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

silverwhistle

zeupater wrote: »

?although for us and other very low gas users it's cheaper to pay a much higher unit price and no standing charge

Yep, that's my situation. Due a gas bill in the first week of March and on current usage it should be a fair bit less (£15-20?) than last year's which was £50 for this coldest quarter. I've had a couple of full tanks of hot water via my iboost in the last week, although today I miscalculated and exported too much! From March to October the boiler is hardly used and not at all between April and September. I can't find an annual standing charge that is less than my total gas bill.

There's very little wear and tear on my boiler as even when I need it I just turn it onto constant manually and there is no cycling. For heating I have a wood burner in the lounge and it hasn't been cold enough to turn the GCH on, and I haven't had aged relatives to stay this year..

rodee13

Crowmann wrote: »

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%.

Which storage heater do you have ? I am also looking to use by 2nd output of the iBoost+ for a storage heater. I understand it should be a manual one with no electronics/smart things involved. Currently I divert the excess to an oil filled radiator which makes the room nice and warm but I need it mostly in the evenings.

Exiled_Tyke

EricMears wrote: »

I expect all price comparison sites would (eventually) give the full breakdown of costs. However, Uswitch in particular and others I've glanced at like to present you with their 'best buys' ranked on order of the savings they think you'll make and put a description on a link that should be labelled <Get full details> which gives impression you're 'choosing this one' (when all you're choosing is the chance to see exactly what they're offering).

No price comparison site can create a binding contract for you; you're always free to stay with your present company or choose a completely different one providing you cancel the proposed new one within a cooling off period.

I don't quite understand the problem here. If you use the MSE cheap energy club then, it does indeed rank the tariffs but for each one you can simply click a tab for the full breakdown. Also (if my memory serves me correctly) you can choose a search for tariffs without standing charges. Does this not deal with your concerns?

ASavvyBuyer

We had solar panels installed August last year and have been looking at all the ways to make best use of the energy generated. From various sources, including this forum, we have compiled the following list of tips/advice:

1. Try to use appliance that have high power use (like washing machine, dishwasher, hoover, iron, etc) during the day when generation is highest.

2. Try to use washing machine and dishwasher, etc on sunny days, but only on a full load.

3. Get a lower wattage kettle (travel kettle) that has a less than 1kw element to use on days of poor generation.

4. Charge up device during the day, not overnight.

5. See if it is economical to get a device to switch on an emersion heater to use excess energy, to get “free” hot water and/or also an electric oil filled radiator.

6. With an electric shower, try to use it on a lower heat setting and shower mid-day, rather than at night or in the morning.

7. See if it is worth switching to a tariff with a lower standing charge.

We realise that some of the above are only possible because we are at home during the day, but has anyone any other tips/advice to add to the above list?

cannonballdaze

Here's something you can do that's practical and cheap;

Buy a Caravan Kettle - normal size and functionality but it uses 1000 watts to boil water rather than the 2000+ watts of a normal kettle.

This means more of the power will come from your panels when they are generating.

Here's one for sale in Aldi @ £9.99 beginning March 17th. Can also be ordered online with free delivery.

https://www.aldi.co.uk/caravan-kettle/p/069429019168000

Cheers - Joe

tunnel

cannonballdaze wrote: »

Here's one for sale in Aldi @ £9.99 beginning March 17th. Can also be ordered online with free delivery.

https://www.aldi.co.uk/caravan-kettle/p/069429019168000

Cheers - Joe

I've already instructed the wife to get one of these as a back up for when my current 1kW kettle packs up. Can't beat them, I put the kettle on this morning and my energy monitor showed I wasn't buying leccy to power it, good job because I REALLY like my cuppas!!

Exiled_Tyke

ASavvyBuyer wrote: »

We had solar panels installed August last year and have been looking at all the ways to make best use of the energy generated. From various sources, including this forum, we have compiled the following list of tips/advice:

1. Try to use appliance that have high power use (like washing machine, dishwasher, hoover, iron, etc) during the day when generation is highest.

2. Try to use washing machine and dishwasher, etc on sunny days, but only on a full load.

3. Get a lower wattage kettle (travel kettle) that has a less than 1kw element to use on days of poor generation.

4. Charge up device during the day, not overnight.

5. See if it is economical to get a device to switch on an emersion heater to use excess energy, to get “free” hot water and/or also an electric oil filled radiator.

6. With an electric shower, try to use it on a lower heat setting and shower mid-day, rather than at night or in the morning.

7. See if it is worth switching to a tariff with a lower standing charge.

We realise that some of the above are only possible because we are at home during the day, but has anyone any other tips/advice to add to the above list?

A few thoughts.

1. You need to point out that the high power appliances need to go on in sequence. Knowing when the washing machine and dishwasher heat in their cycles is very useful to ensure they don't overlap at the hight power times.

2. I don't see what the problem is with using appliances on part loads if (and only if) 1. there is enough electricity to run them (i.e. isn't it better to put on a 3/4 load with 3/4 of the electricity paid for rather than a full load with no free electricity?); 2. I use powder in both appliances so that I can ration the use of detergent for part loads.

