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A quick first anniversary retrospective
mac2008
Posts: 266 Forumite
So, I said when my system turned 1, I'd do a quick retrospective, for others considering installing a system, to give a real-world case study.
We have a reasonable sized south facing roof, 35 degree pitch and no shading, in the South West of the UK, so pretty ideal (even better if it was a little bigger!
We started looking around in April 2013 and settled on a 2.5kWp system from Southern Solar, with Trina Solar panels and a Fronius inverter. We picked them as the chap who did the quote knew his stuff and actually bothered measuring the roof etc. and leaving us his spreadsheet so I could check his calcs.
In advance of the install I'd had a roofer pop over to give the roof a thorough once-over and as a result we also had some work done to the ridge at the same time. Even though it didn't strictly need doing, I felt it was sensible to ensure everything was ship shape before the panels went on. I also cleaned the gutters etc. as the scaffold went up a few days' early.
The installation went smoothly, with virtually no disruption to us. Electricity was off for a couple of hours while he worked on hooking everything up to the consumer unit, but the bulk of the work was in mounting the inverter in the loft. The cable from the intverter to the loft runs outside for a short distance at the back of the house, but as its 3 stories, you can hardly see it. I did think a lot about the cable run before the sparky turned up, which he appreciated. If you know your house, the locations of cupboards etc. the you can probably work out the best and least obtrusive route yourself quite easily.
So 17th May 2013 we flicked the switch and a few minutes later, we were generating about 800W.
There followed a cracking summer which unearthed an interesting problem - our old analogue meter was spinning backwards. I discovered this as I submit monthly readings to British Gas via their smartphone app, and they didn't like it when one month was lower than the previous! I got nowhere with the billing chaps, so I gave their metering guys a call. Considering there are close to 500,000 solar installations in the UK, you'd think they would have had a well versed procedure for dealing with this, but no! Chap first asked me whether my gas meter was also spinning backwards(!) before talking to his supervisor and agreeing my meter might need changing. First slot to do this was 3 months hence, during which time they said they'd estimate my bills based on last year's consumption. Of course this was stupid, so I argued so much they ended up not charging me until the meter was changed in October.
Since then I've been much more careful about running appliances (washing machine and tumble dryer on lots with 2 small kids!). I also recently invested in a Wattson Solar plus to allow me to monitor this more closely and try to get the family interested. This and my generation meter reveals the following:
Total generation May 17th 2013-2014: 2470kWh (c. 300kWh higher than predicted)
FiT @ 15.44p/kWh: £381.37
Export tariff @4.6p: £56.81 (deemed 50%)
Electricity savings: 47% (only recorded since I got the Wattson so will probably fall in Winter): probably about £150 or so.
So looking at total income/savings of: c. £590 for the first year.
ROI: Install cost was £5100, so c. 11.6% return in yr 1.
Maintenance spend: has been £0 and despite some pretty awful storms over the winter, they are still firmly in place (got a bit nervous at one point about insurance, but Direct Line cover solar panels as standard).
Regrets: none!
We have a reasonable sized south facing roof, 35 degree pitch and no shading, in the South West of the UK, so pretty ideal (even better if it was a little bigger!
We started looking around in April 2013 and settled on a 2.5kWp system from Southern Solar, with Trina Solar panels and a Fronius inverter. We picked them as the chap who did the quote knew his stuff and actually bothered measuring the roof etc. and leaving us his spreadsheet so I could check his calcs.
In advance of the install I'd had a roofer pop over to give the roof a thorough once-over and as a result we also had some work done to the ridge at the same time. Even though it didn't strictly need doing, I felt it was sensible to ensure everything was ship shape before the panels went on. I also cleaned the gutters etc. as the scaffold went up a few days' early.
The installation went smoothly, with virtually no disruption to us. Electricity was off for a couple of hours while he worked on hooking everything up to the consumer unit, but the bulk of the work was in mounting the inverter in the loft. The cable from the intverter to the loft runs outside for a short distance at the back of the house, but as its 3 stories, you can hardly see it. I did think a lot about the cable run before the sparky turned up, which he appreciated. If you know your house, the locations of cupboards etc. the you can probably work out the best and least obtrusive route yourself quite easily.
