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Those of you with solar panels, what's been your experience? (feddit.uk)

submitted 4 days ago by blackn1ght@feddit.uk to c/askuk@feddit.uk

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I'm thinking of getting solar panels and a battery for our house.

What's your setup like, and is there anything you wish you'd set up differently if you were going to install it again? What supplier are you with?

A company extremely local to us is offering 12x Aiko Energy panels (465 watt), with a Sunsynk 5 kW inverter and a 5.32kWh battery. Octopus Energy are offering a similar set up for a similar price, but they're using 450 watt panels, so with using 12 panels I'd be potentially be losing 180 watts vs what the other company is offering. Is that a significant amount or would it basically not really amount to much additional power?

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[–] Krill@feddit.uk 4 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Check the quote which should state which battery is supplied, then one of the general suppliers, itstechnology, bimble solar etc.

A battery installation should be zero vat, so a single 4.8kWh US5000 Pylontech battery is like £720 ex vat These are 15 cell batteries and they are essentially plug and play. Some batteries are 16 cell batteries so have a little more power stored but seem to cost a lot more. Can't mix and match batteries of different numbers of cells.

The batteries should essentially be supplied at cost, there is zero work to install more.

Decent price TBH. Should pay back in 5 to 8 years with the bigger battery and the right tariff (I think the best tariff is Intelligent Octopus Go and the fixed export tariff, ~15p/kWh export, but 7p/kWh cheap rate import, and need an EV)

[–] blackn1ght@feddit.uk 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

The battery is a Sunsynk L-Series.

Luckily the whole package is VAT free, apparently that ends in 2027.

They're partnered with EDF although you don't have to use EDF. Unfortunately we don't have an EV yet, and won't for a while as I'd rather run our current car into the ground!

[–] Krill@feddit.uk 2 points 4 days ago

Yeah I ran my car until the engine light came on and swapped later on. It's fine, no point trading in unless you can get a good deal IMO.

Personally, I'd ask for a quote with a different battery, that looks to be overpriced compared to others so extending the battery size will be more expensive than it should be.