On-grid domestic battery storage

Starfrog

I would be West Northern (like far Northern) obviously I like to stick to the rules and it sounds like my setup is pretty much perfect for what I need, I do intend to add 4.8kw to my battery storage that would give me 9.6kW and should see me through the evening after sunset. im pretty sure on a good day if I make 30kw it will offset the potential usage of electric by a air source heat pump and that in the end is the main reason I got it to just minimise my costs for that and to help the planet  

Solarchaser

Ahh yeah, sorry, I thought you were beside EVandPV in Fife,  yeah Lochinver is north west.
Scotland is split into two regions for electricity DNO's, North Scotland and South Scotland. 
The central belt and below is south Scotland,  and above that is North Scotland,  so it may be giving the DNO a bell and see what they say since you have a different area?

mickyduck55

Starfrog said:

I would be West Northern (like far Northern) obviously I like to stick to the rules and it sounds like my setup is pretty much perfect for what I need, I do intend to add 4.8kw to my battery storage that would give me 9.6kW and should see me through the evening after sunset. im pretty sure on a good day if I make 30kw it will offset the potential usage of electric by a air source heat pump and that in the end is the main reason I got it to just minimise my costs for that and to help the planet  

The extra batteries will see you through most days even in winter if you charge overnight with go or agile.

These are my typical days.. more than half even at this time of year I make it through to the 00:30 charge time.. If I dont I have a small evening import. Daily usage :

Starfrog

That’s good to know thank you 

Starfrog

mickyduck55 said:

Starfrog said:

I would be West Northern (like far Northern) obviously I like to stick to the rules and it sounds like my setup is pretty much perfect for what I need, I do intend to add 4.8kw to my battery storage that would give me 9.6kW and should see me through the evening after sunset. im pretty sure on a good day if I make 30kw it will offset the potential usage of electric by a air source heat pump and that in the end is the main reason I got it to just minimise my costs for that and to help the planet  

The extra batteries will see you through most days even in winter if you charge overnight with go or agile.

These are my typical days.. more than half even at this time of year I make it through to the 00:30 charge time.. If I dont I have a small evening import. Daily usage :

I notice that you only installed your batteries this time last year .... so what has your experience been during the first year of having batteries ? I noticed that todays solar production is exactly the same as yesterdays so far which I think means that im maximising the most I can produce with the array, I assume that in the middle of summer I will have more because I'll have long production times with the sun. ll very positive  

mickyduck55

Starfrog said:

mickyduck55 said:

Starfrog said:

I would be West Northern (like far Northern) obviously I like to stick to the rules and it sounds like my setup is pretty much perfect for what I need, I do intend to add 4.8kw to my battery storage that would give me 9.6kW and should see me through the evening after sunset. im pretty sure on a good day if I make 30kw it will offset the potential usage of electric by a air source heat pump and that in the end is the main reason I got it to just minimise my costs for that and to help the planet  

The extra batteries will see you through most days even in winter if you charge overnight with go or agile.

These are my typical days.. more than half even at this time of year I make it through to the 00:30 charge time.. If I dont I have a small evening import. Daily usage :

I notice that you only installed your batteries this time last year .... so what has your experience been during the first year of having batteries ? I noticed that todays solar production is exactly the same as yesterdays so far which I think means that im maximising the most I can produce with the array, I assume that in the middle of summer I will have more because I'll have long production times with the sun. ll very positive  

Im very happy with them combined with "go" they are cutting my bill this winter and help in the summer.  It always irritated me that I was at work all day with my solar pouring power into the grid and when I got home I had to buy power.. no longer the case although I still do not use all I produce.  My bills for quite a long period are limited to the standing charge for both Gas and electricity. The only negative has been my proportional controller does not get along with the batteries the sensor clamps are too close together and dont react fast enough so I turn it off in the winter.  You already know about max output... when my lady uses the 10 kW shower it does not matter how full the batteries are or how much solar is pouring into the house it always costs.. she does not like the power shower connected to the main tank as it takes "too long for hot water to be delivered to the shower and wastes water"... Oh well you cannot win them all.

I did buy 4 batteries but gave one to my son who gets very good use out of it.. If I had kept it I would rarely run out of power any evening.  Today it is nice and sunny, I have had the oven on for a couple of hours baking, solar generation 9 kwh so far and the batteries are at 95%.. so there will be no import to get me through the evening.

They will not pay for them selves for MANY years probably 10 but like others on here ROI is accepted to only be a secondary consideration most of "like the idea".  My son is a much heavier user than me so he really does benefit from the system although his solar performs less well than mine  despite being 50% larger due to orientation of his home

Interested to see the price for your extra batteries.

Starfrog

mickyduck55 said:

Im very happy with them combined with "go" they are cutting my bill this winter and help in the summer.  It always irritated me that I was at work all day with my solar pouring power into the grid and when I got home I had to buy power.. no longer the case although I still do not use all I produce.  My bills for quite a long period are limited to the standing charge for both Gas and electricity. The only negative has been my proportional controller does not get along with the batteries the sensor clamps are too close together and dont react fast enough so I turn it off in the winter.  You already know about max output... when my lady uses the 10 kW shower it does not matter how full the batteries are or how much solar is pouring into the house it always costs.. she does not like the power shower connected to the main tank as it takes "too long for hot water to be delivered to the shower and wastes water"... Oh well you cannot win them all.

