Solar installer recommendations

[biffo]

sorry to say this but most people who don't have proper insulation are in that position because they refused it when it was very cheap and subsidised, or free! I know that from my own experience selling insulation. The amount of stupid crap I have heard is astounding.

Still going on today with evs and the like. I had somebody insisting I was wrong, and that government can take electricity from my car whenever they want.

I moved into my house 8 years ago - I don't have cavity wall insulation or adequate roof insulation in my loft conversion, not through refusal or inaction on my part, possibly by previous owner but I've no way of knowing. The last person to knock my door and try to install couldn't due to some issue with the front of house being solid stone and 3 cavity walls didn't qualify. Same issue with loft insulation as not a large enough percentage of original roof space was unused. Underfloor insulation? If I replaced my 7 year old 93% efficiency boiler, sure...

There are millions of people who need insulation fitted, both owner occupied and rented. Fixing this would be a massive boost to low income families as well as reducing greenhouse gases. I'm very fortunate to live in a country where 0% loans for insulation & renewables are available, combined with having enough disposable income to invest in these. This should be a UK priority, not just for those lucky enough to be living in the correct postcode.

 

[Hairyfool]

A more basic question which I haven' seen asked is are you at home during the day.

I.e. would you make use of the solar output directly. We are retired and are at home a lot so the amount of "spare" energy is limited. The payback time for a battery system for us would far exceed the expected life of any battery system so is just not cost effective. A system I looked at was about £3000 (and probably more installed) and had a guaranteed life of 10 years. It would save is nothing like £300 per year.

 

[Greebo12]

So I am almost certainly going to install solar, and probably storage too, but I am wary of the market. I just don't know who to trust.

I have booked an appointment with eon just because its a larger firm, but they seem expensive. The battery they quote is givenergy so ideal, but its the smaller version and I'm not sure they do larger. Also unsure about their management system app. If I'm installing a battery then I would also like to leverage off-peak energy prices, especially in winter or other times when solar isn't performing as well.

I might just get panels for now though as the Mrs homeschool's, and I work from home most days anyway. We also have a heat recovery system in the loft always drawing power. We do use quite a lot of energy with most days ranging around 20 to 30kw (a third on average at night as we try to time washer and drier for night). Happy to continue charging the car at night on octopus go, but might fit a zappi when I come to fit a charger (currently manage with granny cable or at work).

Anybody have any recommendations? We live in North Staffordshire. Happy to accept referral codes.

Hi I am looking at the Givengery 8.2 hybrid energy storage I been quoted about £6.5k for the supply and install of battery going up to £9.5 would be interested what eon quoted I to ammin North staffs I used eco renewable to put me in touch
Givenergy recommended sca solar so I am getting them out .

20 30 KW away is huge amount I home all day and when not charging the car it's around 8

 

[Deleted member 7171]

GivEnergy 8.2 battery is now out of stock and withdrawn and replaced with a 9.5 KWh unit due to become available in June and certainly will be dearer. My original quote (not a nationwide company) for the 8.2 battery plus a 3.6 hybrid inverter was £4200 + vat (I don't think battery storage is included in the vat reduction announced yesterday).

 

[biffo]

GivEnergy 8.2 battery is now out of stock and withdrawn and replaced with a 9.5 KWh unit due to become available in June and certainly will be dearer. My original quote (not a nationwide company) for the 8.2 battery plus a 3.6 hybrid inverter was £4200 + vat (I don't think battery storage is included in the vat reduction announced yesterday).

GivEnergy did say it would be comparable price per kWh to the 8.2, so expect a 16% increase in price. Allegedly.

Battery storage will be 0% vat if bought with solar but 20% otherwise.

 

[biffo]

Hi I am looking at the Givengery 8.2 hybrid energy storage I been quoted about £6.5k for the supply and install of battery going up to £9.5 would be interested what eon quoted I to ammin North staffs I used eco renewable to put me in touch
Givenergy recommended sca solar so I am getting them out .

20 30 KW away is huge amount I home all day and when not charging the car it's around 8

I don’t know your situation, but you may be financially better off looking at a solar diverter if you have a hot water tank to use excess solar if home all day - depends on your own personal needs & reasons but it could take a very long time to recoupe the cost of the battery if you’re able to use whilst generating.

I’m about to get solar quotes and I want a battery, but unsure if I really need one or if it makes financial sense.

 

[marcopolomt]

Hi I am looking at the Givengery 8.2 hybrid energy storage I been quoted about £6.5k for the supply and install of battery going up to £9.5 would be interested what eon quoted I to ammin North staffs I used eco renewable to put me in touch
Givenergy recommended sca solar so I am getting them out .

20 30 KW away is huge amount I home all day and when not charging the car it's around 8

there are 9 of us in the house and we homeschool the kids whilst i work from home now. large fridge freezer, mechanical heat recovery in the loft, small aquarium. base load is around 300 to 400 watts.

 

[marcopolomt]

fair enough in your case. im just speaking from my own experience. go and have a look on any social media platform though at people slating ev's, solar etc. green tech has been politicised so a lot just reject now without reason.

 

[Hairyfool]

there are 9 of us in the house and we homeschool the kids whilst i work from home now. large fridge freezer, mechanical heat recovery in the loft, small aquarium. base load is around 300 to 400 watts.

Then I would say you are wasting money on a battery system when you could just as easily plan to use the power as it is available. The benefit comes from diverting unused power into the sunless periods and are just about viable if you can plan to fill the battery every day and use it every night (allowing for not fully discharging as that damages the batteries. How much is a 3 kWh system vs 3kWh x 365 days x years of warranty.

