How You Can Save Money On Your Electricity Bills.
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- Опубликовано: 25 мар 2022
- Today we're looking at how you can minimise your electricity bills during a time when they're only going upwards. We're looking at solar PV, battery storage, economy 7 utilisation and electric car charging.
These guys installed our Tesla Powerwall for us
evergreenmac.co.uk/
These guys installed our free solar panels www.ashadegreener.co.uk/
Heres a link to £50 off your energy bill if you switch to the same energy provider that we use
share.octopus.energy/pink-koa...
We hope you enjoy the video and helps you in some way. 
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As primarily a renovation company we tend to advise people to invest in insulation, then solar/storage and then consider heat pumps etc after that as the biggest savings are normally made in that order. Your installation is a prime example of how and why it saves.
My wife and myself live in Australia and we have solar panels and we are going to buy a tesla house battery and a tesla car soon. Your video is very interesting and helpful. Thank you .
Great video James, thanks for sharing. I had PV and Tesla powerwall installed late 2019 and the benefits are fantastic.
Thank you for again giving an honest no nonsense review, answering questions that I’m sure many of us were asking ourselves. As always you don’t dress things up just tell us as it is 👍
Thanks James, keep em coming.
Another fantastically informative video James, so I’ve sent it to my daughter who is in the process of buying and renovating her first house…👍 Geoff
Thanks for taking the trouble to film this - really interesting to hear about other people’s setups. Ours is very similar with a 4.7kWp, Powerwall, Myenergi kit and just the one EV. Only additional element has been a Mixergy hot water tank that’s worked really well in combination with the Eddi and cheap off peak energy in winter. Provides flexible thermal storage alongside the Powerwall that as with you has been faultless.
Hi, James, great video. We’re on the other side of the planet in one of the gloomier and rainier bits of regional South Australia. We’ve had a small solar system since 2013. In 2020, in preparation for our switch to EVs, we had a second solar system installed (new and old panels aren’t compatible). We now have 8.9 kW of solar panels plus a 9.8 kW battery.
We have 2 EVs now, a 2021 model 3 LR and an ex-demo 2020 MG ZS EV. Our EV charger is a Wallbox, which has the same functions as your Zappi.
We had the same motivations as you folks - we feel strongly that if we can, we should be doing our bit to reduce emissions. When you add up what everything’s cost, we might be dead by the time we get our money back. But we’ve slashed our energy and transport bills, we’ve future-proofed ourselves against fossil fuel costs and expensive vehicle servicing costs, and we feel like we’ve put our money where our mouths are in terms our carbon footprint. And we’ve had free electricity for the house and cars since mid spring, about October.
If we could only afford to swap our two litre-class road bikes for 2 of the fantastic Energica bikes you rode last year James, we’d feel we’ve finished the job. Unfortunately, that’s beyond us. They cost way more than the MG does here.
BTW love your channel. Your comprehensive range test of the MG, and Kate’s real world reviews, helped us to decide it could work for us. EV Infrastructure in regional Australia is still very, very poor, so until that improves, we’re restricted to the Tesla for long trips. The very definition of a first world problem!
Cheers, Dave
Hi James,
Great video, really interesting. I'm thinking about getting the sort of setup that you have, so it's a timely watch for me. Thanks for all of the great real-world information!
Great video and I completely agree with the points you've made, plus the economic sense of doing it.
I've got a very similar setup apart from the home battery. I've gone for a different option but will have 10kW of storage available, which will cover all of our needs for the high-cost tariff period. I'm just waiting on delivery but hopefully should be sorted by the end of April.
We've just had a 6kw system fitted with a 5.12kw lithium ion battery and our total bill for July was £36 and August was £28. This was the best move we made after the utility companies began to be greedy and increased the bills, we are waiting to see how the system performs during the winter and hoping to fit another battery next year. We've even turned our gas boiler off and in the afternoon use the immersion heater to heat our water for an hour
Brilliant 👏 👌 excellent explanation. We have some PV and hope to have energy storage will be looking at Zappi? For our EV.
James, Great as always, looks like we have a similar system with the panels, Tesla battery, with Zappi car chargers and the Eddie water heater. Unfortunately we have the gateway 1 so cannot use the system during a power cut.
The upfront cost is the killer, if only the likes of octopus could supply a battery and put the price on the bill, reduced rates whilst paying for the battery
Europe needs to subsidize electric heat pumps and solar panels for home owners and businesses.
Time to get off the old oil and gas boilers.
totally agree, you probably want to look at the Tesla energy plan when your current Tariff ends. My panels were fitted five years ago, save at least a thousand pounds a year in fuel costs with our Leaf with no increase in grid use.
Hi James. Very helpful video. We too had ASG installed about 10 years ago, fabulous but sadly no longer installing. We are looking at batteries & have landed so far, on Pylontech as they are a modular system. Not too expensive initially, but we could add to it when we get rid of the gas combi boiler & use more electricity. Mike
Thanks for the video James
We had solar installed 14 years ago, now being paid 62p per kWh generated. Got a battery and Air Source Heat Pump installed last year. We've seen our bills drop by around a third over the winter period and hoping the Summer will be cheaper still.
Big thanks for sharing that .