I did buy 4 batteries but gave one to my son who gets very good use out of it.. If I had kept it I would rarely run out of power any evening.  Today it is nice and sunny, I have had the oven on for a couple of hours baking, solar generation 9 kwh so far and the batteries are at 95%.. so there will be no import to get me through the evening.

They will not pay for them selves for MANY years probably 10 but like others on here ROI is accepted to only be a secondary consideration most of "like the idea".  My son is a much heavier user than me so he really does benefit from the system although his solar performs less well than mine  despite being 50% larger due to orientation of his home

Interested to see the price for your extra batteries.

thank you for the very detailed information, its makes me more comfortable with what I have and what I should do to maximise the usefulness of the my setup. Today virtually the same as yesterday my Enphase monitor said I produced 21.0kWh which is not to shabby for a winters, its actually the highest I've had since it was installed a few weeks back, yesterday it was 20.8kWh. When I look at the luxpower monitor it says a slightly different story in that it says I yielded 18.3kWh so I guess I just but that down to the clamp not being as central and aligned as it could be. my battery was empty and started being charged from 0900 and was fully charged at 14:38 (it had contributed small amounts to combined with the solar during that time for spikes on demand from the house). from 16:44 the battery has been powering the house with some grid input during cooking etc. the battery is now at 25% at 19:57 and the running house remain is 569w at present. So I believe that if I get two more batteries I should have more than enough to power the demand from sun down to the potential to top the battery up on the Octo GO period or just carry it through to the next days solar production charge.  

What you say about the shower is valid as it does take time for the hot water to come through but saying that its not wasted as its just cold water running through the pipes until it gets to the shower head, so if you have heated the water with solar then you would still be gaining from that early production where if you use the electric one its I suspect a high electrical demand mostly first thing in the morning or late at night which is from the grid due to the high requirement. I am investing in air source heat pump and while that will definitely have a electrical cost it is mitigated by not buying Oil anymore. Air Source matched with underfloor heating is the most efficient method as its a low heat system. I'll match that with a water heater that provides it on demand and I should be able to do away with my electric shower all together.. 

Todays consumption so far is 8.8kWh and my pull from the Grid is so far 3.7kWh but my export has been 11.9kWh which is frustrating as I dont actually benefit from that at the moment as ive not got a smart meter and ive only just switch over to octopus and await them installing a smart meter ! I think the good thing is I know I have lots of potential excess power for those days to completely recharge my batteries even with 4 of them = 9.6kw. 

Finally when you talk about the ROI, while its completely definable and is nice for sales people to show you that "oh look you get all this money you just spent back in 7, 10, 15 years etc but thats not what I think the majority of people are buying solar and now solar + battery (would anyone today install solar without battery ?). I did it because I want to make a difference to the planet (however small buts its all about incrementals ) but also I wanted to minimise my long term costs and this will help. I think they way people look at solar and the ROI on that is due to the benefits you get from the payments and the new RHI etc and quite literally the Sales people trying to justify why you would spend that money and why you need to have a payback. For instance when you install a new kitchen, from day one of it being installed its dead money, you paid for it and it should add some value to your house if the buyer that looks at your house likes your kitchen design ! the fact is no Kitchen sales person ever talked about ROI for your kitchen they didn't say "this will pay for itself in 10 years" in fact its very much a depreciating asset as soon as its installed, unlike solar and batteries they actually do have a tangible asset value for when you sell a house and it really does add to the value (just having the setup helps reduce the upgrades and replacements over the years). 
This is obviously a journey for me and all new but I do take on board other peoples experience and hopefully I can avoid the pitfalls and benefit from the wins that people have already discovered.  

I still haven't heard back from the battery people hopefully I will but I'll try calling tomorrow to see if they can source 2 of the Aoboet batteries as they seem to be the best at the moment. when I know the price im sure to share it here. 

sorry for such a long reply but sharing is caring and all that  

EVandPV

Starfrog said:

When I look at the luxpower monitor it says a slightly different story in that it says I yielded 18.3kWh so I guess I just but that down to the clamp not being as central and aligned as it could be. 

It's actually just a shortcoming of ct clamps, they're just not capable of being 100% accurate.
Saying that, the Lux clamps are actually a good bit more accurate than some.
The clamp reading we get with our EV charger is even further away from the actual pv meter readings than the Lux.

Starfrog

I guess at the end of the year I can just measure the actual electric smart meter reading and get the more accurate numbers to apply to what it says on my reports from Enphase/Lux it will be a simple up or down a few percentage points 

EVandPV

Starfrog said:

I guess at the end of the year I can just measure the actual electric smart meter reading and get the more accurate numbers to apply to what it says on my reports from Enphase/Lux it will be a simple up or down a few percentage points 

Yeah and your pv inverter will give you accurate figures for your pv generation.