MrTWales

Oh sorry my post had a typo. I'm importing a fair amount and maybe it is something like 0.1kW that in theory shouldn't be imorted (eg when the battery has charge of the generation is enough). I meant to say 0.1kW per day of export (not import). I get that it may take a while to trigger the battery when the grid is suddenly used but I didn't expect any to be exported when the battery will never get to be full at this time of year.

Thanks. It's no big deal but I just wanted to make sure that there wasn't a setting that could be tweaked. It does make me feel sad though when the diagram thing shows the generation going to the house, to the battery and to the grid at the same time!

Yes sure I will ask but I want to understand how it works if I can.

Thanks - it looks like I'm importing around 0.1kW per day at the moment (with the battery never getting full) - is this amount normal?

Hi - I wonder if I can ask about this. I have had panels set up for only a few days and yesterday the area had a power cut. This impacted my house as any other, but I want to make sure that I understand what options I have. Based on a quick search it seems like inverters turn off the solar generation is there is a power cut, so that no current flows out as this may impact on recovery work, but it is likely possible to run on the battery? This would help during the odd random outage but moreso if there is ever a time when power is cut at night (as has been mooted as a possibility). My router is a 6K Luxpower system and I can see a setting via a browser called "Power Backup", which can be enabled or disabled. It sounds like - assuming that this is safe - this would have to be set to "Enable"? The manual sort of suggests this but doesn't give any detail. I have tried to toggle, just to see what happens and one thing that happens is that - according to the graphic - once I set to "Enable" the battery isn't actually used. Eg now the battery has some decent charge but all comes from the grid unless I change this back, though I can click an option to force a discharge. So, I'm confused on how this should be set up! I note that the app has two extra options below this toggle for "Feed-in Grid" and "Feed in Grid Power Percent" so maybe I want those to be zero? One other thing I've noticed is that there is a tiny draw from the grid, even when in theory there shouldn't, and also a tiny feed into the grid, when in theory there shouldn't. I think that this may be just the way this kind of system works? The only connection between the inverter and the meter box is an ethernet cable, that wraps around one of the main cable and I think it detects the magnetism change (or something) so if there is a draw from the grid then it triggers and then the battery is used if there is enough charge. This may be totally wrong but even though the amounts are small it would be nice to reduce them if there is an easy setting option. (I will shortly get a diverter to the immersion heater fitted - they ran out of time on the day - so maybe this helps any feed in to the grid but maybe not if there is always this short change over period?)

It took about 6 months but I finally have a system. The market was horrible, with most installers not even getting back and even when I agreed a quote it took a couple of months to fit - and even then the battery and inverter changed (for the better I think). Nice to get it set up though!

I wonder if any of you guys can point me in the right direction here. I want to install on a flat roof: the area is 6.3m x 5m (ignoring the edge bit, ie this is the roof edges that are over the walls so weight could be placed right at the edge). The roof is facing pretty much flat South West along the short edge, and the roof is sloped about 2 degrees towards South West for drainage. There is pretty much no shade until about 9:30pm. I want as flat as possible and I have been thinking that the best direction is S/W, so 10 degrees + 2 dgrees of angle. The downside is that more ballast is needed than for an EW orientation and you need more gaps along one edge for shading. I'm just wondering how much worse an E/W set up would be as it would actually be NW/SE. It is possible that this direction may mean that I could fit more panels on, depending on the size. 4 x 3 400w panels is definitely OK but an NW/SE set up may mean other options potentially. It looks better too. Is there a website where I can get some idea of how well (or badly) this would work?

I actually called them up yesteday, just chasing for a quote as they did visit well over a month ago, and the guy said that they get loads of calls from people who had installs from companies that no longer exists and need something fixed. I'm guessing that they see issues with diverters fairly often, but as you say I'm sure that some of them work fine now.

