Solar panels , would you ?

Got our bill today and we paid £7 for the last month, electricity and gas. Mostly standing charges and gas.
This has been helped also by gaining £0.01 in one of the 2 free electricity sessions ;-)
 
I’m moving soon and plan to get solar panels, battery and ev charger.
I’ve looked at octopus to get a rough idea of price of installation.
Seems pretty reasonable. I have looked elsewhere but can’t seem to get an idea online anywhere else without getting too deep in details as I don’t want the seller getting junk mail!

When I do move in I intend to get quotes. Is it better to get a big company or better to go local? If local how do you find a supplier to trust.

Also can anyone give advice on what to make sure I don’t agree to something that I will regret later
 
Ross61 said:
I’m moving soon and plan to get solar panels, battery and ev charger.
I’ve looked at octopus to get a rough idea of price of installation.
Seems pretty reasonable. I have looked elsewhere but can’t seem to get an idea online anywhere else without getting too deep in details as I don’t want the seller getting junk mail!

When I do move in I intend to get quotes. Is it better to get a big company or better to go local? If local how do you find a supplier to trust.

Also can anyone give advice on what to make sure I don’t agree to something that I will regret later
Click to expand...

If you see a house with solar in the area you’re moving to, go knock on their door.
 
larmen said:
I stumbled across this calculator, one that actually gives me numbers before harvesting my data: https://heatable.co.uk/solar/quote
Do you experienced people think this numbers are 'reasonable and realistic'?

Depending on my drawing and selected roof pitch I am supposed to get 7 or 8 of their panels onto the roof, and that costs me either 6k for a 2.9kW 7 panel option or 6.5k for the 8 panel 3.4kW option.
That's supposed to be all in. (well, they don't mention bird protection).


For batteries I like the idea of the new givenergy all in one system which costs about 6k excluding vat for 13.5 kWh.


Just taking this as a starter for research.
Click to expand...
Bumping it up for the link which allows skipping entering contact information
 
Ross61 said:
I’m moving soon and plan to get solar panels, battery and ev charger.
I’ve looked at octopus to get a rough idea of price of installation.
Seems pretty reasonable. I have looked elsewhere but can’t seem to get an idea online anywhere else without getting too deep in details as I don’t want the seller getting junk mail!

When I do move in I intend to get quotes. Is it better to get a big company or better to go local? If local how do you find a supplier to trust.

Also can anyone give advice on what to make sure I don’t agree to something that I will regret later
Click to expand...
I bumped my old reasearch up for you. Take the numbers with care and imagine a panel less than the tool says
 
Ross61 said:
I’m moving soon and plan to get solar panels, battery and ev charger.
I’ve looked at octopus to get a rough idea of price of installation.
Seems pretty reasonable. I have looked elsewhere but can’t seem to get an idea online anywhere else without getting too deep in details as I don’t want the seller getting junk mail!

When I do move in I intend to get quotes. Is it better to get a big company or better to go local? If local how do you find a supplier to trust.

Also can anyone give advice on what to make sure I don’t agree to something that I will regret later
Click to expand...
Be very careful about your calculations. Bare in mind that those times when panels generate the most output, you won't be able to use it or store it all. You will always end up exporting some energy. And in the winter you will have to import nearly all your needs. As a rule of thumb, without a battery I export about 65-70% of my generation.

In my particular situation (low usage, no EV), the panels make sense, but batteries do not. But only because the export rate I get is decent. If I added a battery for ~£5k, it would only save an extra £100 or so per year.

Your situation may be different. It might be that having a battery but no panels works better, if you can charge up overnight at low cost and then run the house for the whole day from that.
 
Number 1 is to get an installer who is MSC certified. No MSC, no feed in tariffs.

Feed in is looking to get worse each year, so exporting is worth less than self usage. Especially if you have a normal domestic usage profile of someone who is working away from home during the day.

This means home storage is likely beneficial. But an installer will go through the calculation with you. If not, then they aren’t going to be your installer.

