For those contemplating it, but unsure if solar works in the UK, hopefully, this video helps to reassure you that it does! 👍Please let us know your thoughts, and any questions, and if you have solar, let us know how it is performing for you! Thanks for watching!
I have to say... thank you... I have watched many RUclips presentations on solar provisions and wrote to Alps with my enquiry. Whilst they were honest enough to tell me that I was out of their area, they (Andy) also went on to respond to my technical questions regarding number of panels, types of panel and orientation ~ even though they would not be installing for me. (Andy was replying whilst away on holiday). I find this refreshing (also as an engineer) because of the way in which Andy took the trouble to share his knowledge, and also demonstrate the conviction Alps have to the service they provide ~ alas, not in my location.
Hi, I am back home now, and back to work :( It was a pleasure to offer some help. As I say in my videos, I actually enjoy helping people and discussing solar, and sharing my knowledge. And if it helps someone then fantastic! All the best with the system and thanks for the kind words :) Andy
We have foxess best thing we spent money on,got hybrid inverter and nine panels south facing,and we get good charging without the sun,we are on octopus flux,charge up from grid 0200,-0459.great set up.
Good video, straight forward no nonsense factual 10/10 The thing is hater’s gonna hate , I get it all the time with my EV same old dumb questions!!!! I normally just say 95 percent of ice car drivers who slag off EV’s have never even driven one and 95 percent of EV drivers used to be ice drivers but will never go back ! Then I say just think about that for a minute and walk off 😂 it’s the same with my solar and my battery same dumb questions ! But more videos like this one should help change their mindset 👍
Thank you! Despite my factual video I have still received comments saying it is a load of rubbish and one guy even said solar is only 3% efficient in the winter!!!! I mean there are people that will not have it that the earth is round so I am not trying to convince the unconvinced, more so trying to help those interested in having solar installed themselves haha :) Thanks for your comment
I installed 4.3 kWp system a year and half ago. I have a large oak tree next to our property which reduces the yield and the roof does not face south either. Looking at the stats, it has generated around 4,000 kWh per year. Yes, winter performance is weak for about 3 months of the year, but still a helpful addition compared to not having in. Not installed by this company by the way, but one of their competitors. We also have a battery, very useful for filling up with cheap overnight electricity to get you through the winter. Solar and batteries work, you just need to do the maths to calculate the payback period and if that is something you are prepared to do.
Hi thanks for your comment! Great to hear your system is working well for you, even if it was installed by a competitor :) The yields sound spot on for the size of the system, and I agree with everything you say! All the best :)
Great video Andy, I'm two days into using the system you installed and can't believe how well its working. Although a low energy user i can see this as a great investment. Looking forward to Octopus hooking me up to Flux export in due course. Keep the videos coming.
Thanks, all good and interesting information. Just a thought on your statistics presentation. It looks as though Spring is best, but Autumn is worst. However, if you adjust the months & durations to centre on the solstices and equinoxes, then you will likely have a stronger seasonal variation, which will make the earlier Summer and Winter effects a bit more dramatic and dominant.
Thanks for the comment, I wish I understood it, but as a mere electrician I was just putting together a general idea of the seasonal periods going by the official seasonal dates, and have also displayed the generation month by month so it hopefully gives people a fair idea of how it performs in throughout the year.
@@alpselectrical It was just some thoughts and I am not involved in Solar, but I am an interested observer, learning and hoping to invest if I have free money to do it, so just learning for now... Having recently been watching the Northern Lights, it made me think that about this and whether the 'Solar Winter' should be centred on the shortest day, ie late December and the 'Solar Summer' centred around the longest day, ie late June. That is like 1x month different to the normal thoughts on seasons which are more dictated by temperatures.
