So now I have a solar PV system how do I make the most of it???

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  • Ggardener
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    Just a thought. Is using a dishwasher better for the environment than washing by hand?
  • cannonballdaze
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    I'd say so - particularly of you live on your own.

    • Less water than washing up 10 ? times.
    • Less water heating and less heated water going cold in the pipes.
    • More opportunity to wait until the sun is shining.

    Joe
  • ely_ellis
    ely_ellis Posts: 140 Forumite
    First Anniversary First Post Combo Breaker
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    Water heater diverter...

    I have the iBoost, since installation of my system at beginning of July this year we have not had the boil on at all.
    We get ample hot water every day, it tends to be hotter than when we were using the boiler for hot water.
    There are 3 of us in the house, 2 adults, 1 child so usage is probably just below average.
    Not sure on the size of the tank, it stands about 1.2 metres high, about 60cm diameter but probably has insulation under the outer metal skin.
    Our diverter seems to be diverting about 3.5kWh per day to keep it hot.

    Dishwasher....

    We don't use our dishwasher much, (it came with the house). We found that it really does eat electricity. The heater part runs at just under 3kW and does this twice per wash for what seems to be ages, (probably main wash and then the rinse cycle). We only use it at peak generation time (11am to 1pm) when we have spare electricity.

    Since having solar pv, we have been watching every watt. I am not a green person by a long way, but tight, haha.
    Martin (With an I)

    4.00 kWp System, 15° East of South, 35° Pitch, 16 (250w) x 8.33 Eternity Panels, Solaredge Optimisers and SE4000(16A) inverter, iBoost. Just North of Gainsborough, Lincolnshire.
  • ourcornercottage
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    I had PV with iboost fitted earlier this year.

    Has anyone found they can use storage heaters successfully as I was thinking of trying one to use excess on sunny winter days whist we are at work. We heat on oil to any savings (green and money!) there are useful.

    That said storage heaters are expensive and don't want to fork out if we don't generate enough to heat it. We have a 3.75 and most days are at work during day. We use the appliances during our days off to get washing done etc but on weekdays only have iboost on during day.

    I know it's not a lot to go on but has anyone had success with storage heaters?
  • pinnks
    pinnks Posts: 1,259 Forumite
    First Anniversary First Post Name Dropper Photogenic
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    What you need to consider is how much you generate in the darker months and how much would be available for space heating. The answer from a normal system is not much. In the in-between months, so about now until the end of October and March/April, you may have sufficient excess to help keep the central heating off for a while longer/few weeks earlier but not enough for serious space heating.

    If you think about space heating, and ignoring the gas you use for heating water, if you burn through 12,000 kWh a year, that is about 2000kWh per month or about 70kWh per day. And per room?? Compare that with an excess of perhaps 15kWh from your PV in the middle of July, reducing to perhaps 1kWh in January and a picture begins to emerge...

    I haven't gone down the storage heater route as they don't look that good, are bulky, immobile and expensive unless you go top-end when they are ridiculously expensive. But I do have a couple of oil-filled radiators on my diverter. Each is 2.4kW, so when one reaches its temperature the other turns on and so forth. Clearly they only provide heat while the sun shines but we have found (only second autumn using them) that they keep the living room a degree or so warmer. We have just dragged the kit out of summer storage and yesterday ended up with a slightly over-warm living room an hour before the sun went down but were comfortable until bedtime, rather than grabbing for jumpers. This morning I see we are a couple of degrees warmer than we have been at this time for the rest of this week. Some of that is of course direct sunlight heating the room yesterday afternoon but some is the radiators.

    My rads cost about £130 in total, plus a bit of cable, but storage heaters are 3 or 4 times more expensive and unlikely to be economically viable over any reasonable period - unless you find something second hand for a reasonable price...
  • Careful_ly
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    We are almost certainly going to get Pv before the end of the year, possibly even before the end of this month.


    Our roof faces the early morning sun, in the East.


    Is it possible to have a socket(s) wired, for the use of oiled filled electric radiator(s), that will only work when there is excess electricity being generated?
    We have a spare unused socket behind the sofa, where we could easily have an electric radiator, the wiring is accessable from the loft above.


    If not would it be possible to use the electric radiators without having to keep a very sharp eye on the meter.


    I am thinking we could warm the house before we get up without using the gas central heating.
  • Q - So now I have a solar PV system how do I make the...

    A - In addition to all the usual energy saving measures e.g. LEDs, diverters etc

    All my FIT/Export/RHI income, ~£2600, gets paid into the pension SIPP so yet another nice wee boost from UK.PLC from tax relief :D

    Cheers
  • EricMears
    EricMears Posts: 3,232 Forumite
    First Anniversary Name Dropper First Post
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    If you fit an Immersun, you can definitely connect it to three individual circuits. One of them is usually your immersion heater but the other two can be anything you like (apart from items that must have a normal mains supply) and oil-filled radiators would certainly be OK. Each circuit is limited to 3kW - plenty for a single OFR maybe even two.

    I expect that the other suppliers of immersion diverters would be able to do something similar.

    But how much excess electricity are you expecting before you get up during the winter months ? It's a project that would work very well in May, June & July but chances are that in December you'd have to stay in bed till at least 11am (even on a sunny day !) before you were generating enough to supply base load (fridges, freezers, items on stand-by etc. . . ) and have something left over to run a heater.
    NE Derbyshire.4kWp S Facing 17.5deg slope (dormer roof).24kWh of Pylontech batteries with Lux controller BEV : Hyundai Ioniq5
  • Looked into adding an oil filled rad, for example, to one one of the diverter's outputs but for the work involved and all the points Eric raises I can't see the point unless it's dead easy to install a proper wall socket labelled accordingly. Understanding the limitations of such a setup.

    I have however plugged an oil rad into the regular mains on sunny days in the shoulder months if I happen to be off work during the day when the heating is not scheduled to be on.

    Of course if you have a much bigger system...

    Cheers
  • pinnks
    pinnks Posts: 1,259 Forumite
    First Anniversary First Post Name Dropper Photogenic
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    I have wired output 2 for an oil rad but that is purposely intended for a rad near the immerSUN, so I just plug it in an go - my immerSUN is in my home office below my desk, so perfect for warming me on cool days when working...

    I have also, to avoid the wiring issues, invested in as second immerSUN, which I have mounted on a movable board (see picture link) and which I plug into a normal socket when I want to use it. Using 16A cable, I have a trailing lead to connect to the mains and 3 trailing sockets for the 3 outputs, into which I can plug devices. I got a good deal on the second immerSUN direct from 4eco when they were offering to exchange mkI devices for mkII in advance of launching their monitoring system. In total I have spent about £370 on this set-up, including 2 radiators.

    Works for me...

    https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/14870257/immerSUN.jpg
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