has been a drawn out process due to availability of components.
I think the £20k price is a bit high but maybe some of that is local tradesmen costs.
I have 10x Trina Solar 410w panels and a Sonnen 9.53 Hybrid system with 7.5kw battery option and all in we are paying £11k.

Hi Bazmac.

If you still read the forums, would you mind sharing how you're getting on with your Sonnen 9.53 hybrid, please?