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Solar advice.


TheMitchells

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While my parents are still in the bungalow, we are reluctant to do any major work as they would not cope with it.  However, I am keen to make improvements if possible.  The heating system is a large very old solid block in the centre cupboard, heated by electric coils overnight (economy 7) and then blown around the place.  It works fine and is quickly heats the place up, which they like.  There is gas in the road but not to the property and when they needed a new hot water tank, we installed a new one.

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But their electricity bills are rather large!  They like it warm with a couple of extra night storage heaters on full most of the  time and an electric fire in the lounge for when its cold🫣.  So as their roof is south facing with no shading, I thought it makes sense to add PV and could be used to help bring down their bills (the OH says it will not be of much help).   Adding a battery is an option though it may have to go into the garage which is abuot 15/20m away from the main building.

 

We had a quote done but someone a friend recommended.   -

 

DATE: 24/05/23 Page 3 of 8

Description of goods and services we will provide…
........................................ Limited recommends the following price proposal based on the information and suitability of
your property.
image.thumb.png.c05df9a453e82bcfb11dfcfd5d93b0c2.png

 

image.png.023aa93a74cffa77767f6e4f24094e16.png

 

This seems quite reasonable and is about £3k less than one we had from Scottish Power who didnt even come and have a look.  At least the first chap came and measured up and had a good look round the whole property. 

BUT, the OH is quite worried that if we had it installed now, when we did do the main renovation, it would all need to be changed.  he thinks it would be better to wait and do it all at once.  Which I can understand.  On the other hand, we could be having free elctricity for several years.....

 

Time for a think........

 

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With an outlay of £8000 and you would be unlikely to self use more than £800 worth of electricity in a year it has a payback time of 10 years.

 

The daytime generation from the PV won't help the big storage heater, but it would help any suplimental rea time heating and hot water heating, and og course all electrical appliances used in the daytime.

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4 minutes ago, ProDave said:

With an outlay of £8000 and you would be unlikely to self use more than £800 worth of electricity in a year it has a payback time of 10 years.

 

The daytime generation from the PV won't help the big storage heater, but it would help any suplimental rea time heating and hot water heating, and og course all electrical appliances used in the daytime.

which can be quite a lot.  They seem to have the washer on most days and dont seem to understand the concept of defrosting food during the day, rather than trying to cook it from frozen! 😄 

I dont mind the long payback, we hope to be there for many years after Mum and Dad no longer need it.  

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There's a bit of gash in there as well £650 for a couple of miscellaneous electrical items - that's a LOT of wire and connectors....

Maybe worth pushing a bit on those line items?  Try a cheeky £6500 for parts for you to be able to go ahead?

 

Simon

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52 minutes ago, Bramco said:

There's a bit of gash in there as well £650 for a couple of miscellaneous electrical items - that's a LOT of wire and connectors....

Maybe worth pushing a bit on those line items?  Try a cheeky £6500 for parts for you to be able to go ahead?

 

Simon

It could be because of the distance between the bungalow and the garage where we were planning to put the battery.  we'd need a trench and armoured cable.  At the moment, we have put the PV on hold till we know we can do it without it being affected by later works on the extension.  And the extension would increase the roof slightly, so it may be worth waiting till we can do the max size we can fit. 

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How much extra capacity is the extension likely to give? You are already at the maximum 16A for a standard install, any more and it would need to go to DNO for a G99 which in itself costs money, if say it only gave you an extra 1kWp it probably wouldn’t be worth the hassle.

 

if the roof is likely to need replacing any time soon, this would be one thing to have done before the works.

 

they seem to have specified two inverters, one for solar and an ac coupled for the battery, this wouldn’t be advised for a non-FiT install, better off with a single hybrid inverter as you’ll get fewer losses on the conversion between AC and DC.

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On 12/03/2024 at 08:38, MikeGrahamT21 said:

G99 which in itself costs money

There was no charge for a g99 with my DNO (UKPN). Did it myself via the smart connect portal, got approval for 8kW.

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On 12/03/2024 at 08:38, MikeGrahamT21 said:

How much extra capacity is the extension likely to give? You are already at the maximum 16A for a standard install, any more and it would need to go to DNO for a G99 which in itself costs money, if say it only gave you an extra 1kWp it probably wouldn’t be worth the hassle.

 

if the roof is likely to need replacing any time soon, this would be one thing to have done before the works.

 

Not much.  maybe an extra panel or two but not much more.  We have added a shower room to the side, but the roof does not go all the way to the top of the main roof.  Our new extension would. 

I have asked about the inverters and am waiting for a reply.

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12 hours ago, TheMitchells said:

Not much.  maybe an extra panel or two but not much more.  We have added a shower room to the side, but the roof does not go all the way to the top of the main roof.  Our new extension would. 

I have asked about the inverters and am waiting for a reply.

 

I believe you can have more than the 3.68kWp in panels, but still remain on a standard under 16A circuit, you'll lose out on the peak power available via panels, but get more year round, though i'm not 100% certain on that one

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3 hours ago, MikeGrahamT21 said:

 

I believe you can have more than the 3.68kWp in panels, but still remain on a standard under 16A circuit, you'll lose out on the peak power available via panels, but get more year round, though i'm not 100% certain on that one

Yep, the export limit is based on inverter size.

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Picture 1 shows the south facing roof.  As you can see on the left the roof doesnt go all the way to the top.  When we do the whole new extension, it will go all the way down the side of the bungalow.  From the right blue arrow to the left blue arrow, extending the flat roof extension all across, and the garden wall (yellow) will have to go.  But we hope to have a pitched roof, with vaulted ceiling in the new part. 

 

The car is parked pointing at the new shower room.   Hope that clarifies things.

 

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Edited by TheMitchells
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So for the purpose of the solar, the additional amount of space which will come available on the south side will be fairly limited as you said. Depending on cost of G99 in your area will likely be the deciding factor for you, but since the panels are fairly cheap these days, you'd probably be better buying enough to do the entire roof including the new bit, and then adding them on when the roof area comes available, having to amend an existing install will have its additional costs however, so it would be worth finding out how much that might be to weigh up your decision.

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