Looking to get solar panels

EricMears

ASavvyBuyer said:

EricMears said:

ASavvyBuyer said:

Unfortunately now, because of the way FIT payments changed, we would be worse off if we added more panels. 

Why do you say that ?  Providing any extra panels are connected via an extra inverter and not going through your existing generation meter your FIT payment scheme should not be affected.

Thanks for that. I understood that they would need to be connected to the existing generation meter, so would therefore proportionally reduce the FIT payments. That's what EDF told me when I asked them.

Will have to look again to see if getting SEG payments make it worthwhile for a second system. However, it may be more economical investing more in the Ripple Wind Turbine scheme.

IF you connected panels through your existing generation meter then your readings would have to be proportioned between the two systems but why would you want to do that !  Since there's no longer a payment for generation,  there's no need to measure it or report it to anyone.

When you say "EDF told me" ,  do you mean they sent you an official letter or simply that someone on their 'help desk' made all sorts of assumptions and told you the first thing that came into their head ?

Pile_o_stone

michaels said:

Pile_o_stone said:

ASavvyBuyer said:

EricMears said:

ASavvyBuyer said:

Unfortunately now, because of the way FIT payments changed, we would be worse off if we added more panels. 

Why do you say that ?  Providing any extra panels are connected via an extra inverter and not going through your existing generation meter your FIT payment scheme should not be affected.

Thanks for that. I understood that they would need to be connected to the existing generation meter, so would therefore proportionally reduce the FIT payments. That's what EDF told me when I asked them.

Will have to look again to see if getting SEG payments make it worthwhile for a second system. However, it may be more economical investing more in the Ripple Wind Turbine scheme.

We added a further 1.8kw of solar after the government pulled fit payments. It's on its own inverter and doesn't go through a generation meter. We don't receive any payments for export (there is no way to do this), but as we have 2 households using the electricity with the excess diverted into a 300l heat bank, we only export on very sunny days when the whole 300l tank is sitting at 65C. 

I paid for the solar extension using a long (2yr) 0% credit card that was promoted on MSE in the credit card section. 

Why can't you receive export payment for your second system output? I thought it was possible to opt out of the deemed export payments part of your fit and instead sell any export?

I didn't know you could opt out of deemed payments, so that's good to know for future reference as we're looking at adding another 2kw of solar on a garden pergola at some point in the future. However, at the moment I'm still better off with deemed payments as we hardly export any electricity.

ASavvyBuyer

EricMears said:

When you say "EDF told me" ,  do you mean they sent you an official letter or simply that someone on their 'help desk' made all sorts of assumptions and told you the first thing that came into their head ?

It was an official enquiry to their FIT team a couple of years ago. Their response below:

"Changes to FIT if extending an existing system ....

Thank you for your email.

Under government legislation, extensions to systems are not valid for feed in tariff payments.

If you have an extension through your existing generation meter, we will need to be sent the details of the new part of the system. When you give a reading for your feed in tariff, we will pay a percentage of your total generation as your reading will be higher, as you will have an extra 2KW attached to it."

We already use over 70% of the electricity we generate, so not worth moving to actual export for SEG payments. Therefore, without the SEG payments it doesn't seem worthwhile adding more panels as the average cost of all the electricity we import on Agile is usually less than 8p/kWh.

PS. How are you allowed to include a referral code in your signature. I understood that was not allowed according to the forum rules.

Raggs_2

Got some more info, with some tech specs. Now for the bit where I can really do with help.
It'll be Longi panels (lr4 60hph), 14 of them to get to about 4.8kw, so I'm guessing as the spec sheet he's given me goes from 350W - 380W, so it'll be the 350W. However, in the image he gave with the estimate sunlight for the system, showed an estimate of 5.18kWp. Does that make sense?

Inverter is http://www.sofarsolar.com/product-detail/521/SOFAR%203300TL-G3 I presume the largest? Is that going to be big enough to handle the system? I know it can be better to aim lower, so as to get better lower energy efficiency (if I've undestood). How does this inverter compare to others? Important features missing?