We have a smallish battery, 5 kWh with 85% usable. On Flux we fill up ‘cheap’ at night and it takes us through the morning until generation. Then when I know I need energy (Monday & Tuesday) and there wasn’t solar to keep us topped up then I refill from 3pm to 4pm, that takes us past the expensive window.
I would like more kWh but it is getting less profitable the more I get into fringe usage.

Some systems have a home backup in case of grid failure, so you can still run the house of solar or battery when your neighbours are dark. We don’t have it, and we had one power outage since living here for 7 years.
But if you live rural you might have more and it might be beneficial as well. Like the Tesla gateway, but other suppliers are also available now.


My ideal system would be as much solar as the roof can hold, a 9kwh battery and a gateway. From that we compromised the battery size as the savings above 5kwh are marginal and the gateway as cost were high then and usage unlikely.

Don’t try and get every kWh and penny saving out of it. Try and get a system that works well for you and takes the bulk of the bill. If you want a tea and need to import for a minute that isn’t the end of the world. As you aren’t going to run the kettle for hours on end or microwaving food all lunch time.

And any system gives you access to more tariffs then the standard tariff.
 
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larmen said:
Number 1 is to get an installer who is MSC certified. No MSC, no feed in tariffs.

Feed in is looking to get worse each year, so exporting is worth less than self usage. Especially if you have a normal domestic usage profile of someone who is working away from home during the day.

This means home storage is likely beneficial. But an installer will go through the calculation with you. If not, then they aren’t going to be your installer.

We have a smallish battery, 5 kWh with 85% usable. On Flux we fill up ‘cheap’ at night and it takes us through the morning until generation. Then when I know I need energy (Monday & Tuesday) and there wasn’t solar to keep us topped up then I refill from 3pm to 4pm, that takes us past the expensive window.
I would like more kWh but it is getting less profitable the more I get into fringe usage.

Some systems have a home backup in case of grid failure, so you can still run the house of solar or battery when your neighbours are dark. We don’t have it, and we had one power outage since living here for 7 years.
But if you live rural you might have more and it might be beneficial as well. Like the Tesla gateway, but other suppliers are also available now.


My ideal system would be as much solar as the roof can hold, a 9kwh battery and a gateway. From that we compromised the battery size as the savings above 5kwh are marginal and the gateway as cost were high then and usage unlikely.

Don’t try and get every kWh and penny saving out of it. Try and get a system that works well for you and takes the bulk of the bill. If you want a tea and need to import for a minute that isn’t the end of the world. As you aren’t going to run the kettle for hours on end or microwaving food all lunch time.

And any system gives you access to more tariffs then the standard tariff.
Click to expand...
thanks for the replies.
We are high usage (4400kwh) and neither of us work. We will have a fairly large roof which I estimate we might be able to get up to 14 panels on. We will also have a garage with a sloping roof and possibly get another 6 panels on.
I’m not saying I will get that many panels, but the option is there.
Our goal is to neutralise our electric bill as much as possible but exporting is a bonus.
 
Once you put scaffold on one side of the house you fill that roof up as much as you can. The cost is not in the panels.
You might need a bigger inverter then which needs permission rather than just registration (98 v. 99), but that’s the installers job to sort out.

3.6kwh are the small inverters (back then) and that’s because they are under that limit. On 400w panels you get ~9 with out clipping, but a bit of clipping isn’t a bad thing as you get more on lower output times .
 
December numbers ar ein, I can now look at the year

We generated 3,300 kWh total. This is 390 kWh up on LY, and way above the 2,727 kWh we got as the MCS estimation for generation.
We used 2,727 kWh (same as estimated generated) in 2025, some 119 kWh more than LY.

But this year the prices changes a lot. LY we pulled from the grid cheaper than we exported, TY is was the other way around.
TYs net export was 356 kWh but we PAID £61 net for it, while LY we net exported 197 kWh but EARNED £22 for it.

TYs calculated savings against standard tariff are £678 while LY we saved £697.


