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Solar Panels + Electric Car

Making your money go further
Mike4
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Re: Solar Panels + Electric Car

#362879

Postby Mike4 » December 4th, 2020, 11:44 am

swill453 wrote:
neversay wrote:I have just taken a two-year lease on an EV through my company, partly as my old PHEV is likely to devalue quickly

If you already own the PHEV, why would it devalue quickly, and why would its devaluation worry you? Have you really done the sums to show that replacing it was the best financial option?

Or did you just want a new car? :-)

Scott.


Careful, or we'll swerve off into a discussion about whether keeping a car for 15 years then scrapping it is cheaper than replacing it with new every three years.

Or perhaps we already know the answer to that... :)

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Re: Solar Panels + Electric Car

#362916

Postby funduffer » December 4th, 2020, 1:31 pm

PhaseThree wrote:My recommendation would be to stick some numbers into a spreadsheet.
As you have noted solar panels don't provide enough output in the winter to charge the car.
This means you need some form of off peak electricity tariff.
If you have an off peak electricity tariff then the payback time for solar panels exceeds their expected lifetime. Particularly if you move big power users to the off peak hours (washing machines, tumble dryers etc.).
In which case solar panels become some form of "eco bling".

So work out how much power you could move onto an off-peak tariff, work out how much usage cant be moved. Work out how much occurs in the winter and how much in the summer. Then work out how many years it would take for the solar installation to pay back it's installation cost.
Anything over 15-20 years is a fail. (Remember this is the "living below your means" board not the "save the planet" board).

I live in a Passivhaus spec house and don't have solar PV because it's not currently cost effective for me for the reasons above.

Note :- Installing anything over 3.68kW requires agreement and survey from your DNO and additional paperwork/cost.


Thanks for this.

I have my own spreadsheet and a business case provided by my solar panel supplier.

The business case from my supplier shows a payback period for the solar panels of 8 years assuming 60% is used at home and 40% exported. The 60% is higher than without an EV (dropping to about 35%), so this gives me an idea of how many free miles I will get each year. I.e. he thinks I will use 25% of the power generated for the EV. This gives 3475kWh x 25% = 868kWh or nearly 3500miles at 4miles / kWh

My own spreadsheet looks at the monthly generation against my normal electricity usage (which is roughly constant through the year). This shows me the maximum I have available each month for EV charging. The result is that between April and September, I have excess power equivalent to around 4000 miles (at 4miles / kWh). May-Aug are the best months of course.

Now clearly, I won't be able to use all the excess power for the EV, as I will be using it some of the time. So the rest of the time, I would use the off-peak tariff for charging the EV.

I have the ability to run high usage devices overnight - the dishwasher, tumble drier and washing machine. With these not running, my instantaneous usage, according to the smart meter, is only about 1 to 2 kW, except when the kettle is on. This is why I need a charger that can detect excess solar panel power.

On the inverter, it rated at 3.6kW, just below the 3.68kW limit for G98, as you point out.

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Re: Solar Panels + Electric Car

#362925

Postby funduffer » December 4th, 2020, 1:48 pm

neversay wrote:I have just taken a two-year lease on an EV through my company, partly as my old PHEV is likely to devalue quickly and I've no clue what to buy outright as the technology is dating so quickly. Normally I would never lease or get a new car but the BIK combined with not owning a car actually suits our needs right now.

What I didn't allow for was the Zappi 2 charger still costing £750 to fit, even after the government voucher. We can afford it but it's a lot of EV miles to achieve payback and we're not heavy car users.

The Zappi 2 was recommended as it works with flexible tariffs (like Octopus Go and Agile) as well as solar which I'm considering for our forthcoming extension. In the past when I crunched the numbers it didn't stack up in terms of payback time.

On LBYM terms though I agree with PhaseThree - the EV and the solar feel like 'eco-bling' (I like that phrase). We're not particularly saving the environment and the costs are high.

Again, all the technology on EV, solar and batteries, along with government incentives, are all in flux. By renting the EV I'm getting off the ladder for a short while.


I agree, new car prices are high and the technology is developing quickly. I have considered buying the EV outright, but I think leasing is probably a better option, so that I could hand it back after 3 or 4 years and get something newer and probably with better technology, and maybe with better incentives. Leasing an EV, like the VW ID3, Nissan Leak or KIa Niro should be possible for less than £400 pm.

Thanks for your comment.

