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Batteries make a lot of sense to shift usage from day to evening for example or, in our case, to power our ASHP using cheaper periods through tarifs such as Cosy.
£13,500 bought us 8 x 450W panels, invertor and 5.76kWhr battery, this would supplement the 6 x 300W panels (no battery) that came with the house.
No, you're being ripped off. I paid £7,500 for 12 panels, inverter, and a 5kWh battery, and £1,500 of that was the scaffolding.
No, you're being ripped off. I paid £7,500 for 12 panels, inverter, and a 5kWh battery, and £1,500 of that was the scaffolding.
Funny, I just received another quote, should have checked my email before posting 😂
Quote from a local electrical contractor with a good reputation for PV, £8,600 for 14 panels and a 10kWhr battery.
Still a long way off paying for itself sadly, £60 a month in consumption and SEG doesn't seem to cover the ~£100/month on a 10yr loan.
Adding the cost of a hot water cylinder would offset a lot of our gas use but presumably also eat into our export, but I imagine we would still recoup more this way, still not sure it makes financial sense sadly...
Edit- in reply to your initial post, not the update. Sounds expensive. We were very pleased we upped the storage to 10kwh from our initial planned 5, with a flexible tariff we can minimise what we buy electricity for when not producing all we need, and can also program to dump electric to the grid at best price when we have surplus. I’d get some more quotes…..
I think ours was about 14k 3 years ago for 15 panels and 10kWh battery though that is solaredge which is more expensive (the battery especially). Last year our total electricity bill was around £40. Before installation we were spending over £1500 a year on electricity. That gives a rough 9 year payback except it doesn't account for the fact that the £40 cost includes charging 2 cars.
My regret is not adding more panels on our other roof side and a bigger inverter (out export is limited to 3.2). I'm hoping soon there will be some V2G car chargers so we can 100% load shift and export all day.
Last year our total electricity bill was around £40
Presumably that's just consumption and not standing charges? We're paying £208/yr just in standing charges!
Sounds spendy to me. We had ours installed in Nov 22. We have 5.6kWh of PV and an 8.7kWh battery (included an iBoost as well but redundant now we have an ASHP) and that came in at £12,540. I would expect that price to be lower now given the reduction in panel and battery costs. I got quotes from 5 companies and they varied quite significantly. The company I used was very good and I would recommend them.
Payback is impossible to estimate given fluctuations in Kw prices and amount solar of course but ive just checked and my inverter tells me that since installation my PV has generated 17.93MGw, at 25p per Kw (roughly the average market rate through 2025) thats a return of £4482. so roughly a payback of around 8 years. Solar panels last decades with only light degradation and my home battery is guaranteed for 10 years so quite comfortable with the decision, particularly as it was as much based on reducing our carbon footprint.
No, you're being ripped off. I paid £7,500 for 12 panels, inverter, and a 5kWh battery, and £1,500 of that was the scaffolding.
when.
Costs for the components appear to be on the rise. Panels i have on my spreadsheet as i was looking at expanding my array were sitting at 40-47quid inc vat last year are now 70-75 quid.
likewise batteries are about 20% up.
Presumably that's just consumption and not standing charges? We're paying £208/yr just in standing charges!
No that's the whole bill for the year. (Consumption + standing charge) - export
I've been considering getting panels for a while. Assuming Google Maps has North oriented correctly, is my roof (#43) a good angle to make them worthwhile?
The east facing ones are in bright sunlight all morning, but less-so in the afternoon, the south facing one has less capacity, but I assume gets sun for more of the day.
I should elaborate a little...
I used this online calculator and it suggests a payback time of 19 years for NE facing roof, and 16 years for Easterly! Seems excessive - I just wondered if real world experience might be different to an online calculator.
https://energysavingtrust.org.uk/energy-at-home/energy-tools-and-calculators/
the east will get first thing in morning and as the sun climbs, but you'll potentially get shading on the most northerly section of roof mid morning? so you may need a triple array to make it work? or panel optimizer doo dahs
South will work till mid / late noon?
im thinking how mine works, your south roof is a very similar angle to mine
The big savings would be with a battery and time of use tariff
The quote our salesperson provided suggested 25 years! We are 'low consumers' in a modern house which probably increases the payback period...
likewise batteries are about 20% up.
