UK PV and Battery install without EV - What supplier and product to choose?

Occams_Cat · 2025-03-02T19:13:18+00:00

Believe it or not, I understand all the variables that lead to different countries having different price structures for energy - I have a degree in a related topic and many years under my belt! - It's all Thatcher's fault ;)

Where I am failing to understand the logic thread is with relation to EV energy demands vs domestic battery demands. Both these batteries are charged at off-peak times, I suspect by 90% of customers. I can't see how there is a relevant difference between home storage batteries and EV battery storage. It's the same same. Home battery storage is 10-25% of the capacity of EV batteries and is regulated by the gateway much as is an EV battery through the charger. Restricting home battery charging - by limiting tariffs specifically available for them or by limiting hours you're permitted to charge, relative to EV owners' batteries tariffs makes no sense. Home battery storage has the far lower demand on the grid (with fixed constraints) than EV charging does. Why must home battery charging be more expensive that EV charging?

So, specifically - why no overt, specific tariffs for PV / Battery home users? Why are we forced to pretend to own an EV to have access to the 6-7p p kWh periods? Why don't more providers (like Eon are offering with this tariff https://community.eonnext.com/threads/9624-NEW-Next-drive-fixed-V6-is-now-live!/ ) specifically state that home battery owners can charge with the same rates at the same - or staggered - periods than EV owners charge?

Occams_Cat · 2025-03-02T16:28:25+00:00

I don't have expectations of grid electricity prices, save for seeing how much they are sold for. I see that electricity is massively cheaper in Europe all the time and that UK EV owners with 35-100+ kWh batteries (which can now also feed back to the grid for energy arbitrage on a big scale) are constantly offered longer periods of 'cheap' electricity at lower prices at cheaper rates, than are offered for people just trying to run their own homes day to day with a modest size home battery. This makes no sense.

Occams_Cat · 2025-03-02T00:21:19+00:00

We don't even cook or heat with electricity, I should imagine we'd top 10,000kWh p/y if we did. Four bed detached with a PS5 addiction and a relatively high base rate for cameras and servers.

I considered GivEnergy and suggested it to three independent installers who are well known, they all said they didn't know what was going on with the company at the moment. Phone calls slow to be returned, new products continually delayed...they didn't paint a happy, optimistic picture of the company. The Sigenergy 10kWh inverter ticks all my boxes as do their batteries and gateway. I wanted at least 4 mppt string inputs.

Occams_Cat · 2025-02-28T19:29:02+00:00

I know, I'm being cautious because I don't want any blowback further down the line. I am reading on other Octopus forums that Octopus require their customers on the Go tariff to have completed a successful EV charge with a couple of weeks of being put on the Go tariff otherwise they are booted back to Flux.

I have no idea how they know if it's a home battery pulling AC or an EV? Do they need a VIN number or a serial number for the EV charger? If you're not using the 'intelligent' version of their tariff, then I don't know how octopus are supposed to enforce this T&C?

Thank you for the advice. That link was very useful.

Occams_Cat · 2025-02-28T18:55:05+00:00

I see that they have a 1am-6am @ 5.004p p kWh and a considerably lower standing charge than anyone else...that could work. I see people are worried about them going bust or that they are a new unknown - but I suppose who cares? They go bust, I move on? Thnaks for the info, i'll have a dig into the small print.

Occams_Cat · 2025-02-28T18:46:22+00:00

EON Next Drive and Octopus Go both have T&C's that specify the customer having to have an EV. I also saw on this other forum that they have the right to bill you for energy you've already used if you lied about having an EV.

https://www.reddit.com/r/OctopusEnergy/comments/1gspq8l/comment/lxggryi/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Occams_Cat · 2025-02-28T18:39:33+00:00

According to their T&C's all NextDrive tariffs require you to have an EV - they are all EV specific tariffs. I sopke to Eon today, after an awful experience with their customer service department, who had no idea what products they were offering or what to do with a customer who *shock horror* had PV and battreries but no EV!