I have the same roof rent solar panels fitted by the privous home owners 15 x panels 3.3kw max . I got the hot water tank heater on a timer 13.00-14.00 timers dish washer etc on a in the day time calculated hope it catches enough sun . But looking at the battery storage it would be fantastic to by in at almost no peak times . plus we have a old EV point to update but no EV car that will have to change sooner than later.
I have an almost identical system, two Tesla batteries and that's the only difference. Installed 2018 and second battery 2020 just before lock down. The savings are incredible charge my car at 5p and that rate is set until January 2023 best investment when interest rates were so low on the capital. Total cost for the powerwalls, eddi and zappi was £15000 not cheap but the savings at 15p peak rate are £700 per year. Also solar for car charging between April and October. Annual grid usage 2022 was 3471 Kwh only 2 Kwh per month at peak rate. Like you done more for the green angle than to save money, I was lucky to have the capital to spend, but it earns more than any present interest rate would on £15000.
Great information on solar, many thanks
Thanks for posting this, very informative.
I’m quite interested in doing this in my house, with the full system you have. I’d like to be mostly off grid if possible. The issue is, I’m in Scotland and wondered if there would be a reduction in efficiency of the array due to location? Although bearing in mind, we do get more hours of sunlight in the summer, albeit overcast. Any info you could give to point me in the right direction to do this would be very much appreciated.
Thank you James, very informative. I'm in an identical situation, having had a free solar system installed 11 years ago. I'm intrigued how your Tesla Pawerwall Gateway gives you off grid power during a power cut as your free Solar inverter, like mine is grid tied and not of the Hybrid type. I've bought my first EV and and have had the Zappi installed just before the £350 Government grant ends this month for detached properties, the Eddi is on order. But the Tesla Powerwall is too pricey for me, so I would like to purchase a 5kwh 48v Lifep04 Solar battery with a Hybrid Mppt Charger/Inverter which would be obtainable for arround £2500. Another RUclipsr had a very valid point that it is easy to waste money on an oversized battery as it will (unless huge) always be insignificant in capacity when it comes to EV charging. Instead, he sugested buying a battery just sufficient to run the house during the day and evenings to time shift consumption to off peak tariffs. The Solar panels for those that have them can then contribute to Imersion heater, EV charging and powerwall/battery charging. You can work Lifep04 batteries hard with thier large cycle life and have them in the house without the explosion risk. The downside being they must be kept above freezing, not a bad thing for efficiency reasons also. I had resigned myself to not having power during an outage with my grid tied solar inverter but you seem to be able to accomplish this with your Tesla Powerwall! Also, many of the free Solar Systems stated in the agreement that energy can't be stored, an EV would technically break this part of the agreement! They get thier feed in tariff from a meter between thier inverter and the consumer unit, so it makes no difference to them if any power is fed back to the grid or not! I would like Expert advice on the subject but don't know who to ask. Liked your Nissan Leaf battery upgrade video, keep up the good work!
Great explanations and analyses.
Great vid as usual very interesting.👍👍👍
Thanks James 👍
We had Solar panels installed about 9 years ago but knew nothing about storage batteries. But we do get around £700 per year in generation payments so that offsets our energy bill. We also have two ev cars
Like several other people we had money on deposit earning sweet SA. We installed solar panels a Zappi and Harvi 4 years ago and each year earn around £350 , not much but better than nothing. We installed a Powerwall about 2 years ago and that’s been great as now we use either solar to charge it or in the winter off peak energy from OctopusEnergy. I’ve ordered a second Powerwall to give me more independence from peak rate electricity charges.
This setup isn’t for everyone as in requires a lot of investment, something I’m lucky to have, and isn’t worth borrowing money for. For us though it’s been well worth while as money on deposit is money depreciating with little or no return. As for those who say it’s not an investment, I disagree as our house is worth more because of this installation, if we were to sell we’d get our money back. Just one point our off peak has rose from 5p to 7.5p per kWh our peak rate from 14p to 31p per kWh. That mean if we can use off peak electricity we’ll save 23.5p per kWh that’s a big saving and better than the .5% interest that banks offer on investment.
Top notch thanks for sharing 👏😎
Good work, well done.
I just bought 5 x 410w panels to trickle charge my leaf, awaiting 48v inverter then fingers crossed.
Nice one, good reminder that imersion heaters should be in my plans. :)
Definitely - the Myenergi Eddi immersion controller is a really great device and you can use either solar or cheap rate electricity to heat the water. It may also be worth looking at the capacity of your hot water cylinder at the same time. If you can fit a bigger, (maybe better insulated?) one then you'll potentially benefit more.
I’ve got a similar set up, Moixa battery bit smaller than a Tesla, but we also run two EV’s and have the eddi, harvi and zappi installed four years ago, worth every penny, would like more panels but roof isn’t big enough. 😞
I had solar panels fitted in May 2021, 8 panels totalling 2.92kw, a 3kw hybrid inverter with a 5kwh battery all I could afford at the time. so far its produced 2.04Mwh not bad for the northwest of Ireland, learning to use as much of the power generated as possible, switched to day/night meter, charging the battery at night 0.20euro cent day, 0.10euro cent at night. even with the electricity prices rising and driving my Eniro more and more the electric bill is about the same. now next month getting another 4 panels and a second 5kwh battery fitted. I need to fit a immersion and a Eddi next, solid fuel stove or oil for heating and water. as I have no immersion I am using smart plugs to bring on heaters to burn off the export, currently no feed in tariff, but has been promised for the last 3 years at around 0.05euro cent a kwh. in the divine wisdom of our government they brought in any earnings from the feed in tariff that is over 200 euro will be taxed!
