Thanks for this fantastic roundup. Having someone else do all the experiments and share that information so well is great for those like us who have been stuck in the land of indecision but are really keen to change. Merry Christmas to you.

Thank you for your honest and detailed video. 😊

A group buy of some used solar panels turned out to be a bad way to go. Their open circuit voltage and short circuit current was fine, but they failed to develop full power output. Turns out that some corrosion in the panels added resistance to the circuits and this only affects full power output while not affecting open circuit voltage or short circuit current. So the panels can degrade and fail for many of the usual reasons that electrical circuits fail in general. Internal corrosion is not really repairable. So panels can be bad. Clearly these were fielded good and had problems later and were removed from service for a reason.

I’d go with Victron easily. I believe the Victron Multiplus inverters can be run in parallel too if you wanted to expand the system with your existing one - the modular way their system works is nice and flexible. You’d have everything all in one platform and Victron seem like a great company, open and flexible. You helped me to find and look into Victron and I absolutely love it 😂 glad I didn’t go for other systems.

We went with a Victron Multiplus II 5000 and Pylontech batteries based system 12 months ago after watching your videos. We were very lucky to find a local installer who had the same Victron and Pylontech installed in his own house. I decided at the time of install that I wanted to have more power output than the 48 5000 has. After doing some research on the larger Multiplus and Quattros, I discovered that only the Multiplus II 48 3000 & 5000 units have the necessary certification and type approval to be used in a grid tied system in the UK, so we ended up going with 2 x Multiplus ll 48 5000s in parallel instead (actually gives a higher output than if we could have used a 48 8000 unit). We have 12 x 400W panels south facing on our house roof connected with a Solis 5kW inverter and an additional 10 x 415W panels on our detached south facing garage roof, but garage is set back behind the house so gets partial shading in the morning, so garage was installed using SolarEdge with optimisers, however the house panels inverter is connected on the critical load side of the Victron inverters, so if we do get a power cut, our house panels still work, we just lose the garage panels. We've had all our house circuits connected on the critical load side of the Victrons, so in a power cut situation, everything in the house works as normal. This might sound crazy, but we've just placed an order with our installer to fit an additional 9 x 435W panels with optimisers on the north facing roof of our garage. I'm only expecting a maximum of 50% output (annually) than if the panels were south facing, but as there is currently a glut of panels on the market, I negotiated a very cheap price. We will be using the same 4kW SolarEdge inverter in the garage, but SolarEdge now accept up to 200% overprovisioning on their inverters. I've just purchased a telescopic handled window cleaning brush for cleaning our existing panels anyway, so keeping the north facing panels clean on the single storey garage will be easy. My expectations are that the north facing panels won't generate an awful lot extra during the winter months, but during summer they will do well first thing in the morning and late afternoon. This will certainly help our Flux export which will earn additional revenue during the summer to offset the small amount we will have to buy from the grid over the winter months. We don't have an EV yet and we are still on mains gas for heating.

I'm an electrician and installer. I am a real fan of Victron. In my house I have similar setup to you but I also have a Growatt ac coupled inverter. About 70% of my panels are DC and 30% through my Growatt. We lose our power very frequently, so our ambition is to be as much less grid dependent as we can. So we are able to go off grid during the summer.

Hi have had multiple solar systems at a couple of houses since 2015. This time round I went for all Victron and am very happy. Bonus also as I went with a 10kva Quattro I also have generator input.

I have a completely DC-coupled Victron 48/5000 + Pylontech setup, with three MPPTs. When there is excess solar power available but there’s no grid connection and batteries full, the MPPTs just don’t harvest it. It doesn’t need to lose kilowatts as heat. However, the MultiPlus has an AC Out that is independent of the grid, like a UPS. If you have loads connected to this (critical loads like lighting, fridge, router etc) then the power can be used for that, either from the battery or from incoming solar. You can connect your whole house to this output, but is rarely viable, mainly because the MultiPlus has a limit of 50A that way, and also because you don’t really need everything powered in a power cut.

100% agree about the Victron gear. I went exclusively with Victron. Four MPPT controllers, three 5KVA Phoenix inverters in parallel, and the EV charger are all Victron. The batteries are Pylontech, for easy integration. For my hot water, I had a 30 Amp wifi switch installed that integrates with HA, which means I can write automations to cover any scenario. Cheap too, costing the equivalent of thirty quid of your money.

You probably aren’t considering doing a bathroom refurbish but when I did mine 10+ years ago the fitter suggested that before the laminate floor was laid I had an electric heating mesh laid under it. I went with it and it’s been fantastic - it’s both thermostatically and timer controller and the controller has a boost function that raises the floor temp to 23C from 0530 to 0730. During the day the bathroom is maintained at around 19-20C - enough to dry washing on an airer in 12 hours. Power consumption is 700w at max temperature. I also have an electric towel rail that keeps the bathroom pleasant (not warm though!) that is thermostatically controlled and consumes 700w too. It great at 3am to not need slippers for cold night visits to the loo!

