Getting the most from a solar pv system

Jon_Tiffany

Thought it would be useful to start a new thread which is purely for ideas, tips and suggestions for getting the most out of a solar pv system. No debates over the rights or wrongs of the FITs, just a discussion on how to maximise the savings you can make with a solar pv system.

I'll start things off with a few of the more obvious things:

Reduce - doesn't matter if you have a solar pv system or not, anyone can benefit from reducing their consumption. So look at the easy and cheap things first such as low energy bulbs and loft insulation

Washing machine - most washing machines now only take a cold fill and use an electric element to heat the water. Put the washing on at 10am on a nice sunny day and you can then put the clothes out to dry in the afternoon. If you have a lot of washing then you can get another load on from about midday, or run the dishwasher instead.

Over the last few days many people are reporting very good output from their panels even at this time of year, people are starting to put their heating on it would make sense to use some of the electric for heating during the day rather than exporting. If you have a 500w electric rad or halogen heater this would be ideal. Its very important though to make sure you do not use more than you are producing - importing electric from the grid to provide heat is not the way to go! (unless you have no gas and use electric heating anyway)

Some people have suggested using battery banks for storing daytime electric for use overnight, while this is an interesting idea I'm not sure if it stacks up financially. Maybe for anyone lucky enough to get hold of some free or cheap batteries from an industrial UPS it would make sense.

So what does everyone else do? Use timers? Do the ironing during the day? Anyone lucky enough to have a meter that runs backwards? Has anyone got an export meter? What are you doing with the FIT payments? Into an ISA or use the money to improve the energy efficiency of your home?