Our government are a joke
Paul, can I ask who supplied your gear & are you happy with the service ?
I'm in Mayo & considering a small system myself...
😎👍☘️🍺
@@peterfitzpatrick7032 ecovolt fitted them, all up and running in one day, producing up to 20kwh in good weather. This time of year anywhere between 3 to 15kwhs a day. Service has been good so far.
We still have our iboost 6 years later! Great simple bit of tech
Really interesting video, thanks for posting
Hi James really interesting viewing your vlog as we have done the solar from a shade greener about 10 year ago fitted an I boost to a 300litre storage tank for hot water,,the next step would be installing a storage battery,can I ask if there were any problems with a shade greener?
Great video James thanks...
I thought it might be worth providing a case study as a point of reference for anyone interested in solar/batteries and costs and savings if you include heating/hot water... I live in the UK in Wiltshire and own a modest/small end terrace 3 bed home. In 2017 I decided to install solar and put the maximum I could fit (6.1kW) on across all three aspects of my roof (South/East/West) and was fortunate enough to just catch the last of the UK's Feed in Tariff (FiT) - this provides £3-400 a year of income. Because my solar install isn't just south facing, it catches the winter sun and yesterday a sunny day in March, it generated 30kWh and 2022 YTD I've generated 861kWh of solar energy. The solar installation in 2017 cost about £9k this would of course be cheaper now. At the same time as the solar, I also installed a Tesla Powerwall 2 and subsequently a gateway to facilitate off grid if/when grid outage - total cost PW2 £6,500 gateway £1,300 total £7,800. I also have an Eddi from MyEnergi to divert excess solar into my hot water immersion.
A year ago, I ripped out my gas boiler and added a 10kW air to water heat pump, for my heating and hot water, so am now 100% electric in my home. For the install of the heat pump, I took advantage of the governments Green Homes Grant, where the government paid up to 2/3 or a max of £5k towards green technologies and so my contribution of the £7,500 total cost (including upgrading my water system) of the heat pump and install was £2.5k of which I'll get back nearly £1.5k through the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) over the next 7 years.
As I'm able to charge the PW2 on Octopus Go Faster, currently 5p/kWh, since November last year, I've used around 2,400 kWh of electricity 2000 of which was at the 5p rate total of £100 and 400kW at 16p daytime rate so £60 so for the whole winter my total for heating and hot water has been £160. Even if this doubles when my fixed rate expires in July, I"m still at only around £300-£350 for a year. From about May through to end of October, I'm effectively off grid with plenty of solar power generated for the home, which also includes an air source heat pump (air to air) for cooling my home, with some excess solar left over to charge the BMW i3 EV!
So for anyone interested in costs of all of this, the total for solar, power wall and heat pump was around £25k of which after grants I've paid around £20k. My FiT income over 20 years will be £7k and RHI around £1,500 so net cost to me of just over £11k. Assuming my average electric energy bill will be £300 that's another £6k so a rough estimate of cost of £17,000 over 20 years or £850/year or an average of £70/month and remember that assumes average grid energy is double what I'm paying now.
I think my numbers speak for themselves - it might seem like a lot of money to invest, but with energy prices so volatile the numbers really do stack up - one thing I would say is jump onto any government grant or incentive... as James explains in the vide, those who installed solar 10 years ago, with a FiT of 40p/kWh, have what is basically a small pension!! It can look daunting but it is really worth the effort.
A very good video and an excellent comment from you. We are just finishing a “ conversion” or “new build” of a large barn (about 490 square metres over 2 floors). The brief to the green energy company was to make us as energy independent as possible. The company said that we would need 2 x Daikin air source pumps plus solar thermal plus solar panels. We are of an age when these technologies are a little beyond us in the sense that it takes me particularly a long time to get an understanding of the new stuff like Wi-Fi, internet etc. let alone home energy generation. So, we have to put more trust in these people than I normally would. Now, that supplier (IDH? Who I thought were part of Howdens and therefore solid) has ceased trading.
We are left with what we have got and have no facts or figures to tell us the generation from the equipment we have already got; do we need more; do we need batteries etc. etc.
So, we tried to find a truly independent solar consultant; someone who does not sell equipment at all and so does not have an interest in telling us that we need this or that. The guy seems genuine; was an installer in the past but says he saw the big need for impartial advice. He is coming mid April and it’s costing us just under £1,000 for his services. Now, that’s not cheap but we hope/expect that good, impartial advice is worth every penny.
I recount all of this because I’m sure that there are many people in the same situation; as you get to retirement age, the theory is that the children have left home; the mortgage is paid off and we are spending more time at home and therefore heating the home much more. With all of that might come the same issues as I have with newer technologies; if I get something explained to me in person; when I can ask questions about something I haven’t grasped, then I’m fine; but reading or watching just doesn’t work as well for me.
my fit payment is 56.03p kwh and going up with high inflation this year
Wow it was hard to follow that post.
