Solar System Install and Quote - Costco

JKenH

zesh90x said:

Right guys.... for those who have been potentially wondering or waiting... time for a update... so i took Mr @Screwdriva's advice and went with his recommended installer and advised piece of kit:

The team came out to see me on the 19th March - was quoted exactly £9k for the following over email to start with...
20 x Sharp 425w Panels (8.5kwh system)
20x SolarEdge optimizers
1x SoldarEdge SE10000 Optimizer (8kwh)
1x Bird Protection

On the day of the visit we realised we can actually fit 26 Solar Panels, so decided to max out for the quickest "ROI"!

Note for anyone looking to get solar panels, here is a TOP TIP, taking fixed costs into consideration an additional panel or so does not add much more to the price, so always MAX out and get as many as you can possibly fit!

So in the end we went with the below coming in at a total of £10.3k:
26 x Sharp 425w Panels (11kwh system)
26x SolarEdge optimizers
1x SoldarEdge SE10000 Optimizer (10kwh)
1x Bird Protection

Now then... they visited me on the 19th March for the quotation, i paid a deposit of c.20% and we agreed for a "extremely quick" installation date of the 28th March, a 9 day turn-around, and the installer had the paperwork sorted, came out promptly on the day of the installation commencing at c.10am and wrapping the job up by 4.30pm ish!

Super friendly, super-quick, super efficient and all well explained, i can not fault the service whatsoever!

Now then - I am with Octopus, Octopus took a couple of days to Connect to the "export meter" - officially the system including exporting went live on the 8th of April... so it's been c.13 days and here is how the numbers look:

1. Prior to the panels we were using an average of c.30-40 kwh per day as a family

2. Since the installation we have generated the following:
8 April - 35.9kwh
9 April - 23.7kwh
10 April - 35.8kwh
11th April - 33kwh
12th April - 55.5kwh
13th April - 53.5kwh
14th April - 44.8kwh
15th April - 46.2kwh
16th April - 30.5kwh
17th April - 44.2kwh
18th April - 60.7kwh (WOW!!)
19th April - 29.4kwh
20th April - 41.4kwh
21st April - 33.7kwh

So then in total in the last 2 weeks (14 days) we've generated 568.3kwh. Our total usage from the grid has been 310.72kwh and we've exported 327.39kwh back to the grid, i.e. we've used 240.91kwh of our own generated electricity:

I am on the Agile tarrif with Octopus for my usage and the fixed export tariff paying 0.15p per kwh... my bill looks as follows for the last 2 weeks: 

Grid usage: 310.72kwh = £39.15 (includes standing charge)
Solar used: 240.91kwh = Free
Export income: 327.39kwh = £49.11
Net Income: £9.96

In theory if I did not have solar panels my usage would have cost me  (240.91kwh x 0.20) = £48.18 + 39.15 = £87.33 for the two weeks, now it has generated me an income of £9.96, so i am £97.29 up already in two weeks! WOW

Disclaimer - I've assumed an average of 0.20p kwh for the amount i've generated given it's usually during peak-ish hours or just before.. appreciate on Octopus tracker/agile this may be more or less at times!

I hope the above helps guys, i currently don't have a battery, but have been debating getting a giveenergy (£6.5k installed) or Tesla Powerwall 2 (£7.5k installed) - potentially my next step, think it will come really into play in the winter whereby i can load it up at the lowest kwh rate, and used throughout the day....

Overall with the above system i am hoping to get my return on investment within 4 years, shall keep you guys in the loop, if anyone has any questions feel free to respond in the thread or DM me and i would be  happy to help!

LASTLY - HUGE SHOUTOUT TO MR @Screwdriva for recommending the installer, saving us well over £3.5k with a much better piece of kit, answering 1 million questions I had both pre and post installation, paying us a visit on installation day to make sure it's all going smoothly and also making some recommendations/tweaks to ensure the panels were facing the optimal direction for the maximum gains, an absolute legend.

Thanks all, i look forward to see what the future holds and anyone thinking about it, I seriously recommend you go for it, it's been smooth, not a single hiccup to date, very much set and forget until you start wondering why the bill is so low/free!

Seriously envious of that system and at under £1000/kWp. I imagine the ROI is over £2k pa. 

QrizB

JKenH said:

Seriously envious of that system and at under £1000/kWp. I imagine the ROI is over £2k pa.

That post was from April last year. Prices have fallen further since. An 11kWp system with a Tesla Powerwall 3 is currently around £14k, so I'd guess that much PV-only would be £8-9k?

See eg. https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81391796/#Comment_81391796

JKenH

QrizB said:

JKenH said:

Seriously envious of that system and at under £1000/kWp. I imagine the ROI is over £2k pa.

That post was from April last year. Prices have fallen further since. An 11kWp system with a Tesla Powerwall 3 is currently around £14k, so I'd guess that much PV-only would be £8-9k?

See eg. https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81391796/#Comment_81391796

I hadn’t paid attention to the dates. I am obviously easy to please. I did notice on the linked thread that @Solarchaser had mentioned PV only prices coming in at under £1/kwp [sic] which is still my yardstick. To be fair my 7.8kWp system ended up costing me £7k including iBoost back in 2018 (the original price was £10k including a Moixa battery which was removed and refunded) but I got what I paid for with deterioration already evident on panel output and an installer that no longer trades. With all the changes in import and export rates it’s hard to keep track of the exact return but I think it is just about paid for.

When my son decided to get solar PV a couple of years ago I encouraged him to go for a SolarEdge system and he paid quite a bit more.

QrizB

JKenH on reading my post back it seems a bit sharp. Sorry, it wasn't meant to be!

This thread got bumped because a relatively new poster wants to contact Screwdriva, probably seeking an installer for a solar PV quote.

JKenH

QrizB said:

JKenH on reading my post back it seems a bit sharp. Sorry, it wasn't meant to be!

This thread got bumped because a relatively new poster wants to contact Screwdriva, probably seeking an installer for a solar PV quote.

No, not at all. It was verging on the complimentary compared to most of the responses my posts receive.😀

Screwdriva

QrizB said:

JKenH said:

Seriously envious of that system and at under £1000/kWp. I imagine the ROI is over £2k pa.

That post was from April last year. Prices have fallen further since. An 11kWp system with a Tesla Powerwall 3 is currently around £14k, so I'd guess that much PV-only would be £8-9k?

Last I heard OP is very pleased and has invested in several EVs too! It's ~£9K for PV only but SolarEdge isn't selling many batteries after the PowerWall 3 hit the market.