Solar Query

[openspaceman]

Sure it is your money (and the OPs) but IMO having your whole house on backup power isn’t the correct solution.

I'm not so sure; had I had a bit more knowledge when I chose to have a battery I think I would have gone for a whole house backup because I can easily manage our loads to be below 6kW, in the absence of EV charging,

As it is I only import 450kWh and expect it to be less this year so for apart from 3 months I only need a grid connection for exporting surplus. Given £300/annum goes on standing charges it would probably have paid me to go off grid.

[Stinsy]

Sure it is your money (and the OPs) but IMO having your whole house on backup power isn’t the correct solution.

I'm not so sure; had I had a bit more knowledge when I chose to have a battery I think I would have gone for a whole house backup because I can easily manage our loads to be below 6kW, in the absence of EV charging,

As it is I only import 450kWh and expect it to be less this year so for apart from 3 months I only need a grid connection for exporting surplus. Given £300/annum goes on standing charges it would probably have paid me to go off grid.

Depends on what you're planning for!

Keeping the lights, WiFi router, laptop and TV running would be all I needed in an outage. When we switched to an induction hob I put a camping stove and gas canisters in the cupboard in the utility room. The reality is that most people are unlikely to experiance a power cut from one year to the next, even then you're talking a few hours...

If you were thinking of multi-week outages then it'd be annoying if your solar was providing loads of power but you couldn't run your washing machine because it wasn't on the UPS circuit. However, how likely is that really?

[ALAN/ALAN D]

Ref " gas canisters in the cupboard in the utility room. "

If they are full they hold 275 times the volume of gas.
When that mixes with the volume of air required thats inside the house.
And gets ignited.
There is no house.

[openspaceman]

[

Depends on what you're planning for!

Yes but I was not thinking about planning for outages, they are few and far between, the longest one was only several hours last year.

I was hypothesising that it may be more economical for me to be offgrid given the high standing charges for gas and electric.

[Krill]

That's what sheds are for!

Put me down as a +1 on the whole house islanded crowd. Cost me £600 for total peace of mind, done when the main installation was finished so no extra fuss and it is another step towards self sufficiency if the grid looks be unstable.

Due to have two Luxpower inverters in parallel I can easily run everything except the oven if needed. If I want to develop further I can buy a battery pack off Colin, and place it across the Pylontechs already in place (or sell that and get two stavks etc). I can also put up another array and set that one up for DC charging
I could even swap the current AC inverter and make all the panels DC coupled. But all of this functionality hinges in the islanding mode and at that price its a steal to not have to muck around with anything else.

That said, Flux export covers my standing charges so the decision to go off grid is becoming more complicated by the month.

[Joeboy]

[

Depends on what you're planning for!

Yes but I was not thinking about planning for outages, they are few and far between, the longest one was only several hours last year.

I was hypothesising that it may be more economical for me to be offgrid given the high standing charges for gas and electric.

I would be interested to read the sums on that, keenly so.

[Stinsy]

[

Depends on what you're planning for!

Yes but I was not thinking about planning for outages, they are few and far between, the longest one was only several hours last year.

I was hypothesising that it may be more economical for me to be offgrid given the high standing charges for gas and electric.

I don't see how you can ditch the standing charge and go off-grid i'm afraid. You just generate so little power from solar in winter and that is when you use the most electricity. Also while you might not have an electric car yet, I'm sure you will soon. So you need a way to get electricity from those North Sea wind turbines to your house and the standing charge covers that.

Gas? I'm very keen to get rid of that standing charge. And that should be simple for anyone to get rid of. A single A2A has done a fantastic job of heating my sprawling 5-bed house, but It cannot do the whole job on its own. So the Gas standing charge stays for now (until I swap the combi for a 5-6kW ASHP).

[Joeboy]

[

Depends on what you're planning for!

Yes but I was not thinking about planning for outages, they are few and far between, the longest one was only several hours last year.

I was hypothesising that it may be more economical for me to be offgrid given the high standing charges for gas and electric.

I don't see how you can ditch the standing charge and go off-grid i'm afraid. You just generate so little power from solar in winter and that is when you use the most electricity. Also while you might not have an electric car yet, I'm sure you will soon. So you need a way to get electricity from those North Sea wind turbines to your house and the standing charge covers that.

Gas? I'm very keen to get rid of that standing charge. And that should be simple for anyone to get rid of. A single A2A has done a fantastic job of heating my sprawling 5-bed house, but It cannot do the whole job on its own. So the Gas standing charge stays for now (until I swap the combi for a 5-6kW ASHP).

