Solar - what do I need to know?

Alnat1

EssexHebridean said:

Not sure I'd feel too comfortable having something literally over my head that was from some sort of unknown and dodgy brand anyway, to be honest! 

You may have heard of some of the brand names others mention but do you know them because they make good solar equipment or because they make other electrical appliances like TVs etc? Worth thinking about. Most of us have products from companies who mainly only make solar equipment.

Does this house you might be getting have GCH and a combi boiler? If so, to throw another option in the mix, a few on here now have air to air heat pumps (basically air conditioning units that can heat as well as cool) You can use the power from your solar to keep you cool in summer and then in spring/autumn solar can heat the property without having to put the boiler on. If you have battery storage, fill up cheap overnight and heat the house with A2A units during the next day. I'm seriously considering this option myself now, after living with my solar/battery system for almost a year to see how it worked for us. 

yp70479

Back again! A bit more about batteries. If you want to get them now is a good time because installing solar systems does not incur VAT. at the moent. But, if you buy the battery on it's own it does! Go figure that one out! So if you buy one panel and stick it on your outhouse that is enough to save you the VAT on the battery. Be aware that due to a surge in demand some batteries have quite a long waiting time, but some installers offer to put the panels up first and then come back to fit the battery when they can get stock. If you aren't sure about sizing  you could go for a modular system (like Pylontech), as it is supposed to be easy to add additional capacity if you need it at a later date, but it can't go on the wall outside (should be OK in the outhouse though).You can buy a rack system and just slot them into it and connect them up Just be aware that you need to check "Depth of Discharge" or "Usable capacity"  when figuring out what battery size you need. So a 5.2 battery with 80% depth of discharge will only give you 4.16 kw of usable capacity 

EssexHebridean

yp70479 said:

Back again! A bit more about batteries. If you want to get them now is a good time because installing solar systems does not incur VAT. at the moent. But, if you buy the battery on it's own it does! Go figure that one out! So if you buy one panel and stick it on your outhouse that is enough to save you the VAT on the battery. Be aware that due to a surge in demand some batteries have quite a long waiting time, but some installers offer to put the panels up first and then come back to fit the battery when they can get stock. If you aren't sure about sizing  you could go for a modular system (like Pylontech), as it is supposed to be easy to add additional capacity if you need it at a later date, but it can't go on the wall outside (should be OK in the outhouse though).You can buy a rack system and just slot them into it and connect them up Just be aware that you need to check "Depth of Discharge" or "Usable capacity"  when figuring out what battery size you need. So a 5.2 battery with 80% depth of discharge will only give you 4.16 kw of usable capacity 

This is really interesting - and might be something we could consider doing - so thank you! And please don't apologise for long posts - all information gratefully received!
At the moment we are fairly mixed regarding amount of time at home - MrEH is WFH around 50% of the time, and I work a 4 day week, so we would likely be in a position to ensure that things like laundry etc were done during times when the panels were producing if needed. 

@Alnat1 Excellent point on the brand names - put it this way, my camera kit is Canon, because Canon make camera. It's not Sony, because Sony make stereos.   An over simplification, I know, but I'm always inclined to lean towards those brands that are specialists in what they do. (And yes, for any fellow photogs out there bristling about the Sony comment - I know they are now well established, but when I first invested in my DSL foundation kit back in 2006, they were brand new to the market!)   
MrEH would be disinclined towards the A2A heat pump due to the noise aspect - he was concerned about our (far quieter) Quantum storage heater when it was first installed because that creates a low level of noise when running - although in truth that turns out to be extremely quiet to the point of barely audible. It should also be added that after 20 years of all electric heating, I'm really rather looking forward to have GCH again! 

@magnitio - you've expressed exactly my concern over the peak/off peak balance over time. I'm inclined to feel that we are at a time of real likelihood for change on this at the moment with the increase in people having not only EV's, but batteries as well, and this could well completely skew the way things go over time.

