Solar Energy and saving money

[nest egg]

I ended up going with the middle quote - 22 panels, Sigenergy hybrid inverter and Sigenergy 5kw battery - all in was 12k. Is expected to generate about 7k units a year. It was only installed last Friday but seems great so far - weather has been cloudy so solar hasn't been hitting anywhere near peak but I am still at about 30% of my prior usage from the grid.

The Sigenery system is really user friendly and the AI mode ensures that it operates at maximum efficiency. I just plug details of the tariff I am on into the app and it utilizes the battery/solar accordingly. Realtime data also - refreshes every 30 seconds. I have the option to plug additional batteries onto the existing structure at any point if I wish.

Early days but so far so good.

Do you have the model number of the inverter to hand?

 

[Switchornot]

Do you have the model number of the inverter to hand?

Not sure if its the model number but the name I got was SigenStor EC 5.0SP

 

[shweeney]

Bad month so far, but I did the sums on my returns since I had it installed in March and I'm more than happy. Nov-Jan are always going to be very low anyway.

With generation poor at this time of year, I've set my battery to charge up during the cheap night hours we have on our EV Smart plan, so some of my daily usage is at 7c a unit. I also set it to charge for a couple of hours before the expensive peak rate kicks in between 5pm and 7pm so I never have to buy any units at peak rate (which I think is around 45c a unit)

My total electricity bill for the year is likely to be around €150 (admittedly some of that is down to the govt credits that I would have received either way).

 

[SquirrelChaser]

Just a quick follow up. The net cost of my electricity over the last 2 months has been the princely sum of €45, as compared to my previous average of €110 per month.

 

[MrEarl]

Agreed, Solar is the best thing I ever bought.
Just wish I had of put more panels up, when I was doing it

I wish I had more room, to put up more panels!

For anyone who isn't aware, the actual solar panels, are typically cheap enough, averaging €300 - €400 depending on make and model etc.

In fact, I'm starting to consider building a small extension to the back of our house, and top of my concerns isn't the internal floor space, amount of natural light, but how many more panels I can install, once it's built

 

[nest egg]

I wish I had more room, to put up more panels!

For anyone who isn't aware, the actual solar panels, are typically cheap enough, averaging €300 - €400 depending on make and model etc.

In fact, I'm starting to consider building a small extension to the back of our house, and top of my concerns isn't the internal floor space, amount of natural light, but how many more panels I can install, once it's built

Aren't you capped by the size of the inverter?

 

[Zenith63]

Aren't you capped by the size of the inverter?

Not really. If you put up say 10kW of panels with a 5kW inverter, yes in the middle of a summers day the maximum you can generate is 5kW, but outside of that peak time you’ll be generating double what you could have with half the panels. Given that the vast majority of the time you won’t be getting full output from your panels it makes a lot of sense to over-provision them and let the inverter ‘clip’ the power in those few summer hours where you are producing more than it can use.

 

[MrEarl]

Aren't you capped by the size of the inverter?

Not really.....

That's it, exactly, @Zenith63

Sadly, I'm also only talking about another 3-4 panels, as it would be a modest enough extension.

 

[conor_mc]

Aren't you capped by the size of the inverter?

Oversizing Solar - GaryDoesSolar

Worth watching for an explanation.