New Solar and Battery installation

osgiliath

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82075370#Comment_82075370

I did contemplate this, however the panels are generating the full export limit until at least 18.30 in the weather conditions we have at the moment. I will revisit it over the next month until we move in.

osgiliath

To give closure to my query from yesterday. I've set export times in the app and everything worked as planned with the battery exporting correctly yesterday evening and this morning. This should reduce the clipping effect as my batteries will have ample room to charge with the excess solar beyond my DNO export allowance.

Thank you all for your assistance.

sajag83

hi which company did you use for you solar panels please

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82054773#Comment_82054773

osgiliath

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82076891#Comment_82076891

Hi, I'm not sure the forum rules allow me to give out company names. The company i eventually used was one that @Screwdriva suggested to me. I did get quotes from other companies but the products quoted were variable and more expensive.

I'm sure that if you PM @Screwdriva, they would be happy to pass on advice on companies they are aware of operating in your region. @Screwdriva are not affiliated with the companies so i was comfortable with getting a quote from thier suggestion. The company suggested was excellent by the way so i would have no quaims advising you to have an initial PM.

The system they installed has been great and the install was clean and tidy.

osgiliath

Hi All,

I thought i'd give you all an update on the system we had installed early this year on a property we had just bought. To save reading through the thread a quick overview.

We purchased a property that we had 19 panels and a PW3 with expansion pack installed together with replacing the gas boiler with an ASHP (7kw). As we were having this work done we didn't move into the property until the end of August. We've now been in for 2 months and starting to get a feel of the system.

The combination of the heat pump and battery storage with the solar has been brilliant. The house is kept at a steady 20.5°C during the day with a setback of 18°C during the night. There are no cold spots. The heat pump and general use is fully covered by the batteries (topped up overnight with off peak EV tariff) and with spare capacity to cover colder days and limited solar production. As such we think that over the year we will only pay for the cost of the of charging the cars.

We have signed up to the power downs by exporting from the batteries at these times and partaking in the happy hours by exporting prior and filling the batteries during the events plus doing a hot water boost.

The only minor issue we had was during the summer, when solar production is clipped due to our DNO limit of 5kW. With advice from forum members we learnt to export the stored power in the batteries so that on good days we could maximise solar production. This is still a work in progress as those days won't be back again until spring.

For those of you who are interested, we are getting a SCOP of 4.9 so far this year with a COP of over 4 last night when overnight temperatures were in the region of 2.5°C. I would add that the year figure is skewed by hot water production during the summer when we weren't living there. I'll revisit this figure when we've been in the house a year.

Overall we are delighted with the combination of the solar, batteries and heat pump and glad that we made the investments in the property prior to moving in.

I will try and let you know how we get on over winter early next year.

Screwdriva

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82197872#Comment_82197872

This is great to read and very fulfilling for me personally.

I could be wrong but compared to an older gas boiler at current tariffs, you are likely saving around 35% with a heat pump delivering a SCOP of 5? (And that's without the benefit of the Tesla PW3 + Solar)

Would be incredibly useful if you could share how you selected an installer for the heat pump, what model/ size was installed, was the SCOP guaranteed and how many radiators were changed etc.

osgiliath

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82198027#Comment_82198027

With all the help you provided its the least i can do.

Firstly choosing a installer was interesting. We ended up going with a local installer via Heat Geeks however, we also contacted half a dozen other installers nearby. Half wanted to do a heat loss survey remotely which was a no go for me. Of the other three, the heat loss surveys were quite similar. We had to pay for the Heat Geek survey and one of the local guys also asked for a small fee to cover his time. We ended up with the Heat Geek as the additional warranties and the feeling i got from the guy was much better.

We opted for a Vaillant Arotherm 7kW with a heat loss calculated at just under 6kW. We also decided to replace the existing hot water cylinder with a 250lr Vaillant cylinder which heats up from the heat pump in no time and integrates so well with the heat pump. We are guaranteed a SCOP of 4.0 with the design based upon -3°C outside and 21°C inside. I would add that one of the other installers recommended a Viessmann 8kW Vitocal as they calculated a heat loss of 6.5kW.

We opted to get three rads changed in three bedrooms as it provided a higher SCOP and the additional cost was acceptable.

The installer has been back since to do a final balancing of the radiators whilst the ambient temperature was lower. All the rooms are an even temp with the bedrooms being cooler as we requested.

One thing i would state is that the heat pump is not noisy and we can't hear it at all.

NedS

That's a brilliant outcome, thanks for sharing with us and welcome to the club.

We have a similar setup, ASHP, solar and PW3, but without the expansion pack. We use Octopus Cosy as a single PW3 would not be large enough for us in the winter months, but even with the slightly higher import costs, we are net zero both in terms of generation/consumption and costs over the year. We also get a SCOP of around 4. Hopefully you can find a way to effectively manage the 5kW export limitation in summer.

Hopefully you can now enjoy many years of very cheap heating.

osgiliath

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82198027#Comment_82198027

I missed the bit about savings over a gas boiler, sorry.

The previous owners used 24,000kwh of gas per year. Assuming 90% efficiency gives 21,600kwh for heating water and cooking. At 6p per kWh (what it was when we bought the house) the cost would be £1440 and now would be £1920 (@8p/kWh). With a SCOP of 4 we would use 5400kWh of electric for the same level of heating, so it would be a cost of £432 @ 8p/kWh.

As such the savings are much higher than your quoted 35%. I would add that we had the gas hob changed to an induction hob and the meter removed, so we are a fully electric household

NedS

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82198347#Comment_82198347

Good, isn't it? When the technology comes together in the form of a heat pump, solar and batteries, the outcome cannot be beaten. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.