I installed Solar, I own a business. It will be paid off in 265 days.
It provides around 60% of our big power use.
But 100% of the power most of the time for around 279 days.
It runs the lights the rest of the time as it's a small array and small inverter.
We sell a slightly bigger one for a little over £1,000. I can't see the buy in for the big ones that makes profit to companies, who'll make 37 billion in profits this year.
Don't you get 15pkw on fit?
My view is the batteries are needed, due to how solar works.
I don't think there is anything for solar at the moment only the 0 VAT. About the jumping on grants thing, it is a good idea but can be risky. We just had our whole house insulated for free. The company was recommended and had really good reviews online. But they hand the jobs out to independent workers who come and insulate. The guys that came were so bad and the job is very badly done.
@@MagicMarvin33 there is the greener homes grants. That's all I've seen.
I don't see how or why People can't afford basic solar as it's less than the price rise??
We're installing solar that works for homes. But not ev owners.
That is some serious tech leadership right there.
Hi James
Another great video
You are one of the reasons I bought my Mg5 LR with the reviews you did on it
I’m waiting for my solar panels and battery to be installed
Just a question about the eddi does it just warm your water just for baths and showers or does it heat the central heating as well if not what do you use for heating your home
Thanks
Ian
😃👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
Hi Ian. It's not connected to the heating, this is purely for taps on the house.
This is a great video thank you
Hello I really like the video as I am looking to get some quotes now for a solar power system / battery
Did you say your solar panels are free for so many years ?
Great video. One Q, how or from were did you buy a Tesla Power Wall? I live in Sweden and are unable to buy one “as far as I known”. Which is a bummer, in the south we have extrem prices due to a new switch station not being ready/operational for 7 years, and counting. it’s called the south link. Not so much linking goin on…
Good morning, I am considering solar and a battery I also considered an electric boiler but the electric boilers don’t seem to be very good or there isn’t much info flying around about them and after watching your video where your still using a conventional boiler and tank I might just do the same, I am not on different charges for electricity, my rate is 0.29 all day through eon next.I already have a vw ID4 where I charge at Tesco for free and at Lidl at 0.26 on a fast charger it’s very good, we don’t do very many miles so I didn’t see the point of spending £1800 on a wall charger.
Great video thank you
Hi james I have the same set up 6kw of solar PV and Tesla Powerwall, with back up, we recently had a powercut in the storms and we were only house in the street to have power, and it saved energy when low to generate solar pv power. we had power for three days. We also were on octopus agile before the recent price increase, meaning we could charge the battery during very cheap periods. We also have an air sourc eheat pump and solar thermal, which both run on electricity.
Were the neighbours asking you to boil their kettles?
I have a small diesel generator for power cuts. Only used it, for that, once in 40 years. Noisy, when everyone nearby is sitting in almost silence with only candlelight.
Hi James. Is there any advantage of a eddy over the boost? I also have 12 solar panels for the past 9 years that we get paid on, have a Solax battery installed, a Zappi to charge our two electric cars. Now the question should I change my iBoost for a Eddie as my iBoost makes a buzzing noise when it’s on ?
Thanks for your vIdeos you both make. Bob from Kent England.
There is a limit of 3.9kw for domestic PV installs now, set by the DNO. You can get round this with battery storage.
Great video, James. I have just got the zappi ind Eddi trying to get quotes for a battery, but everyone is busy
Same here. I'm looking to get around 4kw of solar up on my roof, and have the cash burning a hole in my pocket. But as you said, everyone is so busy fitting them just now. Demand has rocketed. I'll sit tight until my turn comes.....
@Brian I have solar panels just need a battery, but like you said i will have to wait
If you want to.get rid of gas you can add solar hot water or geothermal. Which works with radiators. No need to heat floors.
I just lowered the wattage of the hot water system element. However we are in Australia. I’m impressed
Numbers aren’t there yet for us to get a battery. Our petrol is about 54 pence / litre cheaper than yours
Just as an FYI AShadeGreener and similar companies will also not install on certain roofing as the additional cost means they won't turn a profit. I have a DECRA prefab roof, very common in my area and they won't install despite the fact that it is possible as several houses with the same roofing do have panels. Salesman didn't know this and just checked alignment and slope, which are fine. Engineer turned up and with a single sentence was back off on his merry way.
Hi James. We have ordered a solar system from e-on with a large battery (giv?). We just read an article in the newspaper which states that in the event of a power cut our system will not allow us to run lights and sockets from our battery to protect workers that might be working on the grid. This is the law apparently ? They have said that EPS can be wired up by a qualified electrician after the install. This a bit of a surprise to us so is it an expensive thing to get done. Is there a simple guide (or link) to solar systems that explains how it works and what all of these add ins actually do ?Thanks.
Excess solar energy being diverted to other storage in the house once the battery is full is neat.
Is there any Kiwi RUclipsrs out there that can do a copy of this video with brands available in New Zealand?
Got a Zappi2, a 6.5KW solar array and the MG5 and the Model S. .FIT gives me about £750 a year. I do about 40,000 miles a year total but haven't had to charge either car for the last three weeks from the grid thanks to the sunshine. This months total energy (no gas) Octopus bill was £40 😁😁👍👍
We install the same set up as you have. Do you not find the battery is a massive financial gain if you combine the solar storage and the ability to draw cheap night rate energy from the grid? I see at the point of this video the price per kwh was around 12p PKWH though. With it going up to 50pkwh in October though the returns on investment will be really short.
