Solar panels

[Deleted User]

A cautionary note to those thinking of adding a battery to an existing solar installation that is paid FITs.

Get it in writing that the battery installation will not impact of existing FIT payments. One poster has found out the hard way that a battery fitted on the solar side of the generation meter will result in the FIT payer stopping all payments when it detects an increase in generation (usually associated with charging the battery from the Grid and then exporting to the home through the generation meter).

Petriix

[Deleted User] said:

A cautionary note to those thinking of adding a battery to an existing solar installation that is paid FITs.

Get it in writing that the battery installation will not impact of existing FIT payments. One poster has found out the hard way that a battery fitted on the solar side of the generation meter will result in the FIT payer stopping all payments when it detects an increase in generation (usually associated with charging the battery from the Grid and then exporting to the home through the generation meter).

It would be pretty ignorant to change anything directly attached to the existing FIT system and expect it to be ok. AC coupled batteries are a totally different thing and are (almost always) fine.

theshed

Petriix said:

[Deleted User] said:

A cautionary note to those thinking of adding a battery to an existing solar installation that is paid FITs.

Get it in writing that the battery installation will not impact of existing FIT payments. One poster has found out the hard way that a battery fitted on the solar side of the generation meter will result in the FIT payer stopping all payments when it detects an increase in generation (usually associated with charging the battery from the Grid and then exporting to the home through the generation meter).

It would be pretty ignorant to change anything directly attached to the existing FIT system and expect it to be ok. AC coupled batteries are a totally different thing and are (almost always) fine.

Good advice, but I think 'ignorant' is a poor word choice.

Ectophile

BossBob said:

Even if you have batteries fitted they need to be cut off from the grid in the event of a power cut to safeguard the workers who are working on the fault. If you want power from the batteries during the power cut then that is another matter and you’ll have to have a circuit dedicated to battery power.
I’ve just had 8 x 415W solar panels, a 3KW inverter, 10 KW of batteries, switching box, consumer unit, smoke alarms and a dedicated battery circuit for freezers and the like. There is no mention of VAT paid on the invoice.

There's a cheap-and-cheerful alternative to that.  If I have a power cut, I can turn one big switch, and the whole house is switched over to islanded mode.  But it does rely on me keeping track of what's turned on.  If I turn on too many appliances and overload the inverter, then it will shut down.

BossBob

The system I’ve had installed swaps automatically when the grid stops supplying power. I’ve got the gas boiler electrical feed (for control, fan and pump), freezer, fridge and fish tank with a couple of sockets for wifi and IT and a kettle, so we’ll be warm, the food and fish will be fine and we can make tea. Camping gas outside for cooking.