[Technology] Advice sought, purchasing and installing solar panels

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

I should have done this years ago when there were big incentives, but couldn't afford it at the time.....

We will of course do our research but if anyone has any strong tips on things or companies to avoid, and things or companies that are recommended, the information would be appreciated.

 

[Eric the meek]

I should have done this years ago when there were big incentives, but couldn't afford it at the time.....

We will of course do our research but if anyone has any strong tips on things or companies to avoid, and things or companies that are recommended, the information would be appreciated.[/QUOTE

Take a look at the carbon trust for a national, government strategy perspective. My brother-in-law used to work for them, advising businesses how to reduce their carbon emissions.

https://www.carbontrust.com/

Also, take a look at the Centre for Alternative Technology at Machynlleth, Wales, for a plethora of ideas. If you're ever over that way, it's deffo worth a visit.

https://cat.org.uk/

A bit left field, but would a wind turbine suit your needs?
Finally, if there is any danger that you will need a new roof or roof repairs before you peg it, get that done first.

Best of luck.

 

[Miximate]

Also looking to do this and will be looking at a Tesla style storage battery as well. We have a local (recommended) company coming to see us on 21st to discuss options. Depending on size and positioning, together with increased costs, they reckon the average time to recoup costs is reducing and can be as soon as 9 years in ideal circumstances. We have no plans to move and have a large south facing roof.

 

[Seagull58]

Move to a sunny country first.

 

[carlzeiss]

I should have done this years ago when there were big incentives, but couldn't afford it at the time.....

We will of course do our research but if anyone has any strong tips on things or companies to avoid, and things or companies that are recommended, the information would be appreciated.

Had solar panels and battery storage installed last month , working fine now but the project didn't go as smoothly as it should have done so can't recommend the company trusted with the task . Home smart energy , Burgess Hill .

 

[wellquickwoody]

I should have done this years ago when there were big incentives, but couldn't afford it at the time.....

We will of course do our research but if anyone has any strong tips on things or companies to avoid, and things or companies that are recommended, the information would be appreciated.

Steve Rooke Electrical

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

I should have done this years ago when there were big incentives, but couldn't afford it at the time.....

We will of course do our research but if anyone has any strong tips on things or companies to avoid, and things or companies that are recommended, the information would be appreciated.[/QUOTE

Take a look at the carbon trust for a national, government strategy perspective. My brother-in-law used to work for them, advising businesses how to reduce their carbon emissions.

https://www.carbontrust.com/

Also, take a look at the Centre for Alternative Technology at Machynlleth, Wales, for a plethora of ideas. If you're ever over that way, it's deffo worth a visit.

https://cat.org.uk/

A bit left field, but would a wind turbine suit your needs?
Finally, if there is any danger that you will need a new roof or roof repairs before you peg it, get that done first.

Best of luck.

Many thanks

 

[Bry Nylon]

…if anyone has any strong tips on things or companies to avoid, and things or companies that are recommended, the information would be appreciated.

Don’t keep changing your mind on where you want them sited. I changed my mind three times and in the end the chap doing the installation said if I changed my mind again he would stick them where the sun don’t shine. Which seemed odd because why would I want them behind the garage?

 

[McTavish]

Had my solar panels installed last week as part of the Sussex Solar Together scheme.

The installing company was Infinity Renewables and whilst not everything went completely smoothly (not entirely their fault and nothing major) their customer service has been excellent and I am very happy.

Spent £11,000 on 18 x 365w panels and a 6.5kwH battery which seems excellent value - it's a bit early to be sure exactly how much they will generate over a year but on a clear day in June it might get close to 40KwH and I expect the whole thing to pay for itself in under 5 years especially if I can get a cheap over night deal to charge the battery.

So far, so good!

 

[darkwolf666]

I should have done this years ago when there were big incentives, but couldn't afford it at the time.....

We will of course do our research but if anyone has any strong tips on things or companies to avoid, and things or companies that are recommended, the information would be appreciated.[/QUOTE

Take a look at the carbon trust for a national, government strategy perspective. My brother-in-law used to work for them, advising businesses how to reduce their carbon emissions.

https://www.carbontrust.com/

Also, take a look at the Centre for Alternative Technology at Machynlleth, Wales, for a plethora of ideas. If you're ever over that way, it's deffo worth a visit.

https://cat.org.uk/

A bit left field, but would a wind turbine suit your needs?
Finally, if there is any danger that you will need a new roof or roof repairs before you peg it, get that done first.

Best of luck.

He can’t have a wind turbine in Faversham as the locals would probably spend too much time pointing or even shooting at this wonder of technology!

 

[Daddies_Sauce]

I should have done this years ago when there were big incentives, but couldn't afford it at the time.....

We will of course do our research but if anyone has any strong tips on things or companies to avoid, and things or companies that are recommended, the information would be appreciated.

Our install has been operational since 1st December 2021, missed out on the zero VAT, sorry not willing to recommend the company though. If you have shading get optimisers. Our spec was:- 2 Separate arrays, 7 x JASolar 380w panels (2.66kWp) south facing, 4 x JASolar 380w panels (1.52kWp) east facing, 11 x Tigo optimizers & cloud, Growatt SPH5000, Growatt 6.5kWh Hybrid battery. We have generated 1.6 MWh in that time but the weather has been poor and we had a few issues in the first couple of months. If the battery is fully charged by the generation, then the excess is used to heat the hot water tank, only then will any spare be exported to the grid (no EV). Hearing that due to demand supplies are short (especially batteries), prices have increased. We're still waiting for our SEG payments to be approved. Based on the performance over the 6 months ours has been operational, ROI will be 8.5 years, that will shorten once the October and future electricity price rises have been calculated in.

