Rent a roof boys are still out there but the lies got bigger

[solarfred]

Had an automated sales call which unusually for me I held onto rather then telling them to F off as it was all about me saving electricity with "Free Solar Panels on my roof". Considering what is going on I had to find out how they were playing this now. All quotes are highlighted.
I had the follow up call today which basically told me "this is the Energy Commission on behalf of the government scheme"
So you are the Energy Commission? "Yes we trade under the name Energy Saving Solutions"
OK and I can have free solar panels on my roof?
"ah.... the free bit is not actually correct!"
"there is no upfront cost" So how does that work then?
"Ah but there is a loan involved which is repaid from the FIT payments". Customer get's the FIT.
The problem of repaying the loan from the new 1p FIT rate was no barrier as " we got that covered - we can install batteries which mean you can put the solar into the batteries all day and then use the free power all day and night"
"Savings of 95% of your electricity bill"
I said I was concerned if I move house "not a problem as the solar adds 6% - 8% to the value of your house". "there are 2 options. You can sell the house and leave the panels behind or we can reinstall the panels on your new house" eh? I thought MCS installation had to be new kit? " No no we can simply remove them and put on your new house no problem" "it's all guaranteed for 20 years".............
So there you are even though the FIT may be tiny I can have batteries which will cover all my energy needs (aren't they clever).
I then get put onto Paul "who would run through everything and arrange a survey and check that everything I had been told was accurate".
I didn't bother with Paul.

Add "Our Planet" to the list of companies they purport to be operating under.

 

[jason121]

Am I correct in thinking the most you can store in a 4kw battery installation is around 2200kwh with our climate ??

 

[solarfred]

The maximum you can store is dependent on the amount of battery capacity you have available. However if you mean the amount of power available from a 4kw PV array on a daily basis then it all depends on how much you use and how much you might otherwise export. A 4kw Array will give you between 0 and 5kWh each day (in winter) so that will not cover the daily loads but a battery spreads the time you have available to use that power if you are not at home all day. The whole point of home energy storage is not to export anything so the system needs to achieve that simple goal and make some financial sense.
Your figure of 2200kWh is about 50% of the average annual household usage so you don't need to store all that at any one time. What you want is enough to carry you through the darkest days but by balancing capacity and grid off peak you can get the balance close to ideal cost/benefit. Of course if you could start small and add battery capacity as you go it would be a much better option but you can't do that with Lithium or Sealed Lead Acid.

 

[Worcester]

Spent a couple of hours with SolaX last week re battery storage.

Solar King and A Shade Greener are allegedly both installing in excess of 300 units per month each.

The LG battery system will actually be rebranded as a Solar King product...

The other large installer that they have a direct supply arrangement with covers the South Coast / Below M4, can't remember the name, II know they have a "reputation" though...

Our Planet was one of those mentioned....

Their distribution partners are / will be Segen, Solfex, and PVKits

The base LG battery unit is a 6.4kWh unit with a claimed 90% DoD figure incremental in 3.2kWh units up to 12.8kWh

Max power out of the SolaX units is 2kW. (can also be configured as an Emergency Power Supply NOT UPS / no auto changeover)

 

[Gavin A]

Max power out of the SolaX units is 2kW. (can also be configured as an Emergency Power Supply NOT UPS / no auto changeover)

so it can work as a stand alone off grid unit, but only with manual changeover?

That suddenly makes it a more interesting option if that's right, and not just marketing bull. Last time I spoke with a Solax rep they didn't think it had that capability at all, but that was a few months back.

 

[Worcester]

It has, however it's not their 'preferred' configuration, they call it an 'Emergency Power Supply' - EPS as opposed to UPS..

There were some guys that work mainly by selling solution to those that are affected by power outages from floods (not the flooded building, but because the substations go out and cut out loads of homes e.g Grandma's Iron lung... and because it wasn't an automatic changeover it wasn't suitable for them.

 

[Gavin A]

well, I can't make the economics stack up for batteries just for self consumption alone in all but a small handfull of cases, not when using sunny design to estimate the self consumption levels rather than plucking a figure of 80% self consumption from thin air for all battery systems as others seem to be doing.

So batteries as part of a back up solution remains where I think the real market is without the need to miss sell the system.