Yes the time of year many have been waiting for and where many people have been totally confused by. The law has been made, the date confirmed –
While we have some reservations on how things can go really wrong, online forums have demonstrated that the general public has not idea, and I often ask if they can read English.. Government and law tends to not be easy to read for the Joe blogs of the world, however as I have wrote a lot of law and policy and procedures, it makes sense to me and how they are wrote in complexity to which I am qualified to understand.
No you cannot have two in one house.
One post I saw less than 48 hours ago was a question of fitting two plug in solar inverters to the house on different rings. The legal side of this says NO.
The consultation and early notes for experts and professionals like myself, had mentioned if this would be possible in the future. the answer to that is in theory yes.
Are we ready?
No, the general information puts two burdens one on the retailer and the other on the hardware manufacture.
The level of information becomes professional level very quickly meaning that most will NOT be able to meet the legal requirement to sell and produce the products. There is also a burden on the home owner, one which is always avoided and not carried out – when is the last time you had an electrical inspection? What is the wear like on your sockets? do you have a bi directional protection device in your home? Are you plugging in down stream of other protection and are they bi directional? are you plugging into a ring or radial?
Seriously if I ask people, their eyes glaze over.
Am I ready?
Yes, of course, we have been behind closed doors testing and consulting for over 3 years. We know that the main stopping point for installations is the paper work, the professional costs and well value. We did value and we sold the installation kits for ages now. The kits still stand, which makes installation compatible with traditional and safe installations. while for pros, some DIY installers undertook the role of Sparky… naughty boys and girls.
Why do you recommend “a proper install”?
Well if you have space for more than 2 panels, then a proper installation will work better for you. You change from limited to more unlimited and it can make the system more flexible to meet your power needs.
Just because is says 800w does not mean it is.
When buying solar and micro inverters (plug in) you may think two 400w solar panels makes the output 800w.. No hope of that happening.
Solar panels are marketed as “perfect conditions” so your 475w panels is likely to make you around 350w peak, we could take more off depending on the angle the panel is, and so you wont get what you think you may do.
Also, something I find annoying is the voltage and amps of panels and the inverters do not match well, and finding the right panels is very hard, as they have to be higher voltages that most panels on the market.
As the inverts power control with current, the lower voltage panels could see you clipping power and therefore also losing power.
So before we even start, there are three things that will lower your power right away.
Does it work?
Well this is the bottom line isnt it.
When I look at grid tide they kind of work, and low powered inverters are the same. It really boils down to the off set they make. 800w is not a great deal of power, and if you have smart meter, walk up to it and look what power you are using now. if its around 400w then you can look at these plug in solar meeting your needs for most of the day during summer – thats around 6 hours in real terms. for 175 days of the year, it may make enough power to turn on lights, but it will not run a kettle or cooker and even the hot water tank. but you will get a discount.
The idea here is that grid tied solar will produce power through the day and it is capable of pushing out to the grid extra power that you wont use. the big companies will sell this to other people at £0.30 a kwh to line their pockets, so the the big money making chains of life, it works for them as much as it will work for you. If you are not at home to use the power, then most of the power will go to the grid, at night when you are home, your solar will be off and you will be using grid power.
If you want to test how much you could save, then take a look at your smart meter usage at 9, and then when you get home or around 4. the difference may be 1-2kwh So if you are paying £0.32kwh you could have saved yourself a massive £0.64 a day, that’s around £165 per year.
ROI
Return on investment would mean that break even is likely to be 2.2 years provided the systems come in around £300 before the system actually starts making you money – a actual saving.
What makes or could make this a better investment?
A battery. Rather than sending money to the grid so others will make money from yours. a battery could store the energy for use later. For plug in this has been deemed illegal, but you could make around 5kwh in a day, use 2kwh over that period and then have 3 kwh over night, which would cover many homes power use. – note only the base load.
If you skip plug in, and have a micro inverter that’s around 2kw then you can start shaving off power costs for making the coffee, and some washing machines. while you will need space for 4 solar panels, this could be possible for many. Or
you could go down the route of a ac coupled inverter, which has a low start up voltage, or skip the solar side to have a MPPT – that’s a solar battery charger, which means you could start with two panels. this way you could install a 3.6kw inverter, that’s going to run many more things in your home before pulling power from the grid, but you would only yield as much solar as you could get from the panels and you would only need a smaller battery, unless you have some cheap rate supply to top the battery up to use later.
Do not forget the price does jump when adding bigger and better, a 3.6kw hybrid inverter and a battery could cost around £2000. However you could save £547 per year, while this would take a little longer to pay for itself, the annual savings after does make up for it.
Are you considering plug in solar?
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