We have had our 13 x 370w (4.8 kw) south-facing panels for a month or so with a 10 kwh battery. We are retired and home in the West Midlands much of the day. Our worst day's production so far was 4 kwh, our best 25 kwh, with an average around 10 kwh. On many days our production rate is around 0.5 - 1.0 kwh at times in the middle of the day. Without a battery our house might be kept ticking over during the day but cooking and laundry washing and drying would have to be done on very sunny parts of days, and predictable guaranteed long periods of sun are few and far between as autumn bites. Our battery allows us to accumulate power to use it when we want to, and so far has got us through the evenings and nights nearly every day without using grid power. Our consumption is around 7 kwh most days, rising to 12 on laundry days. I feel that we are enjoying the tail-end of good weather for solar and will soon be using the grid far more. I suspect it may well be financially worthwhile to get onto an overnight EV tariff to charge the 10 kwh battery in the winter, if possible, although we do not have an EV. I am waiting to see how things pan out over the winter. So far my installation has met my expectations, and since my expectations for the winter are low that seems likely to continue to be the case.

I was working with a road repair crew in N.S.W. and questioned fellows what were the black window-like boxes on numerous bungalow roofs. I was told they were solar panels. This was 1971, long before todays panels were made. Further questions revealed that a series of copper tubes were encased in an 18"x24" frame, painted matt-black and the frame glazed. With an inlet and outlet going back into a water system, with a circulating pump, and this provided enough hot water for the needs of the property owners. Even today in England a system like this could be a big help with the fuel costs affecting everone!

It's a big pull out initially but it's clearly working how you wanted it to. Good video. It's the way to go really. More so the way the prices are rising.

Thank you very much for this excellent round up.

Great video thank you for taking the time to make it and look forward to the next one 🤝

Snap on the inverter experience! Every time the kettle goes on in the evening the inverter just about covers it at our place at 3.3kw Biggest learn was go bigger on the inverter. We went 13kw battery but were limited by discharge. We're still really happy with it, but I recommend a bigger inverter.

Great Video loads of useful stuff hear still trying to get a reputable Solar company to quote for the job.

Great vlog and has really helped me decide if this is for us which it will be 👍🏻

Nice one , thanks for sharing . We are 100% self sufficient March to October , no electric car but that’s running a house and heating all our water from a 3.6kw south facing property .

Very informative real-world experience video with useful advice. We are in the process of buying a house with solar already installed. I dont know anything about the system yet, all i know is that it has 10 integrated panels on a west facing roof, so it is a learning curve for me. I'm looking forward to your future updates and knowledge.

Enjoyed watching that, thank you. Our roof line is aligned North/South and we have an existing 4kW FIT system on the West side that generates a pretty consistent 3mW every year. Tomorrow we were due to start installation of a further 28 390w panels plus a 5.2kW and a 9.5kW battery. I’m maximising the panels we can get on the roof, most of them will now be on the East side, with just filling in the gaps on the West side. Our system was designed with 2x 5kW hybrid inverters so we should get a decent throughput and as you explained, I should be getting good charging throughout the day. The 4kW FIT system won’t feed into the batteries without changing the inverter, so something for a future upgrade and yet another payback calculation to be done. Annoyingly though I found out today that the installation had been called off as the installers haven’t got the DNO approval though. So another month’s delay 😢

excellent point about a south face being best for noon and that is not much use for an empty house without storage. On-top of solar i'm charging the car & my DIY powerwall with Octopus intelligent. This runs a portable heatpump and kitchen for breakfast & dinner.

really good video, thanks for sharing

Really interesting video and looking at the overall pence per kw makes so much sense 👍

Very informative (especially about the size of the inverter) and explained in an easy to understand manner. Thank you.

Interesting. We’re 10 days into our near identical Solaredge system in 4 bed 2 reception house. Has 21 415w panels :- 8 East, 3 South, 10 West. Nearly mid Oct and so far comfortably covering all our needs by having a battery and actually exporting a fair chunk. Battery’s been back to 100% by late lunchtime even on the duller days so far even while running appliances, computers etc. Got a Zappi 2 for an EV (yet to obtain), but friends charged theirs at a decent rate just by solar yesterday as a first test of it. Not many miles done by us usually and generally at home, so plugging in on a bright day each week will work with a 5kw inverter I think. Pleased with the rate of production so far but very early days. I’m positive an East/West orientation is no barrier to solar. Given solar production is going well, the tip from our installer is to consider using low energy infrared heaters in living areas we use during the day off the excess free solar in Autumn / early Spring. (and reduce expensive central heating times in the process).