EssexHebridean

Resurrecting this one as we are now in an entirely different house to the one we were hoping to buy when I started the thread, with roof space for solar, and we are starting to look seriously at progressing this one. 

First question is - one of the quotes I have includes Sun Synk battery and inverter, and Jinko Tiger panels - anyone got any input on whether these are good/bad/run screaming? 

QrizB

EssexHebridean said:

Resurrecting this one as we are now in an entirely different house to the one we were hoping to buy when I started the thread, with roof space for solar, and we are starting to look seriously at progressing this one. 

First question is - one of the quotes I have includes Sun Synk battery and inverter, and Jinko Tiger panels - anyone got any input on whether these are good/bad/run screaming? 

Personally, I wouldn't be buying a battery - and I say that as a battery owner. Export tariffs are currently generous enough that it's unlikely to be worth it.

Jinko are a huge Chinese manufacturer, but don't have quite as good a reputation as Sharp / Hyundai / Panasonic.

Screwdriva

Agree with Qriz on everything.

Jinko panels have historically degraded much worse than comparable brands. Best to avoid them and their kin entirely. 

I'd add Solarwatt/ Eurener and Meyer Burger panels to that list of quality panels. 

Niv

EssexHebridean said:

Resurrecting this one as we are now in an entirely different house to the one we were hoping to buy when I started the thread, with roof space for solar, and we are starting to look seriously at progressing this one. 

First question is - one of the quotes I have includes Sun Synk battery and inverter, and Jinko Tiger panels - anyone got any input on whether these are good/bad/run screaming? 

Does this new house have a water tank? I have a diverter and honestly it has heated the water most days throughout this autumn & winter - not every day of course and maybe is sometimes supplemented by the oil but it does a great job. I only have a basic solic 200 but cant complain.

I only have had my system fully installed and working since the end of April but so far so good. 2023 was 60% self consumption!

EssexHebridean

Thanks all - interesting on the battery side of things. We’re very much getting two sides on his - people are either very pro battery, or are on the other side of the scale saying it won’t be worth it. Potentially, if this works for us, in the longer term we would look at possibly reverting back to E7 in order to have the ability to charge the battery overnight at times when the solar is performing well  - although that clearly depends on availability E7 tariffs going forwards - if not though I suspect there will be other TOU tariffs that could have the same effect. Definitely one for us to think about more fully though as obviously the battery costs are a big  part of the quotes. 

On the water tank, the house doesn’t have one - we’ve a combi boiler and are absolutely loving the ability to have economically heated hot water when we want it and not be paying to heat more of it than we need. (Coming from 20 years of dealing with an immersion heater this is a definite luxury!) Realistically our only options for a cylinder here would be to either lose a big chunk of space from our spare room to have it installed there (not ideal) or to have it up in the loft - which is definitely not happening as we don’t want water up there at all - so this wouldn’t be something we’d consider really.

Thanks for the thoughts on the panels too - the other quote we have is offering JA Solar panels with Giv-Energy battery and inverter - I’m currently leaning towards this being the better option kit-wise. 

Slinky

We have a hot water cylinder and considered having a diverter, but it was going to cost £500 to supply and install, and £500 buys an awful lot of gas at under 5p/kwh on Octopus. I'd rather get 15p/kwh exporting excess after the battery is charged. Plus there's only 2 of us in the house, our dishwasher and washing machine are both cold fill, so don't use massive amounts of hot water anyway.

Qyburn

Slinky said:

We have a hot water cylinder and considered having a diverter, but it was going to cost £500 to supply and install, and £500 buys an awful lot of gas at under 5p/kwh on Octopus. I'd rather get 15p/kwh exporting excess after the battery is charged. 

Same here. Although we don't have gas, oil is still much less that 15p/kWh so wouldn't be worth heating water instead of exporting.

To be fair none of the installers we spoke to recommended a diverter. It would be different if you were only getting 3p for export, and even more so on deemed export.