Solar Panel questions

curtis122

We are currently house hunting and we have seen a couple of houses which have solar panels. We have no clue about solar panels but one we really like has 24 solar panels and 1 storage battery. They power an outbuilding and the house. They have it setup currently for any power not used it goes back to the grid.

My questions -

1. How does this work if we bought the house and move in, regarding energy companies. The normal way with electric supplied, you contact energy company find a plan and pay monthly bill via DD. How does this work with solar panels. Is it the same but if your solar panels are covering your electric you pay nothing (other than the standing charge?)
2. We would like to set it up where any unused power is stored and we keep to use over the colder, non sunny months. How do you set this up?

Sorry if any of these seem stupid questions but as I said we have no clue how these work and don't know anyone with them.

sheenas

A typical home uses around 10kwh of electricity a day. A Large solar system like the one you have seen would collect around 22kwh on a sunny summers day but far less in winter. The battery could 5kwh or maybe 10kwh capacity.

So the system charges the battery and once full it exports the rest to your energy company, who pay you via an export tariff.

You need to ensure the solar system has a G98/G99 approval which allows you to export up to a fixed amount of electricity. Most likely you will need a G99 with all those panels.

So basically if the battery is 10 kwh on good days you will have enough battery to run the house. Surplus electricity will be sold to the grid. On bad days you will need some grid energy. Hopefully the energy sold to the grid will balance out the energy purchased from the grid.

Hope that helps

kipsterno1

I would speak to the vendors, I'm sure they would be more than happy to explain the ins one outs of their system.

MWT

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6676198/solar-panel-questions

#2 first, you cannot store energy for use in future months, the battery just isn't going to be big enough for that.

Typically domestic batteries at best will get you through a night when of course there is no solar, or may let you use a cheap overnight tariff to store power to supplement the solar when needed.

#1 You will still contact the exiting supplier and open an account there first, then decide if you are going to switch to a different provider or stay with them.

You will have two MPANs, one for the import (energy you use from the grid) and one for export (energy you sent to the grid, you will pick a tariff for both import and export.

Each month you will get billed for what you have used and credited for what you have exported. That may result in you owing them money or them owing you money.

You have many questions to ask though and hopefully your solicitor can help with some of these as it is very important to get a copy of the installation certification for the solar system at a minimum (probably MCS) , but you also need to make sure they own the system and that it hasn't been installed under a 'rent a roof' scheme or similar…

I'd start by asking when the system was installed as that will help determine if there are any other complexities like FiT which could be the case if it is old enough, but just based on number of panels I'm assuming it is a newer installation…

Netexporter

The most important thing is to find out from your legal people what export scheme the panels are on, it will be either FiT (feed-in tariff) or SEG (smart export guarantee), will those benefits be transferred in the sale (otherwise the previous owner will get the cash), and which supplier they are registered with (it can be different to the Deemed Supplier who you have to sign up for, initially, for imports.

If you are totally new to solar then it may be worth having a look at the Gary Does Solar Youtube channel. If you look at his older back catalogue there is lots of clear explanations of how solar works and how to get the best out of it.

Good luck (I'd but the house just for the solar and batteries!)

debitcardmayhem

I was typing as @MWT did his …so what he said . I must get a keyboard .

curtis122

We do know they are bought outright as this was one question we did ask on the viewing. Its only now we have decided we actually like the house after viewing a number of others we have started thinking about the solar panels. I do remember the owner saying it was a 10kw battery storage.

So what if we bought another 1 of these 10kw storage batteries, when one is fully charged would it then go over to the second and only when second one is full any extra go back to the grid and we would have more to use to hopefully cover everything for longer.

I assume you would have to pay the daily standing charge still?

So to get this straight any that goes back to the grid it would put us in credit?

We will ask the owner as we have a second viewing but just wanted to get some more information on how it works to know what to ask and understand it a bit more.

debitcardmayhem

You will still pay SC , but there is no SC or VAT on export. Ask who they are with and what tariff if they will tell you , no reason not too of course.

QrizB

We do know they are bought outright as this was one question we did ask on the viewing.

Do you know roughly when they were installed? 2019 or earlier, they're likely to be receiving FIT payments (which can be quite valuable). Later than that, after the FIT scheme closed, you'll be relying on export payments which are a bit less lucrative (but still worth having).

So what if we bought another 1 of these 10kw storage batteries, when one is fully charged would it then go over to the second and only when second one is full any extra go back to the grid?

Yes you could buy a second battery, but whether it will ever pay for itself will depend on a lot of different factors. I'm going to assume this is a large house but not a mansion and uses 10-15kWh of electricity a day. (Question - how is it heated? Mains gas, oil, LPG, electricity, something else?)

In the sunny half of the year, from say April to September, it's likely that your house will only need a single 10kWh battery to get through the night from dusk to dawn.

In the dark months of December and January you probably won't generate enough solar electricity to fill one battery, let alone two.

So the second battery is probably only going to get any real use during the four "shoulder months" of February, March, October and November. You might be paying £2-5k (yes battery prices vary that much) for a battery that will hardly be used.

I assume you would have to pay the daily standing charge still?

Yes, you still pay the standing charge. You need a grid connection.

So to get this straight any that goes back to the grid it would put us in credit?

You'll be paid for export. Exactly how much you're paid will depend on your supplier and tariff, but most people are earning 10-15p per kWh for export at present. That's quite a lot less than the 20-25p that it typically costs to buy electricity back from the grid, but it's enough to undermine the economics of having too much battery capacity.

I could go on about this (and often do 😂) but won't, not until you're happy with the answers we've given so far.

MWT

The other question I guess is, do you have an EV or do you plan to get one any time soon?

That makes a big difference to the tariffs you can access and hence the utility you could get out of a 2nd battery…

Do also check that they have a smart meter fitted and working. Odds are they do but still worth asking.

curtis122

Very informative answer, thank you and please go on as much as you want as the more we know the better!

They were installed around 2 years ago as we looked at Street view.

Good to know about the 2nd battery, we may not bother then if we ended up buying it.

Its a 4 bed farmhouse property has mains electric and oil heating.

My husband's hobbies means he will be in the outbuilding a lot and will use a lot of electric out there.

So for what you get paid for export, how do you get it, does it go on your account as credit?

Are there any questions that we should be asking the owners when we go back to view? I've just caught up with a few replies that came in while I was responding so we have made a note of some questions.

MWT - In regards to your answer, no we don't have an EV and don't plan on getting one. We will check if they do have a smart meter, we never saw one on the first view, also thank you for a detailed answer further up.

We will definitely watch 'Gary does solar'