Great video, thanks.

I have recently installed 10x 410w panels with 5kw givenergy gen1 inverter and 8.2kwh battery since we installed we are offgrid (we used just 1kw from the grid since 2 weeks) so full battery is fine for us at least 2 cloudy days. In peak I saw 3800w on panels. So not bad. I know bad days coming, trying sort out octopus go tarif but I need smart meter. Will see, very happy for now. We using yearly 4400kwh and I hope this system will reduce electricity bills for 80%

Thanks for the information! Very helpful

Thank you for doing your videos that was very information as we are going down the solar road with three properties

You hit the nail on the head. South install only helps mid day ... Not morning or afternoon. 👍😀

Octopus agile tariff if your a customer for gas an electric 15p fixed or agile outgoing which is variable depending on the time of day, peak times today 8.00 to 8.30 29.7p kw 18.30 to 19.00 36.3p kw lowest is 16.4p kw but that's at 1 in the morning,I don't work for them I just think its a big investment and you should get the best returns possible

Great video thanks 👍🏻

Really useful video, we’re scheduled to get ours installed end of Nov and gives me great confidence that we’re doing the right thing

enjoyed your videos on this. have subscribed.

Great video. Very helpful and simply explained. Totally agree about being able to charge a car from solar. I have done just that this weekend - about 100 miles added as well as also charging my SE battery. I have SW and SE facing panels and want to add some east and west for early morning and late evening sun. Even a few more each side would help. What do you think about panels on walls rather than roofs? Mixed feelings myself but interested in your thoughts. Thanks again.

Thanks for the video. I can't believe how many of these types of videos I am now watching each week. We moved into our place 3 years ago. it came with an east facing 4KW array with a FIT tariff which averages 1.5K a year. For the first two years, I was very happy as the FIT payment covered our entire electricity bill and left 200 in credit. We only have electric at our property, no gas or oil. The system is old however with no way to get real time performance except via the inverter, so I never knew for certain how much we were generating and exporting. Now with the increase in tariff, our FIT payment no longer covers the cost of electric. An EV thrown into the mix has also massively increased our consumption. That's why we then booked in a new south facing 4kw array, plus a powerwall 2 with gateway. The array has been in place now since the end of July, but the powerwall is not going to be fitted until mid December. So my interest in these types of videos is to understand what the likely impact is on my energy bills moving forward and to learn any lessons. My first lesson is simple, when I had our first EV I was offered an EV charger and accepted the first one put forward, a PodPoint charger. Nothing wrong with it, but it does not work with solar, and so if I tried to charge the car in the day whilst exporting, it would only work at 7KW regardless of the amount. So an additional 1K spend to replace it with a zappi was necessary. Happy with things currently. In august we did 1480 miles at a cost of £6.69 (over night charging on cheap rates), plus solar via the Zappi. This gives me a running cost of half a penny a mile. Things changed massively in September as very different generation, which has left me at 1.5p per mile. I am thinking next year of another 4kw, we could put on a west facing barn roof, or I may go for a ground mount setup with a solar tracker fitted to follow the sun. I need to look into more yet, but this will be needed as we are getting a second EV next year, plus my son is due to get his first car and he has indicated he only wants electric. So our usage will again increase significantly. Hoping to get vehicle to house set up soon as well so we can use our EV (Nissan Leaf) as a moving battery storage solution with its 40KW battery and Chademo connector. cheers J

Good Vid makes sense what your saying but you really should have had Enphase micro inverters installed on each panel they connect straight to the battery as they output AC, also if your invertor goes down you loose everything, with micro invertors if one goes down you just lose that one panel. I think your right on getting panels on the east and west it maximises the solar day.

