Solar panel help

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

QrizB

Welcome to the Green and Ethical section of the forum! I was going to reply to your thread on Energy but saw that you had been directed over here.

teena said:

Anyway I have always read you should get the biggest battery you can

I don't think that's true. There's potentially some benefits to getting a big enough battery that it will see you through the night, and possibly a smaller benefit if it will also see you through a dull day, but bigger isn't always better.

And price is important.

teena said:

£696

Estimated Annual Electricity Bill Savings

If you're using 3000kWh a year, your total electricity bill (excluding standing charge) is somewhere around £700. I don't see how you're going to save £696 unless that's also factoring in your export earnings.

Also, 3000kWh a year is about 8kWh a day. You'll get most of the benefit from the smaller battery, and adding an extra 5.18kWh won't save you much more money.

teena said:

£10,201

Total System Price including VAT

That's a lot of money for the system you've been quoted on, in my opinion. You're looking at almost a 15 year payback time, where you should really be aiming for 10 years or less.

I think you should really be expecting to pay about £7000 for a similar system.

Take a look at some of the threads here and see what other people have recently installed. It'll give some idea of what the market is really like.

Screwdriva

teena said:

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

Welcome to Green Ethical Money Saving! 

I'm sorry to share that the above quote is what some of us would describe as "Cowboy" spec i.e. low end/ cheap brands of panel and battery/ inverter used to undercut quality installers offering superior kit. 

I have 3 thoughts:

1) I recommend placing panels to cover your South/ West/ East aspects, including sloping or flat roofs for the best return on investment. 

2) You don't need any battery (large or small). Given your consumption of 3000 kWh per year it is very unlikely the battery will pay for itself within warranty. Instead, you can sell your excess solar to the grid for 15p per kWh or more, using the grid like a virtual battery. 

Here is an alternative quote from installers I use to help other MSE forum members (pro bono) :

12 X 500W Eurener Bifacial panels (6kW system size + bifacial gain)

12 X SolarEdge optimizers
  1 X SolarEdge 6kW inverter (with 20 year warranty)

~ £5.5K installed. G99 and Bird netting included. Add £275 for every additional panel + optimizer. 

3) However, should you insist on a battery, you can have a 13.5kW Tesla Powerwall 3 for less £. The PW3 is vastly superior to anything Fox makes and offers whole house backup, a great app and incredible capability. As a bonus, unlike Fox, Tesla gives you access to the Octopus Intelligent Flux tariff, which is the most lucrative Solar tariff currently on the market. 

12 X 500W Eurener Bifacial panels 
  1 X Tesla PW3 with Gateway 2

£11.5K installed. G99 and Bird netting included. Add £200 for every additional panel. 

I hope these help provide perspective for your decision! 

teena

QrizB said:

Welcome to the Green and Ethical section of the forum! I was going to reply to your thread on Energy but saw that you had been directed over here.

teena said:

Anyway I have always read you should get the biggest battery you can

I don't think that's true. There's potentially some benefits to getting a big enough battery that it will see you through the night, and possibly a smaller benefit if it will also see you through a dull day, but bigger isn't always better.

And price is important.

teena said:

£696

Estimated Annual Electricity Bill Savings

If you're using 3000kWh a year, your total electricity bill (excluding standing charge) is somewhere around £700. I don't see how you're going to save £696 unless that's also factoring in your export earnings.

Also, 3000kWh a year is about 8kWh a day. You'll get most of the benefit from the smaller battery, and adding an extra 5.18kWh won't save you much more money.

teena said:

£10,201

Total System Price including VAT

That's a lot of money for the system you've been quoted on, in my opinion. You're looking at almost a 15 year payback time, where you should really be aiming for 10 years or less.

I think you should really be expecting to pay about £7000 for a similar system.

Take a look at some of the threads here and see what other people have recently installed. It'll give some idea of what the market is really like.

Thanks for taking the time to reply. I will definitely look around a bit more especially on these threads.

teena

Screwdriva said:

teena said:

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

Welcome to Green Ethical Money Saving! 

I'm sorry to share that the above quote is what some of us would describe as "Cowboy" spec i.e. low end/ cheap brands of panel and battery/ inverter used to undercut quality installers offering superior kit. 

I have 3 thoughts:

1) I recommend placing panels to cover your South/ West/ East aspects, including sloping or flat roofs for the best return on investment. 

2) You don't need any battery (large or small). Given your consumption of 3000 kWh per year it is very unlikely the battery will pay for itself within warranty. Instead, you can sell your excess solar to the grid for 15p per kWh or more, using the grid like a virtual battery. 

Here is an alternative quote from installers I use to help other MSE forum members (pro bono) :

12 X 500W Eurener Bifacial panels (6kW system size + bifacial gain)

12 X SolarEdge optimizers
  1 X SolarEdge 6kW inverter (with 20 year warranty)

~ £5.5K installed. G99 and Bird netting included. Add £275 for every additional panel + optimizer. 

3) However, should you insist on a battery, you can have a 13.5kW Tesla Powerwall 3 for less £. The PW3 is vastly superior to anything Fox makes and offers whole house backup, a great app and incredible capability. As a bonus, unlike Fox, Tesla gives you access to the Octopus Intelligent Flux tariff, which is the most lucrative Solar tariff currently on the market. 

12 X 500W Eurener Bifacial panels 
  1 X Tesla PW3 with Gateway 2

£11.5K installed. G99 and Bird netting included. Add £200 for every additional panel. 

I hope these help provide perspective for your decision! 

Thank you for your advice. I will certainly think again.