happy first birthday solar pv

dreaming

Well it hardly seems like a year since I was haunting this forum gleaning knowledge for my solar pv installation but April 17th was the 1 year anniversary. I have just had my payment for the 4th quarter and have to say I am very pleased with how it has all worked out.
For the 12 months I received just over 705 pounds FiT payments, and I have paid just under 650 pounds for my electric AND gas consumption. This is for a 4Kw system which cost me £6,400. For April-August 2013 I was working full time so used the delay switches on washing machine and dishwasher to switch on at lunchtimes (and then crossed my fingers that the generation was adequate). Since August I have been at home full time and have a bit more control over when the power is used. I must admit I haven't always been that good at filling the electric oven to capacity (although I have recently bought a slow cooker) and could do a lot more to reduce consumption. Also my son has just moved back in with me so consumption will go up a bit, but it will be interesting to see what happens next year.

nigelpm

dreaming wrote: »

I have paid just under 650 pounds for my electric AND gas consumption. .

Out of interest what's the split between the two?

And do you make use of solar to heat hot water through immersion controller/other?

dreaming

nigelpm wrote: »

Out of interest what's the split between the two?

And do you make use of solar to heat hot water through immersion controller/other?

Ooh - that's an interesting question. Having just looked it seems that the split is roughly 1/3 electric, 2/3 gas.


I don't have any other solar powered devices (e.g. immersion heater). I have a gas combi-boiler for hot water and radiators, and a gas hob. The oven is electric and as I said before, I'm not always very good at using that efficiently so room for improvement there. I have looked at buying a couple of small oil-filled radiators to use as background heat in the winter and to use up the generated power, but this winter just gone was the first one where I was at home full time so wanted the see how it worked out.

mac2008

Thanks for posting - always good to hear real world results. My anniversary is on the 17th May and I'll do the same. Although gas usage has seen a massive reduction this winter, its probably more to do with weather than my new TRVs and insulation.

Have you got any monitoring? I recently invested in a Wattson solar plus which has really given be a better idea of how to save and the rest of the family a better understanding too. You can also buy optiplugs as an add-on which simply turn on a socket when there is excess generation. Could be ideal for small oil rads on cold sunny days, although with the monitor + optiplug at around £150 I doubt it would pay back, but a satisfying and interesting way to invest some of your FiT payments nonetheless.

nigelpm

mac2008 wrote: »

Have you got any monitoring? Could be ideal for small oil rads on cold sunny days, although with the monitor + optiplug at around £150 I doubt it would pay back, but a satisfying and interesting way to invest some of your FiT payments nonetheless.

That's why I haven't opted for any monitoring.

I just can't justify the extra cost and I think it would lead to me being obsessional about it.

dreaming

No I haven't got any monitoring other than me looking at the generation meter. As I am no longer working it is relatively easy for me to turn things on and off manually so although I did look into getting the Wattson system I decided against it.