New home PV Instal

scotsparky78 · Dec 30, 2011

This is how I hope to configure, please note the relay in pic is 7.5amp but i have since upgraded to 40a

EastAnglian · Jan 2, 2012

Subject to all the above the diagram looks sensible. There is a doubt in my mind though about the cost-effectiveness of doing this, and also the whole-life carbon footprint of the scheme. The batteries are not cheap, a they have a finite life of 5 years or so. It seems a lot of money to spend out and a lot of parts to manufacture and waste to recycle eventually. Even if you have them on all day every day 200W of lighting isn't going to cost you a fortune!

I can see the interesting challenge from an engineering perspective or if you live in an area with an unreliable supply, but do the whole-life costings in both £££ and CO2 actually work out?

scotsparky78 · Jan 3, 2012

you know i started throwing figures about the other day there and came to the same conclusion as you, "not worth it"!! I have not purchased the panels yet and I think I may just put this whole thing to bed now. I did get a good buzz out of the theory side. I am now looking into a real PV system as I think I tick all the boxes with being fully south facing and bo shading at all, will try and check out a PV calculator to see again if its actually worth it and payback.

Cheers for your input much appreciated. Might even do the PV course and install / certify myself!!

Earthstore · Jan 3, 2012

I have been following this thread and I did wonder why you were contemplating all of this instead of just having a mains connected PV system and receiving FIT payments.

At the time of writing this no-one knows what the FIT rate is, so to check out a PV calculator is pointless,of course that may all change tomorrow.(we hope)
Many on here will probably advise you to be ready to install as soon as we all know what the FIT rate is, you may well end up quids in.
My advice would be get a couple of experts round and get a couple of quotes, there are plenty of us on here.
I hope this helps.

EastAnglian · Jan 3, 2012

The intellectual challenge of thinking the idea through will not be wasted :dizzy2:

I'm in a similar position - I'm currently having building work done at home, a by-product of which will be an ideally situated south-facing roof. Having had my hopes dashed of a profitable PV install by the debacle of the illegal "review" I now find myself wondering if I can squeeze something if the news comes down in our favour!