The battery comes at last
We had had the internal outside walls insulated, and the plumbing installed along with the solar panels. The scaffolding had been removed and we just needed the battery.
Adrian gave me six companies to get a quote from and I chose Meridian Electrical. Although the total installation was free, a cost of £30 - £35,000 the battery required I had to find the cost of ourselves. So this was about £2800 , but without it you can not get the full benefits.
Of course you do not need solar panels as you can have just the battery and the inverter.
I have just deleted some of my previous statements as they were wrong, and if you are reading this again you need to understand that the solar panels are DC as is the battery and the mains AC.
I think my solar panels are about 100 volts DC as possibly is the battery.
But the inverter will transform the solar panel power to what ever the rating of the battery is.
Then, when called for by the house the inverter will transform it to 250AC so that it can supply all the equipment you own.
So, if you do not have solar panels you can still have the battery and the inverter. Now you can get on to your energy supplier and get an overnight tariff that allows you to top up your battery with low cost elecrticity; as you can for an electric car charger. I believe at about 6 pence a kilowatt.
Now you can use your battery throughout the day until it runs out and you are automatically switched back onto the grid.
I believe my system already has it installed, but if not, you can buy a special switch which will put you onto battery power if you get a power cut and at such a quick pace you won't know there has been a power cut.
I am awaiting a certificate so that I can give the number to my energy suppler and set up the overnight tarrif for the large water storage tank that came with the air-source heat recovery system and supplies us with domestic hot water and water for the radiators. I can then set up an account so that any electricty I am not using for the house or to charge the battery will not be lost, but will get diverted onto the grid for which we get paid.
So, to recap, I get free electric from the solar panels that gets transformed into mains electric, I get electric from the battery topped up by the solar panels in the daylight hours and topped up at night on a cheap tarrif. I can run my house on the cheap electric and get paid for any I don't use! What's not to like, besides saving trees and coal and equivalent car journeys.
Adrian has made all of this happen and been with me all of the way. Calling by phone or text to check on the progress of the work and interested to see how things are progressing. I texted him earlier to say the battery was now online and he'll drop in when in the area to see and get experience as to what an installation looks like and how much room it takes up. I have heard today there are special units that can be put in outside if you don't have a garage and I read the other day that they have a system that can heat or be reversed in the summer to cool. If you think you might be entitled to grants for the work ask Adrian round and he'll pursue it for you. He got all mine for free, except for the battery.
Thanks also for the chap who put my statements right concerning not requiring an inverter. I read part of it as I was rushing to put the statement right having realised my blunder and hoping no one had actually read it yet.
Sorry to anyone I might have confused.
October 14, 2024
Unprompted review