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Solar Panels - Am I missing something?

34 replies

fromdownwest · 23/08/2024 15:26

I am looking at the option of a solar install via Octpus.

I have been quoted £16k for 24 Panels and Tesla Powerwall3 and Tesla Invertor
Panels are JAM45441 LB 440W

12 Panels at 60 deg
12 Panels at 120 Deg

The current tariff is Octopus Wholesale tracker circa 4,500 annual usage.
Generates circa 8,000 - so offsets my usage with the sale back on the rest

Will be an EV in 2 years time added to the above

Showing about half of generate being exported at about £700 a year.

So in essence no electricity bill except the standing charge.

I am struggling to see that this is a good value investment, or am I missing something?


Updated by MNHQ
Landed on this page in search of solar panel advice? Find our guide to installing solar panels in your home in the UK. HTH!

OP posts:
MigGril · 23/08/2024 17:49

The problem is the cost of the battery, we had our panels installed 6 years ago. They have been a good investment. But we didn't have a battery installed DH worked it out and it just wasn't worth it. They have come down in price since but not by much so we still haven't added one. The tesla power walls are around £8,000 at the moment without VAT and it doesn't addup to a good investment.

We bought our EV 2 years ago and have a solar edge inverter and a zappy car charger. This means excess electric goes to the hot water tank or the car if its plugged in. Which has a much bigger battery then you get with a home battery. Unfortunately we don't have a home to grid car, ours could do it with the right charger and software as its a Nizzan leaf but Octopus only did this on a limited trial basis a few years ago. And not many electric cars have this feature yet. As it would be a better option, we almost always have one car at home during the day so would work for us.

So basically we have 16 panels use almost all our own generated electric ourselves. Very little is exported back to the grid, but we just got in at the end of the feed in tariff so get paid a small amount for 50% of the electricity we generate.

Wolfpa · 23/08/2024 18:00

The Tesla battery is a waste of money, it looks good but it doesn’t perform as well as others. Get some quotes with different batteries. I have just had solar panels installed the actual panels were £80 a pop the majority of the installation was the scaffolding and the battery.

I am currently exporting £8 a day to the grid, I hope to bank enough to pay the winter bills. I am on the flexible Octopus tariff so in the winter I intend charge by battery with the cheaper night time electricity (7p) and sell it back during the day (15p).

my installation was 11k in total for 12 panels.

WithManyTot · 23/08/2024 18:58

Wolfpa · 23/08/2024 18:00

The Tesla battery is a waste of money, it looks good but it doesn’t perform as well as others. Get some quotes with different batteries. I have just had solar panels installed the actual panels were £80 a pop the majority of the installation was the scaffolding and the battery.

I am currently exporting £8 a day to the grid, I hope to bank enough to pay the winter bills. I am on the flexible Octopus tariff so in the winter I intend charge by battery with the cheaper night time electricity (7p) and sell it back during the day (15p).

my installation was 11k in total for 12 panels.

When you import to charge, then export to discharge how much do you account for the cost of the battery? By your numbers you gain 15p-7p, 8p a unit. But batteries seem to claim a life of about 3000 charge/discharge cycles at 60% usage, less cycles at 80% usage, even les at 100%. This gives you a cost per unit per cycle. My back of an envelope calc worked out this was about 20p per unit cost, or it actually cost you about 12p per unit to charge and sell back. Or have I missed something?

bumblebee1000 · 24/08/2024 12:37

Octopus was my highest quote with the worst package....much better deals found elsewhere ....lots of good info on solar fb groups.

Caspianberg · 24/08/2024 13:03

We will just use our car for battery storage at first. Our car also does reverse charge so we can use car as battery and use it back to house.

If we went down the battery route in future we would use Anker Solix. It’s much better than Tesla now and you can easily stack and add more in future

ClementineChurchill · 24/08/2024 13:55

Out of interest, what price would make it appealing enough for you OP?

Watching with interest as I’ve been considering doing some solar for a while.

fromdownwest · 24/08/2024 14:27

ClementineChurchill · 24/08/2024 13:55

Out of interest, what price would make it appealing enough for you OP?

Watching with interest as I’ve been considering doing some solar for a while.

4 year break even - 11 years plus is totally uneconomical

OP posts:
ClementineChurchill · 24/08/2024 20:35

Edit: sorry, misunderstood. Thx for reply!

fromdownwest · 06/12/2024 14:38

Revisiting the quote, and it is now at £14k, break-even closer to 7 years. So considering this again

OP posts:
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