Hi, well funnily enough I am planning on doing a video purely about solar during winter and how to best utilise the batteries etc, and so I will look at what you suggest and perhaps alter the data to suit. Thanks very much for your input! And for watching! :)
I have had solar since 2011 and like you have been keeping spreadsheets ever since. Our best months tend to be spring as we have a combination of long days and generally cooler temperatures. Performance drops off when temperatures are higher later in the summer. I am now planning to increase our PV capacity and batteries + heat pump so that we can use a combination of solar and off peak electricity to replace our heating oil usage. We have an EV and are on Octopus Intelligent. If my sums are correct we should get our money back in 10 years. I would endorse your point about predictability. The performance has matched what was predicted, there is little evidence that the panels have deteriorated significantly and apart from having the system checked over by the installer a couple of years ago we have had very little maintenance requirements 25:28
Heavily contemplating it at the moment. Panels are so cheap now and form a minor part of installation cost that it seems obvious to oversize the system if you have poor efficiency. At 0.65 shading factor I figured we’d need to double our annual usage, so that takes us to a 10kW system max output. I’m wondering if I should add even more panels, I could fit another 5-10 kW am wondering if it could be smarter to fit some of those on the NW facing aspect to catch the late afternoon sun instead (we have enough space to fit them on a SE aspect too). What does your gut tell you please, bung everything on the SE or is it better to throw a few on the NW too to try and even out the PV flow throughout the day?
If the figures make sense then adding more panels is a good idea but it all boils down to the ROI. Panels are cost effective these days, but another side means another side of scaffold, and of course all the rails, brackets, and installation costs of the extra panels. If they are not going to add much extra generation it may not prove to be worth it
Great video Andy, i have some questions, How long will it take 'roughly' to have the savings on your electric to pay back the solar and battey install if you were a customer, taking into account the extra batteries that you added to your system. Unkess i understood it wrongly, which is likely 😅, how come your summer months aren't the highest producing months, it seemed like it was spring ? Great video btw, its the 1st one of yours that ive seen
Hi Gary, thanks for the comment! We do installation videos but I am now starting to provide informative videos on Solar & EV too, so lots more to come! So stay tuned! A system the size of mine for a customer should take 7 years to pay back saving around £800 per year or more depending upon the orientation of your property. As mine is 71 degrees off South I lose the sun at 4pm so obviously that has a significant bearing on the payback. It is still worth it though as the system will continue to work long after the payback period, and who knows where the energy prices will be then???? In answer to your question about Spring being my highest yields, that would be again down to my orientation. If I was bang due South I would expect my results to be different and show a better Summer. Also in this country, we seem to have good spring periods and so a mixture of both I think. I am going to upload a video purely about how solar works in winter and what you can do to maximise its potential with batteries, so look out for that. I will show other customers' results as well as my own and explain the various system sizes and orientations of others to compare. Thanks again! :)
Thanks Andy for the reply even on a BH, it's a pity you guys are so far away as for some reason the RUclips installers I've come across.oj RUclips are always miles north of where I live. I like the idea of a Friday pint, that hasn't been a thing in over 20yrs where live cherrs
Hi thanks for the video, I have a solar and battery system but I am struggling with recording my data into a spread sheet, is it possible for you to share the spread sheet you have displayed please.
I hope you get it sorted but it might help if you do Google search with the manufacturers name plus " how to excel" very often somebody has done it and put it on the web. It is sometimes just a matter of getting the right search .
looking at your figures without referral fees which as a solar installer you will be able to talk customers into the same deal as you get your electricity would have cost you £382.41 that is only taking off the £250. So your saving compared to the year before works out at £856.96 so how much would a system like you have cost a customer? how long would it take to pay back that cost including the interest because unless you have the spare cash you will need a loan. Yes I do have solar fitted the council here in stoke on trent fitted them and they are crap.