Winter you have to learn how to use solar, battery and cheap overnight tariff and get it right and you still save bundles

Great system. Thanks for the info. 👍 Something I've been toying with like many other people for a long time. I know it's a long shot, but I was waiting to see if the government had any new plans to help people to switch over to solar and battery in 2023. We don't have an electric car yet, but we use 1.00 MWH a month at the moment. Yes. I know. 3 kids pc's on. Plus hot-tub. (ill close tub down soon for winter) We were lucky regards to energy cost. Got a 4 year deal. 21p electricity. 4.2p gas. Just before prices started going mad. That finishes in August 2024. (shell energy) I think the most important point I've heard is the reduction in average kwh cost over the last few months. Something I wanted to know. Thanks.

Very helpful video, thanks. We have a dc coupled system with battery as well, and we charge our EV with a zappi. It allows you to charge from solar only, avoiding the battery topping up to the 7kw. However you have to ask yourself is it worth the cost of £1k+ to upgrade to one.

You're doing sensible things there in the UK. I am English but moved to the USA (Ohio) 20 years ago and things are so different here still. $0.057077 per kWh. All the same, things WILL change and electricity will go up here too... so (much to the bafflement of others) I installed solar to offset electric bills and give us wiggle room in a power outage. I can add to my system if need be in the future (at present I have just a 3kW system) I think what YOU are doing is excellent.

3 years in for us with a 10kw system. Car wise, we manage 60 to 70% of mileage over the year on solar, mind we are doing a lower mileage than you. Time of use tariff's are a game changer for payback. Excluding the solar generation, we averaged 8pkwh last year, this year it is likely to be 10pkwh. We designed our's to allow for 7kw discharge from the battery storage plus the 10kw of solar. This means that in the sunny months we can charge the car at 7kw in the middle of the day and have the washing machine etc running. Getting the design and balance right for the setup is not easy, I still think we made a couple of mistakes but all in all it has bene worth it. Payback is an interesting one, do you ask how much your new kitchen is going to pay back ? But more seriously, we are looking at a total pay back of 6 to 7 years for the whole system. The pure fact is, for the energy use we have and at current rates, we could not afford to use what we do without the solar and battery install. We use 1.1MWh a month, you can work the rest out from that.

I have a very similar SolarEdge system with 18 panels, 8 east and 10 west facing. Ther have been problems with installation - the panels were installed in June but the battery in August, but on installing the battery the installer managed to blow all the optimisers so the total system was out for a few weeks! Now the app shows no watts per individual panel. I agree that without the battery its all a bit of a waste, in September my average cost per kWh was 7p. My optimum time is around 2pm, yesterday at this time it was generating at 2.7 kW.

Great video and started following you - thank you for the time this all takes to produce and record.... Main queries that would be helpful, is why DC coupled and why SE battery as oppose to other more common AC coupled batteries ? I am looking to discuss with Oval too but dont think they are taking new enquieres at present.

Hypervolt and Zappi car chargers have a solar only setting so they don't draw anything from the grid. They divert anything over 1.5kw being exported to the grid, into the car. No need for the grid to top up to 7kw.

Interestingly, with our system, situation, etc., the best tariff for us is Outgoing Octopus (15p/unit export) not Octopus Go (7.5p/unit off peak). Sadly you can't have both. You can't generalise, every installation is different. Retired, one EV doing less than 5000 miles per year, non-EV electricity usage about 2800kWh per year, east/west roof, 14 400w panels on each roof, one 5kW Solis inverter for each bank of panels, 9.2 kW Givenergy battery, Zappi, Eddi.

Two bits of advice. 1. Consider Octopus Go for the winter time only and Octopus Agile for the spring / summer months. This is what I do, and it maximises the value of your exports. I’ve exported 3MWH so far this year, and it’s earned £750. The export prices have worked out around 25p/kWh this year. So thus the price per kWh for electricity consumption for my house has actually been negative! That said, you did mention that you had a high monthly consumption. So do the maths, and consider the benefits of seasonal tariff changes. 2. Consider replacing the Anderson charger with a MyEnergi Zappi charger. This will trim the charge to your car to match the surplus from your solar panels. That way you don’t have the situation you’re in where you’re importing 2kW from the grid because your inverter is limited to 5kw. You’ll charger slower, but it will be cheaper. You might find that there’s a good 2nd hand value for the Anderson charger, and that might take the sting out of the upgrade. The Zappi will start charging with 1.4kw of solar surplus.