 

[Audax]

Had my solar panels installed last week as part of the Sussex Solar Together scheme.

The installing company was Infinity Renewables and whilst not everything went completely smoothly (not entirely their fault and nothing major) their customer service has been excellent and I am very happy.

Spent £11,000 on 18 x 365w panels and a 6.5kwH battery which seems excellent value - it's a bit early to be sure exactly how much they will generate over a year but on a clear day in June it might get close to 40KwH and I expect the whole thing to pay for itself in under 5 years especially if I can get a cheap over night deal to charge the battery.

So far, so good!

Octopus Energy is who you want.

 

[McTavish]

Octopus Energy is who you want.

Yes, we are in touch with them but it has not been straightforward.

 

[carlzeiss]

Had my solar panels installed last week as part of the Sussex Solar Together scheme.

The installing company was Infinity Renewables and whilst not everything went completely smoothly (not entirely their fault and nothing major) their customer service has been excellent and I am very happy.

Spent £11,000 on 18 x 365w panels and a 6.5kwH battery which seems excellent value - it's a bit early to be sure exactly how much they will generate over a year but on a clear day in June it might get close to 40KwH and I expect the whole thing to pay for itself in under 5 years especially if I can get a cheap over night deal to charge the battery.

So far, so good!

We have 6.4kw of battery storage however the Solis Inverter that was installed allows only either Time or Auto ( Solar ) charging . This means that if Time charging is selected then excess power from the Solar panels is fed back to the grid ( at 1.5p per KWh ) rather than charging the batteries .

 

[Audax]

Yes, we are in touch with them but it has not been straightforward.

Yeah, they're only taking on new customers if you can show that you would be better off with them than your current supplier. For me, it was easy: I've already got solar, already got v2 smart meters, and I've got an EV with home charger already installed. Told them I wanted their Octopus Go tariff for charging the car and they did the rest. Only issue I had is that I couldn't get through to them on the phone (opening hours only during my work hours and queues so long I always had to hang up for a meeting before it got answered) so I emailed them. Email response took a few days, but once it came through they were bang on.

 

[Audax]

I should have done this years ago when there were big incentives, but couldn't afford it at the time.....

We will of course do our research but if anyone has any strong tips on things or companies to avoid, and things or companies that are recommended, the information would be appreciated.

I had my panels installed under the old big incentives scheme (towards the end, though, so not as big as they were!) I had mine done by Paynes, who are based near Uckfield. They were very good at the time, would recommend assuming they've maintained their standards.

As far as installing today: my advice would be spend a little extra up front if you can afford it. Maximise your output, and err on the side of a bigger battery than you think you need. My dad out in Australia made the mistake of going for a battery that was intended to be *just* big enough on the advice of his installer, and within a year had removed that battery and replaced with a bigger one. You want a battery that will be big enough for a perfect midsummer day's generation, especially if you look to couple it with something like Octopus's special tariffs that give you a chance to charge the battery from the grid when prices are cheap (I'm on Octopus Go, and get a 4 hour window over night where it's 7.5p per KwH instead of 35.66p).

Also invest in properly smart monitoring and control systems. If you're thinking of getting an EV (or already have one), I recommend Myenergi products (Zappi home charger and associated systems). Advantage of the Zappi is that 1. Myenergi have integrations to work well with Octopus Energy tariffs, and 2. the Zappi itself has automated internal PAT testing and thus doesn't need earthing. Invaluable if your earthing options are poor, because some cars are really picky about the quality of the earth. Also look at including a system for diverting any excess solar generation into your hot water system, it'll help reduce your costs further at this time of year (again, Myenergi has a product called Eddi that will do this for you).

I'm yet to get it up and running for my system, but a friend who recently went solar with an EV and Myenergi products is using https://www.home-assistant.io/ installed on a Raspberry Pi and insists it's worth the time and effort of getting it set up.

Also ... have a look in your fusebox and make sure you've got space for everything. If you don't, it'll be a hidden extra cost sorting that out.

 

[Brighton Rocker]

Had solar PV and thermal installed 11 years ago by Ecohisolar who are Hove based. Can recommend.

 

[McTavish]

Yeah, they're only taking on new customers if you can show that you would be better off with them than your current supplier. For me, it was easy: I've already got solar, already got v2 smart meters, and I've got an EV with home charger already installed. Told them I wanted their Octopus Go tariff for charging the car and they did the rest. Only issue I had is that I couldn't get through to them on the phone (opening hours only during my work hours and queues so long I always had to hang up for a meeting before it got answered) so I emailed them. Email response took a few days, but once it came through they were bang on.

I've got the panels, the meter and the EV charger, just no car yet...thanks for the advice, I will persevere.

 

[Audax]

I've got the panels, the meter and the EV charger, just no car yet...thanks for the advice, I will persevere.

If you haven't already got someone to "refer" you (to get £50 bill credit) send me a PM. Happy to share mine. They should take it over email as well (they did when I joined).

 

[Doonhamer7]

What is the financial return people are being advised on - I’m seeing returns of 14years, which although green doesn’t appear the greatest use of £6-7k