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Hi all, Steve here from the sunny South Coast with a moody roof profile.

I've not actually got any Solar Kit yet, but I am very keen. I use around 12-16kWh of electricity per day and want to be greener and less reliant on the utilities companies (and their rip off charges)

I spent years trying to get away from British Gas, only to be drawn back in when they became our provider of last resort when The Peoples Energy went under. Point in question - its taken a year to get to monthly billing !!!, I just want to remove as much reliance on them (and others) as possible.

I have a ton of questions and probably be a pain in the ass..but I will listen and learn

tks

Welcome Tay, don't worry about it.

Which threads have you been drawn to? (I ask because home-made battery is now eminently affordable (see joeboys battery thread in particular)

Also read threads with an eye on battery storage & time shifting (of which folk here have been doing octopus trials)

Plenty of us here have bought into ripple W/T project 1 & 2, less so the solar farm (project 3)

Any EV you own also counts towards "NOWTY'S not so secret list" plus a whole load of other schmutter.

How benevolent are the planning dept in worthing? (I think I used to go there to take a look at r&d prototypes, but nearer where boardriders shop is just up the coast)

Welcome Steve,

The south coast is perfect for solar and there are always options for even "moody roof profiles".

It can also be on a garage / shed, ground mount in the garden or even on a wall.

Tay wrote: ↑Tue May 30, 2023 4:18 pm Hi all, Steve here from the sunny South Coast with a moody roof profile.

I've not actually got any Solar Kit yet, but I am very keen. I use around 12-16kWh of electricity per day and want to be greener and less reliant on the utilities companies (and their rip off charges)

I spent years trying to get away from British Gas, only to be drawn back in when they became our provider of last resort when The Peoples Energy went under. Point in question - its taken a year to get to monthly billing !!!, I just want to remove as much reliance on them (and others) as possible.

I have a ton of questions and probably be a pain in the ass..but I will listen and learn

tks

Welcome! Enquiring minds are embraced around these parts!

Certainly generating and storing enough energy without resorting to utilities is totally achievable for 9 months of the year for someone on the South Coast. Your energy usage is small (I use up to 60kWh a day and I’m sure there are people on here who use more!) so nothing exotic required.

For the darkest months we like Octopus energy in these parts and A2A heat pumps are a simple way to provide space heating without burning stuff locally.

From solar you’ll get 6x your kWp in kWh on the sunniest day of the year and 1x or less in winter. Therefore a 4-6kWp array will probably be a starting point depending how much roofspace (or other suitable area) you have. Battery storage in the 8-12kWh range will match that nicely.

Any questions you have will be happily received.

Mr Gus wrote: ↑Tue May 30, 2023 8:36 pm Which threads have you been drawn to? (I ask because home-made battery is now eminently affordable (see joeboys battery thread in particular)

Also read threads with an eye on battery storage & time shifting (of which folk here have been doing octopus trials)

Plenty of us here have bought into ripple W/T project 1 & 2, less so the solar farm (project 3)

Any EV you own also counts towards "NOWTY'S not so secret list" plus a whole load of other schmutter.

How benevolent are the planning dept in worthing? (I think I used to go there to take a look at r&d prototypes, but nearer where boardriders shop is just up the coast)

Thanks,

Just want to learn more than I already know which after you post seems to be a truck load, no idea about time shifting, planning dept's etc, so I'll be looking to get on top of that, I don't have an EV, just not ready to go down that road just yet it might be some years away. hybrid maybe just not full on EV. So I'll stick to my Audi and Kawasaki for the time being

I did express some interest in a recent "group buy" auction run by the council, although I'm not ready to buy just yet, I'll starting getting a bit more serious after this mortgage is sorted which is due next month ^^.

nowty wrote: ↑Tue May 30, 2023 8:39 pm Welcome Steve,

The south coast is perfect for solar and there are always options for even "moody roof profiles".

It can also be on a garage / shed, ground mount in the garden or even on a wall.

Alas, the previous owner decided to build a garage with a large room on top and an office behind on the South side of the house, good for him, less so for my Solar plans. South facing we'd be lucky to get 3 midsize panels, west facing is a little more promising with with the back of the house, maybe 4-5 panels, and the office roof I mentioned is flat and could get 4 large panels easily but its a flat roof. I've been looking at ways to potentially maximise their use but I suspect that would fall into the realms of PP I have a nasty conservatory to the right of the office too. I have a early plan to potentially merge both office and conservatory & extend further back and possibly have space for 12 panels utilising a pitched roof, but I suspect that bad boy would defo need PP .

I've got an account with Pylon Observer and have been playing with various setups.. since I'm only interested in my own setup and non for commercial use I can get away with a freebie account, I think. There is a lot to consider

I'll have a good read and devour what info I can absorb first.

Stinsy wrote: ↑Tue May 30, 2023 8:52 pm Welcome! Enquiring minds are embraced around these parts!

