Solar - what do I need to know?

Slinky

Qyburn said:

Another thing that bugs me is the use of childish language instead of explicit terms. For example we're told it connects to "our WiFi" but it actually needs Ethernet. 

Do you mean an ethernet cable? Ours isn't connected by cable.

Slinky

Reed_Richards said:

I have a battery.  A feature I really value is the smoothing function that provides but this is an advantage that generally gets overlooked. 

 

We have a battery but currently have a problem and are waiting on an electrician to visit. (3 weeks! Argghhh) One thing I'm noticing is my anxiety level about the 4-7pm slots on our Agile tariff. OK so I know it's not the worst thing in the world if we have to pay 33p/kWh for using the oven for half an hour, but I wouldn't want to be juggling my life around this on a regular basis.

OK so the battery wasn't cheap, but that's in the past now and there are ongoing savings in having it.

charles_b_2

EssexHebridean said:

I'm incredibly grateful that I am still getting useful information given here! I have decided that once the refund lands, I will indeed be asking for a detailed report and explanation of the issues. 

The mentioned of connection via ethernet is interesting - definitely no chance that we would be able to do that! 

Most inverters have WiFi capability either inbuilt or via an add-on dongle, so I don't think this would be an issue 

Qyburn

Slinky said:

Qyburn said:

Another thing that bugs me is the use of childish language instead of explicit terms. For example we're told it connects to "our WiFi" but it actually needs Ethernet. 

Do you mean an ethernet cable? Ours isn't connected by cable.

The way they put it was something like I'd need to run a "cable to connect to the WiFi". The point being that they used the term "WiFi" to mean Internet access rather than 802.11 wireless LAN.

It's possible they might have said Cat5 rather than Ethernet. Which reminds me for the Tesla battery they asked for Cat 6 to our Internet router. I'll bet the Tesla doesn't need 10gig Internet.

Slinky

Our Solis inverter talks wirelessly to the router via a dongle.

Niv

EssexHebridean said:

Apparently the issue in the loft with the inverter is that "it can only go on the party wall" but surely that would be the case for most ordinary terraced houses? I suspect what they mean is that they aren't certain that it's not just a single skinned "fire break" wall - and yes, that IS possible, but it does have a boiler mounted on it so I would expect that would be a similar sort of weight to the inverter, and that's staying put OK!  As for the battery, that was always ruled out of being in the loft due to the weight anyway. I really have smelled a rat over the way things that weren't an issue before very much now apparently are - and it is annoying that we've not got any straight answers on it. 

We've discussed the possibility of going panels-only for now, and for us, if we were looking at it for green reasons only, rather than wanting "some" money saving aspects too, then absolutely, it might be viable. As it is though, with the amount we are out during weekdays (when most of the generation would be taking place) we would a lot of the time barely get the benefit of actually running our own home from the energy we generate, load shifting to a time when the panels could be generating and offsetting energy isn't much of a possibility a lot of the time, and with the likelihood that MrEH will have to return to even more days in the office at some stage, that situation is only likely to get worse. The point of the battery was that by using a combination of the generation and flux, we would realistically be able to entirely run the house from it most of the time, with there just being a few odd days in winter where that might not be workable. 

There is definitely "something" going on in the background, but we've not really fathomed what. I am tempted to wait for the refund to land and then contact them again and ask for a full report clarifying exactly what the problems were, and why it was not possible to a) fit the inverter in the loft, and b) site the inverter and the battery separately. I suspect I won't get anything back, though. 

I have gone panels only. Since go live in April 23 I have made a profit of~£100, if you take into account the money saved via self consumption that increases to £800. A battery is not required to get a decent ROI.