I've enjoyed following your journey from the outset and I've learned a lot along the way so this has been an interesting questions and retrospective to follow. I'm generally very pleased with the decisions we've made. Opted for the premium Sunpower Maxeon panels as they offered the best output on a roof offering limited space and they've performed really well in combination with a Fronius primo inverter (fortunately no shading issues). Seem particularly good at making the most out of any diffuse radiation on offer on cloudy days. Have been frustrated with the Powerwall 2 in the past but thanks to regular updates, these days it's been performing flawlessly and I've grown to appreciate the ability to "fit and forget". Then like you I have a Mixergy tank and the usual Myenergi kit all of which I'd happily buy again. Only significant change would be to upgrade the Mixergy tank to something larger than the 120 litre tank we have which isn't large enough for our domestic needs. Next part of the journey will be to decarbonise the space heating (still have a gas boiler) and we'll probably go for an A2W ASHP once I've upgraded some more radiators and reduced the heat loss. Potential then to connect to the Mixergy tank and benefit from 300%+ efficiency when generating our hot water. Look forward to continuing to follow your journey into 2024 and beyond...

Well done Nigel!! Thanks for broadcasting your journey.. 👏👏

Thanks for all you testing over the years was a great help! Personally recomend Victron MPPTs as you can get all the data out easily to automate everything. Another advantage is the MPPT's can be mixed and matched to your pannels. I have 2 multiplus II 5kw paralleled with 3 Victron MPPTS (22 pannels 9kw) with Pylontech batteries (23kw). My main aim was to diversify the equipment so any future failure is limited rather than haveing a 10kw box. Node Red manages my automation and switches batteries into charging off the zappi which is controlled by octopus intelligent outside offpeak. Entire house is on the backup side of the system so whole house switches over to battery 'inverter' mode all day and charges all night.

You are underestimating the power increase. A rise from 17% to 23% efficiency is a 35% increase in power per area. So your 6kw system would produce 8100kw with 23% panels in the same area

Please do the garden panels on a Heliomotion solar tracker....that would be amazing for the channel!

So pleased to hear your pleasure at the Mixergy. This is how I found your videos in the first place. You've also inspired me to go for Solar panels too.

SolarEdge plus control with Home Assistant is absolutely awesome.

Victron and Fronius speaks with each other so that would work as a united display in the Victron VRM for both of those at once. Also the Fronius then becomes aware of the Victrons backup ability and zero:s the export so it would basically lowers AC output to match what the victron / the house needs. Victron and Fronius for off-grid is awesome. The inverters offsets the PV voltage to lower the output of the panels.

Our energy bill December 2023 was just shy of £300...for one month. We do have a leaky house which we are refurbing this year and electricity is the way for us too.

Yes you are definitely a person who is meticulous in thought eye for detail, may I ask your opinion or pick your brain, having watched your video and one other from another gentleman both gave me food for thought, I live alone in a small terrace house only got old age pension coming in , i don’t have money for battery storage or solar , I think I could get the grant to change to a heat pump but do like the idea of air to air rather than the radiators at the moment boiler not working and have an immersion heater for hot water which is very expensive, the only issue with the air to air I can see in my house is i don’t have the space between the top of the window and the ceiling to fit those units nor wall space either side of the window or doors, so I wondered if there are extremely thin ones that’s available ? The other gentleman was putting into his house for extra heat in an area which is cold a mini split system which I had never heard of before, which made me think which is why my head is hurting probably, joking apart but I thought why don’t I get one mini fog the hot water and then one for upstairs and one for downstairs because you can get these mine systems that have two blowers for each unit or just get four whit one blower for each, but there’s always a but in life and not always the one we sit on , am I crazy thinking like this or do I need to get out more ? That line from the film = you can’t handle the truth comes to mind , you are probably on the second bottle of whiskey trying to get through this longest message in the world, finally has that word ever been more welcomed = finally there’s still the issue with the size of the blowers = you would think different ones would be available slim vertical ones come to mind or circular one just ones that was more versatile to accommodate such as oneself that has not got the space for the large blowers or am I blowing a lot of hot air = yes a bit of humour to finish = dying is easy comedy is hard .

I am in the USA in the south, 10 miles from the Gulf of Mexico. 2 years ago after a near miss of a hurricane we had 2 weeks of no power. I am planning to start with 30kwh of batteries (built 2p16s from 280ah cells) and an eg4 solar inverter. I need to sister some of my roof rafters before I add anything to the roof. Once I have that that I will add solar panels. Due to all of the hurricanes and roof repairs, used solar panels are about 20% of retail around here. This would not be grid tied, because the local utility charges us $0.12 (coal) per kWh, but only pays $0.02 per kWh, so batteries.

Tesla model y with an eg4 system using 400+ watt panels

Really good video. Regarding the Multiplus noise, there is a retrofit fan fix available on certain serial numbers, it’s free of charge you get it through your dealer. I’m getting mine sorted out.

I think you've summed it yp well towards the end... those than can afford to have such systems/tecnhonlogy, should really consider investing and isolating themselves a bit more from the uncertainties floating around at the moment as this really does wonders for comfort, mental health and security.

