@editor what kind of costs are you looking at for 16kwh of storage?

Posted by: @editor

Out of curiosity, with the heat pump switch off, what does everyone's home idle at in terms go electricity consumption (keeping things like fridges, charges, computers, etc.) running?  

Hi Mars,

During the day and evening it is normally in the 200W to 300W per hour range, overnight it can be as low as 100W per hour.

Out of curiosity, with the heat pump switch off, what does everyone's home idle at in terms go electricity consumption (keeping things like fridges, charges, computers, etc.) running?  

For us, it looks like around 1.2kw to 1.3kw when we were away in October for example for a couple of weeks

@derek-m, that's good to know. We're currently idling at around 400W during the day when we're working with computers on and with various batteries charging. I'll check what our nighttime load is like. 

Posted by: @jeff

Posted by: @editor

Out of curiosity, with the heat pump switch off, what does everyone's home idle at in terms go electricity consumption (keeping things like fridges, charges, computers, etc.) running?  

For us, it looks like around 1.2kw to 1.3kw when we were away in October for example for a couple of weeks

 

I should say that is the total for the day so that would be 50w an hour when we are away. 

Posted by: @batalto

@editor what kind of costs are you looking at for 16kwh of storage?

The first informal estimate I got was £7,000 + VAT. With two inverters and the installation.

@editor at those kind of prices you might want to consider maybe building a system? You could easily get double the storage

@batalto, it may fall beyond my skillset to be honest. I'm keen to undertake any number of new projects, but this is the kind of thing that I would need installed professionally and properly. I wouldn't have a clue how to wire up the PV to the new inverters and battery storage, and make it all sing and dance together. 

I can't get over how complicated the system of battery storage is with PV when there's a power outage. There are presently, from my conversation with installers, no out of the box solutions to have a system in place where the PV can recharge batteries when the grid's gone down without all kinds of modifications and additional equipment. I'm getting quotes for a system, but I suspect it'll be prohibitively expensive due to all the additional kit that needs to go alongside it. I think SolarEdge are coming out with an inverter this year that may do just that, but who knows.

@editor I wouldn't get too bogged down in things personally. The fact is we don't really get power cuts in this country and if you were to get a really bad one, I doubt you are going to be generating lots of solar power anyway.

Its why I didn't really go down that route - I might in the future, but the cost/benefit isn't really worth it.

Posted by: @editor

I can't get over how complicated the system of battery storage is with PV when there's a power outage. There are presently, from my conversation with installers, no out of the box solutions to have a system in place where the PV can recharge batteries when the grid's gone down without all kinds of modifications and additional equipment. I'm getting quotes for a system, but I suspect it'll be prohibitively expensive due to all the additional kit that needs to go alongside it. I think SolarEdge are coming out with an inverter this year that may do just that, but who knows.

Hi Mars,

The German company SMA make a system. Have a look at their website.

Posted by: @editor

I can't get over how complicated the system of battery storage is with PV when there's a power outage. There are presently, from my conversation with installers, no out of the box solutions to have a system in place where the PV can recharge batteries when the grid's gone down without all kinds of modifications and additional equipment. I'm getting quotes for a system, but I suspect it'll be prohibitively expensive due to all the additional kit that needs to go alongside it. I think SolarEdge are coming out with an inverter this year that may do just that, but who knows.

An honest question, whatever the cost, wouldn't it be better to spend the money on more battery capacity or other efficiency work? 

I struggle to see the point in households spending any money on coping with power cuts? Is it really a priority, especially given your current high electricity use?