Hi From Scotland

[Stinsy]

Welcome to the forum Brian, I'm sure you won't be the only one with a battery only system.

I know of a few people who’ve gone “battery only”. They did the sums and came up with better payback without the solar!

[MrPablo]

Welcome to the forum Brian, I'm sure you won't be the only one with a battery only system.

I know of a few people who’ve gone “battery only”. They did the sums and came up with better payback without the solar!

That's exactly how I started off, battery only with a hybrid inverter 'just in case'.
The payback period got longer with panels, but money shouldn't always be the top priority when it comes to renewables, at least not in my opinion.

[Ph.]

+1 for west facing array, simple install unlike other options that would be better as more DIY upgrades, west facing arrays also have the efficiency advantage of producing well at the time when the average house is using more power.

Adding more W & SW panels helped us not to drain our batteries when the perception was that it’s sunny outside, so there should be plenty of power available.

[Stinsy]

Welcome to the forum Brian, I'm sure you won't be the only one with a battery only system.

I know of a few people who’ve gone “battery only”. They did the sums and came up with better payback without the solar!

That's exactly how I started off, battery only with a hybrid inverter 'just in case'.
The payback period got longer with panels, but money shouldn't always be the top priority when it comes to renewables, at least not in my opinion.

The problem is that once you have batteries the solar-generated electricity is only worth cheap-rate power. Install costs for solar can be as high as £2 a Wp which gives a 20-year payback at 10p/kWh.

But agreed. It's not about money. It is about not burning stuff that's been in the ground for millions of years.

[MrPablo]

I know of a few people who’ve gone “battery only”. They did the sums and came up with better payback without the solar!

That's exactly how I started off, battery only with a hybrid inverter 'just in case'.
The payback period got longer with panels, but money shouldn't always be the top priority when it comes to renewables, at least not in my opinion.

The problem is that once you have batteries the solar-generated electricity is only worth cheap-rate power. Install costs for solar can be as high as £2 a Wp which gives a 20-year payback at 10p/kWh.

But agreed. It's not about money. It is about not burning stuff that's been in the ground for millions of years.

Exactly right Stinsy, it's something I wrestled with at first as I'm on Octopus Go. I was fortunate in that all my PV has been DIY with no scaffolding, etc, but I agree, it's by no means a clear cut decision.
Ultimately though, I treated the PV as an add-on project of interest, mainly for my own curiosity and desire to grab some wasted sun potential.

[dan_b]

Looks to me you could get some useful afternoon/evening generation from west facing panels on the main roof - and you could even get a few east facing for a split array to give you some more gen in the morning - using a SolarEdge system you wouldn't have to worry about strings or shading impact too much? And if you bought the batteries at the same time you'd get the VAT discount applied.

To give you an idea - front of the house faces south:

[Joeboy]

It is also worth mentioning on the off-chance that there is an aesthetics slant to stopping PV going on?

I've always liked the look of PV but must admit that in the early days after system 1 went in SWMBO did not really like the idea of me 'covering the whole roof with solar' as she put it. Fast forward a couple of years and a true appreciation developed and it was full steam ahead for system 2.

Beauty as they say is in the eye of the beholder.

[Brian S]

Thanks for the feedback folks. I’ve actually had a couple of companies out previously to talk Solar and Solar + Battery - both told me Solar wasn’t worthwhile - poor roof configuration for it, hard to install because of the height and costly for the limited amount of panels possible vs ROI.

I take the point RE: VAT and actually suggested to a company quoting recently about selling me a single panel as part of the job - they suggested various technical reasons to do with the inverter as to why that would not work. I don’t think they got that I didn’t care necessarily about hooking it up, just to save on the VAT.

[Brian S]

I have enquiries open with a few installers in my area currently - sent them the pictures in this thread and explanation asking to explore Solar as part of the project and I’ve just had one poo poo the idea again:

===
Good morning Brian,

Thank you for your email and the pictures of your property.

Unfortunately we would not recommend solar on your roof, the roof facing south is unsuitable for solar due to the spacing and margins we have to adhere too.
===

I’ve gone back saying about the West facing section of main roof still potentially generating well at peak times of day. Will see what they say to that.

[dan_b]

Sounds like the local installers just don't want the work!

A hybrid inverter would allow you to get the SolarPV charging the battery directly via DC which is more efficient. SolarEdge do a hybrid inverter which would work well if you did a split E/W array