Hi, thanks for the comment. My savings are £786.96 for the year not taking into account anything other than the export payments received, however as I only started charging the batteries overnight 6 months into the year, and my export payments did not start for 2 months after installation, and I have only just started force discharging the batteries during the high tariff 4-7pm period I expect bigger savings this following year. These ways of utilising the batteries have a significant effect on energy savings. I am expecting my savings in the next 12 months to be closer to £900. For my system, a customer could expect around a 7/8 year payback if they had exactly the same system as me with the same orientation. I do not have a great orientation and lose the sun at 4pm off the panels, so clearly someone with the same system with a better orientation would see much greater yields and returns and payback period. Someone else may have an EV and go on a better tariff than I am on. There simply isn't a one-size-fits-all-all system, every case is different because of many varying factors, including a customer's annual usage, etc. Some customers do choose to get a personal loan, and they look at it as the annual energy savings are paying back the interest plus a significant portion of the loan payments, whilst every year owning more and more of the asset which they will own outright by the end of the loan term, which you could take for the term of the proposed payback period if you wish. Unlike a loan to buy a car which usually depreciates in value, the NPV of a solar system only grows, and with so much uncertainty with energy prices people are looking to secure some control over their energy bills in years to come. Regarding the solar installation at your home, was it a council scheme that was free? I am assuming that it will have been minimal panels and without battery storage, was it? If you are finding the system no good then it clearly is not a suitable system for your needs. Battery storage makes a huge difference when it comes to holding onto the yields for later consumption and utilising cheap energy tariffs to your advantage!
@@alpselectrical yes they were on the house when we got it through a scheme there are 11 panels at 375 watts each according to the paperwork, we are only 5 degrees off due south but seem to produce very little according to our smart meter
Hi mate, you should be seeing around 3000kWh per year I would estimate off that system, but its difficult to comment without seeing it and testing it etc. If you are really seeing poor results and think there may be an issue it may be worth getting a local solar installer to come out and test the strings and everything is ok. It could be that if it is wired in two strings that only one is working and never been connected up correctly. Hard to comment but thats an ok system at 4.125KW and pretty much bang South! I would get it checked bud! :)
Hi, thanks for your comment and for watching! I wouldn't say it was very low, my highest yield for 2023 was 613kWh, and July was 515kWh. May was 562kWh and so July was my 3rd best month of the year. My system is only 4.9KW on a 3.7KW inverter and my orientation is 71 degrees off south so we lose the sun at 4pm(ish). I am seeing a similar pattern this year with my system where I have had a really good April at 544.9kWh, and May at 584.7kWh. Obviously the weather has a say in how the months will look, but in my case my orientation will decice when my best yields are in the year. Not every house will have the same best month due to different orientations, and pitches, arrays shared over two roofs, and of course array sizes, and panel quality too! Lots of varying factors. I have just posted a video comparing my stsem to 3 other customers of ours too see if there are any patterns and how we all perform during winter in particular. Interestingly it highlights the point about diferent systems having different best months! Check it out here: ruclips.net/video/6tnqcQNwiFo/видео.html
@@alpselectrical ok I misread it, because it might help if you Point Zero after your figure otherwise ONLY looks like 45.9 so yes July was ok after all.
How do you not understand? But they are making a mistaken comment saying that the panels would work better in the sun belt. I'm sure you said professional, so why would that not be the case, well as far as he thinks anyway?
Hi, thanks for your comment. We are not talking it up or down, just talking facts from personal experience as a user of solar and installer, and showing those who are interested in solar how it works throughout the year and how to save even more money utilising cheap tariffs to charge the batteries. It's not really for those who refuse to believe solar works (which it definitely does as the video proves)
@@lukedaniels7750 amasing how some cantalk about something that is 50 years old and talk like it is invented yesterday yes to stupid to see the differend between sombody working or laing in the sun iam sure a coronation street folower?
For those contemplating it, but unsure if solar works in the UK, hopefully, this video helps to reassure you that it does! 👍Please let us know your thoughts, and any questions, and if you have solar, let us know how it is performing for you! Thanks for watching!
why are you not using the tariff where its 7p at night?
We do not have an Electric Vehicle, the Octopus Go & Intelligent Octopus Go tariffs are only for customers with an Electric Vehicle (unfortunately)
I have to say... thank you...
I have watched many RUclips presentations on solar provisions and wrote to Alps with my enquiry.
Whilst they were honest enough to tell me that I was out of their area, they (Andy) also went on to respond to my technical questions regarding number of panels, types of panel and orientation ~ even though they would not be installing for me. (Andy was replying whilst away on holiday).
