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Had a solar quote of 10 Panasonic panels for £8249 and a Tesla battery for between £8 -12 k dependent on site visit.
Our friend's were charged 12 JA Solar panels for £6468 and an LG battery for £3440.
Obviously a huge difference in price. Are the posh brands worth paying extra for?
We have had panels (believe they are the Panasonic ), for over 5 years , no trouble whatsoever.
Using Solar Edge system, was a bit more expensive initially, but again, not one glitch in 5 years.
Had the Tesla PW2 battery for about 2 1/2 years ish. Some initial teething troubles, but I was a very early adopter.
I don't know where you are in the country, but my local installer was fantastic, well recommended.
pm me if you want his details, I think he will install in some parts of the UK .
Difficult to say if the system I have is better than cheaper systems , but I can only say that it has worked perfectly.
I opted for Solar World panels because they are made in Europe, designed to be recycled and are recycled. Reliable for about 10 years, last year's output was the highest we've had. If you are making an eco gesture then make sure it's coherent.
Ja solar and lg are good brands to be fair.
Ja are a top ten manufacturer and LG, well it's LG.
Tesla batteries are charged at a premium. But do have some good features, like excellent app
It's that installed cost?
Are the batteries the same capacity? I thought the Tesla ones were much bigger than most of the rivals
This is what our friend had installed. At that price I would possibly have 2 batteries.
The deal breaker is for us to be able to use the batteries in a power cut. The Tesla installer said it would be ok.
A Tesla powerwall is 13.5 kWh - so more than twice the size of your friend's 5.9 kWh install. I'd also check the guarantee (Tesla is 80% capacity after 10 years) and efficiency.
What size system is the Panasonic, 3.3kw?
My advice would be spend the money buying a larger system, if you have room for it before spending thousands on a battery.
I have a 4kw system.
Stats for last 30 days
Generation - 410kw
Generation into battery - 135kw
Exported to grid - 25kw
Remainder of 250kw used to feed the house straight from system.
Stats may be a little off as we have been home so generally use high loading appliances in the day, but I find on dull days the system does not generate enough to put any substantial amount into the battery, so For half the year it saves nothing. Had decent weather for the last month, I figure the saving from the battery to be
0.15 x 135 = £20, will take a long time to get 8 grand back, I cannot see there will be many days it will feed the house and fully charge battery. Obviously every household is different. 2 kids, washer / dryer / dishwasher on daily + electric shower probably puts us as high users.
We would normally be out all day and use whatever was in the battery at night.
This is what the panasonic/tesla man in supplying. The numbers mean nothing to me!
Solarcentury is also a decent company. Based in East London doing work globally.
Re panels: I've had panels on two houses for over 7 years and I have no idea what make they are... They produce plenty of power.
Re battery: I get the idea but the price is rediculous and you'll very likely never get your money back.
Definitely use your power to heat hot water (and maybe space heating) though using a diverter.
Price of the battery isn’t necessarily ridiculous.
Our Tesla PW2 battery cost £6500 to be installed.
We have a 4 bed detached house, gas central heating.
But have a Nissan Leaf EV car.
The car is charged at home for 95% of the time, rarely use a rapid charger.
Annual mileage is about 7000 miles.
Our total annual bill for electricity for the house, hot water and charging the car is £400
We also get about £800 per year , tax free from the feed in tariff.
Makes sense for us, we only pay nPower £400 per year for electricity.
The FIT pays us £800 per year.
We don’t buy any diesel or petrol , still travel 7000 miles per year,
And we are £400 better off in the bank!
I opted for Solar World panels because they are made in Europe, designed to be recycled and are recycled. Reliable for about 10 years,
Good that they are reliable because they went bust some time ago.
My main motivation to have a battery is in case of power cuts. They are building houses on the playing fields near us. I'm pretty sure they will do zero work to upgrade the grid and over load it completely.
The shops opposite our one regularly have cuts as the office block on the corner is now flats and the grid can't cope when everyone is at home during the day.
The PW2 won’t work or power your house in the event of a power cut.
The PW2 won’t work or power your house in the event of a power cut.
The man that quoted us said it could. I asked him several times. There must be a gubbins that lets it do it.
He is wrong
Won’t work like that in the UK
Tesla are claiming it is possible but you have to set a reserve amount in the battery to utilise in power cut, say 30% but this is redundant any other time, so depends on whether you feel this is worth it for a couple of cuts a year.
As sharkbait said if it’s value for money your after I would look at solar + diverter, this does need an immersion heater but will trickle feed the tank any excess that would otherwise go back to grid, there about £300
The man that quoted us said it could. I asked him several times.
Salesman tells porkies shocker.
You could put a changeover switch in to isolate the house in the event of a power cut.
Hassle and quite spendy I believe.
(I looked at putting a generator in years ago when our supply wasn't reliable... Simply not worth the expense for us)
Quick q as I'm solar curious- are you expecting it to payback for itself after a while and if so how long? (subjective to a degree as we don't know what will happen exactly to energy prices long term)
are you expecting it to payback for itself after a while and if so how long?
Mine should pay for itself in about 10 years.
However, it's a 12kw system and we have daytime consumption due to Mrs business.
I would think energy prices are only going one way long term........
Looks like the Tesla Powerwall with Back-up Gateway 2 will work in a power cut
@gobuchul- am I right in thinking there's no feed in tariff anymore? I suppose with your wife consuming during the day that accelerates the payback?
I had a quick browse a couple of years ago when we had some building work done as thought that would be a good time to do it. It seemed to take many years to pay back so didn't bother. Now ICE engines are looking to be going, kinda wish I had!
