Plug in solar

Vitor

The price from Aldi/Amazon will be critical for me to determine the payback period. Where I am this is today's chart of Solar W/msq, which would count as a reasonably sunny day with high clouds. I can run washing machine etc. during the day to make use of the input power, plus there's background load of IT kit such as cams.

QrizB

Interesting! @Vitor what website is that from? Would be good to compare to my actual generation curve.

Vitor

It's the log from my Ecowitt weather station.

ECOWITT Wifi Weather Stations GW1201, 7 in 1 Solar Power Home Wireless Outdoor Sensor Unit WS69, 3 in 1 Wifi Indoor New Gateway GW1200, IOT Intelligent Linkage Control, Ecosystem Weather Assistant : Amazon.co.uk: Business, Industry & Science

Some people publish their data on the Weather Underground, so there may be an open access station near you

PWS Network Overview | Weather Underground

Scot_39

Lidl launches its "own" Tronic brand label battery storage - bit short on technical details

Not sure how competitive - or about the power limits - or price - but it looks like an initial trial store based offer.

2.24 kWh battery in Germany for €299 – pv magazine International

https://share.google/wM1Kd8OL68l8rTjhM

cyberhippy

From what I hear about the discussions inside DESNZ plug-in solar isn't going to be legal in the UK anytime soon - Ed Miliband and his PR tam would love it to land in Aldi and Lidl in time for the summer but they're missing a few key things:

• All the DNOs need to be on board with new G98 regulations
• UK wiring regs need updating
• We need new safety rules to determine risks / liabilities / insurance / the legality of Mrs Miggins dangling a very sharp heavy object off her balcony - and what happens when it gets windy, it falls off and hurts someone, or if an electrical issue from and old fuse board causes a fire
• Hard framed solar panels are heavy - 2 x 400W panels and brackets and micro-inverters will not be a single person lift from the isle in Lidl, it will require two people to even get it through checkout…
• Plus, unlike in Germany, UK balconies don't usually have outside sockets, so we're going to need extension cables and to drill holes in walls or balcony window frames to get the power from balcony solar to a plug socket.

Don't get me wrong - I am ALL FOR balcony and plug in solar - If we can tidy up these issues it should work well and have a payback of down to 4 years for a good setup… but just don't get too excited yet!

That said, anyone can already install an EcoFlow / Anker Solar solar PV and battery system - you just can't plug it in yourself, you have to get an electrician to wire it up to your fuse board.

Scot_39

Glad to see both safety and insurance / liability on the list.

TroubledTarts

Going to be summer next year at this rate.

Oh well I think the horse has bolted for many if you are a part of any other forums about plug in solar and the YouTube videos out there.

cyberhippy

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82005749#Comment_82005749

do you mean 'the horse has bolted' because some people are already installing plug in solar and feeding in to their homes via sockets? Or something else?

QrizB

do you mean 'the horse has bolted' because some people are already installing plug in solar and feeding in to their homes via sockets?

Based on the sales numbers, I'm guessing there are at least a four-figure number of plug-in solar PV systems already installed in the UK.

Granted, that's not many in the context of ~25 million domestic electricity accounts, but it's still something.

It's clear from discussions on this forum that a large proportion of people didn't appreciate that plug-in solar PV was even possible before the Government began talking about it. Now that people realise it works, is affordable and doesn't require any arcane knowledge, there's going to be a steady stream of people deciding to "just do it".

TroubledTarts

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82006057#Comment_82006057

I would suggest the majority of people that have bought systems have them plugged in so yes.