We have Solaredge and Powerwall grid connected (roof panels), and Victron and Pylontech off-grid (ground panels), which we installed. The 6 panels on the roof facing east, kick in very early and combine nicely with the south facing roof panels. The Powerwall has 4 period settings for time of use tariffs such as Octopus Intelligent, GO etc…’Super off-peak’, ‘off-peak’, ‘peak’, and ‘super peak’. You just set ‘peak’ and ‘off-peak’ for a tariff such as Intelligent/Go…so it imports during the 6/4 cheap hours, and discharges during the rest of the day as required. You can simultaneously set a charge reserve for outages, and the Powerwall will judge how much to import based on the following day’s weather report, if you have solar. It also exports excess solar if any, whilst servicing the energy requirements of the house. We recently benefitted from ‘Storm watch’ during storm Ciaran, where it topped up to 100% in anticipation, and kept the essentials going throughout the day (roughly 13hrs). It automatically cuts out large electrical demand items, such as EVs and heating…to keep lights, fridge-freezers, TVs, computers, internet etc alive. The software is sublime. The Victron/Pylontech system works great, and I believe would be a good solution for your domestic setup, if you don’t get on with Solaredge and Powerwall.

Merry Xmas and a HNY to you too Nigel, and thank you for all your videos 😊

Awesome; thank you.

I have a system that's grown organically as well, a mix of SolarEdge and Victron with Pylontech batteries. Agree that Victron are solid and have a great deal of flexibilty in how you can set them up, I use my Multi 2 as the centre of my ESS/Solar Battery and it even talks to the SolarEdge kit which is connected to the Victron as an AC Coupled system. Then I also have a Victron MPPT connected to the Multi 2 (DC Coupled) as a secondary solar installation of panels on the garage roof and it all reports seemlessly through the Victron VRM portal via PC or mobile phone. The Pylontech battery is 22Kwh which in winter gets charged overnight on cheap rate - but be mindful when designing your system to the charge output of the Inverter/Charger, as my single Multi 2 48/5000/70 can only charge at 70Amps (70Amps*50Vdc=3.5Kw) so I need over 6hrs charge time from flat and some overnight tariifs only provide 4 hrs! Zappi charger - great in the summer for using excess solar to charge my Nissan Leaf - and I wouldn't change either the charger or the car for my current circumstances. Last point, when car is charging overnight, ESS is charging and my electric Air Source Heat Pump is running I can draw nearly 60Amps (and the main fuse is rated at 65Amps). This is where the flexibility of Victron to be programmed to reduce charge rates and also the flexibility of the Zappi to dynamically reduce charge rates based on current load are very useful. PS I have had 2 SolarEdge Optimisers fail now (at around 8 years old), being tricky to replace using scafolding ! To their credit SolarEdge sent replacements for free but don't cover the install in my case. As I have shading on some of the panels at some times, the Optimsers make sense and I suspect that the later models of Optimisers are more reliable.

Great video Nigel. Thank you!

Another point. I added capacity over the DNO limit by buying Ripple Energy coop shares. You can buy 120% of your annual usage and you get paid in octopus credit so no need for more battery storage.

ERRR dude 17 to 23% is a 35.3% increase in power over 1/3, I wouldn't be saying "only" about 35.3% like sure I'm not going to rip pannels off the roof to get 35.3% increase in power output, but it's nothing to sniff at so you would go from 6.3 to 8.52 which is not small, also going with larger pannels would enable less dead space and larger pannels are cheaper for the same power output. Also I personally wouldn't limit my inverter size to the size of my pannels as I would be having a battery in there, soon for $2500 you will be able to get a 15.5kWh battery which can output 10.24kW nominally, and I would probably end up adding 2 of those in the end so 20kW nominal output so personally I would want a 12kW inverter / 12kW combined output, I would probably go with 6 to begin with then add a second in parellel after I had bought the second battery. PS your wrong about how it works, you can over pannel, usually in the manual it will reccomend a maxium of 50% more pannels than the MPPT can put out to the inverter, but in some cases it can be double the only issue is if you go over the voltage limit of your MPPT, but then you just put it to a combiner box or have multple MPPTs, but yeh it basically just limits the amps it take out. In the case of wind turbines yes you do need a dumb load, but solar pannels can be limited. For example the 'Smart Solar charge controller 150/45 can handle 145V and 45A while opperating which is 6525W, but the charge controller it's self can only deliver 2600W of power because of the 48V battery, if you had a 150V battery and the charge controller supported that you could do 6525W, so you can over pannel that charge controller by 2.5 times, I wouldn't actually suggest it because you need to leave some voltage headroom for cold conditions so the maxium voltage I would suggest would be 135V open curicut so your more talking a maxium of 6,075W of solar installed of which you would only be able to take advantage of 2600W. I think it's because you got used to how inverters work that don't need to deliver power to batteries, but yeh the limitation for the maxium amount of solar pannels is way higher unless your using some of the preperioty batteries which have 300-500V ranges which like yeh unless you are a mad lad your solar is probably going to be lower voltage than that.

Great video ⚡️👍🏻

Interesting thoughts and I wouldn't really change much of mine other than maybe splitting some of my e/w solar to be on my south facing wall. Merry Christmas to you and the family.