My situation is different in that I do not have Solar and am planning on 20+KW battery that will charge fully in the 4 hour GO window and was going to use a 5KW inverter until I started testing my peak KW usage which is around 7KW with 2 rings on the induction hob and an oven with a boost facility and about 500w of regular use so am now going for the 8.8KW Inverter so I do not have to use On peak grid electricity. It costs about £700 more for 8KW over 5KW but in the overall picture, it will allow me to charge my EV during On peak if necessary. And when you include 35p saving a day x 365 x 5 year plan = £640 saving so its buckshee🤣

40kWh in August?? BLIMEY! :) very nice.

Thanks pal. I’m just researching so your videos are super. Any i ask, what supplier/plan do you have? Octopus?

Interesting but suggest you view the new octopus tariffs inc. the 15p kWh export tariff and super cheap night time rates for charging cars. My calculations suggest buying batteries is not efficient with these much improved tariffs

Great video! I’ve a 4kw PV system at the moment and strongly considering a battery since my consumption is generally less than my generation, especially when in the office. Any thoughts on charging the home battery overnight as we get shorter days on a cheaper over night rate as generation may not exceed consumption?

Ev charging in the summer no problem I use a 3kw grannie charger if I'm producing 5kw I can charge the car and run the house and charge the solar batteries.The one thing I have found is a big drain on power is using the shower 8kw that's when I have to buy off the grid,also did you say you were getting 4.1p per kw feeding back to the grid

Don’t substitute kW for kWh. One is power the other is energy. Nice setup.

yea if you have a car then 12k panels and 10k inverter and min 30k batt is a good place to start.

If I was in your situation I would be selling the solar edge inverter and buying a victron 10kw inverter. You could then charge your car and use appliances. A 10kw battery is quite small for a house that size, I would want to at least double that to take advantage of the pv power you are producing. You are actually quite close to being 100% self sufficient even with the EV.

Hey buddy great video !! Question you total production changed from 7 something to six something I don’t quite understand! Love the channel been a great help 👍🏻👍🏻

Great video thank you, please may I ask which tariff you are on for import / export?

Thanks for the video. Can you please tell us, is your inverter 1 or 3 phase? what car wall charger you are using 1 or 3 phase charger?

I see you changed the adaptable box front cover for the Modbus to a clear one.. Did you replace the front cover yourself or Oval renewables. I asked my installer about the Modbus, and he’s having to find out, but everything tells me it is needed albeit not quoted..

Excellent info for a potential installation. How about battery size. Is yours big enough?

Very informative video. Do you have figures re the max charge rate of SolarEdge 400v? Data sheet says 5kw but I assume it’s only discharge. Thanks

Any video on the paperwork eg G98 and G99 etc? Also how much was the setup and fees along with payback period?

Thanks for sharing, currently waiting for delivery of a 3 phase inverter for our 14 kw of panels (we have a ground source heat pump with a 3 phase motor and the building is 500m² ). In your output graph, was the red line perhaps 12am rather than noon? For me here in Scotland noon is 12:18 GMT Anyway, most informative, thank you!

At last a video by a real person who I can relate to. I'm watching your videos back to front so apologies if the answer to this question is in your earlier one. I'm moving into a new house soon and I can get 16 panels on a south facing double garage. Its a brand new 4 bed but just 2 of us - underfloor heating and an airsource heat pump. I don't have an EV. Am I going to have get extra panels on the roof? PS Will install a battery as well?

Are you having issues with the SolarEdge battery bouncing at night with importing grid power to 10% then feed the house then rinse and repeat all night ? Ow and have you herd anything about what if any functionality your going to retain with the Anderson charger now that the companies gone bust ?

Please consider the difference between kW (power) and kWh (energy). You buy energy from the grid which is in pence per kWh (energy) not per kW.

In the grander scheme would everyone be better off having a big battery pack & using off peak to charge probably a better option than solar. Thanks for update

Quick question, the graph at around the 1:30 mark has a red line for 'noon'. Is that 'noon' actual, midday BST, or is it noon real, solar noon which would be around 1pm BST depending on how far east or west of meridian? For instance, the sun is at it's highest for me at 12:20 BST as my house resides near the east coast of the UK (0.6degE)

If you got a Zappi charger it will put daytime surplus in your car.

