I've been having a nightmare and i hope someone can help!
For our home installation we already have 14 x 250w panels installed that are part of the FIT scheme which was installed around 11-12 years ago just as the scheme ended (we were I think the last installation done by the company before the deadline).
We have a problem in that we have been trying to get extra installed on a garage roof next to it that was not available when we first did this.
Essentially the panels are on our large garden office (previously a large double garage) and we since built a new double garage behind it.
The large blue circle is our house on Wootton Road, Tiptoe. The smaller blue circle is the mains board.
The red outline is property boundaries - we have rear access via Danehurst New Road.
The purple oval is where the new panels will go and you can see our currents down and right.
The green oval was where I was interested in a ground mounted array but I am ignoring that for now.
We went through many companies asking about installing a further separate system that would not impact the FIT scheme and after each of them said they could help they all gradually disappeared and stopped responding even after coming round for site visits etc. That was the first 9 companies....
I then came across a company that had installed the panels on our motorhome who then moved into home system and said they could help - we in fact have all of the equipment here but they then said they were not going to install (we had only paid for the kit at that point) and have left hung out to dry.
2 more companies have come along since who I have given all of the details to and after saying they could do it have simply faded away as well.
I have the brackets on my roof already and will start fitting the panels so it is not much more than checking it over and safely wiring it together.
The solar installations are approx 70m from our house and there is armoured cable supplying those buildings with a fuseboard etc in the office.
This is the basic wiring plan for the secondary installation:
We have 8 Pylontech US2000C batteries, all of the Victron gear, panels etc here and mostly ready to connect. These batteries are in the new garage at the end furthest from the house but this could be changed to they are at the other end of the garage if required.
The plan is that we would take the mains feed from the house and run it up the garden directly into the Quattro 2 inverter charger - this would then automatically failover when we have power cuts in the winter which being in Tiptoe we do get regularly. As we work from home this is very inconvenient although we do have a small generator with a switch in the house that we can isolate ourselves from the main supply with before starting the generator.
The Victron then would be programmed to charge batteries and we would mainly work off them only keeping a mains connection for emergency charging over the winter as and when required. If things were really bad with us going days without electric (which happens) then we will be able to charge the batteries with the genny via the Victron.
We also recently bought an electric motorbike that we can charge during the day - currently it simply plugs in via a 3 pin 123amp plug which is perfectly fin as it charges during the day no problem.
We would then look at a supplier who can give us cheap rate overnight electricity so as required we can charge the batteries on a lower rate. If we need more batteries I can always simply add more batteries.
The overall wiring plan is that we have the new cable up to the Victron then we feed the power from the Victron either:
straight back down to the housethis would mean using 5 core cable up and down which will be heavy and inflexibleit would then also mean the power going back to the house would then then feed back up to the office so voltage drop will be significant there and backwe could potentially put a further victron or similar unit in the house to bump the voltage back before going back to the office and garageto the office fuse boardthen back down to the house where we can possible use the current cabling or replace as required but there will be a big voltage drop
The Victron then will ONLY charge the batteries and not put any power back out onto the grid so it will not affect the FIT scheme in any way so not causing us to lose the £2k+ a year we get back from it.
I do not see this as remotely difficult but as it is slightly unusual, we are simply getting nowhere. I've been trying to progress this for over 2 years now and simply beating my head against the wall.