Hi
We are looking at getting 4 kW solar and 2x 2.6 so 5.2kwh fox battery or 5.8kwh solax battery what do you reckon good enough?
South facing pitched so probably 400kw per month in summer. Ev on its way too ?
Early adopter 12 years ago! on grid paid for by FIT and on going no brainer as said.I would do it again and have no subusdie offf grid with battery, east west 2 systems
Hi James, how do you heat your home? I'm not sure you mentioned this in your video.
How does you powerwall charge up with a 4.5kwh array? Do you find you mostly charge it with grid overnight? I'd imagine your Zappy and Eddi take up most of your solar load.
Does immersion/Zappi now make financial sense for water heating, now the gas is more expensive? (Assuming Octopus go at 5p/kWh)
Hi, you have done what I want to do. I have a number of questions. If you think there’s too many please don’t answer. I have a 1.8kw system I had fitted in 2011 and I do benefit from the feed in tariff at the highest level. I want to upgrade my inverter to an MPPT version to get more power from my system. Do you know if I have to use a certified installer for this or can any qualified electrician do this? I would also like to add more panels to generate more electricity but I’m told that because of feed in I’m unable to do this. My next decision is either to add a new system of say 5kw and set that up with a battery storage capability or simply to add a large battery bank to my current system and use the 4hour cheap energy tariff to fill them if (and it won’t) my system can’t do it. I have an ev Kona so I do comply. I can tell that your knowledge in this far exceeds mine so I would be grateful if you could tell me what you would do in my shoes? I also heat my water by gas but your water heating via electricity is more appealing. Any help and advice will be welcome. I also have a large house. Great video and for me the best one as it’s exactly what I plan to do.
Hi, may i ask does your setup still use the grid power even if your batteries are full ?
Why remove the Iboost and change to an EDI ?
Yes it has more features, but basically does the same.
Got an Iboost as well and thinking about getting a battery.
Thanks for the video, I am early into researching both solar panels and battery storage, mainly because I have money in the bank giving me next to no interest, so it may well be better to invest in sustainable energy. My home has a south-west facing roof, in the south-east of England, so not perfect for solar, but not terrible either. I do think that perhaps the bigger savings can be made with the battery storage, and importing off-peak power to use in peak times. With the Government taking VAT off solar, perhaps now is the ideal time to make the move in both directions. I am going to Farnborough in April, for the Fully Charged show, so will likely spend most of my day looking at what I can do. I still haven't made the jump to electric cars either, and that is a harder challenge, as my wife is still very sceptical, but that is another bridge I intend crossing sooner, rather than later.
I took the plunge about 2 years ago and haven't regretted it. My advice would be to do it as soon as you're able to.
I'm in the same position Jim. I have the cash there although I haven't started getting quotes as yet, but rather I'm trying to gain a little more knowledge on solar etc, than I have. I was half considering solar, and possibly a battery too, even before the VAT was lifted. The problem now seems to be that many installers are booked up for months ahead.......and those whom are not, probably soon will be.
@@Brian-om2hh I work in the solar industry in New England in the US. We are booked up 6-8 months right now. I’d suggest going in now, as materials are rising in cost quickly. The sooner you can get a quote the sooner you can get prices locked in. I have solar on my house, and it’s been great! I want to do heat pumps and a battery in the future. I have a Leaf now, and it’s great to charge on the sun.
@@Brian-om2hh Thanks Brian, I am seeing the same. I think the biggest thing that is holding me back, is we seem to have a lot of cowboys out there, or salesmen, who are just after a commission, rather than selling the best set up for our needs.
I have eddi and zappi they are brilliant saving me loads
Another helpful video, James, thanks! As a relatively old Gaffer with a 10 year old, 2 bed end of terrace, I'm unsure what path to follow. I'm not poor, so I suspect I'll be able to cope with the high energy demands ahead, but I'd like to do what I can to reduce my expenses, albeit I'm unlikely to benefit from the long term benefits, if I die sooner than later... Also, I'm probably not ideally situated, being south east facing. Assuming the house was built with fairly up to date insulation, would your proposal be a sensible investment in such circumstances? Unfortunately, the government seems unsure or committed to helping people seriously become more ecologically supported in the long term, hence their withdrawal of early incentives. Thus, we're not given long term guidance or incentives that can be relied on to take the risk... Everything seems so 'up in the air'...??
James we are have fitted next week a 7.6kw array Give energy 5kw hybrid inverter and a 9.5 kw battery and a Eddie.This should make us off grid around 9 months a year then off peak electric for the winter Electric cars we don't have yet hopefully one day. I have a disiel car 60 mpg and free car tax so this does not pay to have payments to cover an electric car at this present time.The MG 4 Looks apealing 2nd hand in a few years
I'm still waiting for the monopolist power utility in my (Canadian) province to introduce off-peak discounts. Grrr
Does ASG Allow you to fit your storage battery??
Great video. Just one query - did they not scrap VAT (UK) on solar / battery storage the other day? If so it makes even more sense!