Great to hear your thoughts Nigel. If we (me😅) had to do it all over again, I’d have done it sooner rather than dithering and waiting for electrics to be upgraded first. I’d have put in our solar as soon as we moved in to get on FiT. Same with the EV I’d have traded the unreliable diesel ages ago if I’d had the bottle, and realised the financials of a Leaf could be so cheap. If I had to just go back and tweak any small bit of what I’ve done, I’d have gotten a higher output Givenergy, the 5kW instead of the 3.6. And I’d have simply gone with the Mitsubishi paired cylinder instead of the Mixergy. It’s nice being clever but I’ve overpaid for features I don’t really need. Our ASHP fills the whole thing overnight on schedule so never heats with the immersion unless it’s on the cleansing cycle.

Ive watched your videos for years and as it evolved overtime you now have numerous system. Consolidation, optimization and simplification would be helpful . Ive not got solar yet but id like to design for the full system from the beginning even if i can't afford to implement it all in one go.

I have a victron system with two 5kva multiplus II and mppt solar controllers. The system has been running for 15 months and been perfect. You can see all the data on the VRM

The big subtleties of our setup are how its all wired together. - 3 Phase Cabling. Higher capacity to fast charge multiple things at once (Cars, Batteries, House) - Fast Car Chargers connected to Grid Only. So Octopus Energy Car Charging schedules dont interfere with Home Storage Batteries. - Solar Exporting & Battery Exporting for high tariff credits - Running our Air to Air Heat Pump alongside our Wet Central Heating system Gas Boiler. - Off-Grid capability with Solar Array and SpaceX Starlink failover for Blackouts. - 32 Amp Commando Socket backup for emergency outdoor access to Home Battery Storage. Its really very well set up - Uk 🇬🇧

Brilliant idea Nigel😃 It would be great if other Solar KZfaqrs did this as well. My panels all face South, however as domestic situation I feel a mix of South & West would have been more appropriate for my property due to the bias of consumption on the late afternoon/early evening. Unfortunately my installer was primarily business-to-business😕 Having lost connection with the panel system, Solar edge, I agree about using a wired connection rather than Wi-fi. Virgin Media changed the channel😮‍💨 And, of course, the next owner would likely be using a different provider.

Another great video thanks. I went with the Victron and pylontech system which I love. The only thing I have and wouldn’t change is the radiator/underfloor based heating system I have air conditioning as well for cooling but wouldn’t change over for heating. It would be a boring world if we were all the same.

Excellent and honest review Nigel. I was wondering why would you bother with 3 panels over the garage and instead add a larger south facing ground mount system. Maybe tie into the victron side?

Thanks so much for your videos Nigel, they have helped me make several choices over the years. I've had solar panels since 2013 (with a decent feed in tariff) but they broke at the beginning of 2022 and I had them replaced. My roof faces east-west and I used to have 2 strings, but the new panels have solar edge optimizers and are all in one string. Recently I added 4 panels to my east facing extension roof and these are DC, plugged directly into my Alpha battery. I notice that even at this time of year when they are always slightly shaded, the DC panels can come on up to 1/2 an hour earlier than the Solar Edge ones on the main roof, especially when it is cloudy. The disadvantage of the DC panels is that there is no inverter and you can't monitor them with a CT clamp so I have to guess the generation from the combination of the solar readings from the battery interface and the old generation meter which monitors the Solar Edge panels. If I could do it again I would put more panels on the main roof (I was restricted to 4kWp because of the feed in tariff). I have experience of the Victron inverter from an old battery I had which failed, and it certainly had a decent (if rather complicated) interface. The Alpha interface is not bad, although slightly slow to update and the battery (10.9kWh useable) is big enough to power the house almost all the time from either solar in the summer or imported cheap rate electricity in the winter. I agree with you about the Zappi, and thanks to your reports on moving to Intelligent Octopus, I took the plunge about a month ago and I'm really glad I did. My car is a Hyundai Kona (wonderful car, I wouldn't change it for anything) so I hadn't the choice of registering the car rather than the Zappi with Octopus as the Kona is not supported. The Zappi integration with Octopus seems to work well. I also have a mixture of heating systems. A while ago I had my gas boiler taken out and Elkatherm radiators installed for heating, which turned out to be really expensive to run and insufficient to heat the house. I also had a Sunamp water heater put in, which comes with an Eddi, and that works well, producing enough hot water for my requirements and easily heated at night in the winter. Again thanks to your videos I investigated air conditioning for heating after being really cold last December, the main problem being finding an installer. I was advised to go with Mitsubishi and I have a 7kW outdoor unit and 3 indoor units including one that is just above the floor in the sitting room. The heating works well, but the app and web interface are awful and there is no real time power monitoring at all - you have to wait until the next day to see how much power it was using. Programming is done either via a remote or via the app, and seems somewhat hit-and-miss. Your system looks better than mine. I have a 500W electric towel rail in the bathroom which also serves as a heater and I kept most of the Elkatherm radiators as a backup and to heat the rooms that are only occasionally used. I also have a fan heater for emergencies. I wish I had your ability with programming things like the Home Assistant - I simply would not know where to start, and the online information I have found is (to me) incomprehensible. Many thanks for all the great videos, and have a very happy Christmas.

