April's Solar PV & energy stats - Going Electric - Energy bills are now credits

Fully electric 9.2kw solar, 17kwh battery, A2A heat pump & Mixergy hot water cylinder with Myenergi Eddi diverter and Zappi EV charger
The electric journey continues with the worst April for solar
(since records began) yet despite this we've not paid a penny for energy this month. Nothing and yet we're fully electric for everything , no oil or gas burning here.
Links / referrals
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OCTOPUS energy referral link....
share ** £50 credit each **
🐙🔌share.octopus....
Actual referral code for telling Octopus "pink-rose-718"
⚡Instavolt App referral : £5 free charging each
⚡driver.emsp.in...
My aircon installer:
Graham Durrant
Ignite heating and cooling
Email: [e-mail]
System / Components
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Solar config
PV all JA solar 9.2kwp
14X280w (3.68kw Solis)
8X300w (2.0kw Solaredge)
4x450w Solis string 1
3x370w (2.5kw) Solis string 2
Myenergi Zappi 1, Eddi and Hub
Battery:
Victron Multiplus II 48/5000
5 x Pylontech Us3000C
EVs:
Mini Electric Cooper SE Level 3 in Midnight black
ESoul First Edition 64kwh in Neptune Blue

[@richardoliver4904]

I'm on the same strategy and trickle charge my battery at night on my economy 7 tariff, but to preserve my battery I split my pylontech stack in two ( just need to change the CAN connector) and rest one half at 80% charge for a couple of weeks, and then swap with the other half, This has really helped maintain the SOH still at 98% after 3 years

[@EVPuzzle]

Yep mine just tipped from 99 to 98%

[@EverydayLife621]

👍🏼thanks Nigel, everything is looking perfect for net zero (annual cost), would love to see how a weeks worth of Dynamic ESS works out🙈

[@Ryanhothersall]

It’s now April in Adelaide, South Australia, mid autumn. Days getting shorter. The 6.3kw north facing system on the house generated 717 kwh for the month. The 6.5kw east/west facing system on the shed generated 632 kwh for the month. Total production of both systems for the month is 1.35 mwh.

[@EVPuzzle]

Wish I had a shed with 6kw on it 🙄 Autumn , time for Aircon to go off ?

[@Ryanhothersall]

@@EVPuzzle yes less need for cooling, starting to need the heater more.

[@alanclark2584]

if going for ground based solar or on a fence line, look at the bifocal black panels with cells on both sides. same costs as the normal one but good for light refraction on cloudy days. also look good from behind.

[@EVPuzzle]

Sadly those aren't going to work well for us , we wanted to leave field views not close then in with a fence

[@DanEVSolar7]

Thanks Nigel. Agree that it’s a great community around this. Good to see that you are embracing the export now and that’s it’s working well for you.🙂

[@Chester-UK]

Going to be interesting to see how the ground solar makes a difference. For us in North Cambridgeshire, I've made some adjustments so we're consuming more solar and not charging the battery overnight quite so much, largely because there's only 0.5p difference between off-peak import and exports here. I feel good when we're using energy generated here; can't explain it, I'm weird! 🤪From a 4kW (3.6kW inverter), April's stats here are 424kWh generated, 302.2 consumed, 885 imported (358.5 through the Zappi but we were also using a granny charger at the same time some nights!), exported 122.

[@EVPuzzle]

Panels are in, just the wiring left to do . Update coming soon

[@stevenbarrett7648]

Wow thats a very detailed analysis of your energy use and temperatures, I don’t😂 really pay much attention to our AlphaESS system, just let it do its thing. Octopus report the paid us £16.59 for feed in fro 25th of March to the 24th of April, quite happy with that as we only have a 5Kw battery and 12 panels….April to May should be interesting, I will let you know what happens

[@adamwalker1504]

That is a good result! I can’t wait for Octopus Outgoing to get enabled on my account. We have 4KWp and generated 312KWh in April on SSE array in the Lake District

[@kevxsi16v]

2912 kWh for me in April - with major clipping consumption 2Mw and now just brought myself a Tesla.

