Our Solar Journey – 2 Months On

We had our solar panels fitted the second week of April so it’s been just over two months since we had been set up. I did a post just after they were fitting running through how it worked, the process etc. But I wanted to come back and do a followup to talk about how I’ve been finding it. So this is it, our solar journey a few months on.

Energy consumption

So far since the panels have been fitted to the day I am writing this (18th June) we have generated 1.2 MWh of electricity. Of that figure we only used 0.4 MWh of that ourselves in our home. And exported out 0.8MWh of the energy. This is mainly because during the daytime when energy is being generated we’re not using anywhere near what we’re generating.

We have used 883 kWh of electricity in total, so 46% of what we have used has been self generated. While 54% has still come from the grid. This is mainly for what we have been using in the evenings/ through the night/ early morning while the system is not generating anything. Or on the odd occasion when we’re not generating enough to power everything we’re using. This sometimes happens if we have multiple bigger appliances running at the same time (oven/ dishwasher/ washing machine).

But from these figures you can see that if we had a battery storing surplus energy we could be 100% self sufficient (at least in the summer) as we’re using less than we’re generating.

How our electricity bills have been

We had our panels fitted just as electricity prices went up. So we were very lucky and didn’t have any months of paying the updated, more expensive price. So for the moment, our electricity prices have only dropped a little vs what we were paying before the panels. But compared to what we would have been paying at the new prices we’re saving about 50% on our bills which is massive. Our bills have ranged from £50-70 a month. For a three-bed detached house where I work from home 4 days a week, I think is pretty good going.

But our bills will continue to reduce now we’re being paid for exporting electricity.

Our solar journey exporting electricity

We can see how much electricity we’re sending back to the grid via our solar edge app. And usually, you’re paid for sending it to the grid, although at a much, much lower cost than you’d buy it for! What we didn’t realise was that you had to sign up to export with your energy supplier.

I contacted them about 7 weeks as I hadn’t noticed any money back on our bills and didn’t realise I had to apply. So sadly, we supplied about 1-1.1MWh to the grid for free, which is quite sad. But the company who fitted it said it’s pretty normal to be generating for free for a few months until it’s all set up.

But now we’re all set up, we’re getting refunds of around £7-8 a week. So this is great as it’s reducing our bill even further.

What’s next for our solar journey

A few things are coming up which will reduce our bills even further. And should get rid of our electricity costs completely.

Firstly we have ordered a battery for our system. We did this about 1-2 weeks after it was first fitted. We should have just bit the bullet straight away and ordered it, but it was an additional £6,000. So we thought we’d do it in a few years. But knowing how much extra we’d save we just thought we’d do it now. The battery is on back order as there are supply issues, but once it is fitted the battery will fill up with any surplus generation. This means it can be used during the night/ times when we would typically take from the grid.

We can even make extra money with Octopus by using their agile system. Agile charges and pays you for electricity based on the half-hourly costs. This means at peak times, electricity is more expensive, but say at 2 am it’s super cheap. So we could charge our battery from the grid during the night when electricity prices are at rock bottom. And then, with our battery full to use, surplus generation can be sold back during the day when prices are higher. Thus making us some money. But this is something Luke will do the setting up of.

Helping our gas bill

Another thing we have on backorder is a smart hot water device. What this will do is when we have surplus energy, it can direct it to our water tank to heat up our water. This ultimately means we’ll use less gas heating the water as the electricity will have done that.

We are considering one day moving to an electric boiler as well so we can power that via solar, but that’s a much longer-term plan.

So that’s our solar journey so far. When we get our battery and hopefully stop paying for electricity, I’ll do another update.

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