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Hi everyone, I'm trying to put together a case for social landlords in the UK to part-fund solar for flats. My initial idea is to see if an off-grid system could save 100w for 10 hrs a day using a single panel and an inverter battery. Key to this is finding out how much power panels produce here and specifically in London. PVwatts provides an estimate but real examples would help. It may be that this is not done for good reason and that it will need to be wired-in to be worthwhile. I am running my own test too.
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Hi mij8672,
Welcome to Solar Panel Talk, a solar guy from Australia here mate.
It's typically been tough to get solar onto flats or units/ townhouses for a bunch of reasons, who owns the roof, the shape/type and size and direction of the available area is often just to hard to deal with, put on top of that the way these buildings are wired and the local power company rules and this often makes it too hard.
That said we have done this type of work in Australia when it does pan out, some building are effectively electrically set up in a way with individual power meters and suitable roof and all is well.
The online tools for giving you an idea of expected solar generation in your area are pretty good, PV watts estimates are fine for planning that's what everyone else uses,
keep reading and learning and good luck with it, cheers -
It's probably not that a system as you describe can't be designed to produce an average of 1kWh/day or 365 kWh over any consecutive 365 day period (which is the kind of information PVWatts will give you).
Of course it can.
However, the situation you're facing and the question that must be answered or at least guessed at is whether or not it can be done in a safe, practical and reasonably cost-effective fashion.
My guess is that, for several reasons Solar Pete mentioned and several others, what you describe will have a high bar to get over.
I'd be interested in reading more about what type of test(s?) you're running.
Not raining on your parade but maybe playing a bit of the devil's advocate, one thing I suggest folks consider when they think of what I call "You could just do this and it all falls into place" ideas is that if it was practical, it would already be in place.
Welcome to the forum of few(er) illusions.Comment
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Thanks Pete for the PVWatts reassurance and confirmation it has worked in some places.
Thanks to JPM for the steer. The prompt for this pursuit is the popularity of 'balcony' solar in Germany in particular supplied through companies including Ecoflow. Their balcony system is called BKW but I can find no information about that yet. Ecoflow are launching in the UK this month a system called Stream which they market with two panels and recommend is wired into your distribution board by an electrician.
At present I am favouring Ecoflow's River 3 plus battery/inverter with a couple of panels costing under £500 (or £700 with more battery) and getting a 50% subsidy from the local authority. If we achieve a 1 kw per day saving at current cost that will be £75 pa making the smaller system 'profitable' in just over 3 years. This off-grid system is safe I believe but there are practical issues about fixings, wiring, useability still to explore. Does this seem sensible?Comment
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You need to understand more about resource availability (available and utilizable sunshine) and more about practical details of how PV works.
Before you sink any more effort and money into all this, I'd suggest you download and read a free PDF of a tome: "Solar Power Your Home for Dummies".
It's a bit dated but a lot of the information contained in it is relevant to the discipline and stuff you'll need to be familiar with to help make informed choices.
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Thanks JPM, I'll benefit from that I'm sure.
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