Not going to lie, but I'm amazed at the comments re water heating. For a typical family, is this really such a huge deal? I get that diverting excess to an electric car can be huge, or to a garden pool or something, but if you want water at 56 degrees (or whatever) and have a well insultated typical sized water tank then do you really need to divert loads of power to maintain this? When I looked at gas useage, it was a tiny amount in the summer so the water heating (3 x 30 mins slots a week) + gas cooking on the hob was a small fraction of the overall use even though heating isn't on for around half of the year. I get the feeling that I'm probably understating how long an immersion heater has to be on, perhaps. Just to expand on this for fun, my usage over a year was as below. There is some holiday in the summer which distorts, and the wife + kids visit my inlaws a lot and when I'm home alone I get loads of take-aways and hardly ever put the water on (so hardly any gas useage), but still the huge variance in gas use wasn't something I expected. Electric Gas Gas Start End kWh m3 kWh 22/08/2021 21/09/2021 269 12 134 22/07/2021 22/08/2021 192 4 45 22/06/2021 22/07/2021 274 1 11 22/05/2021 22/06/2021 231 24 268 22/04/2021 22/05/2021 305 84 940 22/03/2021 22/04/2021 340 123 1,376 22/02/2021 22/03/2021 300 183 2,047 22/01/2021 22/02/2021 405 212 2,372 22/12/2020 22/01/2021 448 246 2,752 22/11/2020 22/12/2020 328 184 2,058 22/10/2020 22/11/2020 372 117 1,309 22/09/2020 21/10/2020 298 75 839

Just looking at my notes, he referred to Immersun as something that has been used but they'd clearly felt it wasn't worth the hassle given the issues people have had. Fair enough really, at least they were honest. My take is that I only use the gas for 30 mins three times a week to heat the water, so I don't want to overengineer anything. The water tank is quite new so barely loses any heat, but I'd still want to use any excess solar if I can. If a battery can provide 4kw max output and will be full by the evening then I think I'd be OK, even if the panels are providing not that much as the panels + battery should cover the power draw? I've never used IFTTT but if it works with the inverter and wifi switch then maybe it's possible to set up some clever triggers?

Very nice. As someone who is looking to get panels, the 5kWh overnight seems way more than I thought. Do you have loads of things running? I'm also amazed at the immersion heater power needed. I really didn't know it would be as much as that. I was thinking of just getting a wifi switch and trying to do something clever with IFTT or something like that to make sure it cuts out if there isn't enough excess, but I've no idea if that would work. I guess it's OK with a battery if that + generation provides enough and the battery would have enough overnight anyway. One guy who came around said that there were loads of issues with automatic diversion so they don't want to touch them, but they'd install a wifi switch (without it being part of the contract / guarantee) as it's easy.

Very sound advice. I guess I miss out on a few months of sun, but then again batteries seem to be getting better by the month almost and I could maybe get a slightly better system for the same price. It's just so damn frustrating!

I really should run a mile but the fact I'm even sort of considering it says how fed up I am of waiting! Looking at this guy's previous firm, the Google reviews were fairly typical but then someone from the (already wound up) company - maybe this guy - responded within the last year to all negative reviews, even old ones, with the most dick-ish rude replies I've ever seen. He's clearly a bit dodgy and screw it, I'll have to give it a miss I guess. Maybe I'm wrong about the winding up reasons, it just seemed the most likely reason. Maybe he just ran down stock at some point and then got away from a creditor, not sure. His LinkedIn still boasts about growing the now wound up company.

That was my thought really, but then again I suspect that you realistically can't have much expectation that the same firm will be there in 10 years to back the warranty. It's only one time this guy company wound up a company but it probably won't be the last time, and it's clearly for dodging warranty calls imo. I think the work would be done as it's short term and very quick (less than one full day), but I'm balancing not wanting to give scummy operators work with wanting panels and getting fed up with waiting.

Thanks both. I really don't know what to do as I really want the darn panels installed and getting quotes is horrendous. I did get one more quote last week though, from a firm that had decent reviews, but they were a lot more (£12.9 v £10.4). The install would be within 28 days and they want 25% up front. I really don't think they are going anywhere (they have taken on a salesperson and keep updating the website), and I really think the install would be OK. It's more the aftercare as I don't think they'll be there is 4/5 years as he'd start another firm most likely so there would be no call backs under a warranty. But, with the MCS guarantee, is this just a risk that you have to take in this sector?