I've not heard that, unless it's very new. It's only 5% when purchased together though.
@@Jamesandkate It came in the recent Spring statement. Not that well reported!
What is the power switch on the side of the power wall ? 0/1 does that turn it off... because it looks quite easy for children or anyone to just fiddle with :(
when installed my solar PGE force me to pay higher from 4pm-9pm for electricity so i installed 2 tesla batteries to back up and used during those hours
Wow 10 year's, I've only had my 5.2 kw of solar panels since 2016 $7000 and my powerwall 2 and gateway $10805.35 Australian fully installed,start of August 2017.
I have an ev charging deal with my electric company 12-2pm mains grid no cost on Saturday and Sunday. I also have a sanden heat pump for water heating and a mk1 zappi.
The joys of having an energy mix comprised 80% of mostly coal and some natural gas. That ship sailed here long ago.
The reason your energy company can give you free energy at certain times is because you are helping the distribution grid by utilising it off peak.
They could utilize off-peak here still far better and more extensively than they do. It is hugely beneficial to the grid to spread usage in this way. Essentially, if you don't use energy generated whilst people are snoring away in the middle of the night, it is wasted.
Unfortunately, we are at the mercy of greedy bastards.
No, it's during the day at weekends 12-2pm, they are trying to burn off excess peak solar. Australia has a lots of solar and solar is really cheap here. This plan will come in handy on a cloudy mid winters day, when at times I cannot manage to charge my powerwall2 as it's any electrical usage.
My powerwall2 discharge goes from 2.3- 2.7kwh in the summer to over 5.0 average for midwinter. You might think I have too much battery at 13.5kwh usable, it gets pushed really hard sometimes. Less cycling of a battery and more longevity, so the bigger the better with batteries.
@@marktiller1383 Although not super-peak, I would suggest 12-14 could be considered off-peak for a lot of households.
Generally, most spikes are between 7-9 and 16-19. Octopus Energy were actually paying people here to use the grid in the middle of the night last year.
The grid operators need to lay down the law to these energy companies. It's like the tail wagging the dog sometimes.
Blanket scrapping of cheap night time energy tariffs in the face of rising energy costs is short sighted.
@@marktiller1383 I don't think your 13.5kwh is too much. You are right to over spec it. I have only 5.2kwh storage on mine and it isn't enough. One more 2.6kwh cell would have done the trick.
We've just installed PVs and batteries. With some minor adaptations we are already using almost no grid electricity. We are now looking at doubling our battery capacity to give us full energy independence with electric heating to replace our oil heating. What is the kWh capacity of the Tesla Powerwall?
14.4kWh's I think
Is it only a matter of time before we can use the huge battery parked on the drive to run our home heating in winter? Charge overnight on cheap tariff and use to run an electric boiler during peak hours. Seems to make sense to me.
Might be worth considering the effect it might have on the service life of the ‘mobile battery’, if it’s used like that, rather than just for traction.
@@johnkeepin7527 agreed. I think they'll cope fine but it would be interesting to see how they handle the guarantee side of things. Gotta be the future tho.
We have an identical set-up though our solar PV is 5.4kWp. As you say, battery storage now makes financial sense even without solar. Our Powerwall 2 is on track to save us around £1500 this year and if electricity prices stay high, it will pay for itself in 6 years, well within the 10 year warranty. We are about to take the final step and replace our oil powered central heating with a heat pump.
I have query on the bill figures quoted as about to install PV’s (5.35kw) plus a 10kw battery storage system and cannot work out how you get these figures.
Like you we have a 50kw car plus (your fault after the Desptch Van review) a E Expert van.
I do a lot of miles in the van (about what you do) so if I look at the KWh consumption how do you charge both vehicles for what equates to 27.5 KWh’s per day over a month?
I’m missing something as cannot work out how I will charge both vehicles for the amount generated. Does the charger still work at 7kWh?
Have you taken into account that he also charges the battery with off-peak electricity from the grid?
@@Richard482 thanks for the reply. I’m very new to PV’s so just trying to work out the best strategy for myself and how a 7kW charger works off a 5.35kw system.
Had already considered the EV tariff change (only just been “allowed” to go on it) which will be done soon after PV installation as currently cheaper to charge two vehicles on single tariff given daytime charging rates and we have to charge during the day.
Hi Colin. Good question. When I have a particularly heavy week, I'll stop at a rapid near home and top up to 60%. That allows the 28kWhs that the cheap rate window gives, to top me up to 100%. The Tesla will charge off the sun in the day as Kate WFH, or we top it up A5 the weekends. Realistically it will do 2 weeks between charges. Also, in extreme circumstances, we have 18 Pod point 7kW chargers locally, and I'll abandon the MG on one of those all night at 20p p/kWh. I'm doing a vid about it soon 👌🏻
Own your own and have two slopes of panels with Battery. POWER WALL is way too expensive for most people, plus supply is limited. There are many more battery options out there these days, at far less cost.
I am quickly reserving from setting up a system myself is that even if 1% of your solar panel is in the shade your lose 50% of the panel output.
Tbh, you can see the output figures and they've been doing the same for 10 years+.
@@Jamesandkate I made my own observation from testing a sample of forty solar panels that I bought recently. There needs to be blocking diodes in series with each group of cells in the panel.