Thanks for the video - good summary. I am happy with my SolarEdge hardware but the software and their attitude to end users have been disappointing. I will be keeping our MINI for a while yet.

Loved watching your journey, really really informative, keep going ... My weird question, infrared mirror panels in bathroom, do they ever steam up, if on, when running hot water....? Merry Xmas

Thanks for your insights. I am part way along a similar journey. I have 4kw Solax Solar and added a Lux / henschuESS which has been great. I also have an i3 which is 6 years old now and has only cost me washer fluid and some tyres. I have just bought a bosch induction hob which is good and an air fryer so no gas cooking anymore. The next item for me is a heat pump so I like hearing from you guys who have experience ahead of me.

In your situation I would be tempted to bin off the garage roof AC inverter completely and replace it with a pair of Victron MPPTs. That will save you 2.4kW of capacity on your G99 and deliver an efficiency boost. Consider swapping out your exiting Multiplus 5k for either the Multiplus 8k or 10k if you can get it past the DNO. That would then give you plenty of AC capacity round the clock rather than just when the sun is up. If you want to do it, the 8K, 10K and 15k have internal 100A transfer switches so you can run your whole house as a critical load and never lose power again. Your existing 5k only has a 50A transfer switch. If your inverters are co-located with the battery, switching for the DC MPPTs would be trivial enough to do yourself. The Victron 1:1 rule you talk about only applies to AC inverters connected on the critical loads side - if they are connected on the grid side it is not an issue as they'll just shut down if the grid goes. You can access the Victron data registers from home assistant then a simple bit of code can add the values of the AC and DC coupled generation so you still have a total generation number in HA. This is obviously also available in VRM.

You can read the PV power, also from the DC-side, via Modbus from Victron GX. I am doing basically the same, having home assistant collect all data and make the magic of stats.

We installed 6000 REC watts on a north roof with two chimneys causing shade on the ridge in Suffolk. SMA inverter with Shadfix tech, made 3300 kwh in a year.

Tigo optimizers good idea, install in the roof so if you have a problem easy to get to. They will work with any inverter two string ones.

I've been on the fence about Victron and I think you've tipped me onto their side. I like to repair my own stuff and a logical system which I could fault find and replace stuff myself is appealing.

obvious answer for more panels is just put them on your neighbors house and string the cables across the gap... he might not even notice :) 19:00 The inverters don't disappear energy, they just don't generate it if there isn't any demand. I can't remember if you've ever looking into solarAssistant for getting great data off many invertors, great interface... and can then pass it all onto HA. Great info, and reflection... just need some gardening etc for food as well as all the power :)

I have a 7kW PV array on Fronius Primo inverter that plays nicely with the 5000 VA Multiplus II , with another 2.5kW PV on a DC coupled Victron MPPT. Quite easy to see the combined PV output on VRM. No problem at all with 9.5kW generation and 5000 VA. When 20 kWh Pylontech battery stack full, then export at 15 p/kWh. The only issue with the Multiplus II 5000 VA is the limit of 70A for battery charging. Makes it a bit slow, but 5000VA is fine for my home power needs.

Hi Nigel. I have a Quattro 8000 with 2 BSL 5kWh batteries. I certainly wouldn’t call it quiet when running at full chat! I’d be surprised if the Multiplus was any louder.

Great video again! One question if you or if any of the wonderful subscribers can answer. I already have a Solaredge 5.76kwh PV with a 10kwh LGChem Resu battery, Eddie and Zappi. I want to add an off grid system to power my outbuilding. I want a new 10kw+ battery, inverter that can charge the battery without solar. Is there an inverter that can plug into my 13amp wall socket and charge the battery overnight on cheap tariff and then I can use it during the day via the new inverter’s separate AC out to devices? Shouldn’t need more than 3kw. I just don’t want the headache of connecting the new inverter to my consumer board and going through DNO and commissioning trouble. What inverter and battery would be good for this? Many thanks and season blessings to all.

You could always go enphase microinverters and not have inverters at all on the gable ends and garage roof.

As a person trying to workout what solar and battery system to install this is very useful to me. Particularly your comments about the solar edges issues with low power generation when only a few panels are in sunshine. We have a 3 sided roof we can fit only 4 panels on each (west, south, east ) so at this point I am looking at Enphase or solar edge because most inverters only want to do 2 strings and apparently tigos will not be a proper solution. Looks like Solar edge may not be very suitable either. Its super complicated and thats without looking at the batteries !!

You would want a Solis S6 hybrid inverter with 4 MPPT inputs, think they will be doing an 8kW and 10kW versions. It also has much better interface including Home Assistant direct connection. Brian

This is why I chose to go with vixtron energy .. just because their mppt chargers where you can have whatever arrays with whatever size solar charger ...

I'm just listening to you at this moment, (11:07) at the point where you are contemplating which Inverter you would opt for, we've chatted before when I had to decide and one year on from my G99 install, I have been really happy with my (Solis Hybrid Solar Inverter 5kW SOLIS-RHI-5K-48ES-DC 5G) Depending on how you wanted to reconfigure your strings, only one (Solis 5kW SOLIS-RHI-5K-48ES-DC 5G) of these would be needed to cover your current needs, maybe two. :-)

Brilliant thanks for the video. I think I requested it a couple of months ago aswell 🎉 I’m just away to start installing my system. Victron Multi plus 2 5000/48 but 3 of them setup in a 3 phase configuration.

