Solar panels without Smart meter?

cannugec5

aliby21 said:

Not sure what the catastrophic failure entailed, but you will not necessarily require a new oil tank just because the existing one does not comply with current regulations.  If the tank is functional you can attach a new boiler to it. 

The tank is over 20 years old. Although it is OK in itself no tank can be positioned where the existing one sits. Replacing the system but moving - and keeping - the elderly tank feels shortsighted. Not least because we had great difficulty in turning off the stoptap once a leak was noted. 

The actual fail was in the underground pipework. Without digging up the entire garden and driveway the source of the problem could not be found, and it seemed pointless doing so if we cannot position a new underground pipe in the same place anyway. We could not smell any leak. Digging up the garden to find it was a potential massively expensive can of worms and we had already lost £££ in fuel. 

In addition we are contemplating converting the garage so wanted to move the boiler outdoors. Again the existing oil boiler is elderly and is unsuitable for outdoor use. Moving it is not an option so it needs to be replaced with something suitable. 

We were already investigating options for a new boiler before we had the oil leak. Initially we were planning another oil system, not having even considered any other options. But the heating engineer recommended we consider ASHP. Home Energy Scotland further recommended solar panels to help mitigate the increased electricity use. 

I’m still waiting for quotes from everyone to see where we stand as well as plans from the architect re the garage conversion. 

thrope

I would get second opinion on the oil tank. The spacing requirements are I think 30cm from the boundary. There are also a variety of shapes of tank now like slimline which give more options. As stated you wouldn't have to replace the tank automatically with a new boiler.

[Deleted User]

cannugec5 said:

Ectophile said:

A SMETS2 meter will record any exported electricity, even if it can't phone home with the meter readings.  It's worth checking if you can get a supplier to pay you the export payments, based on manual readings.

I have today spoken with a lady who lives locally who has solar panels and gives quarterly manual readings for her export. That feels positive to me. Just need to find out if it remains an option to new customers. 

That is no longer possible. The lady that you spoke to most likely has an PV array that was installed under the Feed In Tariff scheme. This scheme was stopped some years ago. Under the FIT scheme, the homeowner provides the FIT payer with a manual reading of the total amount of solar energy produced. 

The replacement for FIT is the Special Export Guarantee (SEG) payment scheme where payments are made for the actual amount of energy exported to the Grid. SEG participation requires a smart meter.

By not having a smart meter, you cannot avail yourself of special tariffs designed for smart-metered homes such as Octopus’ new Cosy (heat pump) tariff, or if you have solar and a battery the Flux tariff. The latter pays 23p/kWh for each unit exported.

Reed_Richards

When my heat pump was installed at the end of 2020 I worked out that my running costs would be comparable to those for the oil boiler it replaced.  As best as I can tell for a while this was true but since then the price of oil has roughly doubled whilst the price of electricity has trebled.  At the moment heating oil is the cheapest way to heat your home, cheaper than mains gas (which now has a comparable heating system running cost to a heat pump).

Trouble is, whatever you install now you will want to use for the next ten years or more and it it difficult to predict what will happen to fuel prices in that time.    

ispookie666

Maybe you can guy your wet heating system and install Air 2 Air Heat pump + Solar and use E7 or other Time of use tariff to hear water. 
Running costs of Air 2 Air are cheaper. 
My oil boiler come on very infrequently and my oil consumption has decreased a lot!