5 Min Survey at Customer's House

[Worcester]

It's a small commercial swimming pool rather than a luxury private one - it's part of a farm diversification project. Problem is it's competing with the cost of biomass which will save more, quicker and then he'll have the cash for pv - that's what I've advised him to do, along with voltage optimisers for the pumps. He's got other projects he's doing as well so he's having to prioritise.

I'm pleased he's now got some decent information to make his decision with even if it means we don't get work from it. I haven't done the full quote but it probably does pay off with a low interest loan but to as quickly as biomass - he's cutting his oil bills by 40% even without the RHI.

Gavin - I'll have you know we had a whole hour of sunshine today! It was a record though lol.

Biomass for the swimming pool is a no-brainer, the (Commercial) RHI he'll get for that will easily pay for it, on top of that he could get paid to heat the homes as well. (Glad we diversified when we did) He should / could also consider solar thermal for the pool.

 

[Worcester]

Its a 6 kWp system limited to 3.68 kW with less than 1% losses due to the differing orientations and 30 degree angle of the roof. The peaks of the two arrays will be early-mid morning and mid afternoon lending itself well to self consumption.

Its difficult to be precise on the expected savings but with annual consumption of 20,000 kWh a good chunk of the PV system will be used on site.

Usually I would expect savings to be in the £150-£200 mark with customers with average size electric bills.

Hi Ian, remember based on the new MCS and Ofgem interpretations even limited to 3.68kW he'll only get the 4-10kWp tarrif (I know it's not a big difference these days)

 

[Ian-LS]

oh yes I know that Worcester. We've been quoting on the 4-10 kW feed in tariff rate with anything over 4 kWp since mid 2012 due to OFGEM. With the small difference in feed in tariff rates it makes sense to go over 4 kWp more

 

[Gavin A]

Hi Ian, remember based on the new MCS and Ofgem interpretations even limited to 3.68kW he'll only get the 4-10kWp tarrif (I know it's not a big difference these days)

for high energy users we tend to work on it becoming economically viable above about 4.5kWp, with 4-4.5kWp being the no go zone, and most being 5kWp for south facing, or 5.5-6.5kWp for east / west, roof space allowing, all within the 16amp AC output limit.

The drop from 21p to 16p FIT for 0-4kWp systems really meant that theses systems became economic from that point onward, which was partly why we gave up on our attempts to get ofgem to see reason on the TIC issue.