[@EVPuzzle]

Which model 3, Y?

[@kevxsi16v]

2022 model 3 performance

[@andrewdeans2179]

6.2 kw array in Scotland generated 597.3 kw . I have imported 301 and exported 319. Trying get Octopus to get Export sorted and after 8 weeks thinking might have to get ombudsman involved As can’t get them to sort it. Awaiting a heat pump system but this seems to take ages as well. Thanks for all your figures I really appreciated this monthly Cheers Andrew

[@philtinker2364]

Thanks so much for your update. For comparison, I have a 13 year old 4kWh system facing SSE into a 3.6kW inverter. April production from near Swindon was 480kWh, which is 7.5% down on the average over the last 8 years.

[@stevegame3000]

Just getting my act together following installation of a wsw 5.8kWp array and a Giv AIO battery on 5th April. Just under 500 kWh from that date to end April on the South coast. I am on the same Octopus tariffs as you and am now charging my battery on the cheap overnight rate. My motivation has been as much about being greener than about saving money. My one observation with this is that on some nights there was little wind and the mix of generation in the country is anything but green. One night saw the biggest coal contribution to power that I’ve ever seen. I am therefore choosing to fill my battery with dirty electricity in order to export my clean solar rather than using it myself. I need to wrestle with that one. Anyway very interesting seeing your April stats now that I’m in the game and obsessively checking my apps 😀

[@EVPuzzle]

I think you can get caught up in the fine details of a single day I tend not to look at grid mix and leave that for the grid to sort out Contract wise I'm guessing plants are paid to exist and be online even at times when we don't expect them and hence changing my profile of usage might not influence anything

[@stevegame3000]

@@EVPuzzle Agreed. I guess big picture, demand is lower overnight and load shifting to import at a low demand time is good for the environment and the pocket

[@drchrisjbarnettgreentech]

Always enjoy your breakdowns. My generation for April in Swansea was 20% down on last year, but this month was my first with Octopus and on Flux so was actually better off then last year. Have got a video on my channel where i do my own breakdown so savings. Its diffiently nice to be able to export at a higher rate than import

[@laurencedamazer2260]

Hi, I have a 5.8 kw system in Norwich. Most interesting especially generation per kw installed. I seem to be generating 80% of your results per kw installed. Two thirds of my panels are 30 degrees from South and the remainder 60 degress from South. My numbers for April 24 are 25% down from April 23. However May is performing much better so do not think there is something wrong. Thanks.

[@EVPuzzle]

Good toil hear from another Norwich solar fan 👍 No nothing wrong, just bad weather The closer to south facing the higher generation , sadly we can't rotate our roof so have to work with what we have. I'm lucky we are reasonably clear of shade on the south facing main roof. We have no neighbours to the east so only impacted as the sun sets in the west from our neighbours house shading the panels on that side

[@lynnfisher4396]

Brief Spalding Lincs return from our combined 5.4 south facing array. Our original 3 kw array produced 296 kw , the last four years have all generated at least another 100 kw for April. The worst we had was 272 in 2018. We only consumed 290 kw but were away for a week on holiday. Grid draw was 15 kw but, mainly because of the holiday we also exported 162kw. Best production day was 30/04 with 28.1 and the worst 28/4 with 5.9. Our combined array produced 474.

[@EVPuzzle]

With all these shared update we might think April had a bigger issue than just the weather , huge deviation from the norm. 🤞 For may being much better

[@nomad9296]

Great update 👍 Been looking at a solar set up for a while now. Based on your update it sounds like there is less need for a battery, which as you know is a huge part of the overall cost. Basically get on the right tariff and export as much as you can and benefit from cheaper unit price. 👌👌

[@nolandan1]

it really depends on whether you can use the electricity at time when it's cheap on the tariff. If you are heating water overnight or charging a car, then you probably wouldn't need a battery so much (both of those are batteries in themselves). But if you are wanting to buy cheap overnight and sell high in the evening peak, then you can't do that without a battery. Not sure what your budget would be, but you can get a solar+battery system now for under £10k, so the battery portion could be about £2k if you didn't overspec.