We generated more, but the price arbitrage that was working well LY didn't do much good to us TY.
We are on Octopus Flux.

Standing charges are not part of my calculation as they occur with and without solar.


2026 we WILL go EV eventually. At that point we have access to cheaper import, but will also use more.
 
larmen said:
December numbers ar ein, I can now look at the year

We generated 3,300 kWh total. This is 390 kWh up on LY, and way above the 2,727 kWh we got as the MCS estimation for generation.
We used 2,727 kWh (same as estimated generated) in 2025, some 119 kWh more than LY.

But this year the prices changes a lot. LY we pulled from the grid cheaper than we exported, TY is was the other way around.
TYs net export was 356 kWh but we PAID £61 net for it, while LY we net exported 197 kWh but EARNED £22 for it.

TYs calculated savings against standard tariff are £678 while LY we saved £697.


We generated more, but the price arbitrage that was working well LY didn't do much good to us TY.
We are on Octopus Flux.

Standing charges are not part of my calculation as they occur with and without solar.


2026 we WILL go EV eventually. At that point we have access to cheaper import, but will also use more.
Click to expand...


This prompted me to look at our figures. 2025 is our first full year with the panels.

Total Panels: 16
The estimate at time of installation: 5,358kW (we have some shade from neigbhours trees)
Actual Full Year: 5788.50KW... So about 8% higher than estimated
Exported to Grid: 3712.5k that is a wopping 64% exported

Total Load Consumption: 8374.90KW (we have an EV which is charged overnight rather than Solar)
So we imported 4884.50KW

We are with Octopus.

I havent done any calc on how much we have saved. I guess we are are fairly neutral. Though I do feel I should increase our battery storage from the 6.9KW to closer to 10. At that time, i did not have the money.

All inputs and propellor heads welcome
 
2025 has been a good year. Total generation was 17.5% up on 2024.
But probably an outlier - expecting 2026 to be significantly worse than 2025.
 
Our battery storage seems redundant in minus conditions. Force importing for 3 hours at 280w at night isn’t charging much, now exporting sun on a fairly empty battery. I think last year we didn’t have a cold snap like this.
 
larmen said:
Our battery storage seems redundant in minus conditions. Force importing for 3 hours at 280w at night isn’t charging much, now exporting sun on a fairly empty battery. I think last year we didn’t have a cold snap like this.
Click to expand...
I'm confused by this.
1. Why was your overnight forced import restricted to 280W?
2. Why are you exporting when the battery needs topping up?
 
The battery is cold, input and output are restricted by this.
Rather than filling up the last few nights it was just trickling in, and now we are filling at a similar low level while exporting a lot of excess.
 
larmen said:
The battery is cold, input and output are restricted by this.
Rather than filling up the last few nights it was just trickling in, and now we are filling at a similar low level while exporting a lot of excess.
Click to expand...
Ah, I see.

That would seem to mean you can't run the house off a battery when it's cold, even if it's fully charged.
I don't have a battery at present, and this is an important consideration to factor in when thinking about whether to get one.
 
cliveb said:
Ah, I see.

That would seem to mean you can't run the house off a battery when it's cold, even if it's fully charged.
I don't have a battery at present, and this is an important consideration to factor in when thinking about whether to get one.
Click to expand...
You might be able to get one indoors or in a garage. But regulations might have changed.
Wanted an outdoor rated one, but it comes with drawbacks. Rare in London.

FB is full of people using heat blankets in self build cupboards, we just lose a couple of days of usage. We should be fine again by Wednesday night, if the weather forecasts is trustworthy.
 
larmen said:
You might be able to get one indoors or in a garage. But regulations might have changed.
Wanted an outdoor rated one, but it comes with drawbacks. Rare in London.

FB is full of people using heat blankets in self build cupboards, we just lose a couple of days of usage. We should be fine again by Wednesday night, if the weather forecasts is trustworthy.
Click to expand...

Would it be a fire hazard.. esp if you forget to remove it in the summer... i have never checked, but i assume the batteries would be warming up during cycles.
 
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