Solar and battery installation... rough cost?
Discussion
Starting to think about maybe going to solar and battery.
I'd like to get a rough idea of approx cost before i start to engage with some suppliers and i'm also interested in the ROI period.
I'm not sure how they "size" your requirement?
Our house is 4000 ish sq feet. Electric bill is £140 a month.
I'm guessing i'm wanting some sort of solar setup which charges a battery? Is that the way to go?
Anyone able to give a rough indication of cost / ROI period?
I'd like to get a rough idea of approx cost before i start to engage with some suppliers and i'm also interested in the ROI period.
I'm not sure how they "size" your requirement?
Our house is 4000 ish sq feet. Electric bill is £140 a month.
I'm guessing i'm wanting some sort of solar setup which charges a battery? Is that the way to go?
Anyone able to give a rough indication of cost / ROI period?
It's almost impossible to answer, have a look at YouTube and find a channel called Gary Does Solur.
The price will all depend on how big the system is etc, you will also need to contact your DNO and apply for a G99, this will then tell you the size of the inverter you can have and what your export limit might be.
The price will all depend on how big the system is etc, you will also need to contact your DNO and apply for a G99, this will then tell you the size of the inverter you can have and what your export limit might be.
TheRainMaker said:
It's almost impossible to answer, have a look at YouTube and find a channel called Gary Does Solur.
The price will all depend on how big the system is etc, you will also need to contact your DNO and apply for a G99, this will then tell you the size of the inverter you can have and what your export limit might be.
Ok thanks.The price will all depend on how big the system is etc, you will also need to contact your DNO and apply for a G99, this will then tell you the size of the inverter you can have and what your export limit might be.
Is it still best to export to the grid? I thought maybe battery which you could then use in the evenings / overnight was the way forward?
I'll look up the youtube channel though.
Your bills are already pretty low for a larger home which means there's less of a financial case for doing so, but on the other hand if your usage is sensible you don't need as big a system to reduce your bills to nothing over the course of the year. There are also advantages for stability of supply if you go for a backup system.
I have the Sigenery system which is inverting for 38 panels as well as its large (48kWh) battery stack and it's been flawless. If there's a power cut I generally don't realise it unless I either see the notification on my phone or neighbours bleating in the local Facebook group.
I have the Sigenery system which is inverting for 38 panels as well as its large (48kWh) battery stack and it's been flawless. If there's a power cut I generally don't realise it unless I either see the notification on my phone or neighbours bleating in the local Facebook group.
Deep Thought said:
Ok thanks.
Is it still best to export to the grid? I thought maybe battery which you could then use in the evenings / overnight was the way forward?
I'll look up the youtube channel though.
It is best to use the generated electricity yourself, and export any excess to the grid.Is it still best to export to the grid? I thought maybe battery which you could then use in the evenings / overnight was the way forward?
I'll look up the youtube channel though.
I suggest you find 2-3 local installers who will talk you through the options and get a quote, as it is difficult to state a cost without knowing your house. My system was £8000 for a GivEnergy Inverter, 8.2kWh battery and 12x panels.
ITS are a decent supplier who have a quote page, and supply kits
https://www.itstechnologies.shop/pages/consumer-qu...
Edited by gmaz on Sunday 16th November 15:27
Deep Thought said:
Starting to think about maybe going to solar and battery.
I'd like to get a rough idea of approx cost before i start to engage with some suppliers and i'm also interested in the ROI period.
I'm not sure how they "size" your requirement?
Our house is 4000 ish sq feet. Electric bill is £140 a month.
I'm guessing i'm wanting some sort of solar setup which charges a battery? Is that the way to go?
Anyone able to give a rough indication of cost / ROI period?
That's 16kwh a day?I'd like to get a rough idea of approx cost before i start to engage with some suppliers and i'm also interested in the ROI period.
I'm not sure how they "size" your requirement?
Our house is 4000 ish sq feet. Electric bill is £140 a month.
I'm guessing i'm wanting some sort of solar setup which charges a battery? Is that the way to go?
Anyone able to give a rough indication of cost / ROI period?
If you got 16kwh battery and charged it during the cheap overnight periods, on Agile, yesterday the cheapest was 7.6p/kwh. Then during the day it was 15-20p, then 34p at peak.
