New Solar PV Installation

Solarchaser

Petriix said:

Solarchaser said:

Hexane said:

Coastalwatch said:

While I appreciate this website is a principally a money saving tool, accelerated global warming is clearly demonstrating it is a threat to the very existance of human life on this planet so making judgements based purely on economics and ignoring sustainability could be considered short sighted at best and maybe even reckless otherwise. 

That's fair enough, so long as installers providing quotes with an iBoost include a disclaimer for houses that also have gas central heating, saying "included in this quote is a device that is guaranteed to lose you money, it is included to avoid making judgements based purely on economics and ignoring sustainability."

The cost/savings/earnings breakdowns that I'm sure all installers still include, should also note that for every kWh "saved" by the iBoost, the household will be losing out on 5.5p (or whatever the going rate) that could have been earned by selling that kWh.

We don't have iboost but certainly something to be considered as it's especially useful in the shoulder and winter months.

Not the case for me, the similar device installed here is most useful in the summer and shoulder months, it's of very little use in winter.

I commend your moral crusade there, but you base your absolute statement on the assumption that all electricity providers will pay this 5.5p export , as far as I'm aware there are only a few power companies doing this?

It would be quite a costly choice to go with a supplier paying significantly less than that 5.5p rate and hardly rational justification for wasting money on an uneconomical diverter.

That would be a very specific point based on....

If you are self consuming most anyway then paying more for what you buy in the winter just to reap a decent payout from export, may not make sense.

So to answer your point specifically,  it would be a costly choice to go with a supplier costing more per kwh just to get a higher export rate.

You need to understand that this is not a one size fits all scenario , everyone's use is not the same.

I have "bought" 5mwh a year up until last year, and exported around 1.5mwh.

So paying more to my import just to get a better export would not make sense

Hexane

Solarchaser said:

Petriix said:

It would be quite a costly choice to go with a supplier paying significantly less than that 5.5p rate and hardly rational justification for wasting money on an uneconomical diverter.

That would be a very specific point based on....

If you are self consuming most anyway then paying more for what you buy in the winter just to reap a decent payout from export, may not make sense.

So to answer your point specifically,  it would be a costly choice to go with a supplier costing more per kwh just to get a higher export rate.

"Please note that there is no requirement for the SEG licensee to be the same company as your energy supplier. You can choose to use separate companies for your SEG export payments, electricity supply and your gas supply if you wish."
(from https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/environmental-programmes/smart-export-guarantee-seg/generators )

EricMears

Hexane said:

"Please note that there is no requirement for the SEG licensee to be the same company as your energy supplier. You can choose to use separate companies for your SEG export payments, electricity supply and your gas supply if you wish."
(from https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/environmental-programmes/smart-export-guarantee-seg/generators )

Would you, I wonder, be able to find a SEG licensee who would accept your contract if you didn't also have your electricity supply or FIT contract with them ?   It was always difficult to find a (big 6) company to pay your FIT if you weren't buying power from them.

scorp_a

Currently Bulb allows SEG without any supply contract @5.36p. 

EricMears

scorp_a said:

Currently Bulb allows SEG without any supply contract @5.36p. 

Quite so.  But Bulb aren't one of the 'Big 6'.  The restriction on FIT contracts was that if your supply was from one of the big 6,  none of the other 5 would entertain paying your FIT although if your supply was from a smaller company the 'Big 6' would welcome your FIT contract.

Hexane

EricMears said:

scorp_a said:

Currently Bulb allows SEG without any supply contract @5.36p. 

Quite so.  But Bulb aren't one of the 'Big 6'.  The restriction on FIT contracts was that if your supply was from one of the big 6,  none of the other 5 would entertain paying your FIT although if your supply was from a smaller company the 'Big 6' would welcome your FIT contract.

This should be a non-issue. People were free to sign up to one of the "big 6" for supply if they wanted their FiT through them, and then free to switch their supply away from that company anytime they found a better deal for supply elsewhere - but keeping the FiT payments from the original company. And in any case if a company will pay 5 pence plus per kWh for metered exports, why does it matter whether they're one of the big 6 or not?

Solarchaser

Hexane said:

Solarchaser said:

Petriix said:

It would be quite a costly choice to go with a supplier paying significantly less than that 5.5p rate and hardly rational justification for wasting money on an uneconomical diverter.

That would be a very specific point based on....

If you are self consuming most anyway then paying more for what you buy in the winter just to reap a decent payout from export, may not make sense.

So to answer your point specifically,  it would be a costly choice to go with a supplier costing more per kwh just to get a higher export rate.

"Please note that there is no requirement for the SEG licensee to be the same company as your energy supplier. You can choose to use separate companies for your SEG export payments, electricity supply and your gas supply if you wish."
(from https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/environmental-programmes/smart-export-guarantee-seg/generators )

Good point, well made👍

My understanding was that was not possible with the seg payment,  clearly I was wrong. Mea culpa!

So its really only those of us who are on a fit and deemed export that will benefit from consuming all.

scorp_a

scorp_a said:

Very useful comments. Thanks. 
I understand the cost impact of having iboost.  Just thought I would reduce use of gas if possible. Can always turn it off if it's really not worth it. Also grid may put limits in export sometime in future? 
Regarding my final setup. I decided on 8.3Kw PV (JA 460x18) , 7.5 kw sofar inverter. 
Comes around £6.5k  including iboost and bird guard. Hope DNO approve it. 

DNO Aprroved! Installation scheduled next week.