Fogstar (and general) Rack Battery questions

[resybaby]

Moxi
Thank you for the suggestion of Ripple. In my view it always pays to consider all alternatives to everything and so im always receptive to the more unusual or unconventional of ideas.
I owned a plumbing/gas business and dabbled in a half decent amount of property development over my younger life, before running off to 'live the good life' in Cornwall.
My main interest however has always been the stockmarket and shares. I have built my wife and i a very good living from looking at the more financial of oppertunities that life gives us. And being a bit of what i would call, a realist eco person, i would absolutely look at something like part ownership of such a scheme with a very open mind. Alas, no longer.
We are currently partly through purchasing a nature woodland, its good to give back and that is intended as our eventual legacy.

Mrs Resybaby is quite similarly minded, to me, altho more risk adverse (a good thing), so whilst energy security from a purly financial point of view is not an issue to us at all, it is an issue close to our hearts ecologically, and so well worth spending a few quid to counter the green effects.

P.s. Sparky called me today, he has been looking at Sunsync (?) kit and has said he has a couple of suggestions for me to look at, not sure what exactly so waiting the details. He is also check8ng out the Fogstar battery specs and parameters, so hopefully it will be good to go shortly. Have to say he has been an absolute superstar helping to steer me along, how often do you get to say that about a tradesman.

[resybaby]

Well thought id better post a little update on what i had popped in in the end.

Went for 10x JAsolar 545w panels, a 3.6kw Sunsynk Ecco hybrid invertor and 4 x US5000 pylontechs.

FIT registered panels tidyed up on the roof and pushed more into a single block in a better sun catching spot (to max my payments) and the new JAsolar panels in a block on the freed up space. Not much to say really except it wasnt easy putting those up in the wind!

The Sunsynk invertor (im capped at 3.6 by DNO unfortunately) is a pretty amazing piece of kit, but for a novice like me is hellishly complicated to set up and commision, the sparky struggled too, doesnt help with having the two systems mind. Has some good features, the ability to take 7kw of panels is good for the lower yielding months, and also an excess generated power connection, so if producing when the batteries are full it can be used to divert the power elsewhere, to a water heater, so kind of like a built in Iboost. Already have an Inboost on the immersions so will look at dumping that extra feed elsewhere.

There are a few hiccups from the factory with regards these inverters apparantly. They have despatched some out to sellers with a DC panel limit of 4.8kw in error, not the 7kw. there is a Sunsynk firmware upgrade availible to remedy that though, but will need to check the invertor model number you buy to see if thats needed.

The pylontechs, went for those in the end rather than Fogstars. I liked the look of the Fogstars, and particularly the screen display especially when compared with the Pylontechs simple led lights, i much prefer to read a screen. Picked the Pylontechs for two reasons really. Ease of future extensions, tried and trusted by lots more people so hopefully less niggles overtime.
Also asked Fogstars a few questions (probably badly worded ones in fairness from a novice to this) and although got an answer of sorts back straight away there wasnt much of the detail i was seeking, so went for the 'safer option'.

No time left for me to realy explore or deal with complications or learn to much so unfortunately couldnt look towards a 'premade homemade' type install from the likes of Mr Deng, as advised on here by a couple of folk.

Anyway, id like to thank you all for your help and suggestions, as well as apologise for my daft questions, but we have to start somewhere and i promise im a far more clued up plumber than an electrician. Your boiler is safer 8n my hands than your electronics!

Some piccies (hopefully)

[nowty]

Nice one resybaby, you seem to have ticked most of the boxes and you have not skimped on the insulation.

Nice to see your pics, does your FIT inverter work round the shading from that chimney ?, some have a global peak function.

Whats a RHW ?, is it Residential Hot Water ?, or a thermal store ?

Any plans on an EV ?

[Stinsy]

Thanks for the update. Looks like a tidy install! I especially like how you sketched out space for expanding pylontechs! Just like Nowty I'm a bit concerned about that chimney though. Sorry if this has already been discussed but are you on a ToU tariff?

[resybaby]

RWH = Rainwater harvesting.

Nah, no plans on an EV. We have two motors, a 65mpg Polo and a Transporter camper, which makes 45 mpg when driven like a granny. Use the Polo 95% of the time, just a few long trips in the other one for days/weeks away touring.

Definately insulation the key. All my external facing house walls have plasterboard covered 2" celotex on the inside face, took me three months to do all that work, moving sockets, wider windowboards, new skirting, skimming etc etc. Makes a HUGE difference though.

Im due south facing, and surprisingly the panel behind the 300mm flue doesnt seem to make a lot of noticable difference, we always exceed 4000 on our FIT generation each year, and they are not the best of panels (Upsolar 190w @ 14.1% efficent). Unfortunately, given the sticky out bit of the house at the front messing up the roofline i couldnt get two clean rows of new panels up there, else id have changed the lot. Think it looks ok in two blocks though.

Yeah, kept a bit of space back for a few more batteries if needed, but we have 9.5kw up there so they seem to fill pretty quickly at the moment so shall keep a watch out. Never say never eh!

Standard edonomy7 tariff at the moment - next trick is to work out what the best export tariff/company we can find. Obviously keeping the original FIT generation payments. We're actually quite low users, so i recon we could earn a few bob exporting in the summer. Had a look through Octopus's site - blimey its confusing. Anybody know if i can just export whole lot (once batteries full) or am i restricted to a maximum by SEG or anything?

[Stinsy]

Look at Octopus Flex if you’re exporting a lot. Especially with batteries where you can export at peak times…

[robl]

As you have a FIT system, I assume that is FIT generation + FIT deemed export?
If so, it's a bit of a faff, but you can convert the FIT deemed export to SEG measured** export. At which point you can add more solar and or batteries, and take your pick of what tariff you'd like.

And yes, Octopus' tariffs are confusing, especially the linked import and export tariffs. We're with them - we have Octopus Go + Octopus Fixed Lite, an export tariff exclusively for go. Go is great if you have a home battery (soon for us, fogstar on order ) and or an elec car (yes), so can do significant amounts of timeshifting. Flux or Cosy are likely better over winter if your battery hasn't enough capacity.

**Once you change from deemed to measured, there's no going back - it is disallowed