3. Most energy saving measures are not clear cut. A 1Kw kettle is a good example. It currently costs me just over 1p to heat a litre of water (which is about right for my teapot). If we have 1Kw of PV power then the kettle is saving around 1/2p per boil over the 'big kettle'. Now even a very cheap kettle at £10 needs to be used 2000 to cover the outlay. Which in most cases is going to be a good few years of use (also taking into account that this cost benefit won't be available all year round).

4. Charging things by day I've never seen much point in. An apple phone charge uses 5W. My phone needs less than an hour's charge a day. Now I may well have got my decimal places wrong but I reckon that's 0.05 a day at most or around 18p a year.

5. As with the kettle example, devices to divert electricity to an immersion heater need careful consideration. I haven't yet seen a realistic calculation where they have been worth the investment (but I guess there will be systems where it does work) . It certainly wasn't worth doing for me and in any rate it isn't a particularly green or ethical thing to do.

5. Similarly diverting power to a radiator is not clear cut either. There are so few occasions when there is spare power to run the radiator but the heat is needed. I.e. in summer when most electricity is produced no one needs a radiator on - obviously. If the household doesn't have an electric radiator already then even an investment in the cheap one is yet again unlikely to pay for itself.

6. Showering I reckon is both a practical and personal choice. few people can choose to shower in the middle of the day. Personally I much prefer the shower provided by my gas boiler than any electric. Given that even a modest electric shower is upwards of 8Kw then most of the power will have to be paid for even on a sunny day. Far better (only in my opinion though) to have a thermostatic value connected to a combi-boiler.


In conclusion, some of the often quoted tips and tricks are false economies, some need checking for individual circumstances and some are not worth the hassle. The situation is not clear cut but we (I'm sure) continue to strive to find better ways to make use of our PV set ups. Batteries must surely be the way forward - but that is another discussion.

ASavvyBuyer

cannonballdaze wrote: »

Here's something you can do that's practical and cheap;

Here's one for sale in Aldi @ £9.99 beginning March 17th. Can also be ordered online with free delivery.

https://www.aldi.co.uk/caravan-kettle/p/069429019168000

Cheers - Joe

Thanks for the link. Just ordered one on line. Already had a small kettle with an 800watt heater, but this will be useful for when we need to boil more than 1 litre.

Doc_N

I agree with the sentiment expressed above, having had an installation since 2010 - you can spend a lot of time and money chasing savings which are really too small to worry about.

Using a smallish room heater (ideally variable between 0.5 and 2kw) on sunny days in the spring and autumn when there's a decent output from the panels but it's still cold (like today) makes sense. It's going to be switched on for maybe three or four hours in a day, and that's essentially free heat.

Washing machines/tumble driers/dishwashers - sensible, obviously, to use them at times of peak output if convenient, but not otherwise.

A kettle, however, switched on for a couple of minutes at a time, is hardly worth the effort - any savings will be tiny.

It's a bit like people fussing over turning the odd low-energy lamp off to save money, or keeping boiled water in a thermos flask - it makes little real difference overall when the total amount consumed by a kettle or one low-energy lamp in a day is so small.

tunnel

Exiled_Tyke wrote: »

3. Most energy saving measures are not clear cut. A 1Kw kettle is a good example. It currently costs me just over 1p to heat a litre of water (which is about right for my teapot). If we have 1Kw of PV power then the kettle is saving around 1/2p per boil over the 'big kettle'. Now even a very cheap kettle at £10 needs to be used 2000 to cover the outlay. Which in most cases is going to be a good few years of use (also taking into account that this cost benefit won't be available all year round).

Considering i'll boil my kettle up to 10 times a day the saving I make will pay for the kettle in just one summer(current kettle has lasted 3 years so far), it really depends on your personal usage(I'm on my fifth cuppa already)

Exiled_Tyke wrote: »

4. Charging things by day I've never seen much point in. An apple phone charge uses 5W. My phone needs less than an hour's charge a day. Now I may well have got my decimal places wrong but I reckon that's 0.05 a day at most or around 18p a year.

Fair point....but how many homes have 1 phone, not ours, there's at least 3 phones and 4 tablets(at the moment!)

Exiled_Tyke wrote: »

5. Similarly diverting power to a radiator is not clear cut either. There are so few occasions when there is spare power to run the radiator but the heat is needed. I.e. in summer when most electricity is produced no one needs a radiator on - obviously. If the household doesn't have an electric radiator already then even an investment in the cheap one is yet again unlikely to pay for itself.

We have a conservatory so on days like today where there's plenty of solar gain we put a small fan in there to blow the warm air into the house. Much easier and cost effective than a radiator. And when the house is hot in the summer(when generation is at its peak) we turn on the aircon to mop up all the spare generation.


I suppose what I'm saying is, what one person thinks is not worth it, others think differently, one thing for certain is that ANY saving I can make whether it be pennies or pounds is better in my pocket.