You would save 8-13p for most and 27p during the peak period, say 13kwh during the day and 3kwh to cook dinner.
That's saving between £1 and £1.70 plus 81p at peak. Say £2 per day on average.
A 16kwh battery seems to be about £8-10k fitted so that's 4000 to 5000 days to break even.
Adding solar makes the calculations more complex.
Edited by .:ian:. on Sunday 16th November 15:47
That cost about £11k two years ago.
Batteries and inverter are on the inside of the garage, just forward of the side door, the array faces due south.
I am currently paying Octopus £8pm and last month's account showed that I was £246 in credit.
Not asked for any cash back as it is only since April this year that I have been on a 'feed in' tarrif!
Days like last Friday and today I have generated less than 2KWh, in June most days were 30/40KWh.....
I do not expect to ever make a profit, but the reduced outgoings help to make the pension go a bit further.
.:ian:. said:
That's 16kwh a day?
If you got 16kwh battery and charged it during the cheap overnight periods, on Agile, yesterday the cheapest was 7.6p/kwh. Then during the day it was 15-20p, then 34p at peak.
You would save 8-13p for most and 27p during the peak period, say 13kwh during the day and 3kwh to cook dinner.
That's saving between £1 and £1.70 plus 81p at peak. Say £2 per day on average.
A 16kwh battery seems to be about £8-10k fitted so that's 4000 to 5000 days to break even.
Adding solar makes the calculations more complex.
Thats 11-13 years juust to break even ??? Wow If you got 16kwh battery and charged it during the cheap overnight periods, on Agile, yesterday the cheapest was 7.6p/kwh. Then during the day it was 15-20p, then 34p at peak.
You would save 8-13p for most and 27p during the peak period, say 13kwh during the day and 3kwh to cook dinner.
That's saving between £1 and £1.70 plus 81p at peak. Say £2 per day on average.
A 16kwh battery seems to be about £8-10k fitted so that's 4000 to 5000 days to break even.
Adding solar makes the calculations more complex.
Edited by .:ian:. on Sunday 16th November 15:47
Chumley.mouse said:
Thats 11-13 years juust to break even ??? Wow
With Octopus the payback on a £14k investment was about 14+ years. Pointless IMOWith the supplier I went with the cost was £10,400 and payback was around 4.5 years, so that made a lot more sense.
Since the installation on about 7th June until today I have used a total of £39 of electricity from the grid, and £74 in electricity standing charge.
I've accumulated £620 in credit for the feed in tariff.
Chumley.mouse said:
.:ian:. said:
That's 16kwh a day?
If you got 16kwh battery and charged it during the cheap overnight periods, on Agile, yesterday the cheapest was 7.6p/kwh. Then during the day it was 15-20p, then 34p at peak.
You would save 8-13p for most and 27p during the peak period, say 13kwh during the day and 3kwh to cook dinner.
That's saving between £1 and £1.70 plus 81p at peak. Say £2 per day on average.
A 16kwh battery seems to be about £8-10k fitted so that's 4000 to 5000 days to break even.
Adding solar makes the calculations more complex.
Thats 11-13 years juust to break even ??? Wow If you got 16kwh battery and charged it during the cheap overnight periods, on Agile, yesterday the cheapest was 7.6p/kwh. Then during the day it was 15-20p, then 34p at peak.
You would save 8-13p for most and 27p during the peak period, say 13kwh during the day and 3kwh to cook dinner.
That's saving between £1 and £1.70 plus 81p at peak. Say £2 per day on average.
A 16kwh battery seems to be about £8-10k fitted so that's 4000 to 5000 days to break even.
Adding solar makes the calculations more complex.
Edited by .:ian:. on Sunday 16th November 15:47
You're never going to get rich off the scheme, and payback will be c8- 10 years.
But a decent setup will add value to your house, and open you up to a broader range of buyers, on top of the near zero rating of your electric bill (as they now have a £150/month extra slush fund to stretch their mortgage). I feel that discounts the "put it in savings account" argument.
Generally speaking solar panels, battery's and inverters are incredibly reliable, and the modern battery's will likely outlast their cycle count, they're such a mature tech now and over engineered for safety.
The panels on our roof are coming up to 15 years old (!!), and the inverter only blew at the 14 year point as our b
d of an electrician wired it up wrong when we had work done on the property and disconnected it all.
