Solar / Battery Storage considerations

This is a very interesting thread thanks to everyone posting here. I would like to have a new house built if I could ever find a plot of land! and would have inset solar panels, ashp, underfloor heating and probably battery. Battery is the main technology that I suspect will evolve. Don’t know if anyone follows Electric Viking on Youtube but here is one on Sodium Solid State

Also, Octopus are introducing a zero bills for 5 years

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So just had our array installed, not seen any sun in the slightest yet but over last 3 days it hasn’t produced much at all. 6.6kw array and we’ve done 2.7, 2.5 and 1.2kwh respectively over the last 3 days, does that sound right?

Are you in the UK?

Last few days has been low production for me (south west UK); 2-4kWh whereas the 25th November was a little over 20kWh.

Slightly smaller array than yours.

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Yes UK, East Suffolk

In which case… sounds about right; short days, overcast.

I’ve been playing with a prediction service https://solcast.com/ since I’m thinking of automating how much I charge my battery overnight (if the next day is sunny after I’ve charged the battery it’s slightly irritating to watch power being exported rather than stored, but in reality probably only 12p lost…).

The service isn’t that bad at estimating what the output from my panels will be, or at least giving a rough idea; I’ve only visually compared the result and haven’t gotten around to comparing predictions vs actuals yet.

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Well that was exceptional. In Gloucestershire that day was twice as good as days either side according to my weather station. I’d be estimating about 6kWhs for a 6kWp system of 15 REC panels. I take the data recorded every 5 minutes and sum it.

Phil

I note with intrest that Octopus are now paying 15p/ unit exported on their outgoing fixed tariff. My application is in, just awaiting the export MPAN from my DNO before i can start earning. Although in December that is not going to be too much.

Got my eye on this also, trouble is at the moment they won’t let you have that export rate and the Go tariff

Yes, it was but it was up and down a lot in November.

Suspect it will be some time until I see that again!

This is our first November, which has been the wettest on record, so would normally be much better. The monthly power bill was $95, compared to $400 the previous year. Todays looking promising for a record production.

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My legacy tariff from june 2021 ( ends june 2023) charges me 12p off peak 21p peak per unit.
So i just need to make sure the battery is full at the end if the off peak period.
But, i could also discharge the battery prior to the off peak, sell that at 15p per unit, and charge up at 12 p per unit.

Our Eddi PV Divertor arrived after a 3 month wait so installed it Friday evening.

It’s a really nicely made unit being all metal construction with passive cooling. It was straightforward to install with just a new cable required between the immersion heater switch and the Eddi with the immersion cable being moved to the output of the Eddi.

I also purchased the Harvi which is the wireless transmitter which is located in the outside meter box. This has a CT clamp put on the incoming cable from the grid which allows it to determine whether we are importing or exporting. I also purchased an additional CT clamp which measures the solar production.

The app is very good, and gives some nice insight all in one place. All we need now is some sun as the solar production since I’ve installed the Eddi has been very poor. Not enough to trigger any surplus powe to the immersion heater.

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I rather regret being put off by the wait and instead buying one of the Marlec units. I suspect it works as well but doesn’t have the data output or the potential integration with a car charger.

I suspect I’ll end up buying an Eddi since the Zappi EV charger looks like just what I want to prioritise car charging over exporting in the summer. Maybe I’ll wait and see how much juice I actually end up exporting in the summer.

Yes, I was considering the iBoost but the lead time on my panels was long and they weren’t due to be installed until late December/early January so I decided to wait.

Then fortunately the solar company took on more people and brought forward the date to mid October instead.

I’m glad I waited for the Eddi though, the build quality is really good and it feels like it should last.

I just need some sun now, production has been very limited this weekend.

That app looks pretty good. Hopefully Wednesday is going to be a good sunny day for you.

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Nice app.

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Pretty dark and gloomy day here but zero production at all, that still sound normal?

Similar weather here, my panels were generating 20-50w for most of the time the sun was up.

Producing nothing at all sounds odd, but I’m certainly not an expert.

I think the weather clears up a bit on Tuesday-Wednesday maybe that’s a better day to check them? Missing out on a few tens of watts is maybe nothing that really matters if the panels work properly on a sunny day.

It might be worth looking at one of the prediction sites, somewhere above in the thread I listed one. There’s also loop that has a solar estimator that you can roughly configure to ‘place’ panels on your roof but I think you might need to sign up to their service to do this (although there was no charge when I did this)

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Try Solcast. A simple a free set up, and what I’ve seen so far, pretty accurate predictions.
For me it was poor today, likely to be poor tomorrow, picking up Tuesday and Wednesday. I’m in Kent.

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Signed up to Solcast, thanks you the pointers @StephenPacker @Thegreatroberto.
It does seem pretty accurate so far, predicted next to nothing today and tomorrow and as you say later in the week slightly better :+1:

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