Solar & Powerwall 2

[Scouse]

That 5.7kW the max then with two inverters, or can you max one out and continue on the other?

You'd never use 2-3 times it though would ya.

 

[Embattle]

That 5.7kW the max then with two inverters, or can you max one out and continue on the other?

You'd never use 2-3 times it though would ya.

One is 3.7kW while the newer one is 2kW which is setup to lower its output should our export exceed 3.7kW.

I could use more as I would move the EV tails to use it before export. I would get more solar in shorter daylight months, but unless you have a pool, ac, etc you do get diminishing returns.

 

[old.Osy]

So as we head towards what could be the driest spring ever recorded last month's (April 2025) total solar generated ended up at 821.5 kWh with 211 kWh exported, which is enough to boil 70 kettles for an hour. This month (May 2025) could well end up being our first ever 1 MHw month.

April

 

[Scouse]

April

View attachment 50400

So then. How much was your electricity bill?

 

[old.Osy]

April invoice hasn't been issued yet. Amounts in GBP.

March (390 kWh) - 47.52
Feb (721 kWh) - 99.65
Jan (695 kWh) - 96.65

Dec 2024 (793 kWh) - 101.13
Nov 2024 (629 kWh) - 83.37

 

[Embattle]

Global Solar Atlas:

Global Solar Atlas

The Global Solar Atlas provides a summary of solar power potential and solar resources globally. It is provided by the World Bank Group as a free service to governments, developers and the general public, and allows users to quickly obtain data and carry out a simple electricity output...

globalsolaratlas.info

 

[Embattle]

Global Wind Atlas:

Global Wind Atlas

The Global Wind Atlas is a free, web-based application developed to help policymakers, planners, and investors identify high-wind areas for wind power generation virtually anywhere in the world, and then perform preliminary calculations.

globalwindatlas.info

 

[Embattle]

That is a very sunny May over and done with, and the results are in:



So, our first 1 MW month was achieved, although the weather caused some shortfalls towards the end of the month, and the fact that the export reached its cap of 3.7 kW quite often resulted in the second inverter slowing its generation.

 

[Scouse]

the fact that the export reached its cap of 3.7 kW quite often resulted in the second inverter slowing its generation.

You should get standing charge rebates tbpfh. You were ready and able to export more renewable electricity to the grid but afaik renewable energy production fell in Q1 for blighty this year. The grid needs modernising to take advantage of all the good work people are voluntarily doing.

The national grid is a private company and it paid out about £2.6bn in dividends to shareholders last year. By my ready-reckon that's about half of what UK households pay in standing charges in total. The grid needs to take a hit financially for not accomodating generation.

 

[Embattle]

View: https://youtu.be/sUvaYycoWqI?si=cB3Z06dcP6SuHW-k

 

[Scouse]

Fuck me. My standing charge is 70p a day.

It's fucking daylight robbery.

 

[Embattle]

Our standing charges are 65p Electricity and 29p Gas, so not far off a pound every day no matter our usage.

 

[smurkin]

Fuck me. My standing charge is 70p a day.

It's fucking daylight robbery.

I have two standing charges for Leccy - we have an outbuilding with its own supply as it used to e a shop costs a fortune - and its only heated by electricity so I can be paying 50 quid a week on leccy in the dark of winter just to heat my office. As soon as we are off our current fixed rate we'll be shopping for a standing charge free provider.

 

[Embattle]

So figures for June 2023 vs June 2025:

703.3 kWh vs 904.7 kWh

I reckon before the middle of July, we should pass the total energy produced in the entire year of 2023 (4.14 MWh), as we currently sit at 3.8 MWh so far for 2025.

 

[old.Osy]

June.

 

[Deebs]

Got an update and am pretty pissed off.

So as mentioned above the electricity meter is under the stairs and extremely difficult to get to, no problem, I go find my hammer drill and masonry drill bits and get to work.

