[peterboat]

I am in a large boat off grid so a battery system is essential, I have 4.5 KW of solar feeding two battery banks. One bank is domestic the other for driving the boat [its electric] the domestic bank is approx 10kwh and the drive 36Kwh the drive solar is currently feeding the immersion heater whilst my domestic is fully charged so its just idling. In winter all the solar is switched to domestic and I just about cope, I do have a 6kw genny as backup though. In reality solar is so cheap my mate has just bought 4 x 400 watt panels for £400 delivered that my use its a no brainer

 

[henryv]

I am considering a solar shed. My current shed needs updating and I am considering redoing the roof on one side to allow a proper slope to place solar panels on.

I looked at the used solar panels Will suggested. They look good. However, when I contacted the supplier the "black" panel I was hoping for did not have the appearance I would like.

I live in a neighborhood and while the shed is set back from the street, the panels would be visible. I like the black look since it would help it blend into the black shingles I will be using.

So far I am intrigued with 2 options. Opinions and suggestions as always are appreciated. I am still in the system planning phase.

What will you use the 'Shed' power for Joe?

 

[DuracellBunny]

Solar panels are cost-effective provided you can use the power you generate, by having a solar diverter for an immersion heater etc. If you can't, don't bother. Adding a battery will only dig you a deeper hole financially. Their cost means they're not financially viable right now.
With regard to your proposed solar array, are you aware that with a South-facing system you're only going to see full capacity generated between about 11:00 & 13:00 from May to August? Most of the time you'll be generating a few hundred watts.
My above comments are based on experience. I don't know about Octopus tariffs though, but they may sway you towards a battery system to save the solar-generated power. The only thing is, you'd be paying to keep it ticking over for 6 months of the year when there's not much solar generation.

Punch all the numbers in Excel to find out if switching to Octopus Go and charging battery at night to cover you domestic use makes sense. Standing charge on Octopus Go is 49p, it favours the heavy user.
Without the battery unused energy is sold to the grid for pennies during the day then when you get home you end up drawing from the grid and paying the tariff price.

 

[dparr59]

Costco Uk are selling Solar Panels system Fully installed :

Solar Panels | Costco UK

Home Improvement | Solar Panels

www.costco.co.uk

 

[Harry6]

That's what he said😁

 

[Stinsy]

That's what he said😁

I guess it’s a spammer trying to get their comment count up…

 

[HandyAndy]

FWIW I've had a 4kW rated set on my East-facing roof since 2015, absolutely no failures/problems whatsoever.
The roof construction must be very relevant - mine's a 70's shallow-angle roof (I can walk up it easily) maybe 25 degrees, concrete Redland tiles, felt under. My installer simply slid the brackets under some tiles, end of story. Actually they did me a favour, they were obvs prepared for rotten wood problems, dodgy flashing etc, and it turned out the flashing round the stink pipe (rises between a couple of the panels) was flakey & causing some rot, so they kindly repaired that at no cost to me.

I chose microinverters, so have 16 of these, 1 under each 250W panel. So any shading from pipes/chimney at top of ridge has minimal effect, as each panel is it's own separate generator. If one panel/inverter fails, I'll know instantly from the website which one it is & where on the roof, as I get a layout diagram with stats on every panel. And the remaining 15 will continue to work perfectly & not get dragged down.

I actually boosted my setup as it maxed out at 3kW, being East facing, wih addition of 3 large 350W panels on roof of garden shed & newer model microinverters, no FIT payment from these so go into house through a different meter than the FIT one, and they are 100% integrated into the same web info etc. So now max out at my 4kW agreed limit.

Yes it's more expensive using these, but the flexibility is lovely, and the reliabillity has been 100%. No large chunky box to be hidden in roof space or gge, just an ?armoured? cable routed wherever, and small comms unit near the CU.

Have a look at Enphase Energy - Enlighten | Sign in to Enlighten for the website I use to get my stats etc. These microinverters send a lot of info over the wires to their comms unit which then send them over the net to the servers somewhere. Everthing is logged under the covers, down to the precise start-up shut-down time of every panel. (Had to dig into this when my newer 3 panels turned out to be too powerful for the first micro-inverters (same as my original 250W panels used) and were shutting down in v sunny days! So I got these upgraded when Enphase produced a newer model). I'm extremely impressed by the work & effort that's gone into making these inverters & the systems behind them.

My original inverters are Enphase M250, and the newer shed ones are perhaps D380-7-2LL

Supplier was GoingGreenRenewables, and I'm thoroughly happy wih them. Worth getting a quote from them.

p.s. I've an idea the Enphase are doing new systems looking into integrating V2H, V2G, Solar, Battery storage, etc under one roof (!) so to speak, so might be worth finding about that stuff maybe?

 

[Stinsy]

I’m thinking about it, in the past, I have looked at a huge upfront price, 10 years to pay off, and then possible maintenance issues.

However here is the key if my payments equals my current electric bill or doubtful is less than my current electric bill, then it would be worth it. One solar panel rep who caught me in brief conversation at Costco says their panels have a 25 year warranty. I’m going to go for a free consultation.

Questions

• I wonder who provides that warranty on panels, will they be around in 20 years?
• Does the setup include batteries capable of running the house electrical/AC needs through the night, or does it start pulling from the grid?
• Does a typical setup, feed back into the grid, and be paid for the contribution?
• What incentives are available to defer the cost?
• do solar panels function during overcast skies?

Why dig up such an old post?

 

[Cheshirecat]

@Admin
Weird one this…post #50 is a copy and paste from a Screwfix community post
Is this a “prolific” BOT, and reading post history it looks like it
Link to Screwfix

Solar panels and battery.

Sun is shining one minute and not next, so one can't turn on an item using power with the exception of immersion heater with iboost and be sure only to...

community.screwfix.com

 

[Stinsy]

I have solar panels on my house, and they've been great. The concerns about bird nests and debris are valid, but regular maintenance can help. As for the brands, JA Solar and TrinaSolar are both good options. I’ve heard good things about Growatt inverters, too.

These solar threads don’t half attract spam!

 

[Jeremy Harris]

These solar threads don’t half attract spam!

Already reported, it's just an AI bot reconfiguring the words in the initial post on this thread. Seems to be an increasingly common tactic, I think it's the second or third here over the past few days. I've opted to just follow some of these to see what happens. So far that's been enough to seemingly stop them, perhaps they stop when they get a notification, I'm not sure.

 

[Jeremy Harris]

I've reported the one above, another copycat posting bot.

 

[Jeremy Harris]

I've reported the spammer @CameronWartz . Repeat offender - they edited their first post to insert spam links (also reported).