Battery would be the Sofar Amass 2.4kwh battery, however as I've said before I'm beginning to question getting one.

With battery and anti-pigeon netting, it's £7000, without battery it's £5200. Which does make me seriously question the battery.

Can someone tell me if a 5.18kWp makes sense with a 4.8KW system (or 14 x 350 -> 380W panels). Does that inverter make sense too?

Cheers all.

EDIT - Just seen that the max recommended (by manufacturer) kWp is 4500kWp for the largest inverter that he's listed me. Yet the estimate kWp is 5100, surely that's a bit too far over?

EricMears

ASavvyBuyer said:

EricMears said:

When you say "EDF told me" ,  do you mean they sent you an official letter or simply that someone on their 'help desk' made all sorts of assumptions and told you the first thing that came into their head ?

It was an official enquiry to their FIT team a couple of years ago. Their response below:

"Changes to FIT if extending an existing system ....

Thank you for your email.

Under government legislation, extensions to systems are not valid for feed in tariff payments.

If you have an extension through your existing generation meter, we will need to be sent the details of the new part of the system. When you give a reading for your feed in tariff, we will pay a percentage of your total generation as your reading will be higher, as you will have an extra 2KW attached to it."

Couldn't really be clearer - unless they'd put the 'IF' in like this !

Presumably your original inverter was correctly sized so you'd need to add another and there would be no need to connect it to existing generation meter.

Raggs_2

Right, just had some clarification and an offer from the same company. They're 370w panels, so 14 x 370 is basically 5.2kw, for £5200.

Seeing as £6500 was roughly what we wanted to spend tops, I asked what they could do. They've just offered 20 panels, so 7.4kW, for £6500. That looks pretty good to me? Now I just have to sell it to my mum about the looks!

Petriix

7.4kWp for £6500 is about right. However, if you want to know if it's worth while then you need to post some details about your usage.

For a generic example let's assume that you are high users and consume 5000kWh of electricity per year. You might generate 7500kWh of which you would maybe use 3000kWh and export 4500kWh.

At 12.5p/kWh that's a saving of £375 plus £247.50 in SEG payments at 5.5p/kWh for exports. That's a little over 10 years to break even. You should do the sums based on your actual usage. 

michaels

Raggs_2 said:

Right, just had some clarification and an offer from the same company. They're 370w panels, so 14 x 370 is basically 5.2kw, for £5200.

Seeing as £6500 was roughly what we wanted to spend tops, I asked what they could do. They've just offered 20 panels, so 7.4kW, for £6500. That looks pretty good to me? Now I just have to sell it to my mum about the looks!

Previously DNOs (the poeple who run the local grid) use tod have specific extra hoops to jump through if your invertor was over 3.68kw - does this remain the case?

Raggs_2

Petriix said:

7.4kWp for £6500 is about right. However, if you want to know if it's worth while then you need to post some details about your usage.

For a generic example let's assume that you are high users and consume 5000kWh of electricity per year. You might generate 7500kWh of which you would maybe use 3000kWh and export 4500kWh.

At 12.5p/kWh that's a saving of £375 plus £247.50 in SEG payments at 5.5p/kWh for exports. That's a little over 10 years to break even. You should do the sums based on your actual usage. 

Estimated use is about 6kwh, I reckon that's fairly accurate. Use an electric vehicle, so will be able to focus on charging that during the day. Calculator I used suggested around 6-6.5kwh generated.

Thoughts on micro-inverters? It would mean less panels, but would it help increase efficiency enough to offset? I don't know what the price difference would be yet.

Raggs_2

Not sure on the ettiquette here, but going to post again. Just received a mail saying we'll require 2 inverters given the size, normally an extra £750, but they'll waive it if we install on a range of days when they'll already be down (yeah right, I'm not getting rushed if I'm not happy).

Is 2 inverters better than 1?