FD

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Re: Solar Panels + Electric Car

#362935

Postby neversay » December 4th, 2020, 2:14 pm

funduffer wrote:
neversay wrote:I have just taken a two-year lease on an EV through my company, partly as my old PHEV is likely to devalue quickly and I've no clue what to buy outright as the technology is dating so quickly. Normally I would never lease or get a new car but the BIK combined with not owning a car actually suits our needs right now.

What I didn't allow for was the Zappi 2 charger still costing £750 to fit, even after the government voucher. We can afford it but it's a lot of EV miles to achieve payback and we're not heavy car users.

The Zappi 2 was recommended as it works with flexible tariffs (like Octopus Go and Agile) as well as solar which I'm considering for our forthcoming extension. In the past when I crunched the numbers it didn't stack up in terms of payback time.

On LBYM terms though I agree with PhaseThree - the EV and the solar feel like 'eco-bling' (I like that phrase). We're not particularly saving the environment and the costs are high.

Again, all the technology on EV, solar and batteries, along with government incentives, are all in flux. By renting the EV I'm getting off the ladder for a short while.


I agree, new car prices are high and the technology is developing quickly. I have considered buying the EV outright, but I think leasing is probably a better option, so that I could hand it back after 3 or 4 years and get something newer and probably with better technology, and maybe with better incentives. Leasing an EV, like the VW ID3, Nissan Leak or KIa Niro should be possible for less than £400 pm.

Thanks for your comment.

FD


FWIW this is the lease I went for https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/hyunda ... ns-3563825 on an Ioniq (one step up on the granny car front). The e-Niro was my next option but I couldn't justify the price difference for our low mileage and usage profile, partly maintaining my LBYM credentials ;) . The thread there is useful as there's a discussion of tariffs, chargers and cost-benefits.

Next year will be a mess with building work and I don't want to have to think about cars for a couple of years. I'll gamble the proceeds of selling my old car on the stock market and see how the EV market (and world) looks in late 2022.

N.

PS one final thought is that, after having the PHEV electric, there's no way I can go back to an Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) (not In Car Entertainment system :D ).

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Re: Solar Panels + Electric Car

#363028

Postby anon155742 » December 4th, 2020, 9:06 pm

Why does everyone export their electricity back to the grid!? That is madness!

https://solarimmersion.co.uk/

With something like that you can divert it to something (immersion heater, electric heater etc) and still get paid for your production (if your on the old tariff, not sure if the same on the new ones)

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Re: Solar Panels + Electric Car

#363106

Postby dspp » December 5th, 2020, 11:06 am

anon155742 wrote:Why does everyone export their electricity back to the grid!? That is madness!

https://solarimmersion.co.uk/

With something like that you can divert it to something (immersion heater, electric heater etc) and still get paid for your production (if your on the old tariff, not sure if the same on the new ones)


Even with a hot water scavenger most of the excess goes to the grid, unless you have any/enough battery storage. For my ~4kW system it is a struggle to scavenge ~400kWh to hot water in a year, whilst producing ~3,000kWh per year, of which about ~2,000 gets exported (i.e. spilt) to grid. If a household is retired and can do more load-matching to solar availability that can be improved, but for ~3-4 working adults that is not possible without storage.

Other brands are available. Personally I use the Marlec iBoost.

regards, dspp

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Re: Solar Panels + Electric Car

#363387

Postby funduffer » December 6th, 2020, 9:01 am

dspp wrote:
anon155742 wrote:Why does everyone export their electricity back to the grid!? That is madness!

https://solarimmersion.co.uk/

With something like that you can divert it to something (immersion heater, electric heater etc) and still get paid for your production (if your on the old tariff, not sure if the same on the new ones)


Even with a hot water scavenger most of the excess goes to the grid, unless you have any/enough battery storage. For my ~4kW system it is a struggle to scavenge ~400kWh to hot water in a year, whilst producing ~3,000kWh per year, of which about ~2,000 gets exported (i.e. spilt) to grid. If a household is retired and can do more load-matching to solar availability that can be improved, but for ~3-4 working adults that is not possible without storage.

Other brands are available. Personally I use the Marlec iBoost.

regards, dspp


I have no immersion heater (combi boiler), and when my high energy appliances (dishwasher, washer, tumble drier, kettle, oven) are switched off my background usage is very low. Thus, to me. the way to minimise how much is exported, you either need a battery, or an EV. Even then, you are bound to export some power. With an EV, I expect to export around 40% of the power produced.

