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Some interesting data, although given the high initial cost of installation I feel those "we paid only 1£" are a bit misplaced.
Anyways, I finally scraped together some money and also got a 5kw LiFePO4 battery system yesterday. Still need to install everything DIY, but I will probably hook up some statistics monitoring system as well as the new hybrid inverter has a cool integration with the Home Assistant software.
I've been thinking of getting a hybrid inverter (rather than manually moving loads between grid power and inverter/solar power). How much did it set you back?
Slightly above 1000€ 😖 (made by FoxESS like the battery system)
Don't take it as a general recommendation as I have yet to test it, but spec wise it seems to be a relatively good value for money.
I'm curious what type of Statistics monitoring system you aiming for @poVoq. I have ordered a 3.7kw panels + special type inverter for direct heating of a boiler and a secondary boiler/other item. And i am intrigued what the monthly differences are in kWh generation and would like to track those. Only I have no idea what I can hook up between the panels and inverter to log.
The hybrid inverter I got has a ethernet connection that can be connected to Home Assistant: https://github.com/nathanmarlor/foxess_modbus
Not sure yet how I will analyse that exactly, but it might be nice to automatically publish some stuff to a website via it.
TIL electricity bills in London are a fuck ton cheaper than in the US even before the solar installation.
I doubt it's the cost of electricity itself, but rather that the average European uses a lot less electricity (mainly due to more energy efficient appliances and no AC use).
The appliances are basically the same--no, American appliances don't generally run on 120v--but I'll bet average house size is the biggest thing.
"Our solar power feeds into our local grid for our neighbours to use. We sell the electricity at market rates - which change every 30 minutes. This made us £13."
Some more details on this would be interesting. We're currently with Octopus and get just 15p/kWh when we sell back to the grid, but have to pay 25p/kWh when we buy from the grid.
What kind of rates (average?) are you getting, and who's your supplier?
SDGE charges $0.50/kWh and gives you $0.05/kWh in return