Advice sought on what solar panels & home battery

PickleRick2018 wrote: »

Hi everyone, I’m looking to install solar panels on our house for the first time *plus* install a home battery.

I am completely new to this area, so wondered if you guys could advise what brands of solar panel offer a balance of quality at moderate prices & the same for home batteries.

At the moment I’m only aware of the premium brand - Tesla - and would like to see what moderate options cost & what quality & warranty they offer.

We have a 3 bedroom semi detached house. With approx 30 square metres of perfectly south facing roof, with no obstruction or shade on that roof.

We live in Sussex so again great for solar.

In terms of energy needs - we have a 24 kWH Nissan Leaf Which is fully charged per day, 2 adults & 2 big dogs (no children). So it looks like we use 28 kWh each day. I can confirm/edit that tonight

Thanks all

Hiya, welcome to the madhouse.

For some general PV reading and background you might want a quick look at the FAQ's (see link in my autosig).

30m2 roof, would hopefully allow for around 16/17 panels, so at 280-290Wp each, that's close to a 5kWp system, which would be good.

I'd suggest waiting a few years regarding the battery as costs are high, but should start to fall now that sales are accelerating. However, installing a batt with the PV is 5%VAT, whilst doing one separately later is 20%, so a tricky call.

If you can charge your car from the PV, then that's a great saving. If you are out, then using spare from the battery, perhaps 10kWh per day after allowing for home use (from the big Tesla Powerwall II), would be good. But for the 4-6 months when you won't have spare battery, then you'll need cheap rate leccy, and also for extra top up in the summer as you seem to be saying that you put 24kWh's in the Leaf each day, which would be a good days generation for 5kWp in the summer, and twice what the batt will hold if the car isn't parked at home.

Here's a thread discussing the ins and outs of home batts, and most of us are still in watch and wait mode.

On-grid domestic battery storage

Regarding panels, there are simply too many, so it tends to be a case of see what the installer suggests, which in turn is probably based on what the wholesaler has in stock. But I'd really suggest strongly to go for something like 280Wp or more each, rather than say 250Wp, so as to get as much PV on the roof as possible.

Keep chatting, there's loads more!

Mart.