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Re: Solar Panels + Electric Car

#363405

Postby PrefInvestor » December 6th, 2020, 9:51 am

MaraMan wrote:Don't want to hijack this thread but we are considering having solar panels fitted. The local council has teamed up with an installer and provides good value, allegedly. Their estimates say it should provide about 50% of our electricity needs, for a cost of around £5,000 for 20 panels.
I can't make up my mind whether this is a good idea or not and wonder if any other more learned lemons have a view?
Thanks
MM


Hi Maraman, There is much to consider in respect of solar panels:-

1. Solar Panels (make, efficiency, long term performance degradation, warranty, appearance)
2. Inverter (make, avoidance of single panel failure/shading problems, maximum output, remote monitoring features, warranty)
3. Installation (inverter location, wiring, future enhancements, installer experience and references)
4. Future Plans (EV, solar water heating)
5. Financials (payback time, export payments, does it make sense ?).

I went solar in January 2019 to beat the March 2019 deadline to get into the FIT scheme. Those who bought many years ago will have paid more up front but be coining it in the FIT scheme now. My 3 quotes all predicted an 8-9 year payback time, which has proven to be wildly optimistic – I reckon it’s more like 17 years right now based on my real life figures. But we like the lower bills and being a bit green so on balance we have not been unhappy with the move.

The prices you quoted are much less than I paid, doubtless due to your co-operative deal. But then I bought the very best equipment available at the time – Sunpower 335w panels (for their performance, warranty and appearance – I HATE those silver lines) and a SolarEdge inverter all covered by 20 years warranty.

IMHO with the removal of the FIT scheme financially solar in the UK makes little sense anymore from a purely financial perspective. Yes you can get some payments for your export from someone like Octopus, but your payback time is still going to be very long. That move (cancelling the FIT scheme) dealt a huge blow to domestic solar in the UK IMV.

I looked closely at batteries before I had my installation done and decided not to proceed with that and my view on that hasnt changed - yet. My house typically only uses 2-3 units overnight (about £150 a year) so even £3,000 spent on a battery installation would have a 20 year plus payback time for me. And TBH if I was going to get one I wouldn’t buy a cheap one. Batteries aren’t guaranteed to last forever more than about 5-10 years either, and when it goes wrong you get to shell out for another one !. No, I am waiting for technology to improve and the price to come down and ideally I’d like my battery to be in an electric vehicle not some new bulky box inside my house – that tech is coming, saw it on BBC Click just the other day.

So in summary I would say. Getting solar panels is good, but don’t do it purely thinking it will save you money because it almost certainly won’t. Yes you’ll have lower bills but your payback time will be significant. In exchange you will get to feel a bit "green" and have some future options. Personally I would forget battery storage right now, certainly not cost effective (for me anyway) and I’m sure that the tech and prices will improve significantly in the years to come on the back of EVs. Rarely pays to be an early adopter !.

ATB

Pref

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Re: Solar Panels + Electric Car

#363480

Postby neversay » December 6th, 2020, 1:58 pm

Absolutely brilliant post @Pref. I'll design our extension with future solar/battery etc in mind but scratch it off the purchase list for now.

ReallyVeryFoolish wrote:Thanks, I think Pref nails it there. The last quotation I got last year for a solar PV system and an optional battery storage were at least 2x that quoted here. Instead, I ring fenced the money in National Grid shares and think of the dividends as being a proxy for free energy. And I still have the capital available subject to share price movement. With the solar PV and battery array purchase, the money was gone and I didn't feel the decision was right. I still have the money, NG pay my energy bills for me and I still have the option of buying into solar in the future if it feels right. Naturally, others mileage will vary.

RVF


Great post too @RVF. Your National Grid hedging strategy. is interesting Is there are a consistent correlation between NG share price and energy prices? Why NG over other investment options?

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Re: Solar Panels + Electric Car

#363481

Postby MaraMan » December 6th, 2020, 2:07 pm

PrefInvestor wrote:
MaraMan wrote:Don't want to hijack this thread but we are considering having solar panels fitted. The local council has teamed up with an installer and provides good value, allegedly. Their estimates say it should provide about 50% of our electricity needs, for a cost of around £5,000 for 20 panels.
I can't make up my mind whether this is a good idea or not and wonder if any other more learned lemons have a view?
Thanks
MM


Hi Maraman, There is much to consider in respect of solar panels:-

1. Solar Panels (make, efficiency, long term performance degradation, warranty, appearance)
2. Inverter (make, avoidance of single panel failure/shading problems, maximum output, remote monitoring features, warranty)
3. Installation (inverter location, wiring, future enhancements, installer experience and references)
4. Future Plans (EV, solar water heating)
5. Financials (payback time, export payments, does it make sense ?).

