Solar PV

[kannaiah]

Hi,
I have been thinking about getting small Solar PV under 1KW peak. I recently came up on

so basically I want to keep costs down as much as possible, produce enough solar for base load and may be add small cheap batter later.

Does the kind of system in the video require any approvals or notifications?
Other suggestions are welcome.

Thank you.

 

[ericmark]

I am sure it does, some meters have no direction so if wrong type of meter you could end up paying for exported power rather then been paid for it. Also grid tie inverters must have the safety features, auto disconnect with loss of PEN, and 6 mA DC detection with type A RCD's or use of type B RCD's.

Not really plug and play.

 

[JohnD]

produce enough solar for base load and may be add small cheap batter later.

Solar produces most power on sunny summers days between 10am and 4pm.

In winter it produces next to nothing.

At night it produces nothing.

What use will this be to you?

It is generally not a profitable investment.

 

[Why Not Indeed]

Purpose of a battery system is to mop up excess generation for your later use, so you're not exporting to the grid in return for pennies. With a smaller system then the battery is unlikely to get much use. You can presumably knock up a spreadsheet to estimate if it's worth your while.
If it turns out I needed to watch the video in order to usefully answer the question, then apologies.

 

[kannaiah]

Yeah, will do a spreadsheet.
The idea in the video is spend bare minimum, and try to compensate base load, my baseload will be around 200w.
Keeping the cost low by using 2-4 panels, preferably used ones and low cost grid tie inverter which should be under £100.
So if the total spend is below £500 and it can produce 500 units in one year that makes it worth the effort, ROI should be less than 3 years at current prices but at max 5years.
Other issue is being complaint and not exporting to grid, it can be achieved by limiting inverter.

 

[Why Not Indeed]

I don't know what the definition of "connect to the network" is - I wouldn't be confident that by merely not exporting, your PV system is not "connected".

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Otherwise, if you can make the numbers add up [and I'm not clear if you've included paying someone to hook it up in that £500, I assume not] then why not?