Certainly generating and storing enough energy without resorting to utilities is totally achievable for 9 months of the year for someone on the South Coast. Your energy usage is small (I use up to 60kWh a day and I’m sure there are people on here who use more!) so nothing exotic required.

For the darkest months we like Octopus energy in these parts and A2A heat pumps are a simple way to provide space heating without burning stuff locally.

From solar you’ll get 6x your kWp in kWh on the sunniest day of the year and 1x or less in winter. Therefore a 4-6kWp array will probably be a starting point depending how much roofspace (or other suitable area) you have. Battery storage in the 8-12kWh range will match that nicely.

Any questions you have will be happily received.

Thanks, I've tried to reduce my IT foot print, Low power firewalls, media servers and storage. My Mac's are pretty low power anyway but my gaming rig has, for the most part remained idle for the last 6 months, my RTX 3090 has gathered cobwebs...but the world hasnt hit 2 deg's C because of it ^^.

I've been looking at BG gas offerings and frankly they are dire, they gave me a crap smart meter, messed me around so much, so whatever happens when the opportunity presents itself I'll be gone. I'll be looking for more forward thinking companies, that dont sucker punch you for each kWh they buy off you.
This year, I need to get the house brought up to spec. insulation wise, its been neglected for many years and that will be the first step on this journey. perhaps the only good thing this screwed up roof gave me was decent cavity wall insulation on the south side ^^.

I've been building a picture of my usage over the last 6-12 months (where Britgas has actually managed to capture the data) so I have a good idea where I am and now thinking about where I want to be.

As I said in my other post, I'll start to have a read and then formulate some questions and provide info..shortly.

tks

Welcome to the forum Tay. You can do quite a lot prior to installation of solar by checking what appliances pull how much load and when. This is hunting the power vampires. It can yield surprising results. As can insulation and sealing up holes/cracks.

It all adds up and can be quite a difference maker.

Please be extremely careful of any council scheme, I have not come across a good one yet.

My experience is that the council, unless there is a dedicated solar & product knowledgeable member involved it will be a "spin the wheel" experience.

Each time a council logo'ed letter for this sort of scheme came through the door I rang the given number. ..the people on the other end fielded a call, but knew precisely sod all about solar, didn't understand the term "photovoltaic" monocrystalline, amorphous, polysilicone, batteries, orientation, inverter, etc etc ..so a complete shill.

The council were getting a bung of around £140 per person who took up the final offer.

Between them they were herding docile cattle to the slaughter, the excuse was "we won't discuss anything about the deal until we know how many people are on board" ...buying blind from dubious salesmen who if they knocked on your door you'd view with utmost suspicion, ..the cambridgeshire council were box-ticking for profit.

if you saw this played out on tv's watchdog (type thing) you'd think "mugs, how is that legal" !?

I think someone here had better luck, & got ok kit, but many people rely on honesty, & upfront detail, unless the kit is named that they stock & use successfully on a regular basis then buyer beware, there is no comeback to the councils from this, although they make the introduction you take up the offer voluntarily, they take the money.

In the end I rang the stupid effwit council & told them to take me off their damned marketing list(s) ..had to do that TWICE so far, hopefully me being very forceful to the point of rudeness & threatening them second time round has got us off ALL their mail out lists... they will likely also lie & say each dept would have to be contacted separately to be removed from any "random" council letters, such as fostering.

Clearly bull-crap on the part of a council & demonstrates the shady nature of modern councils feeding off us all like bloody leeches.

Joeboy wrote: ↑Tue May 30, 2023 10:05 pm Welcome to the forum Tay. You can do quite a lot prior to installation of solar by checking what appliances pull how much load and when. This is hunting the power vampires. It can yield surprising results. As can insulation and sealing up holes/cracks.

It all adds up and can be quite a difference maker.

Hi,

I have an old fridge and a freezer that would be pretty hungry and both are 20 ish years old,

Interesting you should mention vampires, the following early AM spikes are proving difficult to locate. Even at peak performance (Except the gaming rig) the IT gear that is running 24/7 never spikes this high. Eg: the firewall is a low power HP thin client <35w, my Synology NAS powers down the disks when not in use, the unRaid server is a low power HP Elitebox mini PC, the switch is low power, My Macs/screens are powered off at night (Although do get used most of the evening). Everything IT related, bar my multifunction laser printer is through my UPS which which ties in to the sub 135w-200w continual draw.

The chart shows Electricity usage by the hour from British Gas. typical day time usage looks like the 12am-2am section then again 6:30am onwards, I can see cooker usage late afternoon/evening but the 2:30am-4:30am peaks have me flummoxed. I'm staying up late tonight (I'm a bit of a night owl anyway) to see if I can see it. But as BG's charts work 2-3 days behind its hard to trace.



Any ideas other than yanking every plug and sticking a meter on it would be nice.