New solar installation and questions

Alan_Brown

Hello. I have just installed 4kw of solar panels on my roof and I was asked by the installer if I wanted to also install some kit that diverts excess solar to my water tank. I couldn't really afford it at the time so I said not just now. I was wondering if anyone has installed one of these devices and wondered if they worked well and would recommend them?

I was also wondering about future expansion of a PV system. I have 4kw on my roof and could fit an additional 1kw on our extension roof. I couldn't afford to go 5kw before the feedin tariff cutoff so I went with 4kw. If I added the extra 1kw would it reduce my existing tariff down to post Jan 15 payments? If I just added it without worrying about feed in payments then would it be ok/legal to continue to claim for the previous 4kw?

cheers,
Al.

Alan_Brown

I'm not sure if it is relevant but my roof faces east/west with 2kw on the east and 2kw on the west. the extra 1kw would go onto an east facing low pitched roof on the extension.

Sterlingtimes

Do you have a smart meter? If you do then export is paid for based upon actual readings. Then a diverter is of limited value.

As a high user of electricity generated, my own experience is that my diverter delivers very little incremental benefit.

Alan_Brown

Sterlingtimes wrote: »

Do you have a smart meter? If you do then export is paid for based upon actual readings. Then a diverter is of limited value.

As a high user of electricity generated, my own experience is that my diverter delivers very little incremental benefit.

No smart meter. We are also high users of electricity as my wife runs a business from home and so is in all day. our kids are high users of electricity simply because they don't know how to turn things off when they leave a room!

Does your diverter not provide you with a hot tank of water?

Alan_Brown

Thinking about it, I suppose the best way to see if a diverter would be useful would be to monitor how much energy we are exporting to the grid. Is there a cheap device that does this?

warrenb

I can answer the FIT part of your question. The system you have registered will continue to receive the payments at the rate of FIT (Rising with inflation) at registration.
As far as I know extensions now do not qualify for FIT payments at all, but am not sure about the export tariff.

Alan_Brown

warrenb wrote: »

I can answer the FIT part of your question. The system you have registered will continue to receive the payments at the rate of FIT (Rising with inflation) at registration.
As far as I know extensions now do not qualify for FIT payments at all, but am not sure about the export tariff.

I thought that might be the case with the FIT payments and to be honest I'm not that concerned with the export tariff as it's only 1kw and we are heavy electricity users so we wouldn't be exporting too much anyway. Do you know if there is any problem with just adding the extra capacity without telling anyone?

The panels will connect to the inverter and I'll just lose a bit of power on very sunny days when it maxes out at 4kw. Most of the time though its cloudy here (Yorkshire) anyway so the extra panels will just increase production towards 4kw rather than exceeding it.

This is all just supposition at the moment because I'm completely broke after having the 4kw fitted, but I might go down this route in 6 months or more once my bank balance recovers and maybe if panels drop in price like they did the last time the FIT payments dropped. It's useful to know what the rules are around this.

zeupater

Alan_Brown wrote: »

I thought that might be the case with the FIT payments and to be honest I'm not that concerned with the export tariff as it's only 1kw and we are heavy electricity users so we wouldn't be exporting too much anyway. Do you know if there is any problem with just adding the extra capacity without telling anyone?

The panels will connect to the inverter and I'll just lose a bit of power on very sunny days when it maxes out at 4kw. Most of the time though its cloudy here (Yorkshire) anyway so the extra panels will just increase production towards 4kw rather than exceeding it.

This is all just supposition at the moment because I'm completely broke after having the 4kw fitted, but I might go down this route in 6 months or more once my bank balance recovers and maybe if panels drop in price like they did the last time the FIT payments dropped. It's useful to know what the rules are around this.

Hi

Of course, you can do what you want with your system as long as you're aware of the consequences, many of which should be pretty obvious and therefore need no mention .... would we all condone taking this approach?, well, on moral & ethical grounds, certainly not, but then again many people join these boards to argue 'morality and ethics' for reasons other than 'morality & ethics' and would take a strong opposing view.