I have 20 Jinko 530w panels linked to a Sol-Ark 15k hybrid inverter without any string inverters. Plenty of room and capacity for adding more panels if I need to. I have 20kw of battery storage and I'm effectively off grid. I literally have switched off my grid input. I'm just in the process of connecting the included smart load connection to a hot water tank. Loving having literally no connections with the electric company.

To Point 1: I would fill the opposite end of the roof as well powering up the house for up to 12 KWp

Add a Chargehanger to your Zappi :)

You can still have some AC invertor connected to Victron. Solar edge is compatable. In this way you should be able to monitor all the power

I run my house off a Multiplus II, I have 6.5kwp on the main roof through a SMA Sunnyboy 5kw inverter, and I have 2x 525w panels on the gable connected through a Victron MPPT straight to the battery. I can see everything through the VRM software (Cerbo talks straight to the Sunnyboy, so it all works in the Victron software, which means it also works in Homeassistant) Works great.

Now that from 1st Feb 24 there will be no VAT on batteries, it will be interesting to see if people start with them first, so it may be that influences the choice of inverter...

I'm with you on the fan noise with the multiplus and finding an installer they are my only negatives on the inverter. I have two AC solar inverters and I monitor both with my Victron inverter using two Carlo Gavazzi EM111 energy meters the only problem with doing it that way is it sums all of the readings in the VRM portal. I have CT's on them as well for the Zappi and the power on the 1.8kW is always half the 3.6kW system. Now the Zappi supports Octopus Intelligent I would stick with it but l don't really use the solar divert much it just makes more sense to charge the car from the grid an get those extra 30 minute slots for the rest of the house on Intellignet.

To Point 3: While it seems you are keen to store some of your production, I would propose a real hybrid inverter that connects the battery on DC and still can power your home AC.

With the my energi equipment you should just max out the export limit, mines set to 10kW so I never solar divert, I use all my electric at night for 7.5p kWh and then export everything during the day.

Great video Nigel. Agree on Victron, pylontech, Zappi, mini etc. I think if I were in your shoes, I’d ditch that single shaded panel on the garage, focus on maximising the main roof with highest spec panels you can fit there. I swapped 10x235w panels with 10x425w panels on main south roof. Much better performance. Just not sure what to do with old ones. Sell, setup in garden? I took off solar thermal and decomissioned back boiler on log stove when new ASHP replaced oil boiler. Ac tied. 5 kw GivEnergy is ok but too small and not that impressed with their FW upgrades. Would be tempted myself to go all victron, fit all 20 panels somewhere and 10-15kw battery if I could do it again. I like my separate AC and solar inverter. Built in redundancy, but agree EPS not really worth it for rare grid loss events. Bigger question would be to have 50-60kw car battery that’s running house. To me that’s a better future for energy storage. I’d also like HA but can’t be faffed installing a pi and setting up all the code. Ultimately I want companies to provide off shelf HA type integrated solutions and not be adding 3rd party computers just to provide a friendly interface for non techies in the house. What do u think I should do with old panels?

Thanks for the input. I'm in the states and have SE too, a 6k system. I've had multiple optimizers go bad and an inverter so I'm not in love with SE either. I don't have issues with the software though, not the best but not the worst either. The system went in in 2011 so those are old optimizers that have since been discontinued, the newer ones I replaced the failed ones with have all been good so maybe SE has rectified the problem, I do like the efficiency of the system and the fact that I can run different modules in the same string so I would probably go with SE again. The modules on your wall, why not put two below the modules on the left in the picture?

Phew! I am currently having your 'old' system installed with Victron Multiplus 5K and Pylontech Batteries. So I watched your video with trepidation expecting you to say: go with x brand instead. On your original video you said you would go for the Pylontech Force batteries because they look neater and Pylontech have the H2 series now with greater modular upgrade capacity but still looking slick. As I am in the process of installing right now I appreciate your comments about finding an installer. Mine is a fab electrician but clueless to setting up Victron kit and I am researching the correct setting myself and suggesting them to him. Wonder if you can kindly share your Victron settings online via VRM or other portal so I can compare my setup with yours. Also Nigel, as you are local to me in Norfolk I would love to pay you if necessary to come over and cast your discerning gaze over it. Installer coming to finish off the settings with me next week BTW so timing would be great. Many thanks for setting the gold standard to guide people like me :)

The big improvement, would be victron 250/100 a lot better than a inverta no loss in ac

Great Vid! I would keep the AC as you are limited by the multi on what load you can run, ie 5kW and then 3kW AC that’s 8kW you have of useable energy obviously in summer in the day. I would see if you could put one of your smaller arrays on the AC1 out of the victron so you have your back up. I wish I followed my mind and got the 10000 multi Victron it would have give me a lot more flexibility. And in the garage noise isn’t an issue for me. Yeah I ended up installing it myself as I couldn’t find an installer. I’m looking to get a 4th US5000 as I’m depleting mine with no sun and cooking. I want some more solar but not sure if the DNO will approve it as I had to get them to tap the transformer as it was over volting the house. I haven’t got into home assistant as I use HomeKit but the thing that I want from victron is just setting that I could just export to the grid with one switch for a set period.