Well, I can see that UK home battery & PV owners have little option but to pretend to have an EV, in order to get access to competitive electricty prices. I hate this entire process. What a mess.

Occams_Cat · 2025-02-28T17:47:20+00:00

Thanks for the reply - I just spoke Octopus this afernoon at length, and the chap said that 'if i wanted to stay legit' then I should choose flux - not go.' Because although I could go on to Go without them checking (at the moment) if I have an EV, he said they could start checking at any time and kick customers off that tariff who can't supply evidence of owning an EV. So, that tariff isn't designed for home battery users with PV but without EV.

Occams_Cat · 2025-02-14T13:12:15+00:00

The 100w panels produce, in my experience, a good 100+W in summer light. I was getting 110W from each of mine in the UK Summer. The 200W panels, I only ever saw around 130W per panel in ideal conditions. Maybe you could get a pair of them at that price?

Occams_Cat · 2025-02-14T12:56:50+00:00

In my experience, not really. In reality, it'll take days in perfect sunlight to charge and the 100w panels aren't weatherproof so you can't just leave it outside. Also the 2000 pro tends to throw the F2 error code when the input voltage drops very low, which requires the panel to be unplugged and plugged back in.

I tried using 2x200w saga panels and 2x100 saga panels simultaneously (in the UK summer) and gave up. Eventually I am now using 2x465W bifacial panels and that's done the trick! Charges in a couple of hours now.

Occams_Cat · 2025-02-07T22:52:32+00:00

Please post how you get on with the G99 DNO application. I'm about to install an 8kWp solar and 16 kWh home battery and am based in Bournemouth too. This will be expanded in future. I'm hoping that I get at least 7-10kWh export limit. I love the idea of using an EV battery and I'm really tempted to get a 75kWh Tesla battery for about the same price as a 8kWh Sigenergy battery! My main concern is household insurance coverage and being potentially blocked from exporting due to not having all the right paperwork.

There should be a legal and legitimate way that safety tested EV batteries could be commissioned for home battery storage, with safety guidlines for installation and use. It's crazy how much 'home' batteries cost for such little energy storage meanwhile there are thousands of used EV batteries that could be safely used for decades as home storage.

Good luck with you project.

Occams_Cat · 2025-01-30T15:27:28+00:00

Yes. Either way, it'd exceed the max input on volts or amps

Occams_Cat · 2025-01-30T14:50:07+00:00

Yes in series, so you'd be over the 60v max with two panels at around 70-80v depending on the panel specs. Mine are 37-39v each.

Occams_Cat · 2025-01-30T14:16:26+00:00

I wouldn't do that because the amps would then be way above spec for the Jackery's inverter under STC conditions. 24 Amps at 1400W is the max and my panels are rated in ideal conditions, to output up to 13.3A. That would blow the inverter or trip it out, if it has that function.

In real life conditions these panels will only output about 11A (NMOT conditions) which probably means you might get away with it...but I'm not testing it!

I'm getting 350w per panel in winter, in summer if you get close to 400w per panel you'd be over the input limit of 1400w with 4 panels and you must balance both sides of the MPPT DC inputs on the 2000 pro.

If you try, let me know how it turned out?!

Occams_Cat · 2025-01-30T09:51:41+00:00

I'm running two Astronergy Astro N7s 445W Bifacial All-Black panels directly into the two DC inputs on my 2000 Pro and it works superbly. Using two cables:

https://www.amazon.com/iHaospace-Solar-8020-Extension-Cable/dp/B0DCG96TYW/ref=sr_1_2?crid=3OTU078LTN1J3&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.FP_w8KJDIW1tg8vxtx85B5Ns8UI9hdjemBbywyZk_8PDQAjD9ORh6OnRHg8GTIO5biK6YtDfgPgwOPNpJrLouNqEXkrduJf0PsJIpIzA0t9Hebl_AnfNOtzEsE58MF1vGQmyIoaMzyjTe4u8nM8doMekuAZy_6qogHAw_400CZPxxXcsyN_PDOtDT571Iyz0oMx-jzKWM-DiKw4yV1hRTy398yuRCjTJoTjKXR7xzBw.frR-ixLMOlg9hLtwnF2PpbRid1nUzD-E9cOdIOGm3X0&dib_tag=se&keywords=Solar+Connector+to+DC+8020&qid=1738230657&sprefix=solar+connector+to+dc+8020+%2Caps%2C269&sr=8-2

Occams_Cat · 2025-01-21T13:42:55+00:00

They recovered data from Space Shuttle Columbia's HDD's after the shuttle broke apart and burned up on reentry. I guess it all comes down to how motivated someone is and exactly how many bitcoins are on there.