So 17th May 2013 we flicked the switch and a few minutes later, we were generating about 800W.
There followed a cracking summer which unearthed an interesting problem - our old analogue meter was spinning backwards. I discovered this as I submit monthly readings to British Gas via their smartphone app, and they didn't like it when one month was lower than the previous! I got nowhere with the billing chaps, so I gave their metering guys a call. Considering there are close to 500,000 solar installations in the UK, you'd think they would have had a well versed procedure for dealing with this, but no! Chap first asked me whether my gas meter was also spinning backwards(!) before talking to his supervisor and agreeing my meter might need changing. First slot to do this was 3 months hence, during which time they said they'd estimate my bills based on last year's consumption. Of course this was stupid, so I argued so much they ended up not charging me until the meter was changed in October.
Since then I've been much more careful about running appliances (washing machine and tumble dryer on lots with 2 small kids!). I also recently invested in a Wattson Solar plus to allow me to monitor this more closely and try to get the family interested. This and my generation meter reveals the following:
Total generation May 17th 2013-2014: 2470kWh (c. 300kWh higher than predicted)
FiT @ 15.44p/kWh: £381.37
Export tariff @4.6p: £56.81 (deemed 50%)
Electricity savings: 47% (only recorded since I got the Wattson so will probably fall in Winter): probably about £150 or so.
So looking at total income/savings of: c. £590 for the first year.
ROI: Install cost was £5100, so c. 11.6% return in yr 1.
Maintenance spend: has been £0 and despite some pretty awful storms over the winter, they are still firmly in place (got a bit nervous at one point about insurance, but Direct Line cover solar panels as standard).
Regrets: none!
My PV system: South West England, 10x 250Wp Trina Solar panels, Fronius Inverter, South facing roof, 35° pitch with no shading.
0
Comments
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Great stuff.
Shouldn't your export be divided by 2 giving £57.280 -
New to all this but surely your Export should be half of your total generation mutiplied by 4.6p?
2470/2*4.6p = £56.814kWp, SSE, SolarEdge P300 optimisers & SE3500 Inverter, in occasionally sunny Corby, Northants.
Now with added Sunsynk 5kw hybrid ecco inverter & 15kWh Fogstar batteries. Oh Octopus Energy too.0 -
theboylard wrote: »New to all this but surely your Export should be half of your total generation mutiplied by 4.6p?
2470/2*4.6p = £56.81
You are of course both right! Original post edited.My PV system: South West England, 10x 250Wp Trina Solar panels, Fronius Inverter, South facing roof, 35° pitch with no shading.0 -
You are of course both right! Original post edited.
Holy crap on a cracker!
Can't speak for you Nigel but according to my wife, it's not often I'm right :rotfl:4kWp, SSE, SolarEdge P300 optimisers & SE3500 Inverter, in occasionally sunny Corby, Northants.
Now with added Sunsynk 5kw hybrid ecco inverter & 15kWh Fogstar batteries. Oh Octopus Energy too.0 -
theboylard wrote: »
Can't speak for you Nigel but according to my wife, it's not often I'm right :rotfl:
It's the opposite for me. On the rare occasion I am wrong my wife really let's me know about it.
Happened probably twice in our six years of marriage!0 -
It's the opposite for me. On the rare occasion I am wrong my wife really let's me know about it.
Happened probably twice in our six years of marriage!
Ahhh, young love!!!
Give it another 15 years or so and you'll have realised compromise is a one way thing and you are always wrong, even when you're right!!!!
Sorry for hijacking your thread mac :T4kWp, SSE, SolarEdge P300 optimisers & SE3500 Inverter, in occasionally sunny Corby, Northants.
Now with added Sunsynk 5kw hybrid ecco inverter & 15kWh Fogstar batteries. Oh Octopus Energy too.0
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