Solar panel headache

teena

Hi I thought I would venture into this area in my old age for environmental reasons and to future proof my house (in case family have to move in to look after me or when house is sold in future as it has 5 bedrooms)

Anyway I have always read you should get the biggest battery you can but I am having to fight companies who insist I should have a smaller one and jsut wanted to get peoples opinions. I thought if I was getting more than my usage , which is about 3000kw a year, then I could sell it back and so a bigger one was worth it?

I have had various suggestions for my house but the one at the moment is

£696

Estimated Annual Electricity Bill Savings

£10,201

Total System Price including VAT

£10,201

Net System Price including VAT

Your Solution

Battery

Fox ESS

5.18 kWh Total Battery Storage

1 x EP5

Tigo PV Panel Optimiser (all)

Module-level PV Optimizer

9 x TS4-A-O

BIRD BLOCKER (PER PANEL)

Standard bird blocker

9 x BIRD BLOCKER (PER PANEL)

FoxESS H1 SERIES (G2) Hybrid Inverter

3.68 kW of Inverter Power 

Fox ESS 

1 x H1-3.7-E-G2

10 Years Warranty 

Details

Specs

Solar Panels

Hengdian Group DMEGC Magnetics

4.050 kW Total Solar Power

9 x 450 Watt Panels (DM450M10RT-B54HBB [450Wp Glass/Glass All-Black])

3,243 kWh per year

Cost is £10201 - 7 of panels are south ish facing and 2 are west ish facing it also includes a 10 year maintenance for free.

If I up it to a 10.36kwh battery it is £11 825

Their other suggestion is 12 panels  with all facing south ( 6 on my flat roof) which is £11 300) with  10.36kwh battery

.

They are the only company who have actually come out to the house and my daughter has used them happily though appreciate they are not going to be the cheapest. So hard to know what is a good company

Any help/ thoughts really appreciated as it is giving me headaches at the moment

gefnew

You would be better posting here.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/green-ethical-moneysaving

teena

Thanks I will do

Ectophile

Buying the biggest battery you get could be taken to silly extremes.  Such as paving over the whole garden and turning it into a giant battery bank.

It makes more sense to match the battery to your demand, including any future anticipated demand.  A battery big enough to power the house for one evening/night is probably sufficient.  You could go bigger and store some energy for a rainy day (literally).  But after a point, you're spending more and more money for battery capacity you will hardly ever use.

Reed_Richards

If you don't use electricity for heating then your daily consumption will be much the same throughout the year.  If you get yourself on a tariff that gives you cheap electricity at night you can charge your battery then, in which case it only needs to be large enough to cover the rest of your consumption for the day.  You can then export your solar electricity and the better deals give you more per exported kWh than you pay to import electricity at night.  So my rule of thumb is that you should get a battery that is big enough to cover your daily consumption of electricity.