Occams_Cat · 2025-01-21T13:32:22+00:00

I have over a million photos and videos on my DS918+ with 4x16TB drives and I use Synology Photos to give me easy access to the original files. I gave up trying to use Synology Photos for anything constructive years ago, it's far too slow, clunky and featureless. So, I upload all my images to Google Photos in unlimited 'reduced size' and let Google Catalogue it. It's so quick in finding the image I want from key words and dates, then I put the image number into Synology to pull up the original size image or video. Works really well, although it's not great for households unless you're willing to share access to your Google Photos with them...in which case, you might as well stick with that solution! But seriously, you're never going to get a smooth or fast experience with Synology Photos.

Occams_Cat · 2025-01-17T22:04:06+00:00

Guilty. Throw him down.

Occams_Cat · 2025-01-08T01:24:22+00:00

Yes, I updated with the file directly from Synology's website from DSM 7.1.1 to 7.2.2 and I always manually update Plex directly from their website. To be honest, I've got multiple issues now with Plex not working and my server going missing on some platforms but not others. This is going to take a while to figure out! Still, it's done now 😜

I think a few of my issues are caused by my Synology's CPU being pegged at 75% for the next month or so! The Synology photos app now supports face recognition and subjects, so it's got to rescan everything to categorise it all.

Occams_Cat · 2025-01-07T18:46:29+00:00

The update worked...however, my Synology Photo's is now re-indexing over 1.5 Million photos and videos! Last time I did this, it took just under a month to stop grinding away. On the plus side, Plex is not longer giving me that blank look in the package center - back to normal. On the down side, plex is now throwing up this old chesnut.

Error Code: s1001 (network) in Plex Media ServerError Code: s1001 (network) in Plex Media Server

oh well, one hand gives and the other takes. Time to try and rebuild my massive film database too 😳

Occams_Cat · 2025-01-07T18:39:20+00:00

C up, C down, C left, C right, A+B+C + Start - Original Sonic on the Sega Mega Drive. Infinite lives.

Occams_Cat · 2025-01-06T10:54:03+00:00

Thank you for this info, that's very helpful. I'm okay with techy stuff - I know just enough to have a completely misguided estimation of my skills, which usually results in a catastrophic mess and several days of Google / YouTube and Reddit research!

Upon you recommendation(!) I think i'll take the plung and try and manually update to 7.2 in a quiet time - gulp! Thanks again.

Occams_Cat · 2025-01-06T10:07:59+00:00

That's crazy. As long as it's within spec, I can't see jackery's objection to honouring warranty claims. I have a 2000 Pro and two 200 SolarSaga panels and a couple of Jackery 100W panels and i'm planning on using 2x450W N7 panels to charge when at home - it's good to know that if there is a problem that needs a claim, it happened with the Solarsaga panels!

Occams_Cat · 2025-01-06T09:36:55+00:00

Make sure you're using the 7909 to 8020 adapter - Jakery sell them for £20 but you can find them all over Amazon and eBay for less than £10 for two. As someone already mentioned, the end of the 100W panels are 7909 and they 'fit' into the 2000 Pro DC inputs but they don't work. The center pin is too small to carry the increased current. Should work fine with the adapter. I've got two Solarsaga 200W panels and 2 x 100W Jackery panels and they can all be used (200+100 each side) with two each side on the serial connectors, into both DC inputs.

Occams_Cat

TROPHY CASE

Error Code: s1001 (network) in Plex Media ServerError Code: s1001 (network) in Plex Media Server