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Hello There,

I’m a newbie to this group and the world of solar and home batteries. My home is using 8000kWh per year and I have been investigating solar pv and batteries, but I still cannot come to terms with adding 20 or so solar panels to my roof as it looks ugly even though it could save me a considerable amount of money. So I’m no thinking is a battery only installation would make sense in combination with one of the Octopus smart tarries.

Do any of you have any recent experience of battery only installations, recommendations and also prices?


Thanks

Matt

Welcome to the forum

Which smart tariffs are you eligible for?

One of the best is Intelligent Octopus Go, but you need to have an EV to get this tariff. It gives you a minimum of 6hrs a night at 7.5p per kWh. As well as charging you car, you can charge your battery during the cheap period.

John

At least 4 on here have a battery only system.

Many go for the modular Pylontech batteries so you can add more later, they come in different sizes and cost circa £300 per kWh of storage, plus near £1k for a decent hybrid inverter.

So roughly £3k to £4k will get you a hybrid inverter (can take any combination of batteries and/or PV panels) and 10kWh of batteries. From your estimate of annual usage of 8000kWh, my wet finger says you will need at least that, but its addictive, whatever you buy, you will very soon want more.

If your brave then you can build your own battery system buying large cells from China for about half the price, several threads on here for that.

Frequently used suppliers with members on here are,
www.itstechnologies.shop
www.tradesparky.com
www.bimblesolar.com
And there are many others, if your on a budget then second hand gear from places like ebay can be good buys.

Expect to lose 20% to 30% of the power you import from the grid in losses, so factor that in and batteries don't last forever but the latest lithium ones do last an awfully long time.

If you don't want panels on the house you might find other places in your garden / shed / garage, etc.

There are legal issues I have not mentioned, but will leave that till later.

Spindlerm wrote: ↑Sun Nov 12, 2023 10:45 am I have been investigating solar pv and batteries, but I still cannot come to terms with adding 20 or so solar panels to my roof as it looks ugly even though it could save me a considerable amount of money.
Matt

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder!
I have noticed some scruffy installations, but you see lots of good ones too. I think that in-roof pv is more attractive than some of the cheaper roofing systems (such as the concrete tiles we had put on 43 years ago,) and I'm sure the replacement pv roof won't continually fill the gutters with sand either.

I know a few people with batteries but not solar. In the past people fitted solar to get FiT money and any power they actually used was a bonus. A battery or diverter on the HWC were a bonus often fitted later. However nowadays it is all about the batteries and if you’re paying 7.5p/kWh for cheap-rate power then solar generated electric displaces that so the return from solar isn’t as attractive. The panels themselves are cheap, it is the installation that costs the money.

Personally I think that solar/batteries/ToU tariff make the perfect trifecta that works together. And I think that a solar-adorned roof looks good. I know some people don’t like silver-framed blue panels, you can get all-black panels if that bothers you.

I'm looking at exactly the same solution here to get me started.

My roof is dire, I'd be lucky to get a couple south facing and it would have to be ickle ones at that.. so, for me its about batteries, and hybrid. I'm looking at some garden based ones but as Nowty alluded to there are issues surrounding that. I did speak with somebody that was saying councils seem quite happy to approve many things 'renewable' if if they dont fit the typical permissions bill.

I want somebody to come and design and implement a solution for me as I simply dont trust myself with grown up electrics.

Alas, nobody wants to design/sell/install anything for me, contacted 4 local folks and nobody cba to call back after initial chat, Still awaiting 2 call backs from my initial enquiry mid October, these are about to go on my shit list.

I was looking at the Sunsynk Hybrid and their batteries, you can pop on to Hybrid Inverters + Storage and see what tickles your fancy, Solis, Victron and Sunsynk bundles.

The newer systems seem to scale quite nicely and in most cases just adding more batteries is fairly straight forward. it'll certainly give you some idea pricing at least for the kit.

There is 10-12kW Victron system there in the region of £7-8k inc vat (Kit only inc all bits) . Depends if you are confident in installing yourself, plus, you can possibly beat Bimbles prices too through the likes of City Plumbing and others.

Then there is a issue of getting approval to export if you have a surplus, or even to export when price is high and import when low etc. I'm struggling to find this info AND anybody to actually put a solution in.

So, if you find anybody keen to do it, please let me know. nobody down this way is bothered.

I changed my tune from solar and batteries to just battery if you need to do it in stages.

Correctly sized battery and good ToU tariff and you could probably get away with running your house on the overnight rate only

This is what I am hoping to do initially, but I have seen the light (excuse the pun) with Solar and want to do something with it, but it wont be roof mounted initially, the gains couldnt justify the scaffolding cost.

But with Hybrid inverter & Batteries I could see an instant benefit, just cant find anybody to do it.

I keep looking at the Victron battery solution on Bimble Inverter+Battery and my fingers are getting twitchy for that price, but nobody seems interested in talking about installing it down this way. I'm tempted just to buy the damn thing and see what I can install myself then find a sparky for the last few bits off checkatrade.

I'll have a chat with Bimble again and see if they can recommend a local installer/electrician for that bundle, gives me the option to expand with Solar later plus add additonal storage which would give me 90-100% off grid during the day and top up with my current ToU tariff.

Adding Solar at some point would give me even more independence.

So you need a spark to install a new circuit from your CU to where the inverter will be. The rest you can do yourself. It isn;t in the least bit complicated if you're at all practical...

I reckon that about sums it up. I'll source a 22 or 42U rack for the batteries and get some mechanism to fit the Inverter and cabling. The consumer units are directly behind the wall (I think) where the inverter and batteries will sit in the garage.

I dont really trust myself going near the consumer units if I can avoid it, there is a few MCB's that can be changed as we had a shower unit removed and a few years ago had the immersion heater swapped out as we had a combi boiler (oh to be able to see into the future ^^).

So pretty basic sparky stuff really I was tempted to actually go on a sparky course I'm sure they do them online too just to gain some more confidence.

My lack of confidence aside, everything in the bundle from Bimble seems to tick the boxes.

This kit is a larger kit for storing excess energy from an existing grid-tied solar PV installation, or for storing cheap night-time energy (off-peak tarifs e.g. Octopus) for use during the day and peak tarif times.

More battery modules can be added at any time, and AC coupled or DC coupled solar PV can also be added to further decrease consumption from the grid, saving even more off your bills.

This system has an integrated MPPT, so is ready for a DC coupled PV installation at any moment.

NB: The 5kVA Victron EasySolar-II has received G98/99 certification on the ENA type test register, see link: https://www.ena-eng.org/gen-ttr/Index.a ... tab=search

That ticks all the boxes, I'm going to go through the specs and try to ensure that it'll meet my needs battery discharge rate, inverter rates etc to determine I can charge the batteries (and any others I might buy) during my off peak period.

I can then see some immediate reduction in costs (assuming BG dont cock up this solution, or ask me for the v5c to prove I've got an EV ^^), the pressure is then off building (and seeking relevant permissions if needs be) the bespoke garden PV solution.