Batteries = smaller grid connection?

[Crofter]

I'm looking at building another house near my existing one. I'm keen to include PV and storage on the new build.

 

Last time around, I paid a fairly hefty sum to get connected to the grid. And I pay a standing charge every month. 

 

If the new house had enough storage and the right sized inverters to handle peak loads, is there any reason (technical or legal) to prevent me from simply piggybacking the new house off the supply for the old one? In effect I'd be trickle charging the battery and then running everything off that. 

 

Through the summer I'd expect to be running entirely off the PV of course. I suppose that without an official grid connection I wouldn't be eligible for export payments? But then again, the PV could be put on the old house. Hmmm.

 

Any thoughts?

[-rick-]

Would this be an annex style property dependent on the first? AirBNB with all bills included? If so then I think this is ok. If it's a property you want to be independently leased out or sold then I think theres an issue.

 

AFAIK you are not allowed to privately resell energy without registration and a license and it certainly wouldn't be worth the admin, etc, to do that for a single house, it does happen in large blocks of flats with shared energy systems.

[Crofter]

57 minutes ago, -rick- said:

Would this be an annex style property dependent on the first? AirBNB with all bills included? If so then I think this is ok. If it's a property you want to be independently leased out or sold then I think theres an issue.

 

AFAIK you are not allowed to privately resell energy without registration and a license and it certainly wouldn't be worth the admin, etc, to do that for a single house, it does happen in large blocks of flats with shared energy systems.

It would be two properties owned by us, one as our own home and the other as a short term (typically 3-5 day) holiday rental.

[-rick-]

So long as you own both properties and aren't metering the use of energy/recharging I doubt there is an issue in the short term assuming you can get past building control (not sure about that aspect). Doubt you'd be able to sell the property seperately though.

 

If the property is close to your existing then I suspect the cost of electrical connection will be much lower than the previous connection as the DNO should be able to reuse a chunk of the work they charged you for last time. If it's far away then trenching from your existing house to the new would also be expensive.

 

Having said all that, I'm out of my depth here, replied earlier because I am aware of the restrictions on resale of energy, etc, not sure about anything beyond that.

[Mike]

3 hours ago, Crofter said:

is there any reason (technical or legal) to prevent me from simply piggybacking the new house off the supply for the old one?

I can't think of one.

 

1 hour ago, -rick- said:

Doubt you'd be able to sell the property separately though.

Hmm. Home owners have a statutory right to choose their electricity suppliers - I guess that applies to anyone with a grid connection? If so you couldn't require a future buyer to use 'your' electricity supply, but AFAIK there would be nothing to stop you selling the house as being 'off grid'. Though that would certainly limit the number of potential buyers.

 

Edited yesterday at 20:01 by Mike

[AdamSee]

2 hours ago, -rick- said:

Would this be an annex style property dependent on the first? AirBNB with all bills included? If so then I think this is ok. If it's a property you want to be independently leased out or sold then I think theres an issue.

 

AFAIK you are not allowed to privately resell energy without registration and a license and it certainly wouldn't be worth the admin, etc, to do that for a single house, it does happen in large blocks of flats with shared energy systems.

 

Technically, isn't this what a HMO does using sub meters? Is that not classed as reselling electricity? 

[-rick-]

17 minutes ago, AdamSee said:

 

Technically, isn't this what a HMO does using sub meters? Is that not classed as reselling electricity? 

 

Well that sent me down a rabbit hole. I think what I've said above about licences likely only applies if you have on-site generation and even then maybe it's only bigger scale - really not finding much info. Looks like it's perfectly fine to do sub-metering to tenants so long as you don't profit - charges need to pass through. That does of course mean any sale would have to be a leasehold sale for it to continue after sale.

 

23 minutes ago, Mike said:

AFAIK there would be nothing to stop you selling the house as being 'off grid'.

 

This does sound like the easiest way to sell, though if you were looking to sell you could also price up the cost of a connection to the grid at that point.

[Dillsue]

If and when you build the second house put in a meter box and ducting to your consumer unit for a future grid connection. If you decide to sell in the future, spending a few grand on a grid connection for the next owner will likely be more than recouped in the sale price versus an off grid setup.

 

Piggy back off the existing house in the meantime if that works for you.

 

If you put PV on the new house any surplus will go to the grid via the existing house connection. Remember that any DNO limits for the existing house will apply to the combined output from both houses! Make sure the cable between the 2 houses is big enough to carry the max any PV could generate without causing to much of a voltage rise.