Another solar power thread - advice & opinions requested!

[Paul_B]

We moved into a house which had solar panels installed in 2014. We are under the FiT scheme where we get paid for half of what we generate no matter what we use. Two payments a year, one small early in the year and a bigger one later on. In the two months rather side of the longest day we basically only get charged the standing charge on the smart meter until it starts to get closer to sunset. Actually generation slows as it gets past 4 or 5 pm due to the hill. After that we're buying power.

I have no idea if we're on a good thing, we might be using less than half the generation so giving electricity away for free.

So we are curious if we should get a storage capability? I guess this stops the historically good FiT payments. Is it worth getting a battery system?

Another point I wonder about is whether our solar panels are worth keeping? What I mean is, will those pv cells be low efficiency and newer ones would be better? I'm guessing now the new, thin solar cells are likely to generate the same power with less cells on the roof. Right now we've got two sets of panels that cover almost all the roof space. I've seen local houses nearby with the new, thin panels with half the area of panels.

Is it worth replacing older cells with new ones? Is it worth getting storage over feeding in excess generation? Is the old FiT payment system really a good system for minimising your overall electricity bill or is it better to try and store excess so you don't meet to buy in that much. I'm really not sure what's the best with solar power, but would like to find out. At the end of the day the purpose of it all would be to reduce overall power bills with electricity, but what is the best option for this?

 

[British Red]

The old FiT is several orders of magnitude better. Never change. Payback on batteries is slow but it may not be necessary to change tariff. With modern systems like the Tesla powerwall you can charge during the day, release at night AND have backup power in powercuts.

With the panels are they generating enough? If so, leave them alone. That said panels are getting MUCH cheaper. I saw 400W panel for £70 this week!

 

[Pattree]

Careful!!! Look at your contact.
I have six old panels and I’ve had them for ten or eleven years (can’t remember). We got them a couple of weeks before the scheme got diluted. Tony Blair wanted to pull out all subsidies so we jumped.
If we changed our panels now we’d need a new contract and we wouldn’t get a half of the return on what we have right now.

The house is only two stories but it is built high as it’s on a slope. Just the cost of bringing in scaffolding would take a long time to repay.

 

[Decacraft]

How much space is left on the roof? What direction is it facing?

Could always add more panels if you have the space purely for a battery of your choosing to run some of your household electricals to further lower your bill/charge an ev.

Even if you start small and your system allows it you can always add on more batteries when you can afford it.