Solar pv and other domestic micro-generation technologies

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ThorntonRunner
ThorntonRunner
Jan 2023
11:29am, 13 Jan 2023
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ThorntonRunner
Every so often talk about solar pv, batteries etc split across the environment, energy bills and electric car threads. Here's a dedicared home for such discussion :)
ThorntonRunner
ThorntonRunner
Jan 2023
11:44am, 13 Jan 2023
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ThorntonRunner
A question to those who already have solar pv. My installation was co.pleted last month. The installation company are now trying to sell me a "solar care" package. £300 per year for an annual maintenance check. I'm tempted by this for year 1 - check al the roof fixings and cabling after the first annual weather cycle, but more sceptical for subsequent years. It also of course makes a significant difference to the pay back time, given neither they nor I factored it I to our calculations.

Have you been offered/recommended similar?
Eynsham Red
Eynsham Red
Jan 2023
11:58am, 13 Jan 2023
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Eynsham Red
I had SPV panels fitted 10 years ago this May. I wasn’t offered a care package at the time, and the installers have since ceased trading.
I’ve never had a care package in this time.

The only problem I’ve had was last year when the inverter failed and was replaced. This cost £980 so not cheap but in the scale of things when weighed against FIT payments and savings on electricity bills was reasonable having lasted nine years.

From my personal experience, if I was starting afresh and was offered a care package I’d decline.
HappyG(rrr)
HappyG(rrr)
Jan 2023
12:05pm, 13 Jan 2023
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HappyG(rrr)
Our solar and battery set up does *not* allow us to run when the grid disconnects (e.g. power cut or planned outage). Annoyingly! It's an optional extra. My wife thinks we specced that at install time. I didn't think we explicitly specced it. However, it's another thing I feel they didn't ask us. Caveat emptor, I suppose you could say, but seems quite poor when providing a fairly technical product to not highlight it. The other thing was the limited power from the battery meaning you can only run a certain number of things at the same time off it.

If anyone is getting solar and battery, feel free to ask me about these two things, if it's not obvious (as it wasn't obvious to me!). The off-grid thing is called EPS by the company I have used. There may be other names for it. :-) G

It's an isolation and then power supply thing. You need a separate circuit (called "islanding"!) to be isolated from the grid, then you need to be able to switch to it. Either manual or automatic. And as you say, the recommendation is then also to only supply a subset of your house on this emergency circuit because the battery alone can't power the whole house.

So it's an optional extra that we didn't go for at the time (because we didn't know about it. Not sure if we would had we known though.) :-) G
HappyG(rrr)
HappyG(rrr)
Jan 2023
12:07pm, 13 Jan 2023
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HappyG(rrr)
Thanks TR for creating the separate thread! :-) G
HappyG(rrr)
HappyG(rrr)
Jan 2023
12:14pm, 13 Jan 2023
45,238 posts
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HappyG(rrr)
I've got a manufacturer's guarantee for panels (25 years) and battery (15 years) and installer's guarantee (10 years). They've been around quite a while and cover both local and national (across Scotland). So I wouldn't be taking out any additional cover.

I'm also planning on doing more with them, so will be working with them and paying them more anyway! (turbine, additional inverter and battery). :-) G
3M
3M
Jan 2023
12:32pm, 13 Jan 2023
20,152 posts
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3M
A good thread split! Thanks TR.
My normal question to suppliers who try to sell me an extended warranty/ aftercare packages is "Are you telling you expect it to fail?"
And if they say it's about checking rather than actual maintenance (I.e. doing something! ) I'd be very skeptical of their motivation.
larkim
larkim
Jan 2023
1:55pm, 13 Jan 2023
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larkim
We've had our solar array for 12 years now and it's never skipped a beat. Never cleaned, maintained, cared for etc.

Technically we don't own it, so if it fails its not our job to fix it, but we would be keen to get it up and running again anyway.
HappyG(rrr)
HappyG(rrr)
Jan 2023
2:41pm, 13 Jan 2023
45,241 posts
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HappyG(rrr)
Oh you've probably got the guaranteed very generous Feed In Tariff and all that larks. Lucky you. Well, not lucky, but great foresight! :-) G
HappyG(rrr)
HappyG(rrr)
Jan 2023
2:45pm, 13 Jan 2023
45,242 posts
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HappyG(rrr)
I'm presuming no one else has done a wind turbine? It's pretty much impossible to get planning permission for it in a domestic setting, so unless you are a farm or a business, I'd expect not.

This is one of the ones I'm looking at. tesup.co.uk

I need to get an electrical company to connect it up to the house, the grid and for it to work with the existing inverter / battery set up. I'm trying the people who put in my solar, but they aren't the most dynamic company (happily just milking the solar cash cow at the moment, I think, super busy since the hikes in electricity prices). :-) G

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Every so often we talk about solar pv, batteries etc split across the environment, energy bills and electric car threads. Here's a dedicated home for such discussion :)

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