@gobuchul- am I right in thinking there’s no feed in tariff anymore? I suppose with your wife consuming during the day that accelerates the payback?
You still get a FIT but it's lot less than it was originally.
If we didn't actually consume the electricity it wouldn't make financial sense. However, we had very energy bills and it has made a significant difference. We also have the immersion heater diverter system, which means that we have "free" hot water, spring and summer.
The fact that is no mains gas in the village, also means it makes more sense.
Looks like the Tesla Powerwall with Back-up Gateway 2 will work in a power cut
An additional £1700 just for the gateway is a lot to pay though.
Sods law dictates that once you fit it there will be no more power cuts!
This might not make any sense to some, but here goes.
We were lucky that when we installed the solar panels the FIT was reasonable, not as good as the first wave, but still attractive.
The FIT isn’t much of an incentive ( financially) now, which puzzles me given that the government want to support a greener alternative, but there you go.
The next step for us was to buy an EV car. This was to utilise some of the solar being produced straight off the panels, but we still exported quite a bit to the grid.
We always wanted an EV car, and had a diesel before this, so it was also the case of having greener and cheaper transport.
The Powerwall 2 was the final step , this enables us to use nearly all the energy we produce and drastically reduce our electricity bill.
Yes, it has been quite expensive, but we don’t intend to move , ever, family has grown up, live local to us, and we have great neighbours.
Could have spent the money on the panels and PW2 battery on all sorts of things.
But this way the money spent has been an investment that cuts our energy bill, is good for the environment and gives us £800 per year tax free.
Could have bought a £30,000 new car(ICE)that would be five or six years old by now, would have needed expensive servicing and constant feeding with Dino fuel.
You might not agree, but it genuinely suits us down to the ground, don’t regret the expensive decisions one bit
The Powerwall 2 was the final step , this enables us to use nearly all the energy we produce and drastically reduce our electricity bill.
That's a bit of an exaggeration though isn't it?
THE PW 2 has a capacity of 13Kw. Lets use 15p/Kw as an imported power price and pretend that you can fully charge and discharge the PW every day for 200 days of the year (which is fairly generous on both points).
13 x £0.15 x 200 = £390 saving/year
Which means it will take in the region of 15 years to pay back the purchase cost of an item with a warranty of 10 years an no guarantee that it will last much longer than that.
I think they're a great idea and will probably have a battery system at one of the houses one day - but the numbers just don't add up for me right now.
You still get a FIT but it’s lot less than it was originally
You continue to get FIT for 20 years at the rate (+RPI)when your application was approved, but since March 2020 new applications have been stopped.
We have had 3.8kW panels since 2009, just got in at the highest FIT rate, but our panels cost a lot more than they do now. The rate reduced as panels got cheaper, and it's now gone as the payback on export/own use of power is viable. I costed a Powerwall and the payback for adding one to our existing system was 50 years for our usage.
I think you are missing the point here.
Our total cost for electricity from the grid is about £400 per year.
I don't think many people will be that low.
Also, as we have an EV car, it means we don't buy any petrol or diesel either.
In terms of elecricity we are self sufficient for about 65% over a year.
Plus the £800 FIT payment.
Some decisions are just made with a financial incentive in mind.
Maybe I am, but I'm just pointing out that the (generous) potential saving from the PW2 is just £400/year max.... Which doesn't make financial sense given the cost and the lifespan of the unit.
You'd be better off just buying the 13Kwh each day.
Why is it that any time someone talks about renewable energy, the first question is: how long will it take to get my money back / how much profit will I make?
Not many people ask such things when it comes to buying (usually bad for the environment) something like a car or an n+1 bike - they just take the plunge and buy it, yet with solar etc the spreadsheets come out and people feel the need to work out the payback time (and to tell people they would be better off buying in possibly non-renewable energy)
Surely if someone thinks it is the right thing to do and can afford it then why not just get them installed??
I'm thinking about replacing my kitchen. How long until I get my money back?🤣🤦♂️
Our total cost for electricity from the grid is about £400 per year.
I don’t think many people will be that low.
Mine is about half that.
Yes, some wll be lower.
But they may spend more on other forms of energy.
Not many lower, but you can always find some.
As stated earlier, the spreadsheet analysis is not aways in force for holidays, cars, homes, kitchens etc
It comes down to choices, if we all considered return on investment, then we wouldn't buy much
Why is it that any time someone talks about renewable energy, the first question is: how long will it take to get my money back / how much profit will I make?
Because there is an alternative to producing your own power.... Just buy it.
A PV system is still a big investment so, naturally, people want to know what the real cost will be.
Generally people buy a car because they need one - at the moment not many people "need" to generate their own power.
When PV first came out it was partly sold as a money making exercise due to the high levels of FIT payments - people still think the same way.
I’m thinking about replacing my kitchen. How long until I get my money back?
Interestingly last year we did a load of work to the kitchen/house and a factor was what the £60k spent on the house do to its value.
It's nice to justify spending money.
Different strokes, for different folks I suppose.
I've looked at batteries for my solar panels but as above, it just didn't make financial sense to me.
Instead I have a solar boost that heats my hot water and my dishwasher, washing machine and dryer are all on timers or Internet plugs and can be controlled by my phone.
I'd love batteries but like when solar panels first came out, they are expensive but eventually the price will drop to a more affordable price.
A while ago I was reading about smart lights that plug into the wall sockets, they have a battery built in, charge from the solar panels when there is free capacity (like my solor I boost hot water panel) then use the battery for the lights at night but have the added benefit of having a battery to charge phones etc. It seemed a bit gimmicky and very expensive but one day will be much better and cheaper.