• Drill through an external wall with 22mm drill bit
• Drill through internal wall with 22mm drill bit
• At this point I have a cable route from meter/consumer unit to the outside world
• Slaps self on back thinking what a clever cunt I am and thinking Dad is with Mum saying "Pam look at Tony, I don't believe it", makes me smile lots
• Install trunking on wall which has been painted the same colour as the walls so it blends in
• After an initial survey I am tasked with contacting SSEN to get my main fuse rating
• Yesterday the contracted company by SSEN turns up, lovely chap, spend time talking
• Engineer pulls main fuse to get the rating, turns out it is 60A, too low, advises he cannot do anything else today and I need to contact my electricity supplier to change the meter for a new smart meter, my meter is the original one from when the house was built
• Ring my electrical supplier as SSEN won't touch anything after the main fuse
• Finally get through and fully explain the situation, guy places me on hold for 10 minutes to find a booking
• Guy comes back with a date, I sigh and ask him to check for any cancelled appointments
• 10 minutes later he gives me a date, the fucking 7th October 2025 for some engineer to come to my house and do a meter replacement along with 2 tails which go into my consumer unit

Really? Fucking hell, if i hit the meter with a hammer a few times and say somehow I dropped a settee on it would that speed them up?

So today I will go back to the solar panel installers and break the bad news to them, the thing is the engineer who was here yesterday will be the one doing the kit upgrade next time, why the fuck do you not carry that equipment on your truck as you knew exactly why you were attending my house, it would have added 30 minutes at most to his job and he had pulled the fuse already, alas no I have to wait for October to come around and go through another power outage.

 

[Gwadien]

Got an update and am pretty pissed off.

So as mentioned above the electricity meter is under the stairs and extremely difficult to get to, no problem, I go find my hammer drill and masonry drill bits and get to work.

• Drill through an external wall with 22mm drill bit
• Drill through internal wall with 22mm drill bit
• At this point I have a cable route from meter/consumer unit to the outside world
• Slaps self on back thinking what a clever cunt I am and thinking Dad is with Mum saying "Pam look at Tony, I don't believe it", makes me smile lots
• Install trunking on wall which has been painted the same colour as the walls so it blends in
• After an initial survey I am tasked with contacting SSEN to get my main fuse rating
• Yesterday the contracted company by SSEN turns up, lovely chap, spend time talking
• Engineer pulls main fuse to get the rating, turns out it is 60A, too low, advises he cannot do anything else today and I need to contact my electricity supplier to change the meter for a new smart meter, my meter is the original one from when the house was built
• Ring my electrical supplier as SSEN won't touch anything after the main fuse
• Finally get through and fully explain the situation, guy places me on hold for 10 minutes to find a booking
• Guy comes back with a date, I sigh and ask him to check for any cancelled appointments
• 10 minutes later he gives me a date, the fucking 7th October 2025 for some engineer to come to my house and do a meter replacement along with 2 tails which go into my consumer unit

Really? Fucking hell, if i hit the meter with a hammer a few times and say somehow I dropped a settee on it would that speed them up?

So today I will go back to the solar panel installers and break the bad news to them, the thing is the engineer who was here yesterday will be the one doing the kit upgrade next time, why the fuck do you not carry that equipment on your truck as you knew exactly why you were attending my house, it would have added 30 minutes at most to his job and he had pulled the fuse already, alas no I have to wait for October to come around and go through another power outage.

Not my job.

You could accidentally break shit and they'll put you further forward (but your big nose doesn't count as a disability so you won't be at the actual front) but then you're taking slots away from people that genuinely do have an emergency.

 

[Deebs]

Not my job.

You could accidentally break shit and they'll put you further forward (but your big nose doesn't count as a disability so you won't be at the actual front) but then you're taking slots away from people that genuinely do have an emergency.

Um like I said the guy who did the survey was not an "emergency" engineer and if he had the bits on his van could have done the jobs within 30 minutes, but no, fucking twats will now make me wait for an eternity when it could have been solved yesterday. You might say oh he didn't know why he was coming to my house, but he did as I clearly explained everything over the phone and he knew the moment I opened the door to him.

 

[Gwadien]

Um like I said the guy who did the survey was not an "emergency" engineer and if he had the bits on his van could have done the jobs within 30 minutes, but no, fucking twats will now make me wait for an eternity when it could have been solved yesterday. You might say oh he didn't know why he was coming to my house, but he did as I clearly explained everything over the phone and he knew the moment I opened the door to him.

Yeah that was the not my job part of my post

 

[Embattle]

Got an update and am pretty pissed off.

So as mentioned above the electricity meter is under the stairs and extremely difficult to get to, no problem, I go find my hammer drill and masonry drill bits and get to work.

