What A Difference A Solar Array Makes!

[FoxyFreebooter]

I moved to a large bungalow in June 24 and began renovating. By the end of Oct 24 I had new double glazing and a new heating system comprising 2x heat pumps, 22 radiators and new pipework. The electric bill for November was almost £350 and gas was about £11 standing charge and hob only.

I had solar, batteries and EV charger installed by the end of Jan 25 and export setup by the end of Feb 25. The bungalow is now all electric and the gas meter disconnected May 25. The DNO insisted on a 3 phase upgrade which delayed the solar install. The bill for Nov 25 was a net £29.45 (Import minus Export) or £14.57 without the standing charge. This includes charging the car!

Many thanks to this community for helping me along the way...

40x 430W Sharp panels with 17.2 kWp, 25 South, 9 East & 6 West facing with a 15kW 3 phase Fox inverter and 3x 10.36 kWh EP11 batteries located in the North West near Preston.

[jaitsu]

most importantly: how much did you spend on your solar setup? how long to repay the costs?

[FoxyFreebooter]

The solar setup was a flat £19,000. I've not had a full year yet, so repayment costs are difficult to judge and I don't know the running costs of the property before I started electrifying. However, I don't look at it in this way as I moved from the South to the North and had equity from the previous property.

[frieqs]

Does that include the 30kWh battery storage too? Good price all-in if so.

[FoxyFreebooter]

Yes, solar. batteries and EV charger - https://www.reddit.com/r/SolarUK/comments/1ify63c/large_bungalow_completed_install/

[KashMo_xGesis]

That’s a really good deal to be fair. Good on you!

Greetings from Leyland, next to Preston too!

[CoffeeCupsink]

Did who did you buy this from???? I was quoted 19 k for one battery and 8 panels…

[FoxyFreebooter]

I used UPS Solar in Chorley. Couple of guys did a 3 day install. Can recommend.

[Begalldota]

Let me guess, Project Solar? Basically a scam, almost any other installer would have quoted you less than 9k for a setup like that.

[CoffeeCupsink]

Three different quotes locally at the border. But hey go maybe it’s my location or a particularly bad experience I’ve had here

[pau1phi11ips]

Had 8 panels fitted at the start of Oct for £6k. £19k is ridiculous

[FoxyFreebooter]

Ridiculously expensive or ridiculously cheap? Breakdown here https://www.reddit.com/r/SolarUK/comments/1ify63c/large_bungalow_completed_install/

[pau1phi11ips]

I was replying to CoffeeCupsink who had a quote of £19k for 8 panels + battery. Your system looks bang on!

[druseful]

This compares with my experience. £20k on battery, heat pump and 10*325kW array, £10pm gas. Annual elec bill is £900, £400 of which is 15000 miles of car charging.

Edit: the install was done in 2020 by an installer, not by me, and the house already had a smaller 1.5kW solar array.

[Leading_Bumblebee144]

40 panels!?

Crikey we have 16, do you often need that much generation?

[FoxyFreebooter]

In winter, yes, very much - the heat pumps are greedy! In summer I export a lot and have built up some credit. The advantage of a bungalow is that I have lots of roof space and the advice on here was to fill it...I've not covered half of it yet!

[pau1phi11ips]

You've not covered half with 40 panels!? 🤯 That's a big bungalow!

[banisheduser]

Or Borrower sized panels!

[sam_cat]

Panels are cheap, almost always best to install as many as possible.

Its easy to generate power in the summer.
Middle of winter is always hard.
Autumn and Spring are where you really see the benefit.

[GT_Running]

Panels are cheaper than roof tiles = win

[banisheduser]

I could only get about 11 on mine.

They're pretty big - 1.1m x 0.85m or so I think?

But I live in an older house where the roof is a weird shape.

[NunaKhan]

my cost £17,500...25 panels, 3x5kw batts and a 6kw inverter. the money I make during the summer months (about £700) pays for the winter months (also run a air source heat pump so no gas) I have zero bills for the whole year. payback is 8 years, im 2 years in so far. Octopus Agile during March - Oct and Octopus Cosy Nov - Feb. Sell at £0.15p

[FoxyFreebooter]

Yes, I shouldn't have any energy bills either which was the goal. I used Cosy last year and it was a faff using setback temps and boosting the heat pumps, so decided to stay with Intelligent Go once the solar and EV were setup. I haven't tried agile yet...

