Installing solar on my own home at the end of March 2023.
I am the director of Alps Electrical, Andy, and I decided to practice what I preached and installed solar on my own home at the end of March 2023.
I chose to install 12 x 410w solar panels on my roof, at a total of 4,920kw, and a 3.7kw inverter with initially 5kwh of batteries, but soon increasing that to 10kwh. My home faces 71 degrees from due South and so not the ideal orientation as we lose the sun around 4-5 pm in summer. Our annual usage is around 4500kwh.
I appreciate that many people are still skeptical of solar and I believe this is mainly down to the fact that there are a lot of promises out there on the market, with very little information on exactly how it works, and proven examples.
We notice a lot of advertisements on social media and elsewhere offering solar kits for a certain amount of money, however, the cost alone of a solar kit is not enough information for anyone to make a decision on a product that is basically an investment. Anyone interested in solar wants to know what potential their building has in terms of energy generation, and ultimately what solar can save them in energy bills. This is why you will never see an advertisement from us saying "12 solar panels plus 5kwh of battery storage for X amount."
We would prefer to work with every customer closely to understand your energy usage habits and your future energy requirements. Are you planning to get an electric vehicle? Are you planning to change from gas to an electric hob, and even an electric boiler? Are you usually home all day, or half the day? And of course, do you have a budget, as this will determine what level of installation can be achieved in terms of the amount of panels and battery storage?
Armed with this vital information, plus a site visit to determine your property's orientation and cable routes enables us to gain a full understanding of the job and will help us to provide you with an accurate and fully transparent quotation that will be tailored specifically to your job.
All of our proposals include crucial projections and data to help you understand what could potentially be achieved during the next 25 years, and what your return on investment could be. After all, that is what this is, an investment, and you need to know exactly what that investment could be worth to you.
We have a lot of information on our website, plus other useful blogs and FAQs to peruse on how solar works, what batteries can bring to the party, and other useful information. However, this blog is to highlight the potential of solar and to provide a real insight into my own personal experience so far.
Of course, it is still very early days, we still have other seasons to contend with, and I look forward to having a full 12 months of data to share, but for now, here is a little insight into the very promising early data since the end of March this year when I installed solar at my home.
I only have two full months at the time of writing this blog, and so I have compared those to the same months last year.
April 2022 (provider was Scottish Power)
As you can see from the screenshot image my electricity usage (in blue) was 340.4kwh. Based on a cost per kWh of 0.32p this would be around £108.92 (not including standing charges) which works out to £3.63 per day.
April 2023 (provider is now Octopus)
As you can see from the screenshot image my electricity usage was 86.24kwh. Based on a cost per kWh of 0.32p this would be around £27.59 (not including standing charges) which works out to £0.91 per day.
That works out to a 74% decrease in energy usage or a 74% saving in energy costs.
May 2022 (provider was Scottish Power)
As you can see from the screenshot image my electricity usage (in blue) was 400.17kwh. Based on a cost per kWh of 0.32p this would be around £128.05 (not including standing charges) which works out to £4.13 per day.
May 2023 (provider is now Octopus)
As you can see from the screenshot image my electricity usage was 32.32kwh. Based on a cost per kWh of 0.32p this would be around £10.34 (not including standing charges) which works out to £0.33 per day.
That works out to a 92% decrease in energy usage or a 92% saving in energy costs
These figures are prior to receiving any "feed in tariff" payments back from the energy company, which is currently in the process of being processed. To claim your feed-in tariff from your provider your solar installation needs to be installed by an MCS-accredited company, of which we are.
Once our feed-in tariff has been processed we will begin to receive a small payment per KW that we export, which of course will be a further reduction on our bills.
From 1st April to the end of May, the panels have yielded a total of 988.60kWh.
Of the 988.60kWh generated, we consumed 536.50kWh of that energy in our home, meaning there was an excess of 452.10kWh that we did not use, and so was exported to the grid.
Had we received the standard 0.05p per kWh for that exported energy we would have received a payment (or reduction in bills) of £22.60.
April and May usage was a total cost of £37.93 (not including standing charges).
Had we received the credit for the exported electricity of £22.60 our actual electricity cost for April and May 2023 would have been only £15.33.
Compared to a total electric cost during April and May 2022 of £236.97 this year works out at £221.64 less than last year for the same period. That is a total saving of 93.5%
So far so very good I would say. I have been very pleasantly surprised with the results since installing my solar panels.
Clearly, my panels and batteries are doing their job and having a significant effect on our energy bills and demand on the grid. We are also doing our small bit to help the environment, which is a definite bonus.
Until we have had the system for 12 months I will not be able to provide a more accurate annual picture, however in the summer months if we can yield these promising figures we are well on the way to achieving excellent annual savings.
When the nights are long and the weather is not so good we will combat the lower levels of solar generation by utilising the cheaper nighttime tariffs that Octopus Energy offer to charge the batteries overnight.
I will write a blog again at 6 months and then 12 months providing the current data as I have done here to compare. I look forward to sharing those figures with you.
To see how you can benefit from solar call Alps Electrical today for a FREE no-obligation proposal.