Anyway, having finally (?) taken the decision to 'invest' in solar pv, probably at the latest possible time to consider it as being an 'investment', welcome to the forum ...

HTH
Z

Alan_Brown

zeupater wrote: »

Hi

Of course, you can do what you want with your system as long as you're aware of the consequences, many of which should be pretty obvious and therefore need no mention .... would we all condone taking this approach?, well, on moral & ethical grounds, certainly not, but then again many people join these boards to argue 'morality and ethics' for reasons other than 'morality & ethics' and would take a strong opposing view.

Anyway, having finally (?) taken the decision to 'invest' in solar pv, probably at the latest possible time to consider it as being an 'investment', welcome to the forum ...

HTH
Z

Hi, thanks for welcome. I think I may have given the wrong impression when I mentioned adding the panels without telling anyone. I'm not menaing to be unethical I just meant without applying for tariffs.

If I need to legally tell the authorities then I would. I suppose that's my next question. If I add extra capacity, is there anyone I need to tell if I'm not going down the tariff route?

What are the consequences of adding the extra panels? Sorry, they may be obvious to people on here but not to me When I got the original quote I had a quote for 4kw and a quote for 5kw. I couldn't afford the 5kw and settled for the 4kw. I asked the solar company if I could add the 1kw at a later date and they were a bit cagey and said no. I just assumed this was because they wanted to do it all in one go and get the extra money? I didn't delve any further with them.

warrenb

You would DNO approval to add the panels, the company were probably cagey or had a higher quote for the 5kw (Which really should be just the cost of the extra panels) because you normally need around 6 weeks for DNO approval and they may not have got that in time for the install for FIT.

DNO is District Network Operator as your cable into your house may need upgrading for the extra current.
I believe the DNO go by the panel rating rather than the Inverter rating.

zeupater

Alan_Brown wrote: »

Hi, thanks for welcome. I think I may have given the wrong impression when I mentioned adding the panels without telling anyone. I'm not menaing to be unethical I just meant without applying for tariffs.

If I need to legally tell the authorities then I would. I suppose that's my next question. If I add extra capacity, is there anyone I need to tell if I'm not going down the tariff route?

What are the consequences of adding the extra panels? Sorry, they may be obvious to people on here but not to me When I got the original quote I had a quote for 4kw and a quote for 5kw. I couldn't afford the 5kw and settled for the 4kw. I asked the solar company if I could add the 1kw at a later date and they were a bit cagey and said no. I just assumed this was because they wanted to do it all in one go and get the extra money? I didn't delve any further with them.

Hi

You'd need to inform the DNO and gain permission to extend to 5kWp else they have the right to slap a 'cease & desist" order on you and your system ... then there's the issue of running the additional generation through the existing inverter and therefore through the TGM which would require change to your FiT contract so as to avoid fraudulent activities, which of course would not only be illegal, but would almost certainly result in the cancellation of your MCS certification and access to the FiT scheme.

Of course, you can look to extend your system within the FiT scheme rules in which case your installer will provide details and should handle everything for you, this way the FiT registration will be amended with generation readings being apportioned between capacity at the old & new tariffs.

If you've only just had the system installed you'll already be aware that there was a recent cut-off between tariffs as a result of a recent government consultation which has resulted in a number of people who have been prevaricating about solar for some time to finally make the decision having 'lost out' on higher rates in the past resulting in a 'last-minute' rush on installations. Your decision to install a sub 4kWp system was probably the only safe option to consider between the publication of the consultation findings and the change as it takes the DNO prior permission requirement out of the loop, however, I reckon that many will have needed to take a chance on gaining retrospective planning if permitted development rules couldn't be met ... this was certainly the case when someone I know had a large barn-mounted system installed close to a cut-off date a few years back.

HTH
Z