Help with solar quotes please!!

mickyduck55

polar0l said:

QrizB said:

polar0l said:

Do you mean the octopus go / agile tarrifs? 

Time-of-use tariffs in general, of which Go is an (extreme) example.

Even boring old Economy 7 offers arbitrage options to someone with a home battery, and charging for seven hours at 1/7 C is kinder to your battery than charging for four hours at 1/4C is.

Last August I was seriously considering Green Energy Tide (who were then offering 7 hrs at 7.5p, link) and/or Logicor Advanced (7 hrs at 11.76p, link). I got as far as signing up with Logicor but they lost my application and by then Green had increased their prices significantly (link) so I went with Octopus instead.

All these tariffs become more attractive if you have a battery and can buy your peak electricity at off-peak prices.

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FYI Tide is currently in the "boutique" price range as you would expect from one of the three uncapped "deep green" suppliers. 24p/kWh overnight and 70p/kWh in the evening peak:

Ah good old economy 7! 

Thanks, very useful! With batteries I get that you’d probably want it fully charged overnight in winter when the solar panels aren’t able to generate as much. At this time of year are the panels able to give a good amount of charge or would you still fully charge your battery overnight? 

I think what I’m asking is the battery more useful for cheap overnight charging than charging via the solar panels? 

The battery is useful in both theses scenarios.. this time of year batteries are almost always full charged by the evening via solar so virtually no grid import.  In May I imported 5 kWh in total.  In winter they are "topped up" from the grid as there is not enough solar.  If you can get a TOU tariff then there is a significant benefit to having them in winter.
ATM my batteries are 71% full from yesterday solar and already charging

1961Nick

polar0l said:

QrizB said:

polar0l said:

Do you mean the octopus go / agile tarrifs? 

Time-of-use tariffs in general, of which Go is an (extreme) example.

Even boring old Economy 7 offers arbitrage options to someone with a home battery, and charging for seven hours at 1/7 C is kinder to your battery than charging for four hours at 1/4C is.

Last August I was seriously considering Green Energy Tide (who were then offering 7 hrs at 7.5p, link) and/or Logicor Advanced (7 hrs at 11.76p, link). I got as far as signing up with Logicor but they lost my application and by then Green had increased their prices significantly (link) so I went with Octopus instead.

All these tariffs become more attractive if you have a battery and can buy your peak electricity at off-peak prices.

------

FYI Tide is currently in the "boutique" price range as you would expect from one of the three uncapped "deep green" suppliers. 24p/kWh overnight and 70p/kWh in the evening peak:

Ah good old economy 7! 

Thanks, very useful! With batteries I get that you’d probably want it fully charged overnight in winter when the solar panels aren’t able to generate as much. At this time of year are the panels able to give a good amount of charge or would you still fully charge your battery overnight? 

I think what I’m asking is the battery more useful for cheap overnight charging than charging via the solar panels? 

At this time of year you'd easily cover your consumption (9kWh) & fully charge a 5.1kWh battery from solar (3.8kWp). A rough guess is that you'd be looking to grid charge from November through to February. In December & January there would be several days when a 5.1kWh battery wouldn't last between off peak charging sessions. You may be able to shift some heavier consumption to the off peak period to offset that.

polar0l

I can’t thank you all enough - great to hear others views and I really appreciate the detail. 

Unless there is a good reason not to I think I’ll take a chance with the solar together scheme and see how it goes; there is a battery included for the same price as some of the other quotes. 

Last couple of questions - bird netting - I’m thinking this is an essential to avoid problems after installation? They wanted about £600 for it at the time of install. And is it easy to add panels in future or should I add “spare capacity” now (EV is at least 5 years away for us!)

mickyduck55

polar0l said:

I can’t thank you all enough - great to hear others views and I really appreciate the detail. 

Unless there is a good reason not to I think I’ll take a chance with the solar together scheme and see how it goes; there is a battery included for the same price as some of the other quotes. 

Last couple of questions - bird netting - I’m thinking this is an essential to avoid problems after installation? They wanted about £600 for it at the time of install. And is it easy to add panels in future or should I add “spare capacity” now (EV is at least 5 years away for us!)

I started a thread years ago about bird netting..  

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5617212/pigeons-nesting-under-my-panels/p1

I would say yes get it installed although I think £600 is a lot for install at the time as really no extra expense for them except the net which can be bought for under £200 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/233938662565?hash=item3677d4b4a5:g:PFYAAOSwkoxiV-xx

Screwdriva

With respect to those already installed these, I would strongly recommended non-Chinese owned brands like Hyundai 400W panels, SolarEdge or GivEnergy inverters/ batteries.  

Much better chances of getting quality aftersales support, quality components and them fulfilling the term of their warranty.  Gowatt as an example, has been panned multiple times on these forums.

Here is a quote for a system with a 25 year warranty on quality components my neighbours installed last month (DM me if you'd like an introduction to the installer)

Equipment;

10 x 400w Hyundai panels, 25 year warranty to 86.2% efficiency and a 25 year product warranty

10 x Solar optimizers. 25 Year warranty

1 x Solar Edge HD Wave single phase inverter[Battery ready inverter] 25 year product warranty

  1 x All cable run’s isolators and fitting’s

  1 x Micro generation meter

  1 x System monitoring  

  1 x MCS and G98 Certificates

All service and maintenance under the terms of the warranty.

 Fully fitted price of £5,350.00