I take it that you fixed your rates a long time ago because 12p peak and 5p off peak is incredibly cheap compared to the new price cap rate which is closer to 30p. And I don’t think you’ll find any new economy 7 tariffs either right now.
Hi. Yes we did. It was luck more than anything. We have it until December where we will go to Octopus Go a 7.5p overnight instead of 5p. You can have Go of you have an EV apparently.
I’m a bit confused about the AshadeGreener business model. It sounded like they hoped to just use people’s roof space to create many small local power plants and then claim the feed in tariff for themselves, but if you’ve been using most of the generation yourself how are they making any money off it? Is the feed in tariff based on generation and not output to the grid?
But great video! I currently have a small solar array that came with my house, I want to install and Eddi soon to use the excess and then eventually upgrade the system.
They get paid if you use it or not
They have a meter connected to our Wifi that calculates generation, they get paid from that meter.
The old feed in tariff scheme (I had it installed at my place in 2014) was based on generation, and 50% deemed export, in the absence of an export meter. The deemed export rate is not worth much - it’s the generation, whoever uses it, that is useful. For this tax year, the generation is 16.76p per kWh, and 5.57p per kWh deemed export. The generation meter belongs to the house, and in my place, the import meter belongs to the utility supplier (as it does everywhere), and it is a conventional twin rate one - not a “SMART” one. In principle, if it was the latter, it could measure real export as well, but they are not actually interested in installing those at places on feed in; what a surprise.
Incidentally, Feed in Tariff is deemed not to be an “income” for tax purposes, so it is not declared to the tax office - otherwise they’d be paying out in one hand, and clawing it back in the other! Negative efficiency, that way. The cash flow is from the Ofgem department, via the utility firm that handles it. No doubt it's created a few jobs both in the civil service and in the trade.
Before I went for solar PV (8 years before), I had solar thermal installed, which now runs in tandem with the PV electric. It is still good for efficiency - as long as you actually use the hot water. I note that the water setup at the producer’s place appears to be a gravity fed hot water one. At my place, with the solar thermal, it became a mains pressure hot water one, with a heat exchanger in the storage tank. Of course, many places now have combination gas fired boilers.
@@Jamesandkate Excellent video! I was going to ask the same question as Richard the Great. Just to clarify - I understand they get paid based on their meter, but who pays them?
@@RichardOzanne The government.
Great video thanks👍🏻
Which electricity tariff are you on ? Thanks
Octopus Go. 12.8p day rate and 5p night rate.
We have the free panels on our roof. I wasn't aware that you could install a battery to them. I thought the energy produced had to go into the grid. That's why the company that owns them gets the feed in tariff.
It makes no sense that they get paid and you keep the electricity.....or am i wrong ?
You are wrong. Because of you used everything they'd get no return on their investment. You'll have a meter connected to the inverter, and your WiFi, that fees the generation information back.
Hi James. Could you clarify what you say at near the start. “Anything that gets generated is not yours, there is no financial reward”. Then later on you say “ But you do get to use all the energy that they generate”. I’m a bit confused by how it works!
Many Thanks for your videos
This is an old system and not open to any new customers
The installation company get the feed in tariff payments. These are based on how much the system generates, not if that generation gets exported to the grid. That means they get an income that over time is far greater than the cost of installation. The property it is installed on get the benefit of using whatever they can that is generated.
The Feed-in Tarrif at the time of James' installation was huge, to encourage the installation of (expensive at the time) solar panel systems! This is not the case now. There's no longer, even, a feed in tarrif - instead called the smart export guarantee, as James said, so no longer are these deals offered! There's also horror stories of when people who went for this deal trying to sell their houses and winding up in all sorts of trouble!
Better to just pay the up front cost nowadays, although the SEG is quite low, so you have to really use or store all that you use - of course, you don't have to get the SEG payments from the same energy provider that you pay for your power/have the installation carried out by!
It's all quite complicated, but makes some financial (longer term) sense, the further south you live!
The prices of solar panels and batteries are going back up now though (along with everything else), so you really have to consider everything carefully. I live so far north, with mountains to my west, that even at today's prices it would take over 13 years to get my investment back (most batteries only guaranteed for 10 years - so possible problems there), so I think I should just fix my energy from the lowest 'clean' provider I can and invest the money elsewhere. After all 10k at 7%/yr is 700£$€ to spend on electricity and I get to keep the whole investment (everything being equally rosy, of course)!
@@MyApole ok, that explains it. So even though non of the power that’s James’ system generates goes in to the grid, the company are still getting paid as if it’s feeding all that power back into the grid. I guess that’s why the feed in tariff is so bad / not available now.
@@computerbob06 The only thing I’d add to your comments is that yes it’s a long time getting your money back. However if you have the money to invest then the return on it is way better than bank rates. The other point that’s not considered is you house price increases in value if you have a solar system and especially if you’ve battery storage as well.
Informative video. How about covering 12 months Solar and how the seasons affect the electricity generated? If EV car option was good enough I would have one but cost and environmental impact caused by manufacturing the car is a lot higher than running an existing ICE car. The electric car is more expensive with technology no one really needs but put in to sell the car as the range and charging rate isn't good enough yet. An EV car will last 10 years and you need to own it for over 5 years to make it worth while. Leasing an EV is not good for the environment as the environmental damage during manufacture compared to a ICE car is really high until the EV is over 5 years old taking into account fuel vs electricity.
