[Technology] Advice sought, purchasing and installing solar panels

[Curious Orange]

Hopefully everyone is aware that the guidance on where batteries should be safely fitted changed recently. The recommendation now is not to put them in the roof due to them being a fire hazard, and preferably to install them outside of the building.

I had ours installed in the garage, nicely separated from the rest of the house by a fire door.

 

[Justice]

One of my interests is modern building methods and architecture, I’m currently in the process of designing our own house which will have a metal roof and the solar panels will sit neatly in between the the spaces not only can I fit plenty in you would never know they were there as they are a monstrosity to the eye plonked on the side of a roof.

 

[dazzer6666]

We're with Octopus and they offer a feedin in tariff at 15p / kwh. The overnight cheap rate is only 7.5p/kwh so even on sunny days in charge the battery overnight at the cheap rate and just export most of my generation.

So far this year we've exported 911 kwh, so about £136 worth, whilst also using almost zero from the grid.

View attachment 185518

We're also able to charge the car (Tesla) at the cheap rate, which means I could theoretically charge the car from 0% to 100% for just £5.63.

We've even had a go at daytime solar charging the car, which works but takes a bit of fine tuning to only use the battery and solar and not any mains, but it works.

Similar to us….we had 12 panels and a battery installed last year. In the summer our electricity bill is (net after export) close to nothing compared to close to £200/month (using June as an example) pre-panels. Was vert impressed with the company that installed them - Solar Dynamics in Horsham.

 

[Barnet Seagull]

Relatively new in to Solar but so far it's going well. 7kw system with battery and after usage we earned £40 last month. The battery has been great to run overnight aircon in our attic bedroom as it is unusable without

I am considering adding a couple of extra facing west as our usage peak is 5-6pm

For the nerds:

We are south facing with some shade.
We generated 222kwh in June, used 150kwh and sold 72kwh. We also had to take 20 kwh from the grid.

 

[CheeseRolls]

One of my interests is modern building methods and architecture, I’m currently in the process of designing our own house which will have a metal roof and the solar panels will sit neatly in between the the spaces not only can I fit plenty in you would never know they were there as they are a monstrosity to the eye plonked on the side of a roof.

Presumably the internal insulation will also offer some sound proofing?

 

[zefarelly]

Hopefully everyone is aware that the guidance on where batteries should be safely fitted changed recently. The recommendation now is not to put them in the roof due to them being a fire hazard, and preferably to install them outside of the building.

I had ours installed in the garage, nicely separated from the rest of the house by a fire door.

No chance of that here!

Presumably the internal insulation will also offer some sound proofing?

Is the sun noisy where you are? Or is it the fizzing of battery acid?

 

[Curious Orange]

No chance of that here!

You quite often see Tesla Powerwalls hanging off of exterior walls these days.

 

[Justice]

Presumably the internal insulation will also offer some sound proofing?

I presume you mean from the rain, the modern stuff is meant to be only 5-6 decibels louder than a standard felt flat roof in a rain fall.

 

[CheeseRolls]

I presume you mean from the rain, the modern stuff is meant to be only 5-6 decibels louder than a standard felt flat roof in a rain fall.

Yes , unless you are planning any other activities on your flat roof. The solar panels will likely also help.

 

[Grizz]

Relatively new in to Solar but so far it's going well. 7kw system with battery and after usage we earned £40 last month. The battery has been great to run overnight aircon in our attic bedroom as it is unusable without

I am considering adding a couple of extra facing west as our usage peak is 5-6pm

For the nerds:

We are south facing with some shade.
We generated 222kwh in June, used 150kwh and sold 72kwh. We also had to take 20 kwh from the grid.

We're slightly South East facing, so we have six panels facing south, four facing west and definitely worth it. We generate usable electricity from about 7.30-8am until 6.30-7pm. In June we generated 478 kwh, but we don't have a battery. Did the calculations last month to see if installing one was worth it, but I still don't think it is.

 

[Fungus]

Well, we seem to be generating this morning, despite the gloomy, wet weather! The new system is 14 panels plus a 13kwh GivEnergy battery. We also have the extra box required to keep the house fully powered in the event of power cuts - we previously assumed all systems would keep running, but they don’t.

Still trying to get my head around the best way to manage it. We’re currently on Octopus Go, with cheap overnight EV charging, but hope to move on to the Intelligent Go tariff.

 

[Me Atome]

Hopefully everyone is aware that the guidance on where batteries should be safely fitted changed recently. The recommendation now is not to put them in the roof due to them being a fire hazard, and preferably to install them outside of the building.

I had ours installed in the garage, nicely separated from the rest of the house by a fire door.

We are in discussion with a supplier now. They have confirmed that they no longer fit batteries inside. Will be wall hung outside (not pretty, but there we are).

A question I would raise though, what about all the batteries which have been install inside peoples houses? Are they a fire hazard? How about insurance costs?

 

[Curious Orange]

We are in discussion with a supplier now. They have confirmed that they no longer fit batteries inside. Will be wall hung outside (not pretty, but there we are).

A question I would raise though, what about all the batteries which have been install inside peoples houses? Are they a fire hazard? How about insurance costs?

So far the main concern I've heard about roof mounted batteries and house fires is the danger of them dropping on firemen's heads!

When we had our solar system installed last year our house insurers really didn't care about it, and it made no difference to our premium whether we had it or not. I don't know if that attitude will have changed with the new guidance.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

We are in discussion with a supplier now. They have confirmed that they no longer fit batteries inside. Will be wall hung outside (not pretty, but there we are).

A question I would raise though, what about all the batteries which have been install inside peoples houses? Are they a fire hazard? How about insurance costs?

Our panels and battery were fitted last September, with the battery against the brick wall in our loft. Solar Dynamics at Southwater.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

I presume you mean from the rain, the modern stuff is meant to be only 5-6 decibels louder than a standard felt flat roof in a rain fall.

I knew what you were getting at