DougMLancs

Here’s his quote- fitted Sept last year in the Midlands

My brother has his detached 4 bed bungalow on just two A2A units and is very happy with it. Install costs were low and way more efficient than his old storage heaters. I would second retaining some control over any heating system and bear in mind if you go A2A then you’ll also have to manage/disable cooling.

Do you mean it’s the battery charge/discharge rate that you want above 3.6kW? That’s the only difference I can see about the SunSynk inverter. Any hybrid inverter will supply AC at its full rated output to the house and grid as well as charge the battery with excess unless the DNO say it has to be export limited under a g100.

Octopus don’t check for battery ownership when you sign up to Flux at the moment though and the final T&C’s that you sign don’t stipulate a battery. They do say it’s ‘designed’ for solar and battery owners and I think on one of the pages it includes a battery in ‘what you’ll need’. There are plenty of battery-less but happy Flux customers on the MSE Green & Ethical Board. I wouldn’t be surprised if Octopus tightened up on this however.

That’s interesting and good that some suppliers are actually taking on non-MCS/flexi-orb installations. Octopus will only take MCS unfortunately for many.

Bear in mind you won’t be able to get paid for your export if you go the DIY route. This isn’t a dealbreaker with most suppliers paying pittance but Octopus will pay 15p a unit flat rate on their Outgoing Fixed or 21.7p day rate/34.8p peak rate on their Flux tariff. Just something to consider in your calculations.

Double the kW definitely shouldn’t be double the price. There are many costs to an installation which are either fixed or change relatively little in proportion to the system size so I would expect an 8kW system with no battery to be no more than £9k and that’s probably still on the steep side.

That quote seems high- I had 12x JA Solar 370W, a gen 2 3.6kW Givenergy hybrid inverter and a 9.5kW battery done in roof for £9800 in the NW last month. We’re earning roughly £5 a day on flux export at the moment which will build a nice credit balance to pay for the off peak charging in the winter.

I had 12 panels plus inverter installed in-roof with GSE trays last month for £5800 - pretty sure my installer didn’t pay £2k for in-roof fixtures.

@JamesPa I notice Brendon Uys from Heacol has moved down to Bicester to set up Ultimate Renewables Supplies which includes the design and supply of heat pump systems as well as training up installers to his way of thinking. Their website is bare bones at the moment but some more info on their LinkedIn page. https://uk.linkedin.com/company/ultimate-renewables-supplies I like Brendon’s innovative approach to system design (he’s designing our system) and now that he’s further South he might be of help in your situation?

Solaredge use LMNC chemistry though like the Powerwall which is more dangerous than the LFP used in the other batteries like Pylontech and Givenergy.

Sounds like my favourite game: cowboy PV installer bingo! Was the discount for a limited time only too? 😂 From my own experience- a decent installer is normally far too busy to do on site surveys for an initial quote. No need with Google Earth. Fingers crossed for number 2!

You’ve said you’re keen to export but if you go the DIY route then you’ll have to give it away for free since energy companies will want an MCS/Flexi-orb certified installation (MCS for Octopus for the best export rates). Sounds like you’ll be self-consuming most of your production anyway though.

There is a government consultation still open which is open to contributions from individuals until 8th June if anyone wants a channel to put forward ideas. ”We're seeking views on the design of a market-based mechanism to support the development of the market in low-carbon electric heat pumps.” https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/clean-heat-market-mechanism

Just as a note- MCS don’t have a monopoly on export payments. SSE, OVO, E-ON, Scottish Power and British Gas all accept Flexi-Orb certification as an alternative to MCS. Octopus don’t accept it at the moment though so it’s no good for getting a top export rate.

FWIW the battery owners I know all say they wished they’d gone bigger but it is down to circumstances. It’s worth checking the specs of the inverter to see how quickly it can charge any batteries too. It’s not as useful having 16kW of batteries if the inverter can only charge them at 2.6kWh and you’ve only got a 3 hour cheap rate window. Also worth double-checking on the MCS website that your installer is certified with them so that you can access tariffs like Octopus Flux. A few people on other forums have been caught out on that recently. Now that Octopus Cosy is out as well then it might make a good winter tariff partner for Flux.

Personally I would also amend i) to remove the need for it used solely for heating purposes where the system forms the primary heating system for a property. I believe most A2A units are capable of cooling which means they have to go through planning at the moment. This caught my brother out when he ripped out ancient storage heaters and went for A2A. He ticked all the other PD conditions but had to apply for retrospective PP. I don’t think they’ll believe you if you promise not to switch on the cooling in summer 😉 I take your point @jamespa but if we’re trying to overhaul the regs we may as well improve the wording.