Solar Panels In Sheffield

[Arthur Ritus 30]

10 hours ago, geared said:

 

Have you seen any of the 'deals' being offered by companies at the moment?

 

Over 60p per unit of Electricity.

 

Repayment time on solar will be super swift at those rates.

Bit of a joke really considering the rate most people are paying is near 30p and is expected to go up substantially over winter.

Where was that?  worth buying electric for 30p/kwh and selling it back to them, this time next year Rodney ....

 

[Arthur Ritus 30]

Its a world of confusion with batteries, there's having some to supply yourself rather than feeding back into grid, charged from the PV panels saving the 30p/kwh charged by leccy supplier when your demand outstrips the supply from  pv.

Or SEG -  Smart export guarantee where you store electricity and supply to grid when they are a bit short, eg peak times when there's no wind. You can even do it without your own generation, buy leccy at cheaper off peak rate and return at more expensive peak rate (economy 7). An average SEG payment according to which is 5.5p/kwh, with batteries degrading over their life time (as you know from your battery drill) of say 10 years you can see why the electric companies want you to fork out rather than them.
 

Also  Li- ion batteries are about 95% efficient when new and shouldn't be discharged bellow 80%, lead acid batteries about 80 -90% which reduces dramatically along with capacity due to Sulphation crystallisation occurring when less than 100% charged so need recharging straight away and shouldn't be discharged bellow 50% and definitely not bellow 80%, also tend to have to be overcharged (trickle charged) to keep in good shape which is just lost electricity. Not sure how well desuphation  / rejuvenators work, some say good others say bad. 

Its the difference between reality and the crap put out by sales men and government department of bull**** so its nice to hear from people with real experience.

[Arthur Ritus 30]

23 hours ago, will.i.ams said:

My daughter has them she says there worth the money . If you do get some make sure you get them fitted with things to stop pigeons going under them has they make a lot of noise

For me like many it would be a bad idea to put panels on the old knackered roof, so it would need reslating. There are roof integrated solar PV panels which sound interesting, they are used instead of slates/roof tiles and nicely sealed up so no nooks or crannies for wildlife to inhabit and other things to grow in, and would save on the amount of slates required.

 

[Arthur Ritus 30]

19 hours ago, dan2802 said:

We have a 4kw system with a 7.2kw battery.

Our bill last month was £71. Neighbours are paying £380.

 

Is that batteries capable of returning 7.2kw of demand or capable of storing 7.2kwh?

 A deep cycle lead acid 12v 180a/h would store about 2.4kwh, as can only give 50% you would need about 6 of those for that amount of storage.  I don't know about Li-ion so much,  I think they are probably the better choice just my experience with gadgets using them hasn't been very good, a large loss of capacity in short time,  internal resistance going high (more lost electric to heat, reduced max output and slower to charge/ screws up smart chargers). Need to hear from owners that's had them for many years and how they are still performing, and then there's what new kind of technology is around the corner. Difficult decisions.
 

£380 is that just for electric, in the summer? do you living next door to Foragemasters? that seems rather a lot to me, perhaps not had a meter reading for a while so suffering some catch up.

[geared 321]

2 hours ago, Arthur Ritus said:

Where was that?  worth buying electric for 30p/kwh and selling it back to them, this time next year Rodney ....

 

"This time next year Rodders............."

 

 

 

2 hours ago, Arthur Ritus said:

Where was that?  

 

Either a BG or an Octopus offer, to be fair some are even higher.

 

How the common man is supposed to afford several grand a year just to keep the lights on is beyond me.

Edited August 22, 2022 by geared

[geared 321]

1 hour ago, Arthur Ritus said:

An average SEG payment according to which is 5.5p/kwh, 

Over in the States you can see 170p/kwh during a crisis event (they often have rolling brownouts or blackouts)

 

https://energy.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/power/tesla-virtual-power-plant-to-pay-users-to-send-energy-back-to-grid/92437980

[iansheff 88]

1 hour ago, Arthur Ritus said:

Is that batteries capable of returning 7.2kw of demand or capable of storing 7.2kwh?

