Any battery storage system worth having ?

[Deleted account]

We looked at solar as our site has a lot of open ground doing not much, but at this sort of latitude it won't even pay for itself over 20 years, so really not worth while.

One of the guys we work with was keen, and thinking it might do as backup power instead of our plane for a generator, but when we are mote likely to need it in winter we will get sod-all solar power compared to our average load of around 2.2kW (e.g. at worst on Dec 22nd we get a mean of 0.3kWh per kW of panel. so would need at least 176kW of panels to break even during that period.

So it might help a bit, but without a generous FIT it is simply not worth it over other options to invest similar sums in either backup generation or other money-making ventures.

Interesting calcs.

with the increases in energy prices these repayment timescales are going to geatly reduce.

 

[Deleted account]

But surely you won't need all that extra heat during the summer?

True.

it’s a bit in the paper calc stage at moment. As I said earlier storing heat in water would be better, but cost implications….

gravity fed hot water system, cylinder can do myself but materials all adds up price wise.

 

[DPG]

True.

it’s a bit in the paper calc stage at moment. As I said earlier storing heat in water would be better, but cost implications….

gravity fed hot water system, cylinder can do myself but materials all adds up price wise.

I'll be interested in seeing what you come up with. As will many I expect!

 

[pc1966]

Interesting calcs.

with the increases in energy prices these repayment timescales are going to geatly reduce.

Not 100% sure they are right, the mean daily solar power might be kWh per m^2 of land. The figures I was using for our site were from this web site:

Errol Climate, Weather By Month, Average Temperature (United Kingdom) - Weather Spark

In Errol, the summers are cool and partly cloudy and the winters are long, very cold, windy, and mostly cloudy. Over the course of the year, the temperature typically varies from 33°F to 66°F and is rarely below 24°F or above 73°F.

weatherspark.com

The "beach / pool" graph is predictably miserable!

Further down you see the solar energy data.

With our average of 2.2kW that is 52.8kWh per day, so if you only have an average of under an hours of "full sunshine" in a day you are going to need quite an array of panels (and matching battery!) to cover it. The solar you get obviously depends on the length of the day (around 7 hours mid-winter), the resulting low elevation of the sun (not much more than 10 deg max, mid-winter for us), and the typical cloud cover (70% overcast or mostly cloudy here mid-winter).

 

[pc1966]

However, if we try typical on-line solar calculators they come to the same economic conclusion, that it won't pay for itself these days.

Of course if you are off-grid or powering a much smaller load then PV and/or wind is useful, a lot of automated remote weather stations use that sort of combination at higher latitudes where solar alone is challenging mid-winter.

 

[pc1966]

As you say, increasing wholesale electricity costs will make PV more attractive, but for the immediate future they are not worth it for us, though for those in the south of England they calculations could well be very different.

 

[Deleted account]

Not 100% sure they are right, the mean daily solar power might be kWh per m^2 of land. The figures I was using for our site were from this web site:

Errol Climate, Weather By Month, Average Temperature (United Kingdom) - Weather Spark

In Errol, the summers are cool and partly cloudy and the winters are long, very cold, windy, and mostly cloudy. Over the course of the year, the temperature typically varies from 33°F to 66°F and is rarely below 24°F or above 73°F.

weatherspark.com

The "beach / pool" graph is predictably miserable!

Further down you see the solar energy data.

With our average of 2.2kW that is 52.8kWh per day, so if you only have an average of under an hours of "full sunshine" in a day you are going to need quite an array of panels (and matching battery!) to cover it. The solar you get obviously depends on the length of the day (around 7 hours mid-winter), the resulting low elevation of the sun (not much more than 10 deg max, mid-winter for us), and the typical cloud cover (70% overcast or mostly cloudy here mid-winter).

The figures in this report are taken from results gathered in 3 sites in Scotland. My location is south west so will be considerably different, however it gives a fantastic amount of insite to the variations through the year.

Scotland is probably the best, worst case scenario to base uk figures on so I I do use these figures I can’t go wrong.