Have you looked into sunsynk? Their small lifelynk could be of interest, you can reduce the export on those and their smallest is 2.8kw and a battery built in

Fill your north facing roof with panels. These days it’s well worth it. I’ve just done it. Panels are so cheap now it’s a no brainer.

Maybe the Mixergy iHP with the heat pump is a better choice with it being heat pump based?

Great summary Nigel I for one believe that unless the government change there ways on subsidising wet air source and not incentivising air to air then there is no way they will reach there targets , I as a heating engineer would not touch a wet air source system as i have seen the lack of truly qualified installers/companies in the UK ,not to mention the ongoing costs of maintenance. My advice to anyone having to replace a boiler system in the future (when not having the choice of gas ) is air to air all the way.

Re those three garage panels aren’t they suited to connecting to a Ecoflow Delta 2 Max ( 2 mttp controllers) connect one panel to each mttp controller ( 60v 500w per port) then use the Powerstream to distribute the battery to the always on items vi the plugs ( fridge freezer etc) leaving the one shaded panel on the existing inverter . A bit messy but utilises some exiting kit. Or the other way around just one panel to the delta 2 ( I think you reviewed that) and them off via the Powerstream leaving the two unshaded panels on the existing inverter.

you could always do a PV inverter which can be integrated with Victron (e.g. Fronius) on the AC side. This will allow you to get the details in one (Victron view).

The Intelligent Octopus Go integration was a long time coming for the Zappi and even the Ohme now does solar divert (should you need it) but for me I would stick with the Zappi as I just like the shape of it you can wrap the charge cable around it nice and convenient. The only problem I have with it is if you don't fully charge the car overnight it will try and charge the car from the battery when the cheap rate period finishes as you have to have it on Eco++ mode to use IO-Go

Flip the top panel on your garage roof 90* so it will be horizontal and move it as far to the left as you can to get it out of the shadow and you might get away without an optimizer .

Yes it's true you don't have great visibility on generated solar on a hybrid/DC coupled battery but think about the losses, if you lose 7.5% converting the solar DC to AC and another 7.5% converting the AC to DC to charge the battery that's 15% loss you don't have if you have a hybrid or DC coupled battery. In addition your buttery will charge from solar when you have a power outage (important if you have EPS circuit connected to your inverter). I only have one hybrid/DC coupled battery inverter and I don't miss the solar generation stats because the only think I'm interested in is how much power I use in the house and car and how much power I export.

Surely if you were starting over, you would ditch all the seperate inverters and have one that handles all the newer, more efficient and higher output panels

To compare. Solar panels - me Trina Panels, 450w panels 22.5% eff. System size I know I could get 32x450 panels on my East West split plus 8 on my garage 5 south 3 north (limited by the 16a cable to the garage which I wouldn't change due to ground works). Total pv 18kw which I doubt the DNO would approve! Inverter - I think I would go Enphase if money was no object. £5.6k worth of micro inverters.... But cash being limited a pair of 8kw solis would be fine and a 4kw in the garage. Battery Storage - GivEnergy AIO ideally 2 of them with the gateway . EV Charger - either Zappi or GivEnergy. Heating - ASHP either Bosch or Mitsubishi. Over 4 COP, current unit is just over 3 cop (4 years old)

hi, great overview. Just wondering how you were able to get the garage panel so close to the edge of the roof? I'm planning solar and am getting told that I need 400mm from edges/ridges etc. Cheers

fill the north roof while you have the installers over - another 7kw on the north (with optimisers due to chimney) could give some nice bumps in overcast weather. I’m seeing decent results with mine on a much smaller roof.

Have you considered solar inverters? I've run three Iconica 5kW inverters running in parallel now for a year (and touch wood) they've been great. I have a lead-acid battery bank so have been using cheap overnight electricity to fill the bank (blasting them with 60V for three hours absorption) as we approached October as I think the solar over the summer never really charged them enough. It's all a test so we'll see how they fair into the spring. I'm completing a catamaran to be solar powered and have just bought three ANENJI 10kW solar inverters for a very good price (about half of what I paid for the Iconica inverters). It remains to be seen how reliable they will be but the difference in price between ordering direct from China and what we pay here is appreciable. Do you follow Andy's Off Grid Garage channel? His in-depth look at batteries has lead me to consider the SEPLOS MASON DIY batteries from Fogstar and also the GOBEL 48V batteries. Both solutions look really good.

We have an 8kva Multiplus 2 with 3x mppt charge controllers, 1 array north facing. Happy to give you a guest account login to my system if you'd like to see the DC coupled data

Nice summary… I suppose the other consideration, starting from scratch, is if you would upgrade your supply to three phase to take advantage of some of the capabilities this brings?