I find this refreshing (also as an engineer) because of the way in which Andy took the trouble to share his knowledge, and also demonstrate the conviction Alps have to the service they provide ~ alas, not in my location.
Hi, I am back home now, and back to work :(
It was a pleasure to offer some help. As I say in my videos, I actually enjoy helping people and discussing solar, and sharing my knowledge. And if it helps someone then fantastic!
All the best with the system and thanks for the kind words :) Andy
We have foxess best thing we spent money on,got hybrid inverter and nine panels south facing,and we get good charging without the sun,we are on octopus flux,charge up from grid 0200,-0459.great set up.
Thats awesome to hear! Thanks for sharing :)
Good video, straight forward no nonsense factual 10/10
The thing is hater’s gonna hate , I get it all the time with my EV same old dumb questions!!!!
I normally just say 95 percent of ice car drivers who slag off EV’s have never even driven one and 95 percent of EV drivers used to be ice drivers but will never go back ! Then I say just think about that for a minute and walk off 😂 it’s the same with my solar and my battery same dumb questions ! But more videos like this one should help change their mindset 👍
Thank you! Despite my factual video I have still received comments saying it is a load of rubbish and one guy even said solar is only 3% efficient in the winter!!!! I mean there are people that will not have it that the earth is round so I am not trying to convince the unconvinced, more so trying to help those interested in having solar installed themselves haha :) Thanks for your comment
I installed 4.3 kWp system a year and half ago. I have a large oak tree next to our property which reduces the yield and the roof does not face south either. Looking at the stats, it has generated around 4,000 kWh per year. Yes, winter performance is weak for about 3 months of the year, but still a helpful addition compared to not having in.
Not installed by this company by the way, but one of their competitors.
We also have a battery, very useful for filling up with cheap overnight electricity to get you through the winter.
Solar and batteries work, you just need to do the maths to calculate the payback period and if that is something you are prepared to do.
Hi thanks for your comment!
Great to hear your system is working well for you, even if it was installed by a competitor :)
The yields sound spot on for the size of the system, and I agree with everything you say! All the best :)
Great video ! Love the intro with the plane flyby sound .
Thanks!
Great video Andy, I'm two days into using the system you installed and can't believe how well its working. Although a low energy user i can see this as a great investment. Looking forward to Octopus hooking me up to Flux export in due course.
Keep the videos coming.
Hey thanks so much so glad to hear you are happy with the results so far!!! 😊
thank you
You're welcome
Thanks, all good and interesting information.
Just a thought on your statistics presentation.
It looks as though Spring is best, but Autumn is worst.
However, if you adjust the months & durations to centre on the solstices and equinoxes, then you will likely have a stronger seasonal variation, which will make the earlier Summer and Winter effects a bit more dramatic and dominant.
Thanks for the comment, I wish I understood it, but as a mere electrician I was just putting together a general idea of the seasonal periods going by the official seasonal dates, and have also displayed the generation month by month so it hopefully gives people a fair idea of how it performs in throughout the year.
@@alpselectrical It was just some thoughts and I am not involved in Solar, but I am an interested observer, learning and hoping to invest if I have free money to do it, so just learning for now...
Having recently been watching the Northern Lights, it made me think that about this and whether the 'Solar Winter' should be centred on the shortest day, ie late December and the 'Solar Summer' centred around the longest day, ie late June. That is like 1x month different to the normal thoughts on seasons which are more dictated by temperatures.
Hi, well funnily enough I am planning on doing a video purely about solar during winter and how to best utilise the batteries etc, and so I will look at what you suggest and perhaps alter the data to suit. Thanks very much for your input! And for watching! :)
I have had solar since 2011 and like you have been keeping spreadsheets ever since. Our best months tend to be spring as we have a combination of long days and generally cooler temperatures. Performance drops off when temperatures are higher later in the summer.
I am now planning to increase our PV capacity and batteries + heat pump so that we can use a combination of solar and off peak electricity to replace our heating oil usage. We have an EV and are on Octopus Intelligent. If my sums are correct we should get our money back in 10 years.
