1st day of free solar charge

[DaevM]

16kWh.

Ah, I've only got 5 - run out before the end of the day while still using heating And still charging to 100% overnight. In fact think I'll go and swap that to 50% as donating far too much to grid
currently

 

[Gadget Geek]

Aw. Only managed 5 days, 21 hours and 45 minutes off grid. Bodes well for the summer though.

 

[Hairyfool]

Mk1 digit for solar charging for me as being retired I’m at home or out in the car. Looked at batteries and automatic charging but the saving would take about 15 years to cover the costs. Nothing has that long a warranty so would have to factor in the repair/replacement costs.

 

[Bam Bam]

Mk1 digit for solar charging for me as being retired I’m at home or out in the car. Looked at batteries and automatic charging but the saving would take about 15 years to cover the costs. Nothing has that long a warranty so would have to factor in the repair/replacement costs.

I think that with more renewables, batteries will be more useful in the future to take advantage of cheap electric and sell when expensive.

 

[DBedford]

Solar to me looks like it's being slightly over sold. Checking out the Loop energy app before you take the plunge. Projected saves for us in July last was £5/month and around 80p in a typical Winter month. So at 66 my kids may benefit !
As Bam Bam implied I agree batteries alone, and an EV tariff may be the better way to go. Our consumption is currently 60% over night !

 

[Gadget Geek]

Solar to me looks like it's being slightly over sold. Checking out the Loop energy app before you take the plunge. Projected saves for us in July last was £5/month and around 80p in a typical Winter month. So at 66 my kids may benefit !
As Bam Bam implied I agree batteries alone, and an EV tariff may be the better way to go. Our consumption is currently 60% over night !

My consumption with solar and batteries on average from last October is, 8% peak, 92% off peak. Saving between £25 to £30 a month if I were on a standard tariff.

 

[GaryMG4]

Solar to me looks like it's being slightly over sold. Checking out the Loop energy app before you take the plunge. Projected saves for us in July last was £5/month and around 80p in a typical Winter month. So at 66 my kids may benefit !
As Bam Bam implied I agree batteries alone, and an EV tariff may be the better way to go. Our consumption is currently 60% over night !

That may be case now, I'm fortunate enough to have bought a property with solar already installed and in the FiT scheme on the middle rate of payment of around 21p kWh. Today, so far we have paid for a total of £2.55 (8kWh), but I've put 8.2 in the car, done 2 loads of washing and drying, cooked Sunday lunch but generated 20+ kWh which will pay around £4.20.

 

[Bam Bam]

Solar to me looks like it's being slightly over sold. Checking out the Loop energy app before you take the plunge. Projected saves for us in July last was £5/month and around 80p in a typical Winter month. So at 66 my kids may benefit !
As Bam Bam implied I agree batteries alone, and an EV tariff may be the better way to go. Our consumption is currently 60% over night !

For the moment solar + battery seems like a great deal, at least if you have givenergy equipment.

We have sold over £6 worth of solar energy to Octopus today. Hoping to build up a lot of credit over the Summer to get us through the winter and not pay any bills for another year, including car charging and hot water heating on the immersion.

Can't guarantee that the current favourable export prices will continue, but hopefully there will be a few more summers of generous payments at least. (Until there is enough grid-based solar to cover the use of the entire country during sunshine hours, so however long it takes to roll that out.)

 

[Gomev]

My consumption with solar and batteries on average from last October is, 8% peak, 92% off peak. Saving between £25 to £30 a month if I were on a standard tariff.

My heart is in getting a battery setup, no solar, but there is no way I will get any sort of payback so my head keeps telling me don't do it.
We're a low user household, less than 5kWh per day household use, plus charging car off-peak when needed, so best savings I could make would be c. 75p/day (peak price less off peak price x 5). That would take an eternity to repay the outlay but I would feel good about it...........but not that good that I will do it unfortunately.

 

[Gadget Geek]

My heart is in getting a battery setup, no solar, but there is no way I will get any sort of payback so my head keeps telling me don't do it.
We're a low user household, less than 5kWh per day household use, plus charging car off-peak when needed, so best savings I could make would be c. 75p/day (peak price less off peak price x 5). That would take an eternity to repay the outlay but I would feel good about it...........but not that good that I will do it unfortunately.

It's good that you've done the maths and seen that it would not be a resonable return on the investment. I looked at it from a saving vs repaying a debt perspective. The savings I get from not paying the electricity companies far outways the interest I could get on the cost of the solar and battery outlay.

Edit: I've just done the maths on last years electricity bills and the savings on electricity were around £200 more than if the money was sitting in a 5% interest savings account. (This was obviously due to the increase in energy prices. As the prices fall, so will the ratio of the savings)

 

[Gomev]

It's good that you've done the maths and seen that it would not be a resonable return on the investment. I looked at it from a saving vs repaying a debt perspective. The savings I get from not paying the electricity companies far outways the interest I could get on the cost of the solar and battery outlay.

Edit: I've just done the maths on last years electricity bills and the savings on electricity were around £200 more than if the money was sitting in a 5% interest savings account. (This was obviously due to the increase in energy prices. As the prices fall, so will the ratio of the savings)

I like it....man maths.

It's hard to justify the capital outlay on a non-returning asset, which in my current state of retirement/not working is a non-replaceable. I think installing home batteries such as a GivEnergy AIO would be a passion project rather than an investment.