As I said we dismissed it because we could not see the battery being charged up every night by the solar panels during the day.

 

[marcopolomt]

Then I would say you are wasting money on a battery system when you could just as easily plan to use the power as it is available. The benefit comes from diverting unused power into the sunless periods and are just about viable if you can plan to fill the battery every day and use it every night (allowing for not fully discharging as that damages the batteries. How much is a 3 kWh system vs 3kWh x 365 days x years of warranty.

As I said we dismissed it because we could not see the battery being charged up every night by the solar panels during the day.

How? During the day much of the solar would be exported back to the grid if I'm not charging the car as we don't use much compared to evenings. Most of the year we would be cooking from grid energy too as we tend to eat a little later than most. Our peak usage is evenings, and then when we put the washer and dryer on before we go bed at 00.30 to take advantage of cheaper electricity.

Winter is key too. little solar so intend on topping up the battery off peak to be used during the day. If anything we likely need more storage. We will see how things go first. I can see us operating as we do now in winter but in summer we will be charging and running the washing machine more during the day.

 

[Hairyfool]

OK, Take an extreme. A good summers day and you are out. The solar panels are generating spare 3kW each hour and you have a 3kWh battery. So after an hour the battery is full and you are still exporting to the grid! For an 8 hr day you would need a 24kWh pack.

When calculating the benefit the maximum is the capacity of the battery each day.

Then take the worst. On a poor winters day my daily total output is less than 1kWh of which I would use all of it. This sort of day can't be included in the calculations. So how many days in the year will there be 3kWh of spare power. Remember. if you are using off peak to charge the battery it is still costing you something, you are just shifting that cost to a different time period.

As I said, i did rudimentary calculations and could not recoup the cost within the expected life of the battery alone let alone other component failures. My solar panel are performing better than projected but in 6 years I have had to replace the meter and repair the inverter, the latter saving me £400 over a new one which what I was quoted (+installing)

 

[Ozzie1989]

I've been quoted £4k to install an 8.2kw Giv-Energy system with a 3kw AC coupled inverter.

I don't have solar so calculated charging up at 7.5p overnight every night of the year and using that power during the day. Most of the battery capacity (I calculated at 7kw to allow for losses) would be gone by the time we used any high power appliances in the evening.

ROI would be 10.5 years pre the price cap rise, less now. The system is warranted for 10 years so at the time I didn't feel it was worth it.

If you have solar you should easily bring this ROI down, even if you only benefit from the solar to battery in the summer months.

 

[DiscoSi]

Clearly it’s really important to do your own calculations based on your usage and circumstances. There is also a degree of risk in any calculation based on energy prices / availability of certain tariffs etc. Batteries won't suit everyone.

For us, based on current market factors, the battery actually has a quicker payback time than the solar, but we’ve gone for both to give us maximum flexibility (3.1kw solar + 8.2 kwh battery). I work from home so use energy throughout the day and can put devices/Zappi on to make the most of the sunshine. The battery helps smooth this load and ensures we benefit from the energy into the evening rather than exporting. In the winter we’ll fill the battery overnight when energy is over 4x cheaper based on our Octopus Go tariff – that might change in the future, but it’s likely there will be some form of time of use or Agile type tariff to support grid balancing so it’s a calculated risk I’ve decided to take. Overall our system should cover its investment in just over 6 years (with assumptions that current high prices will have dropped off in that time, but also factoring inflation etc).

 

[marcopolomt]

OK, Take an extreme. A good summers day and you are out. The solar panels are generating spare 3kW each hour and you have a 3kWh battery. So after an hour the battery is full and you are still exporting to the grid! For an 8 hr day you would need a 24kWh pack.

When calculating the benefit the maximum is the capacity of the battery each day.

Then take the worst. On a poor winters day my daily total output is less than 1kWh of which I would use all of it. This sort of day can't be included in the calculations. So how many days in the year will there be 3kWh of spare power. Remember. if you are using off peak to charge the battery it is still costing you something, you are just shifting that cost to a different time period.

As I said, i did rudimentary calculations and could not recoup the cost within the expected life of the battery alone let alone other component failures. My solar panel are performing better than projected but in 6 years I have had to replace the meter and repair the inverter, the latter saving me £400 over a new one which what I was quoted (+installing)

You are looking at your own figures there and not my own. If anything I think we need more storage to manage our demand, but I'm starting with 8.3 kwh givenergy.

In summer yes we would have a solar surplus but not as much as you might think. Our normal base load with just basic equipment on such as my work pc, living room tv on is around 0.5 kWh. Any surplus would top up battery. We can then also plug the car in and trickle via the zappi, and also quickly blitz any surplus power with the washing machine (we do a minimum of one load a day). We also have a drier, but its used much less in summer. Cooking dinner whilst its still light wouldn't leave much for export.

In winter things would be different. A little power from solar may cover basic needs, but battery can then be topped up at night, and so I would only really charge the car off peak. If anyone thinks I can still trickle via zappi let me know.

With my calculations payback with solar only is less than 8 years, with battery only its 6.5 yrs, combined its around 7.5. Likely worst case scenario would mean payback of around 9-10 yrs.

I have looked at the solar proposal from the company I am purchasing from for these figures but also then plugged my own figures into the calculator provided by 'everything home' youtube channel. TBH I would be happy with a payback within 10 yrs. Longer term I aim for less grid dependence. Will see how things go but I can see me sticking another couple of givenergy batteries in. I would rather mine crypto though than export to the grid.