Interesting though. The lads that are furthest South have the greatest chance to regear and cut one utility cost? I like the idea of losing one of them but I'd always have one bottled gas back up to back up the WBS. Each year I think we creep forward towards that gas off reality. By this I mean all of us?

I have very deliberately not used gas here in Turkey for the past month. Yet we did have a powercut and I was very grateful for ability to make a cuppa on gas that one time

Possibly stupid lateral connection question. Does anyone know the per kWh cost of a bottle of propane in comparison to grid gas kWh? Can you see where I'm going with that? My current propane bottle for indoors here is about 3 years in place. BBQ bottle maybe 5 years.

S/C for gas in my area of Scotland is 15.09p per day.
1 yr £55.07
3 yr £165.23
5 Yr £275.39
Food for thought?

[Stinsy]

Yes but I was not thinking about planning for outages, they are few and far between, the longest one was only several hours last year.

I was hypothesising that it may be more economical for me to be offgrid given the high standing charges for gas and electric.

I don't see how you can ditch the standing charge and go off-grid i'm afraid. You just generate so little power from solar in winter and that is when you use the most electricity. Also while you might not have an electric car yet, I'm sure you will soon. So you need a way to get electricity from those North Sea wind turbines to your house and the standing charge covers that.

Gas? I'm very keen to get rid of that standing charge. And that should be simple for anyone to get rid of. A single A2A has done a fantastic job of heating my sprawling 5-bed house, but It cannot do the whole job on its own. So the Gas standing charge stays for now (until I swap the combi for a 5-6kW ASHP).

Interesting though. The lads that are furthest South have the greatest chance to regear and cut one utility cost? I like the idea of losing one of them but I'd always have one bottled gas back up to back up the WBS. Each year I think we creep forward towards that gas off reality. By this I mean all of us?

I have very deliberately not used gas here in Turkey for the past month. Yet we did have a powercut and I was very grateful for ability to make a cuppa on gas that one time

Possibly stupid lateral connection question. Does anyone know the per kWh cost of a bottle of propane in comparison to grid gas kWh? Can you see where I'm going with that? My current propane bottle for indoors here is about 3 years in place. BBQ bottle maybe 5 years.

My understanding (from a ver long time ago) is that bottle gas costs roughly double what mains gas costs. But with Zero standing charge (assuming you don't rent the bottle). I think a lot of low users of gas would be better to switch to bottle what with the scandalously-high standing charges!

When are you getting an A2A Joe?

[Joeboy]

I don't see how you can ditch the standing charge and go off-grid i'm afraid. You just generate so little power from solar in winter and that is when you use the most electricity. Also while you might not have an electric car yet, I'm sure you will soon. So you need a way to get electricity from those North Sea wind turbines to your house and the standing charge covers that.

Gas? I'm very keen to get rid of that standing charge. And that should be simple for anyone to get rid of. A single A2A has done a fantastic job of heating my sprawling 5-bed house, but It cannot do the whole job on its own. So the Gas standing charge stays for now (until I swap the combi for a 5-6kW ASHP).

Interesting though. The lads that are furthest South have the greatest chance to regear and cut one utility cost? I like the idea of losing one of them but I'd always have one bottled gas back up to back up the WBS. Each year I think we creep forward towards that gas off reality. By this I mean all of us?

I have very deliberately not used gas here in Turkey for the past month. Yet we did have a powercut and I was very grateful for ability to make a cuppa on gas that one time

Possibly stupid lateral connection question. Does anyone know the per kWh cost of a bottle of propane in comparison to grid gas kWh? Can you see where I'm going with that? My current propane bottle for indoors here is about 3 years in place. BBQ bottle maybe 5 years.

My understanding (from a ver long time ago) is that bottle gas costs roughly double what mains gas costs. But with Zero standing charge (assuming you don't rent the bottle). I think a lot of low users of gas would be better to switch to bottle what with the scandalously-high standing charges!

When are you getting an A2A Joe?

For the life of me I can't find an aesthetically pleasing spot in or outdoors at Scottish hoose. Love my Turkish one though!

Please note my all natural clothes drying areas!





I was amazed last year after you guys brought the A2A into focus for me at the cold air the external unit will blast out in Winter heating mode. Bear in mind I bought this for its cooling capacity. The cheap heat was a years later bonus!