Everyone is on a budget and wants to save money, but what is the cheapest way to add solar to you home?
I guess I should start with say, legal and safe way to add that solar to your home as there is a lot of “cheap” solutions which are unsafe and also illegal. So while we may not mention the trash that’s being sold, we will keep on the side of “professional” and not mention the china trash that blows up and puts you and others at risk…
Buying solar is not expensive, while it may seem like that many companies are milking people for money, which is why it seems like the cost of solar is extraordinary. One of the big costs is the installation and much of this cost is down to government control. (no shock there)..
Micro inverters come in many forms and are a cheap way to get into solar, but they have a key drawback which comes from not being able to add a battery so you can store power and use it.
This is not upselling a battery and more money, its fairly simple logic. You get power during the day, which is when most people are out of the house, but you are home in the evening and this is when the peak hours are and when the sun is going down. So you make power in the day and need it at night. So the only way is a battery.
There is coming. (apparently) micro inverters with battery storage, You have the battery inverter portable things, but they are more an off grid solution, though some are grid connected, which means that they work like a hybrid inverter. They are more expensive, they are not easy to upgrade, and they are limited.
Currently we have a battery, which I call a ABS or truck battery. A simple plug and play. Which for 5.2kwh is £500.
So energy storage is pretty good at this price point. and its going to pay for itself in just over 1 year. (saves around £456 per year).
The bigger cost is going to be two parts. installation. and inverter.
Having a battery at a great price ( the lowest in the uk) is not anywhere near good enough without the means to charge it and to get that power to the house. Sadly we cannot do a great deal about registered and approved inverter prices. again this has a lot of do with the government.
However…..
There are more ways to get the result than you would think and the difference could save you thousands.
The government set out rules which means that suppliers have to pay them to be approved, you have to pay also into this pot, which means that there is additional costs. but this only relates to parallel.
Parallel just means “working with”, as soon as you dont, you open up all the restrictions and control as well as lower your costs.
How to lower the costs:
You can have a “grid attached” system, it does NOT work “with” the grid but it does connect to it, much the same as your house does, or say a cooker. perhaps a battery charger may be a better example? but you just charge from the grid when needed. The other option is a off grid which has an ATS which can switch between the grid and off grid as you need.
What difference does that make?
in cost term around £1200-£1700 just in the hardware cost.
All you are doing is replacing the source (the grid) with your own power source (inverter) which feeds into your home. or switching between them or a bit of both.
What about solar panels?
Solar panels are cheap enough for most, it is the number of them and installation that matters.
Lets say £750 would get you a solar array and mounting system that could be used in most homes.
its getting them on a roof that could cost money, They can be in gardens, but this is very limited, they can be wall mounted, on sheds or garages even pergolas. it is the scaffold costs that ramp up the cost of installation as well as the labor costs ( no so much with RenewSolar)
In Short
If you want to have solar at the lowest price, you will have to have a grid attached solar installation and have single story out buildings which would make mounting the panels easier and thus lower the costs considerably. If you do not have the outbuildings then you have to have a large garden to fit a small array, or have a pergola built which panels can be fitted – or a walk way, or a shed/workshop/garage.
With that in mind you could have good solar for less than £2,000 installed. I do mean good, as in something that you can run your home from night and day, but this can depend on how much power you use.
If on the other hand you are looking for a bill reduction, then two panels and a micro inverter, or a little larger 2kw system is going to not offer a battery, but should reduce the bill for a good few months of the year for around £650.
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