• Drill through an external wall with 22mm drill bit
• Drill through internal wall with 22mm drill bit
• At this point I have a cable route from meter/consumer unit to the outside world
• Slaps self on back thinking what a clever cunt I am and thinking Dad is with Mum saying "Pam look at Tony, I don't believe it", makes me smile lots
• Install trunking on wall which has been painted the same colour as the walls so it blends in
• After an initial survey I am tasked with contacting SSEN to get my main fuse rating
• Yesterday the contracted company by SSEN turns up, lovely chap, spend time talking
• Engineer pulls main fuse to get the rating, turns out it is 60A, too low, advises he cannot do anything else today and I need to contact my electricity supplier to change the meter for a new smart meter, my meter is the original one from when the house was built
• Ring my electrical supplier as SSEN won't touch anything after the main fuse
• Finally get through and fully explain the situation, guy places me on hold for 10 minutes to find a booking
• Guy comes back with a date, I sigh and ask him to check for any cancelled appointments
• 10 minutes later he gives me a date, the fucking 7th October 2025 for some engineer to come to my house and do a meter replacement along with 2 tails which go into my consumer unit

Really? Fucking hell, if i hit the meter with a hammer a few times and say somehow I dropped a settee on it would that speed them up?

So today I will go back to the solar panel installers and break the bad news to them, the thing is the engineer who was here yesterday will be the one doing the kit upgrade next time, why the fuck do you not carry that equipment on your truck as you knew exactly why you were attending my house, it would have added 30 minutes at most to his job and he had pulled the fuse already, alas no I have to wait for October to come around and go through another power outage.

I think your mother said "Pam look at Tony, I don't believe it, he isn't burning through as many masonry drill bits this time"

Um like I said the guy who did the survey was not an "emergency" engineer and if he had the bits on his van could have done the jobs within 30 minutes, but no, fucking twats will now make me wait for an eternity when it could have been solved yesterday. You might say oh he didn't know why he was coming to my house, but he did as I clearly explained everything over the phone and he knew the moment I opened the door to him.

It is a mess and gets rather complicated at times, with no one trusting anyone until they see it. You got quite lucky to get one in 2 months, as there are massive staff shortages and thus long delays are common. I remember when our gas meter stopped transmitting its readings to the smart meter, and it took months before the supplier could get someone out to change what turned out to be the battery.

What are your actual solar plans then?

 

[Deebs]

I think your mother said "Pam look at Tony, I don't believe it, he isn't burning through as many masonry drill bits this time"



It is a mess and gets rather complicated at times, with no one trusting anyone until they see it. You got quite lucky to get one in 2 months, as there are massive staff shortages and thus long delays are common. I remember when our gas meter stopped transmitting its readings to the smart meter, and it took months before the supplier could get someone out to change what turned out to be the battery.

What are your actual solar plans then?

I have gone for 10 panels @ 450W each with 8KW battery storage alongside a 5KW inverter. Fully networked so I can add it to my monitoring platform. Going to see if the install can be done in two parts, hook up the solar part so at least it is fully tested before those twats can do the tail and meter upgrade. Fingers crossed.

 

[Embattle]

I have gone for 10 panels @ 450W each with 8KW battery storage alongside a 5KW inverter. Fully networked so I can add it to my monitoring platform. Going to see if the install can be done in two parts, hook up the solar part so at least it is fully tested before those twats can do the tail and meter upgrade. Fingers crossed.

Nice, panels in South or East/West setup, export maximum?

This is the final technical diagram with the adjustments to limit export on the second inverter:

 

[Deebs]

Nice, panels in South or East/West setup, export maximum?

This is the final technical diagram with the adjustments to limit export on the second inverter:

View attachment 50705

Still rather new to all this, export maximum? Is this a figure my supplier will give me or the leftovers from my solar generation ? If the latter then I would say 0

 

[Embattle]

Still rather new to all this, export maximum? Is this a figure my supplier will give me or the leftovers from my solar generation ? If the latter then I would say 0

Basically the limit of what you can sell back to your supplier when you have any excess.

 

[old.Osy]

We have no overall export maximum, rather just instant - which is mostly driven by your max panel output really. So in my case, that's 8.3 kWh. Went as high as 8 kWh.

However, the mapping is 3:1 - which means I have to export 3 kWh for my supplier to give me 1 kWh for "free". Not to mention the reconciliation takes place once a year, for the year last. So money back thing? Really not as some folks imagine.

For us, Solar is primarily about ensuring our electricity invoice is low, as we're pretty big consumers vs household median; Having the battery to store energy for power outages scenarios; And you know, being somewhat environmentally friendly.