Energy bills

[Ant]

I read that most solar is designed deliberately to switch off when there's a power cut, it's to prevent you feeding back into the grid and frying workers who think it's dead.
For me that negates a massive benefit of getting solar, apparently an installation can be wired differently and it would pretty much have to be for me to invest. I'd probably need some sort of load to prevent me ever feeding back in, that will likely be aircon powered effectively for free.

Ideally you'd have an automatic change over switch which opens the circuit going back out to the grid, effectively completely isolating your from the supply so that your solar panels can power just your house.

I really, really wouldn't advise trying to power your house from solar panels (+inverter) without using a hybrid inverter and batteries in the mix.
If your unbuffered solar output didn't provide enough to power the loads on your system it could really mess up your devices/appliances.

For a fully automated system, perhaps the best thing would be some kind of load shedding, where essential circuits such as lighting are kept running and maybe one small radial socket circuit.

[irie]

I'll be getting batteries as well, much better to use my own energy than make a big loss selling it to the grid and buying it back again. There are a few loose ends to tie up before I start spending cash, the tech seems to promise more than it delivers.

That's why I've held off buying batteries since installing solar panels in 2012.

[Mussels]

I'll be getting batteries as well, much better to use my own energy than make a big loss selling it to the grid and buying it back again. There are a few loose ends to tie up before I start spending cash, the tech seems to promise more than it delivers.

That's why I've held off buying batteries since installing solar panels in 2012.

Batteries are probably more important to me than solar, we have no heating here that runs without electricity. Having had a three day power cut before it's a worry and I want something to power at least the gas boiler in winter.
I'm not just throwing money at it though, it needs to be worthwhile so needs to do it's job properly and be connected to solar panels.
I've seen a DIY kit from a local company that looks good, they push the expensive lithium options but also do lead acid for a lot less. The sticking point for me is the control systems, very little info about them and the few reviews I can find aren't great. The world seems to be full of over excited salesmen with an underdeveloped product.


Roof panel systems are a case in point. I have a South facing roof with a 15 degree pitch, after a lot of searching I found this is great in summer but not so good for winter. At the expensive of a little summer electricity I can double the winter output by angling them at about 40 degrees, but there's nothing on the market to enable this. My guess is there's little incentive for companies to put effort into it yet as people are desperate to buy panels.

[Pirahna]

I've got batteries, no mains electricity so I need them. I swapped the old lead acid batteries for lithium when we moved into the house this year, I have 9.4kwh which is enough. I cook and heat domestic got water using bottled gas , I have an electric water heater which I'll swap to using at the end of March, I can't generate enough power to use it at the moment.

Everyone here that I know with lead acid batteries also regularly uses a petrol generator. There were two prolonged cloudy spells earlier this winter and Spain literally sold out of generators, I solved my problem by installing the gas boiler.

[Ant]

Logged into my account today and I see that I'm almost a £1000 in credit on my energy account.

[ZRX61]

Our gas co has decided to let people pay an average every month, so this months $500+ bill just became $117. In the Summer it's usually around $35/month.

[Mr. Dazzle]

You've caught up with where UK suppliers were 20 years ago then.

Next up...getting back the money you've overpaid because they calculated the average wrong!

[Cousin Jack]

The world seems to be full of over excited salesmen with an underdeveloped product.

Happens every time the Government rushes into encouraging a particular technology, rather than allowing technologies to compete and mature, and the best ones win. Diesel cars were going to solve something or other, governments jumped on the bandwagon and the world is now full of nitrous oxides, unhappy diesel owners and LEZs.

[Docca]

I’m not sure how our solar panels work. I don’t know if the power they make feeds a reserve for the house (don’t think it can as we haven’t converted it/ battery yet) or if the energy gets fed back to the grid ( not sure if that’s happened either as I think you need to register your panels for that)

[Supermofo]

The world seems to be full of over excited salesmen with an underdeveloped product.

Happens every time the Government rushes into encouraging a particular technology, rather than allowing technologies to compete and mature, and the best ones win. Diesel cars were going to solve something or other, governments jumped on the bandwagon and the world is now full of nitrous oxides, unhappy diesel owners and LEZs.

I wonder if it's all part of a ploy to boost the economy at our expense. Everyone was told to buy diesel, now anything older than 2016 will be worthless in London and other cities in the not too distant future. Now it's Electric and everyone is being told that's what's happening until it's decided that puts too much of a drain on the grid, the infrastructure isn't there and the minerals needed are bad, then it'll be biofuel or hydrogen or whatever. Governments and business are laughing and punters are fucked as always.

[Mussels]

I’m not sure how our solar panels work. I don’t know if the power they make feeds a reserve for the house (don’t think it can as we haven’t converted it/ battery yet) or if the energy gets fed back to the grid ( not sure if that’s happened either as I think you need to register your panels for that)

If you are making enough then you're giving leccy back to the supply company for free.

[v8-powered]

Just had our latest bill - £650 for the month!

[Ant]

£650? Good lord. What would it have been before the energy companies went into record profit?

[v8-powered]

£650? Good lord. What would it have been before the energy companies went into record profit?

God knows but significantly cheaper I'm sure, we've only lived here since August. Hopefully that's the coldest months out of the way now though.

[ZRX61]

I think we may have found the root cause of the issue...

https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blo ... renewables

[Horse]

I think we may have found the root cause of the issue...

https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blo ... renewables

Linked article says:
the UK, after many years of vast subsidies and an extraordinary push toward green energy have only achieved ... 12% ... of primary energy from wind and solar,

Sounds bad, doesn't it? Here's some actual 2021 data.

Of the energy total in 2021 electricity (including renewables) accounted for 51%, oil and gas extraction accounted for 23%, and gas accounted for 17%.
28 Jul 2022
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk › ...
uk energy in brief 2022 - gov.uk

National Grid figures:
In the last quarter of 2021, individual renewables contributed the following:
-Wind power contributed 26.1% of the UK’s total electricity generation in Q4 2021, with onshore and offshore wind contributing 12% and 14% respectively.
- Solar power contributed 1.8% to the renewable mix – this represented a 24% increase compared to Q4 2020, due to a 0.7 gigawatt (GW) increase in installed capacity.
- Hydropower, including tidal, contributed 2.1% to the renewable mix.
https://www.nationalgrid.com/stories/en ... -renewable

But looked at from the other way around: how much would the uk have had to spend on other power generation (both in terms of the generation and fuel) instead?

[ZRX61]

How did they get 51% by adding 26.1, 1.8 & 2.1?

In other news, I guess it will be cheaper in Poland now Biden will be helping them build new Nuke power plants.

[Horse]

How did they get 51% by adding 26.1, 1.8 & 2.1?

'2021' and 'last quarter of 2021'.

Add the individual figures, then adjust by the 51%, to almost get 12%.

I'll leave you to find better figures, and for information on relative costs.

[Mr. Dazzle]

"Wholesale gas and oil prices have gone up, it's making domestic energy bills higher!".

"You know what's to blame here don't you? Wind Turbines".

[Horse]

"Wholesale gas and oil prices have gone up, it's making domestic energy bills higher!".

"You know what's to blame here don't you? Wind Turbines".

And consider that:
"12% ... of primary energy from wind and solar" presumably includes gas in 'primary'