Latest Project Solar UK quote advice

zeupater

Hi

Back to basics here with a reality check ... it's 9MWh/year in a 3 bedroom house with GCH where the DHW is normally heated by gas, so unless there's an undisclosed heavy load, then there's likely a problem somewhere which needs to be seen as a higher priority than simple standby or LED lighting, we're effectively looking for something like a 1.5kW load being on 24x7x52, a really massive daily load such as running a small home bakery, faulty wiring/neighbours tapping into the supply, or a faulty electricity meter ...

So, first things first - the OP needs to review more than one bill and check that the usage is typical over time ... if there's no E7 the DD for electricity alone would likely be well over £100/month with gas for heating (& cooking? - OP?) in addition over that, so if gas usage is typical then we're looking at at somewhere around £150 as a dual fuel monthly DD payment .... if this isn't in the right ball park then the usage (kWh) needs to be double checked ...

Okay, if the bills look right then we need to look at when the electricity is being used and establish a pattern ... the OP should read the meter and note the usage at least daily for a few days, but more regular than that would be better, maybe every few hours would be better to start with ... whether the usage is constant or intermittent the pattern will help trace the source ...

Next, when the pattern has been established, wait for a time when the meter readings suggest that usage is high (or constant!) and look at the meter ... it should be indexing quickly ... If the distribution board has circuit breakers, check that there's nothing important running (shower, PC etc), grab a torch and progressively shut down circuits whilst checking the indexing speed on the meter - this should at least trace where high power loads exist ... if it's an older board with wire fuses, the OP needs to ensure that appropriate safety measures are taken, such as switching off the mains before removing/replacing a fuse ... of course, if the meter still shows consumption when the distribution board is off, then there's still an issue (as touched on earlier) !

All of the above can be done to track down major consumption prior to having a ~£30 whole house or a ~£10 plug-in power/energy monitor, however, if spending around £60 more on electricity than the average house every month the OP should consider purchasing both of these devices as being an urgent priority ....

In the OP's position, I'd certainly not be concentrating on the provision of a solar power system until efficiency measures had been taken to address & reduce such a huge energy requirement ... it's easy to justify expenditure against energy savings with such a high demand, however, if the demand is subsequentially reduced, the investment justification calculation is likely to become nonsense ...

Additionally ... I agree with the previous comments, the quote detailed is both far too high & includes items that may provide little/no advantage ... have a look around & get more quotes, I'd be surprised if the price can't be substantially bettered ...

HTH
Z

mohmaz

Thank you zeupater for your suggestions. I will have to buy some energy monitors as advised by Zarch.

I've been given another quote and it is 1/2 of what I was quoted above! This is all thanks to the Solar Panel link I used from this site.

silverwhistle

pinnks wrote: »

. Mine is now down at about 150W. If you have much more than 200W constant load then something is awry and you will want to do some serious searching.

To give another illustration, mine is 52w, although I've seen it down at 37w a number of times and haven't worked out why!

pinnks

Z

You are of course spot-on.

I was rather assuming the OP would do at least some of what you suggest anyway but working out whether the 9Mwh is "correct" or "expected" must be a first.

I think will all be interested in the outcome of that research/work. Hopefully the 9Mwh was based on only one winter bill and is therefore way off but my supplier gives quite frequent annualisations in quarterly bills, so presumably other suppliers do similarly.

I guess another thing to look at is old bills - these can usually be downloaded if paper copies were received and not kept. 9mWh at 15p is £1350 per year plus standing charges plus gas, so probably over £2000. Has the OP been shelling out the best part of £200 per month? Another way to check if the 9mWh guestimate is actually being paid for...