Doing some maths on our solar panels and battery.
Last month, we only paid for 10% of our electricity!
I'm now crunching the numbers to see just how much the 4.8kWh battery has saved us.

🌞 + 🔋 = 🥰

#Solar #SolarPower

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These aren't the final numbers - but are pretty indicative.

In the last 12 month, having 5kW of solar panels, and a 4.8kWh battery, has saved us a massive two-thirds of our electricity bill!

And that isn't even taking into account how much we sold back to our neighbours.

#Solar

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@Edent what's your barrier to going heat punk?

@Edent I wonder how big of a battery one would need to use all of it yourself. I have an inkling that there's enough seasonal variation so that an EV wouldn't be enough.

@Edent if you do figure this out, I would be fascinated to hear how, because I also want shot of our gas boiler and also can't get a heat pump!

@Edent It is a shame you can’t have heat pump. We had ours installed last week.

@skylar @Edent old school immersion heaters and storage heaters still exist, and I think in cases like this could make a lot of sense. My flat has both, and the moment I’m done buying it from the landlord they’re going on smart switches hooked up to Octopus Agile pricing.

@skylar @Edent there’s also just plain old electric radiators. Not sure what the power usage looks like there and how viable it would be to run them off a home battery.

@jon @skylar
I'm experimenting with Infrared heating.
https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2022/03/experiments-with-far-infrared-heating/

Seems to work in small rooms, heats up quickly, relatively low electricity use.

Also have an electric tap for a basin. Again, fairly reasonable. But running a bath with it would be tricky.

@hirvox In January - the worst month - we purchased 192kWh of electricity.

A long range EV is about 70kWh.

I'm trying to do the maths on what size we'd need to save the summer excess.

@DamonHD physics, mostly.

https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2022/07/why-we-cant-have-an-air-source-heat-pump/

@Edent are you in a conservation area? If not then at least two of the restrictions you list may (no longer) apply, and the rules continue to be relaxed further. I am also in a terrace but I think that we are going to be able to make a heat pump work.

@Edent @DamonHD have you considered Air-to-air? I.e. air conditioners that can work in reverse? You can get minisplit systems bought and installed relatively cheaply. (Though it won't do your hot water obviously.)

@vksxypants @DamonHD yes, but the cost of retrofitting air conduits through the whole house is prohibitively expensive.

@Edent @vksxypants Are you aware of multi-head per-room mini-split units? Particularly given that you could heat some rooms with your IR units...

@DamonHD @vksxypants Interesting! Sadly, I think they still fall foul of my permitted woes. I'll do some more investigating.

@Edent @vksxypants The rules are continuing to unbend, though mini-splits may not benefit yet from grants or GDPOs. If you find out, please say.

(Given that I am doing a PhD on decarbonising UK home heating, I am unreasonably interested in the detail!)

@DamonHD @Edent Heat pumps are apparently a challenge to run off battery - my system is limited to about 4kW max discharge and the heat pump can pull a lot more than that. We'll see how this works out in practice.

@ryanc @DamonHD
Yeah and when it is sunny, we don't have any need for hot water.
We tried it with an iBoost and it was just a waste of energy.