Making the jump to solar

[Black estate]

I'm in the South as well, though not quite as far South as you
I had 8 panels and a Powerwall 2 with Gateway installed three years ago, and it is saving me a tidy sum now!

I'm SW facing, with quite a lot of shade at various times, so have micro-inverters on the panels, and had bird proofing done at the same time.

At the moment I export all solar at 12p per kWh, charge my Powerwall and EV during Octopus Energy's 5 hr night slot (Octopus GO EV tariff) at 6.5p per kWh. The 13.5 kWh Powerwall supplies the house until the next charge session, so effectively I run continually on cheap rate electricity, and make a bit of cashback on export.

We have the house on full backup in the event of power cuts, the house has an earth spike and is "islanded" if the mains cuts out.

Why is your go rate 6.5p ? Mines 4.5p

 

[Eclectic]

Why is your go rate 6.5p ? Mines 4.5p

Are you on Intelligent GO? Neither my car nor charge point is compatible with IOG, so I am on plain old GO. It has just been reduced from 8.5p as from April 1st.

 

[Black estate]

Are you on Intelligent GO? Neither my car nor charge point is compatible with IOG, so I am on plain old GO. It has just been reduced from 8.5p as from April 1st.

Yep I am , that explains the tuppence difference in price

 

[Eclectic]

Yep I am , that explains the tuppence difference in price

Yes, I thought that might be the case. My charge point is a dumb Chargemaster unit that I got free when I bought my Renault Zoe in 2018. They also gave me three grand off the car! Those were the days!

 

[Bam Bam]

I'm SW facing, with quite a lot of shade at various times, so have micro-inverters on the panels,

We have the house on full backup in the event of power cuts, the house has an earth spike and is "islanded" if the mains cuts out.

So the house would run on (and the powerwall battery would fill up with) solar when in backup operation?

That is what I would hope/expect.

 

[T1 Terry]

Same. Would have been cheaper to get it done up front.

Plus we still have pigeons hanging around our roof because they often hang out wherever they were born.

Cockatoos and Galahs are the same, destructive buggas, they take great delight in picking off any sealant, the insulation on cabling, flexible conduit and simply chew through any small wires they can find.
They love to rip out any bird proofing attempt, just for the fun of it ..... think yourselves lucky they are not native to your area .... when they come home to roost each night ..... 2 hrs or so of screeching before full dark settles .... payback after a few ales around the campfire is the use very strong focused torches and go cocky spotting ..... the bright light wakes them up, turn the light off and they immediately try to take flight, completely blind, resulting in hilarious flapping and grabbing and squawking, waking others cockys ..... it snowballs from there paybacks are bitch

T1 Terry

I'm in the South as well, though not quite as far South as you
I had 8 panels and a Powerwall 2 with Gateway installed three years ago, and it is saving me a tidy sum now!

I'm SW facing, with quite a lot of shade at various times, so have micro-inverters on the panels, and had bird proofing done at the same time.

At the moment I export all solar at 12p per kWh, charge my Powerwall and EV during Octopus Energy's 5 hr night slot (Octopus GO EV tariff) at 6.5p per kWh. The 13.5 kWh Powerwall supplies the house until the next charge session, so effectively I run continually on cheap rate electricity, and make a bit of cashback on export.

We have the house on full backup in the event of power cuts, the house has an earth spike and is "islanded" if the mains cuts out.

Now I'm confused, isn't every house on the grid connected to an earth spike that has to be tested to confirm it's connectivity to mother earth?

Ring feed supply systems, fuses in plugs, now no earth spike ..... are you sure they aren't still using Viking technology for their grid design?

T1 Terry

 

[Everest]

Now I'm confused, isn't every house on the grid connected to an earth spike that has to be tested to confirm it's connectivity to mother earth?

Only those of us with a TT earthing arrangement, usually rural with overhead supply.

Most households in the UK are supplied with underground power and TN-C-S earthing arrangement.

 

[Black estate]

Now I'm confused, isn't every house on the grid connected to an earth spike that has to be tested to confirm it's connectivity to mother earth?

Ring feed supply systems, fuses in plugs, now no earth spike ..... are you sure they aren't still using Viking technology for their grid design?

T1 Terry

My earth is in the cable sheath which goes under ground back to sub station.

 

[Bam Bam]

Now I'm confused, isn't every house on the grid connected to an earth spike that has to be tested to confirm it's connectivity to mother earth?

No, our earth spike was only installed when we had the backup power system added.

Ring feed supply systems, fuses in plugs, now no earth spike ..... are you sure they aren't still using Viking technology for their grid design?

Ancient British technology.

 

[Eclectic]

So the house would run on (and the powerwall battery would fill up with) solar when in backup operation?

That is what I would hope/expect.

Yes, that's what happens. Without the islanding and earth spike the solar would cut out, preventing danger to line workers.

We had a two hour power cut when a worker on a nearby estate being built ran his digger with the bucket up through temporary overhead power lines - our gateway took over the house using Powerwall and solar until the power came back on.

 

[T1 Terry]

I watched a You Tube video on the alphabet the UK electrical system used for a safety earthing circuit ...... seriously, how come there are a lot of electrocution deaths in the UK .... or is there and it's so common it doesn't rate a mention .....

A floating system seemed to be a complete mystery to the person doing the training video ......

T1 Terry

 

[Rolfe]

I see earth wires in my house connected to the water pipes, which seems to make sense.

I had a proper earth spike installed when I had the add-on to my solar system to allow the house to run on the battery during a power cut.

 

[Giller]

I see earth wires in my house connected to the water pipes, which seems to make sense.

I had a proper earth spike installed when I had the add-on to my solar system to allow the house to run on the battery during a power cut.

Did you go with an auto or manual changeover?

 

[Susanna]

A heat pump is going to work in any house, though it will have to work harder (ie you'll need a bigger one) to recapture the heat that a poorly insulated house is losing.

Fair enough if you've got a new boiler, though. You want to get something out of that investment. Norway should keep supplying us with gas for the foreseeable future, until they too run out.

I’m not looking to go down the heat pump route for various reasons, one of which is that my bungalow has CH with microbore pipes, which inexplicably go up the walls……My internal walls are stramit board. The work involved would be enormous. I honestly cannot see that heat pumps are suitable for every property - the room required for the tanks and the extra controls is pretty substantial, so that’s another consideration, particularly for apartments and studio flats.

A bit like the government push for EV’s - those of us that have them know they are great, especially if we are able to charge at home. BUT they are not necessarily going to work for every driver IMHO.

 

[Rolfe]

Did you go with an auto or manual changeover?

I thought it was going to be manual, but when it was in the installer said it would switch automatically.