Until recently, I was planning to go with a DC coupled system & 15kwh battery storage (5kW Victron Multiplus 2 & 3x Pylontech US5000). It seemed to be the most cost effective approach, but would need more input at the design/install stage. However, the cost of the 13.5kWh Givenergy All-In-One AC battery & Gateway is pretty close to the DC system and all comes under one set up, one warranty & one app, plus the inverter is bigger 7.2kW. I'd prefer more storage, but would consider adding a second 13.5kWh unit, which would be quite easy. That's this week's thoughts anyway! :)

Thanks for the nice video. One question how can you get cheap import (7.5 pence) during the night but in the same export at 15p during the day. I am currently on octopus go and the export rate is just 4p Thanks

Didn't you consider the micro inverters one on each panel, they have a 25 year g'tee and you can use cheaper AC wiring instead of the more expensive DC. As they all work individually you don't lose power if one panel gets shading. I can recommend Phoenix works in Leeds.

Would you consider replacing the mixergy with their iHP unit for the improved efficiency

you are right that the Sonoff Zigbee temperature sensors are very unreliable.

Do you know what mounting system was used on the vertical gable panels, I'm thinking of doing the same on a south facing wall.

I really wanted the numbers. This is clearly a passion of yours, but I want it to be economic.

Do you know the efficiency/cop you are achieving from the air to air heat pump (air con aside)?

A great video. £400 a year is amazing... but how much have you spent on all the equipment in total???? My wife makes this point when we discuss investing in battery technology. All the best

Would you consider a SunSynk 8.8kW Hybrid Inverter as it could mean just one Inverter for everything?

Nigel, This video is gold, I enjoyed this video more than the usual stats videos (which i love watching as we all want to compare how others generation has been) But this video resonates so much with my own solar journey and makes me think about what i might have done differently. 45 Minutes well spent. Most solar enthusiasts have added to thier systems to incease generation. And if we had done everything in one go, Yes we would have saved more due to bulk discount on equipment and only one scaffoldding instance. 1: 55 - Solar Panels: Agreed, the quality of solar panels across the majority of brands is high enough that in the vast majority of cases, they will outlive the warranty and continue generating well beyond the 25 years. JA Solar seem to be the installer standard. I recieved 3 quotes before my solar install and they all included JA Solar panels. The only time to consider different panel manufacturers or types is if you suffer partial shading, Then half-cut cells become usefull.. though for 400w and above these seem to be the standard now. I agree on finding the optimum panel size for most effienct use of roof space. This is a balance on string size, voltage, current, how many mppts you have, how many strings are ins eries or parralell and of course how many panels can physically fit on the roof. 5:40 The more electronics that go on the roof, the more there is to fail. So microinverter and optimizer failures increase the chance of needing remidial works during the 25 year life of the panels. A great YT channel to check out where they delved into failure rates in detail is MC Electrical. 10:57 - That shaded panel: A single Tigo optimiser. Can be DIY installed if you are confident at heights on the garage roof and with accessing the MC4's and fitting the optimizer yourself. HDM Solar do Tigo optimisers for £38.00 each. Tigo optimisers do not require the tigo cloud kit to work (its a great kit and i have it as i love the data) but they are a plug n play module. Note: Once you add tigo optimisers to a cloud kit... if you remove the the cloud connectivity... the optimizers shut down (As part of Fire rapid shutdown) Touching back on failure rates. I have 17 tigo's fitted (so all panels are monitored but they all suffer shading at some point in the day in winter) so far the kit works good.. but i'm only a year in with those. (retro fitted) 18:30 - Frequency shifting. Only available in off-grid mode. As the the frequency is shifted up,... 50.5, 50.6... up to 52hz incrementally... solar inverters will start to trottle/tail off thier output proportionally until full shut down at 52hz frequency. Andy from YT channel "the off grid garage" did a great video on this with a grid tied microinverter connected to his Victron Multi-plus. Exactly what you are thinking of. 30:00 Really good points regarding hot water and export. Since 2017, the enrgy market has changed massively, Energy costs are more during the day, export payments have risen. This reinforces the need to be on the correct energy tarriff but who is to say the energy prices will remain how they are. The ability to shift WHEN you use energy really makes a difference when adapting to the changing energy market/prices. So hot water heating and batteries really help. Right now solar export is worth more than overnight import. But will that always be the case? 32.30: Home assistant. I've no experience of this... yet. But i am contemplating this. Even for 1 just 1 reason. Summer 2023 i had to manually turn on force discharge and turn off force discharge between 4-7pm everyday for Export on Octoplus flux. My Inverter has no simple solution (yet) that automates this even by using the timer. timers only work for charging, not discharging. So HA may be the way to go. 42:00 Data and control freak? I have smart wifi switches and sockets (Tapo plugs) and Smart wifi light bulbs (Energizer... only as i can change the hue/colour/brightness) Smart plugs on the fish tank heater, smart themostats on both fish pond heaters... i turn these off on Saving sessions days to save power... more for export session) I love the control i get from this and Tapo plugs (P110)do give you live and historical data usage. I have a micro inverter (1.6kw) on a Tapo P110 and it works fine. you just remember that figure isnt energy consumed but generated. Again, Really enjoyed this video. Have a wonderful Christmas, will look forward to Decembers stats vid in January. Dave - Shropshire.