I think the other way around. My understanding is around a 20-40% drop in battery prices over the last 12 months. I have been tracking the price of a modular upgrade to mine and at the moment I can get circa 4kWh for a similar price to 2.8kWh about a year ago. Just holding out to see if they drop further plus don't need it until Autumn/winter
Just to PSA this again - Axle energy VPP is worth looking at if your inverter is supported (Fox, Solax, Givenergy, Solis, sigenergy). They've just confirmed they're continuing with the £10/month minimum payout beyond the original beta date of 31/3. Basically they tell you when an "event" is happening, and during the event they control your inverter to export to the grid and you get £1/kWh on top of your normal export tarrif. Events have been 1hr so far, around morning or evening peak. They play nicely with HA and you can integrate the setup into predbat.
I'm £70 up since signing up in December and they even do signing on bonuses with a referral code if you knew anyone who had one...
So just got a quote from Octopus
Any thoughts welcome, I know very little!
This is price with install for 13 panels amd 10kw battery
So facing roof and 6 of us we are quite big users, no EV (yet, considering a small runabout)
Do these payback numbers stack up?
Cheers stw solar follective!!
We are mortgaging with Nationwide and they offer an interest free loan of up to 20k for green home improvements so this is what ewe are considering
Was tipped off to it here...
https://bsky.app/profile/josiahmortimer.bsky.social/post/3miixe6ures2f
Always worth getting other quotes for comparison. IMO the first thing is to make sure you're maximising the roof area and sticking up as many panels as you can while the scaffold is up. Then you want to make sure the battery will see you through a dull winters day without paying higher import rates so make sure it's appropriately sized. Also if you're getting a 5kw inverter make sure they are handling the DNO application to enable you to export above the standard 3.68kw limit.
Where are you? Someone can probably recommend an installer in your area for a second quote.
Edit - re the EV. Yes you could use excess solar to charge it in the summer but it's not always straightforward. Alternatively Octopus are currently charging sub 6p for overnight charging vs paying 12p for export so financially it's better to charge the car overnight and be paid for the solar export rather than sticking it in the car. Other tariffs will come and go during your payback period so that maths will undoubtedly shift.
Cheers
Spoken to my sis in law who works for an ekectrical wholesalers, she's going to see what they can get the panels for
Just checked and using the octopus feed in tariff it reckons payback in 6 years
You may want to wait a little to see what happens with panel prices as they seem to have risen by about 20% since Iran.
@kimbers. We have same size array and 8.7kW battery and 5kW inverter and I think we paid around £1k more than that around 3 years ago and I had quotes from 5 companies so happy with what we paid. Looks a good quote to me. If you go for other quotes I would say compare like with like. Octopus are a large company and have a good reputation, I wouldn't compare with a local one man band etc.
octopus just subcontract so i wouldn't compare them to anyone as like a box of chocolates you never know what your going to get.
I heard recently that there may be plug in panels available to buy soon, from supermarkets? I may have got that wrong...
Anyone know if these would be any good, and worth getting?
Cheers!
they have been available in europe for a long time.
Good for renters and non permanent installs for what ever reason.
they don't seem good value compared to the sum of the components for a permanent install - but you do remove the need for labour and scaffolding.
With kerosene prices giving printer ink a run for its money the dynamics have changed again if you can get a heat pump installation completely covered by the grant, and invest (or have invested in) solar/battery. My neighbour and I have almost identical homes and both keep them at about 21C on the thermostat, which makes the maths easy. Assuming 80% efficiency for the oil boiler...
Their oil use (at 80% efficiency) for yesterday (in Norf Yorkshire) was ~£9.00, my electricity usage was 62p at the overnight tariff rate.
If oil prices stay high come autumn, it's not just going to be people on low incomes struggling.
Seeing reports that GivEnergy are appointing administrators and heading for insolvency. They sent an email a few weeks ago saying they were going to start charging for their app and API use which went down as well as you'd expect. Anyone know more about what's going on and whether they're likely to be bought or will we be left with unsupported kit?
the app is within a seperate company "givenergy software"
looking all companies house - all directors punted bar 1 then a loan of 8 million approved by the director to a property company ?