[@EVPuzzle]

I think I've said from the start, solar makes the biggest improvement and savings initially. Depending on your time of use, who's at home and orientation it really is possible to minimise grid use to such an extent that batteries seem an expensive pleasure. Id always suggest more solar instead of a battery if it's a one or the other choice. Problem is , if you go without them you'll definitely want to upgrade to batteries soon after🤭 This is why I've favoured a modular battery system so it's easy to expand . Even a 2nd hand portable battery could run the fridge, TV and internet minimising overnight energy for very little extra cost , it doesn't have to be grid connected but of courses most people want the proper system

[@VillageVidiot100]

After looking at it for a while and listening to the advice of Andy from the off grid garage I've taken the view that my batteries are likely to degrade more from calendar aging than additional cycles so I've cranked up the export to a constant 2.75kW for 18 hours a day regardless of solar generation. For us that has made the numbers 1.48MWh import. 1.27MWh export and 0.98MWh generation. Equates to £111 of usage and £199 export credit. There are still some more efficiencies to be got from it as well but I need to write some code so that all solar generation is exported rather than charging the battery first. After some discussion with mixergy tech support and an email confirming that I understood all the risks they turned off the cleansing cycle for me. What are you going to do with the fence solar? Are you going to mount vertically and use east/west bifacials? People seem to be getting very good results from very cost effective installs like that and your angle looks about right for it. I'd be very interested to see another data point from you though. Will you DC couple it with a Victron MPPT?

[@MrBobitsabc]

Can you provide a link or data re calendar aging of batteries please

[@EVPuzzle]

Very interesting on cleanse cycle turned off, I'll try to do that. I'd like to fill the tank once a month under my own control . Thanks for that Normal 40 degree ground mount for the garden , considered vertical mount but our orientation would be east west and include more shade that way so decided to keep things simple

[@stuartburns8657]

572kwh generated in April (Humber) 6kwh PV. Terrible vs 2023

[@5kram]

Generated 404 kwh from 4kw array in Leicestershire, best day was the 30th with 26.3 kwh and worst day was 22nd with 5.6 kwh. Like you I now heat my hot water cylinder on the 7,5 pence rate and export as much as I can but the I-boost tops up the hot water during the day. Total exported for April was 292kwh

[@EVPuzzle]

Surprising how many of us have moved to export now

[@teaernuk]

Your hot water tank is good. What I have done is the mains water goes into my 60L hot water tank and then through a 6L water heater before going to the taps and shower. I set the temperature on the 6L water heater as needed. The highest setting is needed for taking a shower and the knob turned to about halfway the rest of the time. I will normally try to heat the 60L tank for about 30 minutes 1.5KWs of electric a day with solar or the cheapest rate on Agile and then it is topped up by the 6L water heater as needed. If solar is low and the electric not that cheap I may not add any more to the 60L tank that day, just have a quick shower or until the temperature drops. If the electric is free or I have loads of solar I would most likely put that into the 60L hot water tank. The 60L and 6L can be mixed together using a pump. I will turn on the pump if the battery is full so the small water heater will slowly use solar to heat the 60L hot water tank. The 6L water tank can be bypassed. In the winter when I have very little solar, I will bypass the small water altogether and just heat the 60L tank with the cheapest Agile slots each day.

[@574rz460v3]

April was a poor month for us also it appears we generated around 100kwh less than April 2023

[@southwestsellers5475]

7.38kWp generated 711.89kWhs exported 329.83Kwhs bill for April 2024 from Octopus £47.14 credit

[@EVPuzzle]

£50 credit and all free can't be bad eh?

[@waynecartwright-js8tw]

My 3.25kw system did 342kwh in north Worcs. My third worst in 8.25yrs. just besting last year and 2018 by a lot (271kwh total)

[@bodgerfrrompotton]

Really appreciate the numbers. Thank you. How many kWh do you typically generate on the 2.4 south facing for a typical year?

