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

Cardew

Lifes_Grand_Plan wrote: »

No E7 at our house.

So I suppose the only risk is if the washer comes on and the shun isn't out in which case we pay for it, but to be honest if we need to do the wash anyway then its a bonus if its a "free" wash rather than if we do our washing when we get home from work and its dark = guaranteed we'll pay for it.

Bear in mind that most washing machine cycles these days use very little electricity - often 0.4kWh/0.6kWh. Most of that consumption(even on hotter washes) is for a heater(usually 2.5kW) that will only be on for a very short period in the cycle.

zeupater

Rheumatoid wrote: »

Some might not that's why i mentioned it, although I appreciate most will hang on to deemed for grim death even if they have one

Hi

I don't follow why you'd think that considering that most with PV export well over 50% so would in effect be losing-out through not metering what leaves their premises.

Most with around a 4kWp system would probably be exporting in the region of 75% of their annual generation ... even with proportional diversion to DHW it would likely be much closer to 50% than any figure that a salesman on commission would claim .... if you've got a daily DHW demand of ~5kWh-6kWh, then really good days over the summer simply results in the majority of energy still being unused and therefore exported, whist for the majority of the winter days proportional diversion makes little overall difference ....

HTH
Z

Martyn1981

I suspect your right Z, and that the overall average is still an export in excess of 50%. It seems a diversion of around 1,000kWh is possible, so perhaps an additional 25% to 33% of generation, taking those properties to around 50% to 60%.

I 'lose' out on about £30 in export payments each year, but as my first system is on the highest FiT (and both get the low export rate) I have nothing to complain about, but those on later and lower FiT's, and higher export rates may feel a little cheated.

Overall I suspect the grid is the winner (I assume the leccy suppliers can't sell on leccy they haven't officially received, so only get to sell on the 50%). But for information purposes, it would be really good to know what actual export is.

Mart.

orrery

OK, I can give you real numbers from my system.

The smart meter was installed on 19 December 2014 and I've just been down and read all the meters today.

During this period:

4,227kWh generation, so...

2,113kWh deemed export

1,451kWh actual export, so 34% of generation.

That's with very carefully maximising appliance use, solarImmersion and charging an electric car.

[Deleted User]

Hi all. Interesting thread, this! Potential newbie to solar trying to muddle through the issues........:o

I have another thread running at the moment as we are considering installing solar pv. I've been looking at this and other threads to look for ways of improving the benefits. Anyone have any views on charging electric storage heaters from solar output for evening use?

Is that practical? If so, any tips on best manufacturer/model? Free-standing ones would be preferable.

(We don't have a hot water cylinder that could be connected to solar.)

WR

EricMears

Wild_Rover wrote: »

Anyone have any views on charging electric storage heaters from solar output for evening use?

That should be pretty easy to do. Storage heaters are usually on a separate circuit which is normally only live during offpeak hours so you could arrange for an Immersun or similar to connect to that circuit(possible you might need some sort of additional relay to disconnect from offpeak meter).

However (there's usually one of them! ) during the winter when you really want the storage heaters topped up in the daytime there's unlikely to be enough free electricity to do that. When you could use up your free electricity this way you'd probably find the house was already plenty hot enough.

To sum up : Easy to do but unlikely to be worth the effort.

[Deleted User]

EricMears wrote: »

That should be pretty easy to do. Storage heaters are usually on a separate circuit which is normally only live during offpeak hours so you could arrange for an Immersun or similar to connect to that circuit(possible you might need some sort of additional relay to disconnect from offpeak meter).

However (there's usually one of them! ) during the winter when you really want the storage heaters topped up in the daytime there's unlikely to be enough free electricity to do that. When you could use up your free electricity this way you'd probably find the house was already plenty hot enough.

To sum up : Easy to do but unlikely to be worth the effort.

Thanks for that. We have gas central heating, so I was looking at trying to harness more pv to substitute for evening use of gas. Also, as we live in Scotland it's not at all unusual for us to be fine during the day, but a bit chilly in the evenings.

We also have a recently installed conservatory that is electrically heated, so the idea of being able to move a 'pre-charged' mobile heater in there if we wanted to use it in the evening might have been attractive...

WR

Crowmann

I fitted a 2.7 kw storage heater in the hall just after xmas - Our solar system went live in late November 15.


My daily iBoost saving was around 1.5kw when it only had the immersion connected, the thermostat said hot pretty much within an hour of the solar working. Now with the iBoost connected to both water and storage heater I have used via this device 14Kw today - plus the dishwasher has been on. computer etc.


The storage heater is far to hot to touch and given its central location giving out a lot of useful heat.


I did the wiring and the storage heater cost £75. Well worth doing.


Separately am I correct when a smart meter gets fitted the export amount will be measured rather than the 50%? I suspect with the iBoost I am exporting less than 20%.

ChrisJD

Crowmann wrote: »

Separately am I correct when a smart meter gets fitted the export amount will be measured rather than the 50%? I suspect with the iBoost I am exporting less than 20%.

So far as can be determined it is entirely up to whoever pays your FIT. Some use the measured readings, some don't.

What break even period have you calculated for both the iBoost and the storage heater?

[Deleted User]

Thanks for that Crowmann.... did you look for portable storage heater/s or did you consider only a fixed one?

WR