Going all electric?

sarahTT

@QrizB Yes, we know that it's currently not legal here, that was somewhat the point I was trying to make.

But ever since he first heard of this thing hubby has been "on the trail" and he's convinced that it's just a matter of time (OK, so perhaps more time than he'd wish) until these things will get the green light here. This would not be a game changer but it could certainly help. We'll see.

wrf12345

"It'll work perfectly well and there's practically no chance of being "caught" but because it's illegal, you won't find the kit being sold in B&Q. Unlike Germany, where you can pick a system up for about €250."

I doubt very much if we will get anywhere near that price here but just buying the inverter and cables by mail should be viable and sourcing the 450W panels locally would not be a problem but you can hear all the invested interests who have got away with charging six to eight grand for two grands worth of solar/inverter/cabling screaming their heads off.

QrizB

Not wanting to derail the thread ...

wrf12345 said:

I doubt very much if we will get anywhere near that price here...

You can buy a kit today for £350, delivered. (I've seen the same kit on off for a touch under £320, if you're patient.)

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/316834628681

I note that listing has sold 100 kits already and has 29 sets of positive feedback, so that's 29 guerilla systems installed and working.

wrf12345

"You can buy a kit today for £350, delivered. (I've seen the same kit on off for a touch under £320, if you're patient.)"

Yes but to get a legal kit, after the various industry bodies have finished with the certification process et al. I figure it will be a lot more - very rare to find any value in the current legal systems - but will be very happy to be proved wrong. The alternative is to go off-grid with a completely separate circuit and lose the export income, although that will possibly void your insurance and may not be compliant with the new permitted development rules for solar installs.

TheEssexlad

Octopus has a tariff where with certain batteries you can charge up over night with cheap elec , and then if you had enough capacity you could use that during the day , 

bob2302

QrizB said:

lohr500 said:

Call me cynical, but once we have all been forced into using electric vehicles and electric heat pumps, I can't help but think the energy producers will have a monopoly. 

If you look at other countries like Australia and Pakistan, it's turning out exactly opposite to that.

Solar PV is getting so cheap that electricty demand from the grid is falling, leaving power generation companies with idle power plants that theyre still making loan payments on.

Places where that's happening use a lot of energy for cooling and little for heating.