Now do I have a project or fritter on cars, holidays and life's little luxuries..........

 

[Gadget Geek]

I like it....man maths.

It's hard to justify the capital outlay on a non-returning asset, which in my current state of retirement/not working is a non-replaceable. I think installing home batteries such as a GivEnergy AIO would be a passion project rather than an investment.

Now do I have a project or fritter on cars, holidays and life's little luxuries..........

Threre's no man maths there, just plain and simple best returns on an investment.

 

[Gomev]

Threre's no man maths there, just plain and simple best returns on an investment.

Of course there is . We can make maths and stats say anything we like.

£200 better return in one year sounds like a sound investment, but the downside of course is that you have lost the initial investment.

So my man maths says leaving it invested for one year gives me £10,000 + 5% interest = £10,500 in the bank
or
£10,000 - £10,000 (invested in solar etc) + £700 (£200 more than left invested in bank) = £700, equivalent of earning 7%.

Now after 1 year I have £10,500, you have £700, and if all things remained the same it would take just 7 years for my interest per year to overtake your better return of £700/year and I still have my initial 10 grand. Also in just 15 years my capital with compound interest would have become £19800 and your £700 per year would have totalled £9800, the point of equal returns apart from the me still having the initial 10k.

Different ways of seeing things and I'm sure you can display a different logic to arrive at a different outcome. As I said my heart is in solar/batteries, we don't always do things to make a financial return, but my head still says no, purely down to my low usage.

 

[Bam Bam]

Of course there is . We can make maths and stats say anything we like.

£200 better return in one year sounds like a sound investment, but the downside of course is that you have lost the initial investment.

So my man maths says leaving it invested for one year gives me £10,000 + 5% interest = £10,500 in the bank
or
£10,000 - £10,000 (invested in solar etc) + £700 (£200 more than left invested in bank) = £700, equivalent of earning 7%.

Now after 1 year I have £10,500, you have £700, and if all things remained the same it would take just 7 years for my interest per year to overtake your better return of £700/year and I still have my initial 10 grand. Also in just 15 years my capital with compound interest would have become £19800 and your £700 per year would have totalled £9800, the point of equal returns apart from the me still having the initial 10k.

Different ways of seeing things and I'm sure you can display a different logic to arrive at a different outcome. As I said my heart is in solar/batteries, we don't always do things to make a financial return, but my head still says no, purely down to my low usage.

What about the savings on carbon offsets?

 

[Gadget Geek]

Of course there is . We can make maths and stats say anything we like.

£200 better return in one year sounds like a sound investment, but the downside of course is that you have lost the initial investment.

So my man maths says leaving it invested for one year gives me £10,000 + 5% interest = £10,500 in the bank
or
£10,000 - £10,000 (invested in solar etc) + £700 (£200 more than left invested in bank) = £700, equivalent of earning 7%.

Now after 1 year I have £10,500, you have £700, and if all things remained the same it would take just 7 years for my interest per year to overtake your better return of £700/year and I still have my initial 10 grand. Also in just 15 years my capital with compound interest would have become £19800 and your £700 per year would have totalled £9800, the point of equal returns apart from the me still having the initial 10k.

Different ways of seeing things and I'm sure you can display a different logic to arrive at a different outcome. As I said my heart is in solar/batteries, we don't always do things to make a financial return, but my head still says no, purely down to my low usage.

Interesting point of view, but I haven't lost anything. The panels are still on my roof, generating electricity (which generates savings), and I still have my battery saving the generated electricity (which is saving, er, the savings?)

I may be wrong, but I think the point you are trying to make is that you have your initial investment as money which you can spend if you wish, where my investment is on my roof and in a cabinet.

Edit: But as you say, if your usage is low, you would probably never recoup that intial installation cost.

 

[Gomev]

Interesting point of view, but I haven't lost anything. The panels are still on my roof, generating electricity (which generates savings), and I still have my battery saving the generated electricity (which is saving, er, the savings?)

I may be wrong, but I think the point you are trying to make is that you have your initial investment as money which you can spend if you wish, where my investment is on my roof and in a cabinet.

Edit: But as you say, if your usage is low, you would probably never recoup that intial installation cost.

Exactly. It was just a demonstration of how you make the numbers suit your own case whatever that may be. I'm jealous that you have the panels and batteries but since retirement savings obviously become a finite resource.
I am however waiting on a considerable boost to funds but the sods keep pulling out the wrong numbers.

 

[Rolfe]

I decided to go for it after speaking to my financial advisor. If the system performs as predicted I should have paid for the panels in five years and the whole thing including battery in maybe seven. Who knows, maybe general electricity prices will go down to 10p/kwh, but it's worth a punt.

 

[t509triumph]

I've got ten panels on the house roof... and 2 2.4kwh batteries. (4kwh useable capacity)

On a sunny day these batteries will often run the house (4 bed detached) overnight before getting a charge from the sun the next day.

Small solar systems with batteries can work very well. If your thinking about going solar.... do it!
House demand from the grid is down by over 60% over a year.

I haven't yet had a sunny enough day to charge the car as well but not too bothered as I can charge at work for free!

 

[Rolfe]

I'm getting 18 panels. My neighbour who has the same system says they hardly ever use peak-price electricity.

 

[siteguru]

Are you getting panels with micro-inverters? (See the video by EVM on YouTube about his existing system vs Harry's new system ... the new system with micro-inverters is much more efficient in sub-optimal lighting conditions).