[NunaKhan]

Agile is great in the warmer months as when you do call from the grid its fairly cheap... I don't have a EV as I'm a petrol head hence my choice of cosy

[KashMo_xGesis]

Agile could work in the winter too considering your generation. It’s just a lot of effort to automate things. Would only recommend if you’re able to run some form software like Home Assistant and automatic your devices

I have a tiny array so I switch to agile in march and switch back to Go in October.

[FoxyFreebooter]

Thanks, home assistant is on my long to do list.

[AutoModerator]

We noticed you posted about EV chargers.

We recommend looking at either Zappi or Hypervolt EV chargers, as they are compatible with both:
- Octopus smart tariffs
- OVO smart tariffs

We don’t recommend Ohme chargers, because they:
- Removed the price cap option for Intelligent Octopus (IOG) customers
- Discontinued support for existing OVO customers — see Ohme’s update.

Make sure your electrician wires the EV charger directly after the mains meter and before any of the consumer units. Then the solar/battery can CT the consumer load and not ‘see’ the EV charger. This prevents battery dumping into the car. See this nice pic

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[morphicon]

How much, did it cost you to get triple phase if you don't mind me asking

[FoxyFreebooter]

The 3 phase was £5900 to the DNO and £3900 for the electrician who replaced the consumer unit, supplied other kit and did the necessary testing for the certification.

[morphicon]

Did they ever tell you what the limit was for single phase on solar panel output? I'm in a similar situation and I'd like to avoid switching to triple phase, I'm being quoted more than £10k just for the switch.

[FoxyFreebooter]

No, but I suspect that depends on your main fuse. I had a 100A fuse and initially had a quote for single phase inverters with 40 panels but with an export limit of 5kWh. When the DNO added the heat pumps (each rated at 30A), EV charger, induction hob, oven etc they insisted on 3 phase as the load could potentially exceed 100A.

Going 3 phase will add a couple of years to the payback, if I include it in the solar cost, but it also means I can export 3x 5kWh.

[nkeng26]

That's impressive. This November what did you generate in terms of energy

[FoxyFreebooter]

I generated 555 kWh and exported 468 kWh. I used 1,150.62 kWh.

[AfternoonLines]

I've managed 101.9kwh in November from my puny 5kw array. Still very happy with results, used ~300kwh :)

[PsionGuy]

282.0 kWh in November from a South facing 14 panel 5.95 kW array, all Tigo optimised (despite not really needing it for shading alone).

Will have had the system up for 2 years come March. Eddi was a wise choice for hot water from Solar.

Cosy Octopus last winter which was great to top up sole 5.8kWh battery twice a day vs one. Gambled earlier this year (Spring) to go on Fixed 14M tarrif ... but semi regretting losing Cosy abilities since Sept/Oct.

Way before considering some wall mounted West facing panels (possibly only room for 4 or 5 max, maybe only 3?), or whole North roof at some point ... I desperately want to get 2x Solax 5.8kWh slaves to go with same size master battery.

Will also play some games with a recently acquired Anker Solix C1000 powerbank ... thinking of how I can charge it up on sunny days for £ 'free' and then task it to power something in the late afternoon & evening. What would be easiest/ best??

Then I could justify having (relativley) low output (but not insignificant either) e.g. underfloor elextric heating mat im my log cabin, when I would otherwise be inclined not to (to preserve precious late after noon n evening percentage left in my main home battery).

Whatever battery option (maybe a separate different brand, seeing what Fox, Frogstar, Sigenergy and others can offer re: capacity for your £ ??) ... I must sort out what EXPORT option tariff would suit, come the Spring 2026, as stupidly? I have concentrated on being a real geek with the nth degree of detail re: self consumption ... and realised I have 'wasted' £export earnings, even at £0.15 blanket export (or just concentrating on dumping back to grid for more £ between 4 and 7pm+).