[@EVPuzzle]

2.3, 2.5, 2.4 and 2.7mwh per annum so far . Basically 1mwh per kW of PV , south facing

[@Yorkshireasaurus]

6kw array south facing in East Northamptonshire I had it installed in March. This is my first full month with nothing to compare it to. Generated 682 kWh. Not a particular good month for weather.

[@peterseddon8363]

April was the same up here in't north. My 3Kw array went in in 2014 and the average was 327 kWh but this year 273 kWh.

[@EVPuzzle]

Reassuring , it's not just me seeing such a poor April. Does look like it will be a poor year overall

[@fyrfytrdub]

714kWh from a 7.7kWp East/West split just outside Dublin, Ireland Same strategy charge battery, heat water and charge EV for 7.4c overnight. Export for 24c Imported 240kWh, exported 482kWh, so roughly €60 credit

[@leedove7255]

We had a very poor April compared to the last 2 years only 90% of last year and 80% of 2022.

[@philippadobson1589]

My April 2024 was marginally better than April 2023, 1368 vs 1355 kWh. It may partly be related to some tree work I had done early in April but as it only affects my NE facing array I wasn't expecting much gain. It will be interesting to see if I manage to beat my all time best day this year.. Role on the some sunny days! I am looking forward to your video on your new garden array. As I suspect you may well already be extracting a fair bit of cash from Octopus over the year with your new export regime, are you concerned that this new array might take it to a level that the tax man might begin taking an interest?😉

[@EVPuzzle]

My small system ? Tax man isn't interested in such tiny things , especially if it stays in your energy account as credit

[@BassPunk]

583kWh from my 5kW Trina + SolarEdge SSE facing array in Stratford-upon-Avon in April. So 117kWh per kW of panel 😎

[@TrevorHa]

Compare. Norwich area. 15kw solar south north east west. Generation 1119kwh. Import 158kwh exported 387kwh. Bill credit £46.17 not including standing charge

[@EVPuzzle]

Haha I imported way more. As every kWh imported is 7.5p profit surely more is better ?😉😉🤣

[@TrevorHa]

​@EVPuzzle if my math is right then yes. I could of used the grid and dumped 50% battery daily and export all my solar so grid in would be 1200kw grid out 1500kw. Could of had a credit of £130 ish? Feels wrong making all my kit work harder than it needs too though. Plus that green feeling....

[@ndudman8]

1437kw Solar, might of been more if I could of used it all.

[@manickbarry]

Nice result there we used £27 and sold £70 with £22 on gas 😁

[@EVPuzzle]

That gas standing charge has to be annoying 😔

[@nervousfrog101]

It really does make more sense to export the power during the day. Better for the environment as the energy over night will be low Carbon and the grid needs you Solar during the day. Better for your pocket. So it's a win-win really. I really need to work on some more automation to make more use of the battery for export. I will have to have a look to see if I can get the predicted solar out of VRM and in to Home assistant. It's just a bit tricky with days rates high you really don't want to take too much out of the battery.

[@EVPuzzle]

I'm working on testing fixed grid setpoint export values At 4pm set grid setpoint to -500w, -750w, -1000w to see how much we export by midnight etc , id rather use an est fixed value than swap and change it

[@bill_heywood]

April was OK average 21.18kWh per day, but slightly down on April 2023 average 21.81kWh per day.

[@laurencedamazer2260]

you are lucky April 23 generated 643kwh April 24 484kwh, down 50% on a 5.8 kw system! Correction 25% down from April 23.

[@bill_heywood]

@@laurencedamazer2260 that's a drastic reduction, April was just so grey and wet Let's hope May is better 🌞

[@terrymackenzie6784]

Disappointing generation compared with previous years here in the south of England and importing more than I export but still in credit thanks to IO Go tariff, when is it going to stop raining

[@Richardincancale]

Interesting that steady decline year by year in solar generation in April. It might be possible to get insolation data from the met office for your part of Norfolk and see if it correlates year on year, or if there is some other reason for the decline than more clouds - trees growing for example?

