Solar PV target price

AntonyTewks

Yes the quote suggests about 14 years  The west side is fine but the South bit may have a bit of shade early on from the house next door. I have plenty more quotes to come so will see how they come out. They said the solar edge contributed about £500 more

AntonyTewks

Second quote from semi-national installer. £5.4k for 4.16kwp. JA 320 panels. An extra £900 (!) on top for solar edge. Instead quoting for growatt inverter? Not sure of anyone's experience with one, presume pretty standard one

Solarchaser

My understanding is growatt standard inverters are decent.
I had a hybrid last year. Was crap, only outdone in crapness by growatts service!

Petriix

AntonyTewks said:

Second quote from semi-national installer. £5.4k for 4.16kwp. JA 320 panels. An extra £900 (!) on top for solar edge. Instead quoting for growatt inverter? Not sure of anyone's experience with one, presume pretty standard one

I've got a Growatt inverter. It's done a pretty steady job of inverting for the past 3 years without needing any attention. Apparently it's guaranteed for 10 years but I understand some people have had issues with the customer service.

AntonyTewks

Think it's coming together. I'm looking at just over 5kwp for just over £6k with solar edge and spread across 3 aspects from SE to West. So aiming to get steady generation through the day. Ideally would have been a bit lower but with edge and the scaffolding it makes sense. Long term I think I'm going to have to add Zappi, Eddi, Mixergy, heat pumps etc and max on self consumption to get the best payback. Thanks for all the help in this group, much appreciated. I just need to decide between a couple of companies now

Petriix

If you've got mains gas and a modern boiler then an Eddi will cost you money rather than save you anything. I think your PV system will just about be a good investment though.

AntonyTewks

Yeah but long term I would like to move away from gas from an environmental perspective. Thinking is if I get PV with Eddi and a new mixergy tank in combination with Octopus Agile, the cost maybe a little higher but not significantly so. Then later I'll get the hob swapped for induction and when our boiler is due replacement in another decade or so I'll go for.the heat pump and be gas free

Petriix

I believe that exporting electricity typically saves at least as much (if not more) gas than using an Eddi because most short term demand on the grid is met by gas power stations. Eddis tend to encourage wasted energy by heating far more water than is needed. I know it seems better to self-consume more of your generation but it's not really true.

AntonyTewks

Im not going to get into marginal intensity, that's a game I'll not win and spend half my life constantly trying to work out! Long term gas has to go both for heating and in the grid. I'm hoping solar will help me with that transition a little, starting with hot water and the hob and in a decades time replacing the boiler. 
On export though I was very surprised by how low the FIT rates were in recent years. The best SEG rates at 5.5p seem a fair bit higher. I had thought I may have missed the boat. Remarkably high a decade ago though but I guess the solar was 3 times as much

Petriix

With the FIT you get paid for your generation and exports. You can even keep your existing FIT and sign up for the SEG; you just have to opt out of the normal export payment. However, under the FIT you get paid based on deemed exports (i.e. they don't even meter them) of 50% of your generation so you can self-consume as much as you like without penalty.

I believe the current export tariff under the FIT is 5.5p/kWh. So, even though I was quite late to the party with an April 2017 installation, I get paid 4.5p/kWh for everything I generate plus 5.5p/kWh for 50% of those units under deemed exports so I could divert it all into a battery/eddi or whatever without losing a penny.

Except that we only spend about £50 per year on heating water and an Eddi plus tank plus immersion plus plumbing plus electrical work would cost at least 15 times that and it would probably only save us half that £50; so around a 30 year ROI.

And our total electricity bill is around £250 so, even if a battery could halve that, it would only save us £125 per year. If I could get say 5kWh of batteries installed for under £1500 then I would start to consider it but that is a fair way off and, in any case, would barely break even.

As things stand I would be better off getting a smart meter and moving on to metered exports. But it's a one way ticket for a marginal gain and I may consume a higher proportion in the future if I can ever afford to buy an EV.