Here's the thing, you cannot go more than 10 kilowatts before the DNO wants you to upgrade your fuse. Because you don't want more than 10 kilowatts feeling back through a single phase. I'm thinking a bit more long-term than you. Eventually we'll have two electric cars, maybe three when the kids start driving. I don't know how but we're gonna have to get a heat pump. So my only option is three phase. Where you can feed 30 kW back into the grid and take 55kW So I have designed a three-phase off grid system grid coupled. Three 12 kilowatt inverters peak 24kW each 82 kW of battery storage ((£210 per kWh) 20 kilowatt solar panel Still in the build phase. Waiting to get the fuse upgrade to three phase

I assume there is no restriction on the size of the inverter in England? I've been told 3.8kw is the max size in Northern Ireland

Just one point, not sure if you were aware Andersen EV Chargers went out of business this week.

This is more of a request for help than a comment. Our MySolaredge app is not showing our correct daily total production. Today for example has been very sunny and we recharged our 9.7 kwh battery fully by 2 p.m. from 0% this morning and used a fair amount of power during the day, but the app shows our total production today as 3.42 kwh whereas we have probably produced at least over 12 kwh. The lights on our inverter are constant blue and green, those on the battery flashing blue and constant green. Any suggestions anyone?

Did any suppliers/installers ask you to pay to survey your property requirements? I’m looking into solar and some are asking to pay up front for a survey, regardless of if you use them to purchase/install.

Very useful video. Do you think for a household where the occupants are at home most of the time having a battery still a good idea and worthwhile investment?

I don't think you could get a single phase inverter with a output high enough to run a standard 8kW electric shower?

Think of your solar/battery capital investment as that... An investment. For that £xk investment, how much are you saving each year? You're probably looking at 10% return at least. I did the install myself and looking at 15+% return easily.

Hi, in your video you mention your saving at 34p per Kw. I don’t think you have figured in the standing charge per day. This will boost the cost up by quite a large amount.

Are you not using solar to heat your water,

Great video What is the total cost of your installation

I haven’t seen anything about your central heating set up. Is it gas? If you run a heat pump and EV would you need a three phase supply? If so how does that effect the whole set up?

Can I be nosey and ask what Time settings do you set your inverter to charge your battery from your Solar Panels please 👍

Great video, however I wish people would refrain from calling it Free electricity

Hi you would NOT see much more power before 9am if you had east facing panels. I have dozens of systems that I monitor and can look down a list of them. None seem to really wake up until 9:30 which shocked me to see because on these days you could wear sunglasses at this time. I looked and the strings were only showing 70V over 8 panels which should be at least 250V

Unless the system provides all electricity each day, what is the point?

After 2 years of 8kwh PV and 10kwh of batteries, I can tell you recouping money from solar really works, batteries sadly are not a very good proposition even with these electric prices, 10kwh batteries will at best save you £3.40 per day if you can manage to fill them and use all their capacity everyday, at a cost of £6k to buy (most are more + fitting) the repay period is 2352 days or 6.4 years and that is with no breakdowns or replacement parts

I seriously don't understand why people do t simply set up a few mining rigs to ensure they are getting paid for the energy when there not there.... Why does no one think beyond exporting...

I wish people would stop going on about payback with solar, it's a home improvment just the same as changing the kitchen or bathroom it will add value to your property. no one ever goes on about pay back on double glazing ect so why solar. Graet upload as ever.

I exclude my EV charging. That's charged at cheap rate.

kW ≠ kWh

I still don't see how this saves you that much or even any money. For arguments sake let's say with maintenance over a 20yr period this will cost you £20k that's before we even consider finance required. That's £1000 per year are you really going to be saving that much money per year? I've constantly been evaluating having solar panels fitted and I've never been convinced that the payback is worth it. Like another said I've always been waiting for the government to subsidise it (for the life of me I can't understand why they don't) Based on my usage for this month of 772 kwh for this month how much of that do you think realistically could have been saved by having a similar system? I predict I will use probably 10k kwh this year.

Charge the car on Octopus Go cheap-rate @ 8p/kWh