There's a long, long, thread on
Moneysaving expert about solar panel generation. They use a unit called 'O's where a 4kw system that generated 4kwh would produce 1 'O', a 4kw system that produced 8kwh would be 2 Os etc.
So far this year very few people seem to have generated 1 or more on any day.
Your numbers:
Would be 3.5-4 Os. Which is very over optimistic. What you're likely to find is a massive disparity between winter and summer generation. That's more likely to be spring or autumn performance levels.
The SolarEdge optimisers are great if you've got shading and pointless if you don't have shading. If you do have shade then that's still going to cut into your generation.
For using your power then you'll want/need to schedule tasks like charging to happen when there's a surplus of energy. I believe there are some systems that let you selectively charge the car when the sun shines, there definitely is for electric water heating etc, but it isn't routine. Batteries are good for allowing you to use the power another time but they're borderline on cost/reward at the moment.
Thanks,
that’s the thing I’m still new to this myself and haven’t got first hand figures, only assumptions based on what I’ve seen other people achieving but they aren’t all accurate because 10kw isn’t common, most seem to be around 3-4.5 or thereabouts.
so all information appreciated.
still has to be worth it though because in the daylight months it will be generating enough to keep up with demand leading to significant reductions in bills.
reason I’m going down this route is because overall I’m having a heating dilemma.
Originally I was going to go down heatpump route, as I don’t want to stick with fossil fuelled heating for a few reasons...with a view that it’s about same cost as gas to run when properly sized and installed... and it could be offset with solar later on making it cheap as chips to run.
but had a think about it and I keep swaying back and forth... as later on there is a chance that the house will be rented.
if so, heatpump May pose a few issues, 1) the repair times, 2) the cost to repair, 3) they are best left on with a set temperature on thermostat so it just keeps topping up the heat.. as they run at lower temps and can’t heat a house quickly.
but if I end up with a tennant who thinks right I’m off to work 9am in the morning, switches it off for 8 hours... comes home in evening, switches it back on and then 2 hours later it’s still heating the house up.. I’m going to get nothing but complaints.
also spoke to building surveyor, and he recommended against it, said he would insulate and stick with electric boiler so you don’t need to heat as much due to retention.... energy assessor pretty much said same thing given the government are planning on bans for new homes to be heated by fossil fuels in next 5 years... even labour was talking about imposing on gas boilers in the general election.
so that directed me towards electric boiler, relatively cheap to replace, simple workings with very little to go wrong, heats up to 80 degrees, no issues with carbon emissions, no landlord certificates, no annual servicing, no expensive repair bills.
Only issue is at 9kw it has the potential to massively increase an electric bill into eye watering costs.
so I started looking at solar again, and been trying to figure out the numbers.... even if it doesn’t fully offset it, I’m hoping that the extra it costs during the autumn and winter to run... will be offset by the savings in the spring and summer months when solar is powering everything in the house reducing the electric bills down to almost next to nothing.
with a view to later on expanding it with battery storage to maximise things so rather than exporting to grid it’s charging batteries for use when solar isn’t working and also with the push to electric vehicles this decade going on.. figured if it would go towards charging if I ever got an electric vehicle... then would save further from reduced costs charging it compared to fuelling a combustion engine vehicle.
but I could be wrong... I don’t know, trying to figure everything out lol Just solar seems to be a way forward with the details in between something to iron out along the way.
but heatpump, solar, pretty much on par with one another in terms of cost.
