The best investment of my life. North Facing Solar Panels. August 2024. UK.

Big thanks to Dorset Solar Solutions Ltd for an excellent installation. Definitely give them a call if you're in the Hampshire/Dorset area, let them know that you've seen my videos!

Here are my August 2024 solar generation numbers for you to chew over!
You're welcome to make up your own mind and let me know in the comments!
Have I exported enough kWh to see me through the winter?
Will I ever get an energy bill again?
How will my heat pump and electric car affect things?
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My Setup
Sunsynk 8.8kW Inverter
Longi HiMo 6 430w Panels x 22
16 on NW aspect and 6 on SE aspect
No battery storage

My videos are made with DJI gear.

[jeanh]

Carry on making clear, informative videos. I enjoy seeing other people's data and how it compares with my set up in Cambridgeshire.

[moduly]

Great to see your August solar numbers! The setup looks impressive and breakdown! Keep the informative videos coming—always great to compare setups and see what works best! ⚡🌞

[LeonBarrett-ow]

I’m currently getting quotes for solar and whether to include a battery or not is my biggest question mark. I can see the sense during the winter of topping up during the night and using during the day. I was thinking of having it all installed at once but I’m beginning to think we should do the solar first, see how that goes for a good full year, and then calculate if a battery is worth the investment. Decisions, decisions! Thanks for the videos, really helpful. 👍🏼

[edwardpickering]

Batteries have their place, but it is best to get solar Pv first and see what you are generating/exporting before investing more money. Also V2G will be possible from 2025 on CCS, so I've already got 111kwh sitting on my drive!

[smissile]

Octopus Agile is the way to go. use electricity at the cheapest times, set timers on washing machine, dishwasher etc, our payback time was about 5 years so quid's in. Octopus have a chart showing different systems and the payback times, £12k install with a battery, and the payback time....14 years!

[bsimpson]

Half my neighbour’s roof panel face exactly north, after a few years they are now mostly greened over. You had best factor in someone putting up scaffolding and cleaning the panels every couple of years because I doubt they are making much power now if any at all. And no, they are not under trees.

[WyndStryke]

Also the pitch makes a difference. If the pitch is gentle, then the panels will produce closer to the south-facing panels, if the roof is strongly pitched then they'll be impacted more by facing north.
PVGIS doesn't take into account n-type panels versus p-type panels, the new n-type panels are better in low light conditions than the tool will predict.
For shading, I am planning to get Aiko panels installed, these have cell-level bypass for partial shading (up to 3 cells can be fully shaded per bypass diode, on the 4th the diode will activate). The other approach is to only put optimisers on the specific panels which you think are most likely to be shaded.
I plan to use E-on Drive, import at 0.069/kWh overnight, then export solar & surplus at 0.165/kWh in the evening. Tentatively I think I should pay back the battery in 5-6 years, and that also opens up things like Flux which give a better export rate.

[NunoRaposo]

Good video, thanks for producing content like this.
I've installed solar + battery in end of April and it was the best decision I ever made. For my setup, the battery is absolutely essential to stop importing from the grid.
It acts as a buffer to either charge when I have surplus, or supply the remaining electricity required to run whatever I'm running without going to the grid.
In July I bought a laz-y-spa, and I think anyone who owned one knows the money pit they represent in terms of electricity spent, however running it throughout all of August, I've imported only 90 kWh that month.

This will also play a key part to charge my EV (picking one up this week), as it will provide me that buffer during the day to keep using stored energy when the solar panels are not producing enough to keep charging the car.

[rolandrohde]

We have Solar, Battery, Heat Pump, AC and an EV. We are about as electrified as you can get...😂
One interesting thing... currently we have 13 Panels facing South-West and 7 facing North-East. I originally thought the NE Panels would not really yield much, but it turns out they are not that far behind the SW facing ones. Due to this, I am currently having the NE roof filled up with more Panels, meaning 13NE, 13SW and 4 on a Carport roof will also add a little.

[elstner]

Over the last ten years, my north panels produced 67% of my best south panel. I have also panels west and east facing, all with optimizers (solaredge).

[tarkadahl]

Not sure if it will apply to you, but I use IOG as the tariff, I only have 12kWh of usable storage also an ASHP. I manage to maintain about 99.7% offpeak through winter by plugging the car in around 1600 each day, I get assigned cheap time and top up the batteries again to do me until 2330. By keeping the car % low and charge rate at 12a octopus always assign me additional time. I unplug it after a couple hours with a quick topup. job done. Massive savings. Not been kicked off yet 😂

[scottwills]

I like your view on return on investment by not having a battery. It interesting as I believe my battery saves me more than my solar. I charge my battery @ 7p per KWh and run off that all day. Then export all my solar at 15p per kWh.

[simux]

I guess battery economic model depends much on initial investment. If you are keen diy'er then a seplos diy 15KWh kit is less than £1400 and two free hours of assembly. With those costs consuming 100% at £0.07 and selling 100% of generation at £0.15 is making alo lot more sense.

[Joe-lbqn]

Posted in early Sep for later readers.
My average rate on IOG for August was 7p because i was 98%+ off peak. TBF starting with an EV that uses half of my consumption helps as thats 100% off peak.
Yesterday with high household use (family round, two ovens on at times) my battery dropped to 6% just minutes before the off peak period kicked in.Thats the closest Ive got to the GE battery 4% bottom limit.
I do have solar (£110 for export) but if i could only have one then id go for batteries as thats a more predictable cost saving. £70 in August and I'll expect that to continue.
Whereas solar is obvously subject to the vagaries of weather. Maybe over time that does even out but every day is a battery day whereas in September Ive already had two no export days. On the upside today is a rainy spells, quite dull with a few bright spells and I'm going to be 10kWh exported. So if that turns out to be common thats still around £50/month.

[owenashcroft]

I'm interested to see where this works out, we have a relatively small south roof, but a large north facing, and while the South has been ok this year most days we generate around 50% of the amount we consume, so it would be nice to get a bit more parity.

[Wildchild]

Morning, these are the videos I watch when thinking of getting solar on my north facing rear part of my property. I'm waiting to see what you will get into the winter months. Sorry if you have mentioned but what deg is your roof on the rear of your property, I believe mine is quiet low. Thanks

[Leo]

You can say what your standing charge is. If people care enough they can then factor that in,

[SolAce-nwhf]

If it does not make you money a home battery does not make sense.
In the Netherlands the energy suppliers are not giving a cent for our surplus anymore as dynamic tariffs often go negative when the sun shines.
My panels produced 794 kWh in August 2024. I really want the battery I ordered, even if it is just to make the energy import as close to 0 kWh as possible.

[justasmackevicius]

Trina solar vertex s don't need optimizers too, tested by covering one panel.

[radiotowers]

Standing charges must in my opinion be included as 60p ish a day can not be ignored, come winter it will be even more important as your export may struggle to cover it.