Are solar panels worth it for home vacant during the day?

Ben1989 · 3 March 2022 at 3:13PM

Hi all,

Surging energy prices naturally makes you curious about other energy creation.

Now, I do not know much about solar panels as I've never had to really look into it as I am aware ROI is large. With raising energy prices, however, this is naturally reduced.

I'm wondering if anybody could provide clarity on the suitability of solar panels for a house where the occupants are out of the house between 8am and 5pm. I imagine this makes them useless without the use of batteries?

Excuse my naivety but do batteries simply store all energy from the panels? Does some have to go into the grid? Is solar panel usage dependant on battery size?

I also have a PHEV which has a 12kWh battery. This can only be charged between 5pm-6am. Not sure if it's more economical to charge with the lower night tariff.

Can you also charge the battery from the lower rate grid at night?

Thank you

Edgeoftheburn · 4 March 2022 at 8:36PM

Hello Ben, we have solar panels and battery storage. Even if you are not home your house uses energy, for fridges, freezer and anything else that is on standby.

Whether it is worth it needs a lot of calculation. How many could you fit on your roof or garage, what direction your house faces, are you shaded at all, do space for a battery set up etc? Then there is the budget they are not cheap more like a long term investment that may take 5+ years to recoup, we were more interested in self sufficiency.

We have 8kw of panels and 10kw of battery and we can use that 10kw very quickly as we are all electric as we are rural. We plan to add more batteries because you can also charge them on a cheap rate over night and then use that to power the house during the expensive rate effectively shifting your usage, this helps in the winter when very little solar energy is gained.

Hope this helps a little, but do lots of research to make up your mind.