Pick your brains re PV Battery storage, please.

[Dave S]

Hello, all. This is mainly for UK residents, I suppose.

A few weeks ago, the podcast mentioned that some of you were benefiting from the capture via battery storage of electricity produced from PV cells.

Similar to my EV knowhow, I'm not technically blessed in this area, but would appreciate any advice, tips or recommendations about a good form of battery storage, where to get it and £? and if there are recommended installation companies.

Any help appreciated. Thanks.

 

[djenson]

Hello Mr Dave, Did you have a look at the thread that quite active at the moment: Home Storage Battery

 

[Dave S]

Hello Mr Dave, Did you have a look at the thread that quite active at the moment: Home Storage Battery

No, I hadn't seen that. Many thanks for the heads up.

 

[Hairyfool]

I did look into this and to a certain degree it depends on how you live.

According to a Which report battery storage is only really viable (just) if the house is empty during the day and therefore you cannot make use of the PV output when the sun is out. Due to reduced output as a result of low sun angles and the sun to the west when most panels face south the evening light doesn't contribute that much.

As the benefits of battery storage are so borderline if as in my case the home is occupied during the day so you can make use of the PV then there is no point in the system. Although PV is good for 25 years (although I have had to replace the generation meter and put new relays in the inverter after 6 years) a battery system is only really good for about 10 years. So if a battery storage system is around £5000 (example only) you would have to benefit more than £500 per year just to break even.

In my situation if it wasn't for losing the FIT payment I would get better return from increasing the PV array.

 

[biffo]

From what I've read so far, panels to the East and West should contribute about 80%-ish of South facing panels (various charts I've seen online) - but East facing panels can have the benefit of catching early sun, useful if using a solar diverter to heat hot water tank (seems a viable energy storage alternative to batteries for some people) - and West facing panels can provide better energy in the evening when folks are home, etc. Really seems to be a lot of options based on individual needs (and available space) - particularly if not investing the £5k+ in a battery to balance the generation to usage. Of course, some people are using batteries with off peak power too which makes the payback time shorter - assuming the battery is appropriately sized to usage.

It's an interesting subject trying to match an installation to individual needs - I'm enjoying the journey and the EV Puzzle YouTube channel has some interesting metrics (for his application).

 

[Hairyfool]

I have also heard of those with dual rate meters charging the battery during the night at low rate to use during the day. This does make sense with the high daytime unit cost but does that justify going dual rate in the 1st place.

 

[Ozzie1989]

I've done lots of calculating and a 'battery only' setup on Octopus Go would take me around 8.5 years to break even. The warranty I was offered on it all was 10 years and inverters will definitely need replacing soon after that. Also no guarantee that cheap night tariffs will be around in 10 years when everyone goes electric.