A French company are offering retro fit electric kits for ICE cars with about 60 mile range. Cost is £8000 approx. and available early next year.
Also a lot of electricity is generated by gas turbines in the UK so not so environmentally friendly. Glad to see you are using solar which should be offered to all homes in the UK at a reduced cost. The immersion heater is a great idea but what if you don't have a hot water tank? All new homes should have solar panels, immersion heaters and electric car chargers fitted as standard.
@Peter Hicks OK thanks at least they are doing the minimum.
@Peter Hicks Thanks. I am looking to get solar panels and possibly a battery.
Is this offer from a shade greener still available?
Sadly not 🙁
Very interesting, you should consider being a consultant, and look at a persons house and advise.
Bob
He's way too busy to take any more work on Robert!!
I don’t have solar panels but I’m considering getting a home battery. Just have to do the numbers.
Great option. But would not get Tesla battery very high up from cost. Look into pylontech batteries they are modular and you can add more in time
Some time of use tariffs have disappeared eg Octopus Go if you don’t have an EV. The Tesla Powerwall does through Octopus allow 11p per Kw import and 11p per Kw export on the Tesla Energy Scheme which is great if you export more than you use.
@@lynnfisher4396 how will they know if you have an EV or not ?
@@callumcurtis15 Hi, because now when you ask to switch they want to know the make and type of the vehicle either BEV or plug in hybrid, in some cases the registration number has been required. The CEO has recently publicly stated that he wants to maintain the expansion of EV ownership by keeping the Go or Go Faster tariff available in the current energy crisis so that’s why the restriction at this time.
Hi do you do mg5 servicing thanks
Yes we do.
Just had 12 panels fitted on government scheme.
I'm a homeowner on low income. So qualified for free. Yeehaa.
Only been on a week so hopefully save me a few quid? 🤞🤞🤞
Which scheme was this please???
@@Jamesandkate in my area in Liverpool
@@Jamesandkate I've had 6 panels installed by Consumer Energy
Solutions, Swansea. Income must be less than £30k annually, providing three
consecutive monthly bank statements each no more than £1,950 income pm.
EDF are aware of this free fitting and thus only pay 1.5 pence per therm under their
export scheme - a meagre £70 - £80 annual refund by my calculation.
However, my day time rate useage has fallen dramatically.
Should make a good saving.
E7 will climb as usual during winter when I switch on my night storage heaters.
My hot water is E7, I switch on when I wake up for less than an hour, 3 days per week.
Used to be on 24/7 and so have reduced from 7 x 5 therms = 35 per week to about
9/10 for 3 mornings instead of 7, so as and when basis...more savings.
Was paying £34 per month to Severn Trent for water supply - now reduced to just £6
per month as I am now on a water meter.
Very pleased!
Should also add, I had a one hour survey of my 3-bed S/D cottage by CES and when
further grants become available, I will be eligible for free installation of an air source
heat pump, interior wall insulation plus skimming and radiators piped in, think there
is an appropriate boiler with it also.
Also, since 1/4/22 I have used 217 day therms @ 33p and 195 night @ 19p ...so about
£108 total plus standing charge. Currently I pay EDF £107 pm but the economies
I've made will be wiped out by the forthcoming energy increases. Oh well! U can't win!
@@lennylaa1686 heard heat source pumps are Shi t.
Just do some research
Please could I clarify. You say you get no benefit from the panels as part of getting them for free. Does this mean the company take the electric and get paid any feed in tariffs? I would assume so and therefore the next question is how you are allowed to use the solar energy for your use which is effectively reducing what they earn
Hi. The company that installed the panels get a generation tarrif. There's a meter in our loft that reads what's generated, and they're paid from that. The electricity generated is then free tonus, so we benefit from that, but no feed-in tarrif as many have.
@@Jamesandkate It seems like a scam, guessing this is not available for people to get now ?
Is it common have a gas boiler and a water storage tank? 👍
Not so much now, but it has been for years prior
@@Jamesandkate Best of both words there. We have a SoliC 200, its been priceless with four small kids growing up and it’s kept oil boiler usage to a minimum. Building a new home now, under floor heating, heat pump, PV and home battery all on the way with Zappi, Eddi and Harvi!
Are any of your EVs battery lease if so how much per month?
If your referring to the cars. Only Renault and Nissan did this.
No one does this any more
No they Tesla M3 & MG zs
Nobody does EV battery leasing anymore Dave. It's ended.
None of ours are lease.
Solar is longer term investment. Approx 10 tears to break even on the initial cost.
It’s actually 6 years now.
How long could you run your house off just the battery??
About 36 hours
@@Jamesandkate Yeh right....with no hot water or heating.......maybe.
Hi James any issues with a shade greener??? mark.
I have free PV’s but my contract states that I can’t charge/store in batteries. 🤷🏻
Oh really. Who fitted it and when???
how about not going to wars to save money?
I take it you do receive feed in tariff ? If you've had solar for 10 years you must have signed up!!
We don't get any feed-in sadly.
He did mention in video that he got solar panels for free from company that provide "free panels " but takes all fit payments for it.