But a decent setup will add value to your house, and open you up to a broader range of buyers, on top of the near zero rating of your electric bill (as they now have a £150/month extra slush fund to stretch their mortgage). I feel that discounts the "put it in savings account" argument.
Generally speaking solar panels, battery's and inverters are incredibly reliable, and the modern battery's will likely outlast their cycle count, they're such a mature tech now and over engineered for safety.
The panels on our roof are coming up to 15 years old (!!), and the inverter only blew at the 14 year point as our b
d of an electrician wired it up wrong when we had work done on the property and disconnected it all. Chumley.mouse said:
.:ian:. said:
That's 16kwh a day?
If you got 16kwh battery and charged it during the cheap overnight periods, on Agile, yesterday the cheapest was 7.6p/kwh. Then during the day it was 15-20p, then 34p at peak.
You would save 8-13p for most and 27p during the peak period, say 13kwh during the day and 3kwh to cook dinner.
That's saving between £1 and £1.70 plus 81p at peak. Say £2 per day on average.
A 16kwh battery seems to be about £8-10k fitted so that's 4000 to 5000 days to break even.
Adding solar makes the calculations more complex.
Thats 11-13 years juust to break even ??? Wow If you got 16kwh battery and charged it during the cheap overnight periods, on Agile, yesterday the cheapest was 7.6p/kwh. Then during the day it was 15-20p, then 34p at peak.
You would save 8-13p for most and 27p during the peak period, say 13kwh during the day and 3kwh to cook dinner.
That's saving between £1 and £1.70 plus 81p at peak. Say £2 per day on average.
A 16kwh battery seems to be about £8-10k fitted so that's 4000 to 5000 days to break even.
Adding solar makes the calculations more complex.
Edited by .:ian:. on Sunday 16th November 15:47
I'm sure it would take anything between 5-10 yrs to break even, when I'll be 65. And who knows what happens between then and now? I would also have to take the cash from savings that would cost me any investment returns. I just can't seem to make the maths work, however much I want to go solar?
Chumley.mouse said:
.:ian:. said:
That's 16kwh a day?
If you got 16kwh battery and charged it during the cheap overnight periods, on Agile, yesterday the cheapest was 7.6p/kwh. Then during the day it was 15-20p, then 34p at peak.
You would save 8-13p for most and 27p during the peak period, say 13kwh during the day and 3kwh to cook dinner.
That's saving between £1 and £1.70 plus 81p at peak. Say £2 per day on average.
A 16kwh battery seems to be about £8-10k fitted so that's 4000 to 5000 days to break even.
Adding solar makes the calculations more complex.
Thats 11-13 years juust to break even ??? Wow If you got 16kwh battery and charged it during the cheap overnight periods, on Agile, yesterday the cheapest was 7.6p/kwh. Then during the day it was 15-20p, then 34p at peak.
You would save 8-13p for most and 27p during the peak period, say 13kwh during the day and 3kwh to cook dinner.
That's saving between £1 and £1.70 plus 81p at peak. Say £2 per day on average.
A 16kwh battery seems to be about £8-10k fitted so that's 4000 to 5000 days to break even.
Adding solar makes the calculations more complex.
You're assuming he needs 16kw of battery to last the whole day, therefore your assume he is on a tarrif where he only gets one off peak period a day and also youve forgotten to exclude the 6hours he would be running directly off the grid during the cheap period. So he would only need a 12kwh battery not 16kwh to last the whole day. If he is on a super off peak tarrif such as Snug Octopus he would be saving 15p consistently in which case its around £2.40 per day saving, together with the lower capital outlay it would be more like an 8-10year payback.
However in this situation he would be much better to go with a tariff like Octopus Cosy which gives 3 off peak periods a day. This means his batteries only ever need to last 6 hours so he could get away with just a 4kwh battery instead of 12 or 16kwh which would drastically slash his capital outlay. Sure the savings would then be around 12p per kw, but regardless this would bring his break even point down to more like 5-6 years!
NOTE - agreed that adding solar in makes the whole thing more complex, so like your this is battery only. I should add that your prices seem to be for a top end system such as Tesla or Sigenergy, and many here go for far cheaper systems which would help the figures even further albeit that cheaper systems do have various drawbacks.
Edited by AdamV12V on Monday 17th November 08:11
My take on thiis is that broadly speaking the payback time is too high, it's not worth the investment.