[@EVPuzzle]

Given others are seeing the same all over the country I'm confident it's not a site issue only time will tell

[@NunoLeitaoTheEpiq]

I really have mixed feelings about this video. I see for myself the journey to install solar, in an auto sufficiency way. I WANT to use all the solar I can produce and reduce to a maximum whatever comes or goes to the network. Here in Belgium is becoming VERY expensive to use the network. The less u use, the less taxes you pay. And then you come up with this profitable way of using the network. I wonder how could I apply this to my reality... Octopus or similar doesn't exist here. Last year I paid 3631€ from which 841 is electric energy and 480 is gas energy; this means 2310 is distribution, transport and taxes. Indeed mixed feelings... Next month starts the solar journey, we will see!

[@EVPuzzle]

Hopefully the same smart grid and tariffs will come your way but I guess each network has its own objectives to fulfill. I see In some countries you are charged to export !!

[@mebrown101]

How long did it take you for Octopus to actually credit your bills? I see the theoretical credit in the app but so far I see no benefit in the actual bill? Thanks for the video, I also saw April as the poorest over the last 2+ years. Looking forward to the garden solar info!

[@EVPuzzle]

My bills are credited at the same time as the bill on the same day of the month. The bill shows separately to export credits but the balance shows the net impact , is that what you were asking ?

[@mebrown101]

That’s my hope but so far that’s not happened for me - so far I have not seen any credit coming back on the bill but I see the export appearing in the app. My question is when you first set up your export tariff, did it immediately appear as a credit in your next bill or how long did you have to wait. TIA

[@andyhamilton]

What do you use to track the car state of charge?

[@EVPuzzle]

Home assistant has options for the Mini and the Kia, data available is actually more than the apps , I can even see the 12v battery soc , really handy on the Kia

[@G6EJD]

They would be much more useful statistics if you normalised the solar generation results to 1kwp. So if you generated 821kwh and had 15kwp panels then then the normalised result would be 54.7kwh then I could adjust/compare with my 4kWp system and compare my output with yours of 4x54.7 or 219kwh, mine actually produced 425kwh so the weather here in Bath was better/clearer than Norwich!

[@nolandan1]

you mean, like at 3:47 ?

[@G6EJD]

No, they are not normalised results, I meant to the usual unity

[@nolandan1]

@@G6EJD not sure what you're asking for. Nigel has 3 arrays which perform differently, so he normalised each of them in the way that you suggest. For example, if you take the first array, which was 107.7kwh per kwp, then that works out at 430.8kwh for 4kwp, similar to yours. Whereas the other arrays don't perform as well, due to aspect and shade etc. My best array was 99.5kwh per kwp which isn't as good as yours, but then I don't have a south-facing roof. It doesn't really matter though, because in solar design, you can compensate by deliberately putting in lower performing arrays knowing that the production you get from them will be better than nothing. I got 161kwh from my garage roof which is SE and sometimes shaded. This is enough to run the dishwasher 80 times.

[@EVPuzzle]

I did provide that for the monthly values just not YTD

[@EVPuzzle]

Have I enough data in just 5 years to normalise and make any sense?

[@sorbetingle]

Tell the farmer to get an electric tractor, so you can do more quiet videos in the great outdoors👍

[@EVPuzzle]

He's old school, likes to maintain it himself . No incentives sadly

[@barriedear5990]

Do you have annualised production per kwp for each array?

[@EVPuzzle]

My annual review at end of 2023 would've had the numbers but I don't have the stat to hand

[@barriedear5990]

@@EVPuzzle Found it, Will put here if anyone else is interested. You produced 4379kWh from 3.9kwp array, 1706kWh from 2.9kwp side gable and garage, and 2490kWh from 2.4kwp array.

[@EVPuzzle]

@@barriedear5990 brilliant cheers ,👍