Solar Panels imminent - which tariff?

Gvwbrz

Our new-build will shortly have a new electrical connection. As we will have 8kw of solar PV we will be changing our usage regime to suit. Currently we are using 1290 units - day and 2291 - night per annum.
Should we keep the Ecotricity Green Electricity E7 tariff? (16.69p - day and 6p - night + 18p S/C per day)
Your views would be appreciated.
Many thanks
PC

Cardew

An 8Kwp solar array is huge, many houses have difficulty fitting a 4kWp system on their roof. How big is your house(roof area)?

Also you have a tiny consumption of electricity. The average electrical household consumption for houses, that don't use electricity for heating, is 3,100kWh that is for lights, appliances, TV's etc.

Unless you have some storage facility in the house the solar PV will not affect the amount of night(off-peak) electricity you use for heating, but you can get an 'immersun' type device to divert your generated electricity to your hot water tank.

You will have to make a guess of how much your PV will reduce your consumption and on that guess select the cheapest tariff fro a comparison website. However as your total bill, including Standing charge, is only about £400 you will not be saving much of that total.

Gvwbrz

Many thanks Cardew for response. Solar has now been fitted - total 7.83Kw. Yes, we are careful with electricity usage hence interest in the way forward. Will look at Immersun device and, we have just heard today , that Tesla have halved their price for storage batteries. Will explore that too.

PC

Martyn1981

Gvwbrz wrote: »

Many thanks Cardew for response. Solar has now been fitted - total 7.83Kw. Yes, we are careful with electricity usage hence interest in the way forward. Will look at Immersun device and, we have just heard today , that Tesla have halved their price for storage batteries. Will explore that too.

PC

Hiya Gvwbrz. That's an impressive PV system!

If you can shift enough leccy use onto daytime PV, and thereby reduce import significantly, then you could look at a no-standing-charge account, like EBICO.

Can I ask, what is the orientation and pitch of your PV (and nearest city if you don't mind saying). I was just wondering what your winter generation will be like using PVGIS as a pretty good estimate.

It's just that it occurs to me that you could generate almost enough leccy for your needs even in December (on an average day).

A battery would probably reduce your import to almost zero, outside of Nov-Jan, but you do have to consider the cost. The Tesla PowerWall II is almost half the price, BUT in a roundabout way - they've almost doubled its capacity and included the inverter, for only a small increase in the PW I price.

The PW II may be too big for you though as your consumption is low(ish).

You probably want to wait a few more years though, as prices are still falling fast. I've just started a new thread on domestic batteries if you are interested:

On-grid domestic battery storage