I would endorse your point about predictability. The performance has matched what was predicted, there is little evidence that the panels have deteriorated significantly and apart from having the system checked over by the installer a couple of years ago we have had very little maintenance requirements 25:28
Sounds great thanks for sharing Bryan! You must be receiving goof FIT export payments are you?
Never understood the thinking of payback period for a solar array, whats the payback for a gas boiler?
Im sorry I have no idea what that would be as i have no experience with gas boilers :)
Heavily contemplating it at the moment.
Panels are so cheap now and form a minor part of installation cost that it seems obvious to oversize the system if you have poor efficiency. At 0.65 shading factor I figured we’d need to double our annual usage, so that takes us to a 10kW system max output.
I’m wondering if I should add even more panels, I could fit another 5-10 kW am wondering if it could be smarter to fit some of those on the NW facing aspect to catch the late afternoon sun instead (we have enough space to fit them on a SE aspect too).
What does your gut tell you please, bung everything on the SE or is it better to throw a few on the NW too to try and even out the PV flow throughout the day?
If the figures make sense then adding more panels is a good idea but it all boils down to the ROI. Panels are cost effective these days, but another side means another side of scaffold, and of course all the rails, brackets, and installation costs of the extra panels. If they are not going to add much extra generation it may not prove to be worth it
Great video Andy, i have some questions,
How long will it take 'roughly' to have the savings on your electric to pay back the solar and battey install if you were a customer, taking into account the extra batteries that you added to your system.
Unkess i understood it wrongly, which is likely 😅, how come your summer months aren't the highest producing months, it seemed like it was spring ?
Great video btw, its the 1st one of yours that ive seen
Hi Gary, thanks for the comment! We do installation videos but I am now starting to provide informative videos on Solar & EV too, so lots more to come! So stay tuned!
A system the size of mine for a customer should take 7 years to pay back saving around £800 per year or more depending upon the orientation of your property. As mine is 71 degrees off South I lose the sun at 4pm so obviously that has a significant bearing on the payback. It is still worth it though as the system will continue to work long after the payback period, and who knows where the energy prices will be then????
In answer to your question about Spring being my highest yields, that would be again down to my orientation. If I was bang due South I would expect my results to be different and show a better Summer. Also in this country, we seem to have good spring periods and so a mixture of both I think.
I am going to upload a video purely about how solar works in winter and what you can do to maximise its potential with batteries, so look out for that. I will show other customers' results as well as my own and explain the various system sizes and orientations of others to compare.
Thanks again! :)
Thanks Andy for the reply even on a BH, it's a pity you guys are so far away as for some reason the RUclips installers I've come across.oj RUclips are always miles north of where I live.
I like the idea of a Friday pint, that hasn't been a thing in over 20yrs where live cherrs
Haha! I am afraid a Friday pint is still a ritual for me! :)
Hi thanks for the video, I have a solar and battery system but I am struggling with recording my data into a spread sheet, is it possible for you to share the spread sheet you have displayed please.
Hi, I'm not too sure how to do that tbh, I actually just put it together in excel
I hope you get it sorted but it might help if you do Google search with the manufacturers name plus " how to excel" very often somebody has done it and put it on the web. It is sometimes just a matter of getting the right search .
looking at your figures without referral fees which as a solar installer you will be able to talk customers into the same deal as you get your electricity would have cost you £382.41 that is only taking off the £250. So your saving compared to the year before works out at £856.96 so how much would a system like you have cost a customer? how long would it take to pay back that cost including the interest because unless you have the spare cash you will need a loan. Yes I do have solar fitted the council here in stoke on trent fitted them and they are crap.
Hi, thanks for the comment. My savings are £786.96 for the year not taking into account anything other than the export payments received, however as I only started charging the batteries overnight 6 months into the year, and my export payments did not start for 2 months after installation, and I have only just started force discharging the batteries during the high tariff 4-7pm period I expect bigger savings this following year. These ways of utilising the batteries have a significant effect on energy savings. I am expecting my savings in the next 12 months to be closer to £900.