Why do I think this? Because if it made good financial sense people all over the country, tens of thousands of people, would be getting panels and batteries installed right now. Yes, lots are, but not the vast numbers we'd see if it were a "no brainer".
My maths say that it costs around seven years to break even, and people (myself included) are thinking that's too long. Get that down to three or four years and suddenly people would be queuing to sign up.
Why do I think this? Because if it made good financial sense people all over the country, tens of thousands of people, would be getting panels and batteries installed right now. Yes, lots are, but not the vast numbers we'd see if it were a "no brainer".
My maths say that it costs around seven years to break even, and people (myself included) are thinking that's too long. Get that down to three or four years and suddenly people would be queuing to sign up.
As an alternative the Ecoflow Stream units can offer good a ROI.
Its not going to power your whole house, but it will feed in upto 800W to your house which can offset a significant portion of use.
You can add batteries to the system and it allows upto 2000W of solar via 4 inputs.
You can get a basic 1 battery system for about £1700 if you install yourself (Stream Ultra + Smart meter + 4 x 500W panels + sundries). You will need a fuse spur - but thats about it if you can DIY the rest its an electrician for an hour.
That will provide 2kWh (ish). Then batteries are currently about £600 each. Each battery is 2kWh. (you can have upto 6)
Here is the way I am thinking it will work for me.
I am on IOG. (EV)
Total use is c.10kWh per day.
1500W is during the cheap overnight rate period so dont worry about that.
Laves 8500W to cover.
1 main unit + 2 extra gives me 6000W. Batteries can be charged at 1000W so I can just about fill them overnight on IOG at the cheap rate.
There will be a chunk I cant cover as its over the 800W output - so we will call that the remaining 1500W at full price.
So I need to pay - roughly 1500W at full price and then 8500W at the cheap rate.
Deploy the batteries at 0530 and they should in theory last us till maybe 1900.
Now, that is without solar. I have 4 x 500W panels on the garage.... so the system will be topped up on sunny days so the above is actually worst case scenario.
If you add up all the costs its roughly £3000 for 6000W.
My pay back time - without any solar at all would be 6 years - and thats with a fudge factor.
I suspect in the summer the solar will be not insignificant. I think the solar is going to cut that 6 years down to about 4 years - maybe even 3.
I am currently running 1 main unit and will get 2 more batteries before spring when the sun starts to boost the ROI.
Wont know if any of this works out till we have done a full year really, but even now in the winter with only 1 unit and virtually zero solar I am seeing a reduction in the bills.
Its not going to power your whole house, but it will feed in upto 800W to your house which can offset a significant portion of use.
You can add batteries to the system and it allows upto 2000W of solar via 4 inputs.
You can get a basic 1 battery system for about £1700 if you install yourself (Stream Ultra + Smart meter + 4 x 500W panels + sundries). You will need a fuse spur - but thats about it if you can DIY the rest its an electrician for an hour.
That will provide 2kWh (ish). Then batteries are currently about £600 each. Each battery is 2kWh. (you can have upto 6)
Here is the way I am thinking it will work for me.
I am on IOG. (EV)
Total use is c.10kWh per day.
1500W is during the cheap overnight rate period so dont worry about that.
Laves 8500W to cover.
1 main unit + 2 extra gives me 6000W. Batteries can be charged at 1000W so I can just about fill them overnight on IOG at the cheap rate.
There will be a chunk I cant cover as its over the 800W output - so we will call that the remaining 1500W at full price.
So I need to pay - roughly 1500W at full price and then 8500W at the cheap rate.
Deploy the batteries at 0530 and they should in theory last us till maybe 1900.
Now, that is without solar. I have 4 x 500W panels on the garage.... so the system will be topped up on sunny days so the above is actually worst case scenario.
If you add up all the costs its roughly £3000 for 6000W.
My pay back time - without any solar at all would be 6 years - and thats with a fudge factor.
I suspect in the summer the solar will be not insignificant. I think the solar is going to cut that 6 years down to about 4 years - maybe even 3.
I am currently running 1 main unit and will get 2 more batteries before spring when the sun starts to boost the ROI.
Wont know if any of this works out till we have done a full year really, but even now in the winter with only 1 unit and virtually zero solar I am seeing a reduction in the bills.
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