Sigh. Getting sensible quotations has turned out to be a nightmare, but I have one I was going to go with before doing some digging. At first thought I just wrote it off but now I'm wondering whether this is actually pretty common for the sector unless you go with a larger (more expensive) firm. Certainly, a lot of instal firms haven't existed for long even if the Directors have experience in the sector. The company is question has existed for a while but has barely (if at all) traded - the guy I spoke to, who recently became the owner/director clearly knows his stuff and says that they have been doing commercial work recently. He used to be Director for another company before they went insolvent. It looks like they didn't want to have to visit old installs, under a warranty, so just started a new company. Shitty stuff really. The new company has just one review on Trustpilot but it's clearly fake (written by a former partner, who has his own instal company). In addition, the cost saving projection is utter nonsense, unlike the other quote I had. I don't care about this but it doesn't really give much confidence. So red flags everywhere, though I honestly think that they would do a decent job (he 100% knows his stuff) and they clearly need some good reviews posted to build this business. They are MCS so I'd get an insurance backed warranty, but I'd only be able to use this if they ceased trading (I believe) and it's a hassle. I guess, as it's a flat roof instal, there is probably less that can go wrong and issues may be easier to fix, but still.. I should just run a mile and not think any more about it. right?

It's a tough one. Based on trying (and generally failing) to get quotes, and what they are, I did ponder about waiting for a year or two but I wonder if things will get worse before they get better (esp with whatever is happening in October). My thinking now is delaying could cost almost £2k of extra bills over a couple of years and I'd doubt that the price will reduce by more than that, even if installers are suddenly scratching around for work in a couple of years. Then, if the market needs a boost and some kind of sensible feed-in tarrif is offered then I assume the sector would become manic (?).

I've finally got another quote - slightly more but this is MSC accredited so I guess the warranty is more valuable. I guess it's the going rate!

Good point about the silicone. A tiny bit on the inside should help and I guess I can change the bulbs without needing to remove it anyway. I forgot about ordering a thermal camera before - so I'm tempted to wait until I get it, then take pictures / videos when some fittings are replaced (and maybe some with and without silicone) to see what difference it makes.

I've ordered some as they are so cheap (different to my earlier link as they got bad reviews), but if they aren't that great I'll get the proper ones you suggested. As it is, even now in May, if I put my hand by a fitting I feel a cold draft so anything will be an improvement over that as the gap to allow the swivel is just so big. I must have >60 GU10s in the house overall and when my thermal camera gets here I'll see what they all look like but I can see myself spending lots of cash on new fittings at some point!

They do look good - I assume that you yank it all out and replace when the bulb goes but I guess it's very rare. The issue I have is that there are 12 of these in the room (too many but I guess bulbs have got brighter since the house was built) and the room is very bright as is with 3w/4w bulbs so I don't need more than that for each. I also like trying different bulbs sometimes - eg I got some new warm light GU10s this year that are only 4w but insanely bright, so I switched some in rooms where the spotlight was over a desk and it looks amazing. I wonder about getting something like this - as it's cheap and even I could fit myself with no wiring and use with existing bulbs. Not as good as what you linked to but it should stop virtually all of the draft. https://www.lights.co.uk/elc-dakarra-downlight-set-of-10-gu10-white.html

I also like the metal clip thing to keep the bulb in place as sometimes the twisty bits get stuck and that makes me get all annoyed, esp if on a ladder.

Ah I see. Doh! I am now wondering about whether a cheap and easy way is to find non-tilt fittings as, looking at it, the gap is only there to allow for tilt and I don't need them to tilt. Eg - something like this would work I think (?) and I could fit it myself (which is saying something)... https://tekled.co.uk/products/fixed-pressed-steel-downlight-white-ip20-gu10?variant=42546454167793&currency=GBP&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic&gclid=Cj0KCQjw1tGUBhDXARIsAIJx01klIFd8GazVnQDGHmG0JkOT5FTycfqBPuyV3_IBk2MIrj6Q17GZDoIaAidLEALw_wcB

This is maybe something I should do! To be clear (baring in mind I don't have much common sense) - this would mean re-wiring the fitting a bit whereas the other helpful option wouldn't as the bulb just fits in wired as it is?

Ah thanks. Interesting. I can't work out from the picture how the bulb stays in place as there is no twisty part - maybe there is a metal clip on the outside?