Roughly this time last year we had a set of solar panels installed along with a battery for storage. So I thought I’d look at the numbers and see how well it had performed this year.
The system is a GrowWatt SPH3600 inventor with a 6.5kWh battery and 12 x 410w HiKu6 Mono Perc Panels from Canadian Solar. It was sized based on estimated usage and to ensure a hot tub could be used in the summer months.
We’ve not had any issues with the system although it did take a while to get Octopus Energy to sort out the export tariff. That didn’t matter much as we weren’t exporting much in the winter.
The consumption for the year was 5541.6kWh, had we paid for all that, we’d have been charged 28.25p/kWh = £1565.50
However, we generated / stored 3088.6kWh of that. So in fact only imported 2453kWh or £692.97.
On top of that we also exported to the grid during the summer. A total of 1310.8kWh, but due to the issue mentioned above we only got paid for 1226.08kWh which at the rate of 9.71p/kWh gives £119.05
The last thing to take in to account is the standing charge of 57.17p/day which comes to £208.67.
So that gives an overall for the year of £782.59 down from £1774.17, a saving of £991.58 so at this rate assuming no increase in energy costs the system would pay for itself it approx. 12 years which is on target for what our installer suggested.
The solar generation over the winter is much lower but we should be able to adjust the system so that we import electricity at a lower rate over night to charge the battery and then use from the battery during peak hours. That needs a further discussion with the energy provider but should mean for further savings.
Posted in: Energy
Tags: Solar Power