Our Experience And Data Of Solar And Battery Power : April 2023

[@authuruksake969]

Congrats again, excellent April figures etc... Your setup is fine as it is, a very very rough rule of thumb is battery is 1.5 ~ 2.5x of your PV array (depending on usage as always) So really you'd have to consider additional panels to help fill the extra battery - oh but we're flying now - yes but it is in the winter you struggle to generate your basic daily consumption. You might have to add/increase another higher capacity inverter & your certification also on top of your extra battery/PV costs - it "could" be a little more involved to upgrade than you first thought = more investment than you first assumed. The best thing you can do is manage how you use your generated energy, make hay whilst the sun shines, heat your HW in the afternoon, slow cook a meal in the electric oven or air fryer - whatever just use the energy as it is being generated where possible - especially if you work from home some days & at weekends... If you get an EV, try to keep it topped up during the day when sun shines, though EV's may only be efficient for say 9 out of 12 months (range depletes when approaching 0 degrees etc, so some users use their petrol run around in cold winter months) Again - these are all multiple factors & everybody's setup & usage is totally different to other peoples - so you would have to weigh up what is truly viable & cost effective for your own individual case. BUT - the easiest thing to do is ensure you use as much of your energy when it's being generated - IF YOU CAN, you lose a tiny amount say 5% drawing it back from the battery at night. As the inverter converts 48v DC to 240v AC, and you sell surplus at 15p but purchase at 20p atm. So use what you can whilst the sun shines is sound advice I seen many people offer to those who can do this if at home (If you're away at work then you're unable to use it to it's full potential & cook/heat HW/washing mc/charge EV etc...) Yes, you can also invest in super duper smart devices, if you are not at home then you might have to explore some of these, but if you are at home most of the day, you can manually ensure you use as much generation, or make as much hay as possible whilst the sun is shining... Summer is an abundance, where you can tweak things around on how/when you use all that juice. Then once you got your own usage/timings fine tuned, you can look to an off-peak tariff maybe that will enable to top up battery partially in dark winter nights, heat HW if needed for morning, bit of heating maybe if gas is still too expensive... Then if sunny but short winter days use whatever you can & top battery, limp along into evening & hopefully battery lasts to be topped up again past midnight on cheap off peak electricity etc... You got the summer to fine tune your usage during the day, get it as efficient as possible & export the excess you can't possibly use any more. Then come the short winter days, long nights you can get on an off-peak tariff to charge battery for early morning and if the forecast is pretty gloomy etc... Your system is working extremely well, now just ensure you use that energy as efficiently as you possibly can, no need to go nuts investing in more stuff (as it might not be cost effective if you have upgrade more stuff to ultilise the extra battery storage). Nice video once again, great generation figures - roll on the summer

[@gorethegreat]

10 years ago I put up a 6.2 kw system. £9k With ROCS? I get approx £1150 cash per year and free electricity. Works out at £1.5k per year in cash and savings. In 10 years? That’s £15k. £6k in profit. The ROCS lasts another 10 years. I’ve now just put 10kw solar batteries in. They will result in a lot more savings. Big savings.

[@highly-spirited]

Wow, just wow. I’ve heard about people that took the plunge years ago and got a good rate of return. Doesn’t sound like you regret it at all with those kind of figures! Thanks ever so much for sharing your info 😎

[@laurencedamazer2260]

Hi, great video despite the ramblings. I like it that you remind people of your set up at the start. So many people do not and expect you to search through their earlier videos to find out their setup, which without that their numbers are meaningless. FYI, my 5.8kwh array facing 150 deg from North generated in 2023, Jan 118, Feb 244, Mar 344 and April 630. I am beginning to think looking at your numbers I have a shading issue that affects me in the 4 winter months. Nov. to Feb. With reference to the battery, I have only a 5kwh battery. To increase the battery to 10kwh it will cost an extra £3K. Financially I will be lucky to save £300 extra for that inc. in battery. Looking at alternative ways, diverters and good SEG rates as my export for the year is going to be about 3,000kwh. Cheers. p.s. still think I will not achieve my MCS forecasted generation.

[@highly-spirited]

Sorry, I’ve been meaning to get back to you for ages! That’s great to see the numbers you’re pulling. And it would be a shame if you are loosing a bit over the winter months, when you really want to get as much out of the system as possible. As you’re probably aware that angle and direction definitely has an impact on how the panels perform. I feel as if we’re lucky having our roof facing directly South and with no shading throughout the daytime. Well other than those flipping clouds 😆 It sure is big bucks for big batteries and the payback is a key issue for sure. I’m so happy with ours, even though I do wish we could have more. I think we’ll have to stick with what we’ve got unless there’s some kind of a world changing battery tech that becomes available. Never say never, but I feel that’s a looooong way off.

[@johnh7718]

I'm sorry for your loss.

[@highly-spirited]

Thank you.

[@tach175]

Don't forget to change to flux tariff when you out of your current one and also like i said in your last video this year solar is 35% less so i bet next year it will be a lot better for you, we has so much cloud here in the uk this year, good luck

[@highly-spirited]

I’ve looked into Flux and it seems a good idea. A lot can happen until out tariff runs out, but I will keep it in mind when the time comes 👍

[@philip_james]

Sorry to hear about your Dad 😢

[@highly-spirited]

Thanks for your sympathy 🙂 and for watching until the very end of the video, not many people watch more than a few minutes

[@philip_james]

@@highly-spirited Yes I always watch to the end. Nice tribute 👍 I have a 5.5kw array (East - South split) and 3.6kw hybrid inverter with 9.5kw battery 🔋 and this was my first full month since the install. I produced 525kwh and exported 543kwh on the flux tariff

[@highly-spirited]

@@philip_james nice set up and great to hear it’s productive. I’ve looked at the Flux tariff, tell me, how have you found it?

[@fourdeadinohio8303]

when you make a solar heated still I'll be impressed....lol

[@highly-spirited]

Well my Still will draw power from the panels and the battery, so what prize do I get for this smart ass reply?! 😁

[@fourdeadinohio8303]

@@highly-spirited how about some corn fed Bambi venison from my back yard...or a years supply of turbo yeast

[@highly-spirited]

@@fourdeadinohio8303 generous offer my friend, but I’m not worth that much 😆

[@johnb7644]

So the moral of the story is get a high charging inverter that will charge a big battery system in 4hrs ?

[@highly-spirited]

Kind of. There’s always restrictions, like if you have Single Phase or 3 Phase, the size of your DNO installed fuse (60,80,100amp), and every inverter and battery combo has its limitations.