For my system, a customer could expect around a 7/8 year payback if they had exactly the same system as me with the same orientation. I do not have a great orientation and lose the sun at 4pm off the panels, so clearly someone with the same system with a better orientation would see much greater yields and returns and payback period. Someone else may have an EV and go on a better tariff than I am on. There simply isn't a one-size-fits-all-all system, every case is different because of many varying factors, including a customer's annual usage, etc.
Some customers do choose to get a personal loan, and they look at it as the annual energy savings are paying back the interest plus a significant portion of the loan payments, whilst every year owning more and more of the asset which they will own outright by the end of the loan term, which you could take for the term of the proposed payback period if you wish.
Unlike a loan to buy a car which usually depreciates in value, the NPV of a solar system only grows, and with so much uncertainty with energy prices people are looking to secure some control over their energy bills in years to come.
Regarding the solar installation at your home, was it a council scheme that was free? I am assuming that it will have been minimal panels and without battery storage, was it? If you are finding the system no good then it clearly is not a suitable system for your needs. Battery storage makes a huge difference when it comes to holding onto the yields for later consumption and utilising cheap energy tariffs to your advantage!
@@alpselectrical yes they were on the house when we got it through a scheme there are 11 panels at 375 watts each according to the paperwork, we are only 5 degrees off due south but seem to produce very little according to our smart meter
Hi mate, you should be seeing around 3000kWh per year I would estimate off that system, but its difficult to comment without seeing it and testing it etc. If you are really seeing poor results and think there may be an issue it may be worth getting a local solar installer to come out and test the strings and everything is ok. It could be that if it is wired in two strings that only one is working and never been connected up correctly. Hard to comment but thats an ok system at 4.125KW and pretty much bang South! I would get it checked bud! :)
looking at JULY, this was very low count. was that purely the sun or something else going on?
Hi, thanks for your comment and for watching! I wouldn't say it was very low, my highest yield for 2023 was 613kWh, and July was 515kWh. May was 562kWh and so July was my 3rd best month of the year.
My system is only 4.9KW on a 3.7KW inverter and my orientation is 71 degrees off south so we lose the sun at 4pm(ish). I am seeing a similar pattern this year with my system where I have had a really good April at 544.9kWh, and May at 584.7kWh.
Obviously the weather has a say in how the months will look, but in my case my orientation will decice when my best yields are in the year. Not every house will have the same best month due to different orientations, and pitches, arrays shared over two roofs, and of course array sizes, and panel quality too! Lots of varying factors.
I have just posted a video comparing my stsem to 3 other customers of ours too see if there are any patterns and how we all perform during winter in particular. Interestingly it highlights the point about diferent systems having different best months!
Check it out here: ruclips.net/video/6tnqcQNwiFo/видео.html
@@alpselectrical ok I misread it, because it might help if you Point Zero after your figure otherwise ONLY looks like 45.9 so yes July was ok after all.
Oh yes, I see what you mean! Well pointed out! I can see the confusion there :)
Sure it works, just not nearly as good as it does int he sunbelt so youll need more panels
Sorry don't understand the comment?
How do you not understand?
But they are making a mistaken comment saying that the panels would work better in the sun belt.
I'm sure you said professional, so why would that not be the case, well as far as he thinks anyway?
You're hardly going to talk down "Solar" if you install/sell it.
Hi, thanks for your comment. We are not talking it up or down, just talking facts from personal experience as a user of solar and installer, and showing those who are interested in solar how it works throughout the year and how to save even more money utilising cheap tariffs to charge the batteries. It's not really for those who refuse to believe solar works (which it definitely does as the video proves)
Before watching the video yes it works in winter, just not as good as summer
Correct!
only woke can ask a questiom like that does solar work no it is lasy
it only hang around in the sun.
Somebody complaining about others being lazy when they are evidently too lazy to spell correctly or use any punctuation at all.
I would love to answer your comment but don't understand it sorry
@@alpselectrical The comment is unintelligable. There is no sense to be made.
@@lukedaniels7750 amasing how some cantalk about something that is 50 years old and talk like it is invented yesterday
yes to stupid to see the differend between sombody working or laing in the sun
iam sure a coronation street folower?