 A deep cycle lead acid 12v 180a/h would store about 2.4kwh, as can only give 50% you would need about 6 of those for that amount of storage.  I don't know about Li-ion so much,  I think they are probably the better choice just my experience with gadgets using them hasn't been very good, a large loss of capacity in short time,  internal resistance going high (more lost electric to heat, reduced max output and slower to charge/ screws up smart chargers). Need to hear from owners that's had them for many years and how they are still performing, and then there's what new kind of technology is around the corner. Difficult decisions.
 

£380 is that just for electric, in the summer? do you living next door to Foragemasters? that seems rather a lot to me, perhaps not had a meter reading for a while so suffering some catch up.

I watch a vlog on YouTube about a young couple who had their batteries changed to Lithium and a new inverter and the amount of power they got out of them was quite amazing. There is an app that they use that tells them how many hours were left in the batteries and how many hours the appliance they  were using could be used for.  I suppose it depends how many KWH of electricity you use but wonder if it is possible to run a house on electricity via solar panels and stored in batteries.  As the FIT isn't that much getting rid of the meter could save £180 a year way the standing charges are going up.

[dan2802 53]

7 hours ago, Arthur Ritus said:

Is that batteries capable of returning 7.2kw of demand or capable of storing 7.2kwh?

 A deep cycle lead acid 12v 180a/h would store about 2.4kwh, as can only give 50% you would need about 6 of those for that amount of storage.  I don't know about Li-ion so much,  I think they are probably the better choice just my experience with gadgets using them hasn't been very good, a large loss of capacity in short time,  internal resistance going high (more lost electric to heat, reduced max output and slower to charge/ screws up smart chargers). Need to hear from owners that's had them for many years and how they are still performing, and then there's what new kind of technology is around the corner. Difficult decisions.
 

£380 is that just for electric, in the summer? do you living next door to Foragemasters? that seems rather a lot to me, perhaps not had a meter reading for a while so suffering some catch up.

They battery will discharge to 80%.

The cost is mainly standing daily charge for gas & electricity.

We also have an EV which needs charging every now and again.

[geared 321]

8 hours ago, iansheff said:

 I suppose it depends how many KWH of electricity you use but wonder if it is possible to run a house on electricity via solar panels and stored in batteries.  As the 

Yes possible, but the higher the battery capacity the more it costs.  Plus you might (probably will) still pull from the grid when a high energy appliance turns on.

A Tesla Powerwall has the capacity to run an average house, but you're looking in the region of ten grand.

 

Obviously you'll also need sufficient solar panels to generate the power in the first place.

[the_mandarin 15]

On 22/08/2022 at 12:10, iansheff said:

  As the FIT isn't that much getting rid of the meter could save £180 a year way the standing charges are going up.

Is it not risky to get rid of the electricity meter? I can see the point about savings, but you are then betting on the fact that the solar energy you generate daily (plus your reserves in the battery) will always be more than what you consume.

 

I am not challenging your suggestion, because it may well be the case that the battery may be large enough to store enough power to see you through a few days.

[Arthur Ritus 30]

On 22/08/2022 at 10:57, geared said:

Over in the States you can see 170p/kwh during a crisis event (they often have rolling brownouts or blackouts)

 

https://energy.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/power/tesla-virtual-power-plant-to-pay-users-to-send-energy-back-to-grid/92437980

The extension cable will be a bit expensive.

[iansheff 88]

2 hours ago, the_mandarin said:

Is it not risky to get rid of the electricity meter? I can see the point about savings, but you are then betting on the fact that the solar energy you generate daily (plus your reserves in the battery) will always be more than what you consume.

 

I am not challenging your suggestion, because it may well be the case that the battery may be large enough to store enough power to see you through a few days.

I see where you are coming from but don't forget the batteries are continually charging in daylight even in winter, albeit not that much. I read a 4kw system produces about 3400kwh a year, another site I looked at said 20kwh a day but I suppose that is on the brightest days. My thinking was that if you can store enough it could be viable, but after reading Geared's comment and looking at the battery prices and the life of the batteries unless you get a top range one with life  span of about 11 years you could be changing batteries after 5 years.