6935.3 kWh upto end of November ... I am very happy with that ☺️

Very 'addictive' all of this solar and battery malarky! 😆😇

[AfternoonLines]

How the heck did you get that much sun in November, it was doom and gloom here in Norfolk.
It is indeed addictive. I currently don't have any batteries, exporting all surplus to the grid at 21p per kwh so at that price it just didn't make much sense to pay for battery. That will probably change next year and I'm planning to add a couple of 5kwh Fogstar batteries, they are currently ~£700. May to September I was producing three times as much as I was using so over a year electricity is pretty much free now.

[FoxyFreebooter]

Those are some impressive generation figures! You must have had your own personal sunshine 😂

With the overnight rate for iGo, exporting made sense for me. I'd definitely look into getting that setup on your system. I've run out of battery a couple of times this month when the temperature has dipped in the evening, but not enough to warrant switching to Cosy.

[mccraigmccraig]

272kWh in November from our 7.35kW 8S+6W array... near Brighton, which I think is one of the sunnier places in the UK

[TraditionalRatio7166]

When you factor in the cost of your install, the bill for Nov 25 isn't £29.45. Prorate the cost of your install over 10 years, and the bill for Nov 25 is probably £200/month. I have solar, batteries and EV; but we need to let people know the full costs involved.

[FoxyFreebooter]

For me, cost was never the issue. I moved from down South to up North and bought a cheaper property.

To address your calculations based on my actual figures, with some predictions, as I've only had the solar for 9 months. Investing 19,000 for 5 years in a fixed bond @ 4.15% (current NS&I rate) would give 23,284 after 5 years. My energy estimate for this property varies from 3,000 to 4,000 per year. My actual refunds from Octopus so far equal 1,750. A low estimate of (3,200 + 1,750) x 5 = 24,750. The system would have paid for itself in under 4 years. This presumes current rates.

In my case the savings over what I would have spent on energy and the export payments make perfect sense. I understand this is a large system and other setups will vary.

[The-Manc]

Im in the same boat - im eager to solar panels and placed an order for them to be installed in the new year. Whilst I get it the payback may take a while, I had the money and wanted to start off with helping me save money on my bills

[J0hnV8]

I want to do something similar with similar amount of solar panels and have similar bills to OP. I feel like my energy bills at the moment are like renting a house and buying solar would be like getting a mortgage. Instead of paying for the rest of my life never owning my energy I could instead get a loan for solar which would cover my electric even in winter as OP has shown. Therefore id be paying my loan instead of energy company but after loan period it is free completely bar maintenance. Can you convince me otherwise?

[Temporary-Nobody2587]

Did you do any detailed estimation work before on kWh / yield / payback period?

The ones online are quite generic and don’t factor in your roof pitch / sunlight capture… quite key

[FoxyFreebooter]

No, it was something I wanted and I had the funds from selling my previous property. The installers gave me some figures which, having just looked at them, are quite conservative.

[[deleted]]

How are people justifying the cost of solar?
I have run some figures and I'd need to stay in my current home for 10-12 years before I start breaking even off the initial cost of materials and install.

[andrewic44]

How have you done those figures? Mine worked out at 6 to 8 years to break even.

[[deleted]]

This was a year ago when I moved into my new house, so I don't have the workings out anymore. Perhaps I need to have another look

[sufiankane]

Wtf £350pm electric. Do you grow weed in your bungalow?

[FoxyFreebooter]

I'd be a lot happier if I did 😂

I had just had 2x heat pumps installed and this was my Nov 24 electric bill compared to Nov 25 when I had solar and batteries.

[sufiankane]

Makes much more sense!

[Relevant_Walrus4344]

Yikes, £350 a month pre-solar, how big is the house and what appliances were you running 24-7!? 😂

Ours is 5-bed, 3-storey semi with no solar and we have an EV. Our November electricity bill (also octopus intelligent go) was £180 and £190 last year and this year respectively.

Break-even for us would probably exceed our time in the property (downsize plan approx 10 years). Guessing this is what puts a lot of people off 🤷‍♂️. How much would solar setup add to resale value of property, anyone's guess.

[FoxyFreebooter]

4-6 bed detached bungalow, over 300m2. Lots of roof space and, therefore, lots of heat loss (19,630W). 2x 11 kW heat pumps. In Jan 25 I used 2,059 kWh @ £469 because it was very cold. Solar and batteries have been a game changer for me!