I went solar in January 2019 to beat the March 2019 deadline to get into the FIT scheme. Those who bought many years ago will have paid more up front but be coining it in the FIT scheme now. My 3 quotes all predicted an 8-9 year payback time, which has proven to be wildly optimistic – I reckon it’s more like 17 years right now based on my real life figures. But we like the lower bills and being a bit green so on balance we have not been unhappy with the move.

The prices you quoted are much less than I paid, doubtless due to your co-operative deal. But then I bought the very best equipment available at the time – Sunpower 335w panels (for their performance, warranty and appearance – I HATE those silver lines) and a SolarEdge inverter all covered by 20 years warranty.

IMHO with the removal of the FIT scheme financially solar in the UK makes little sense anymore from a purely financial perspective. Yes you can get some payments for your export from someone like Octopus, but your payback time is still going to be very long. That move (cancelling the FIT scheme) dealt a huge blow to domestic solar in the UK IMV.

I looked closely at batteries before I had my installation done and decided not to proceed with that and my view on that hasnt changed - yet. My house typically only uses 2-3 units overnight (about £150 a year) so even £3,000 spent on a battery installation would have a 20 year plus payback time for me. And TBH if I was going to get one I wouldn’t buy a cheap one. Batteries aren’t guaranteed to last forever more than about 5-10 years either, and when it goes wrong you get to shell out for another one !. No, I am waiting for technology to improve and the price to come down and ideally I’d like my battery to be in an electric vehicle not some new bulky box inside my house – that tech is coming, saw it on BBC Click just the other day.

So in summary I would say. Getting solar panels is good, but don’t do it purely thinking it will save you money because it almost certainly won’t. Yes you’ll have lower bills but your payback time will be significant. In exchange you will get to feel a bit "green" and have some future options. Personally I would forget battery storage right now, certainly not cost effective (for me anyway) and I’m sure that the tech and prices will improve significantly in the years to come on the back of EVs. Rarely pays to be an early adopter !.

ATB

Pref


Many thanks for this Pref. Very interesting and helpful. I will look into the equipment being offered as someone else mentioned that quality tends to vary.

MM

PS - the solar cells are Trina 325W All Black split cell mono's (whatever that means). The inverters andf batteries are made by Growatt. All have 10 year warranties. I will look into these. Thanks again.
Last edited by MaraMan on December 6th, 2020, 2:13 pm, edited 2 times in total.

MaraMan
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Re: Solar Panels + Electric Car

#363482

Postby MaraMan » December 6th, 2020, 2:09 pm

neversay wrote:Absolutely brilliant post @Pref. I'll design our extension with future solar/battery etc in mind but scratch it off the purchase list for now.

ReallyVeryFoolish wrote:Thanks, I think Pref nails it there. The last quotation I got last year for a solar PV system and an optional battery storage were at least 2x that quoted here. Instead, I ring fenced the money in National Grid shares and think of the dividends as being a proxy for free energy. And I still have the capital available subject to share price movement. With the solar PV and battery array purchase, the money was gone and I didn't feel the decision was right. I still have the money, NG pay my energy bills for me and I still have the option of buying into solar in the future if it feels right. Naturally, others mileage will vary.

RVF


Great post too @RVF. Your National Grid hedging strategy. is interesting Is there are a consistent correlation between NG share price and energy prices? Why NG over other investment options?


Thanks RVF, I have had some NG shares for a while now and it's a great idea to use them as a proxy for free energy. I tend to agree that maybe it's not yet quite the time to getting into Solar, especially as I doubt we will be in this house for more than another 5 years and I am unsure as to whether it adds any value in that regard.

MM

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Re: Solar Panels + Electric Car

#363491

Postby dspp » December 6th, 2020, 2:51 pm

PrefInvestor wrote:
MaraMan wrote:Don't want to hijack this thread but we are considering having solar panels fitted. The local council has teamed up with an installer and provides good value, allegedly. Their estimates say it should provide about 50% of our electricity needs, for a cost of around £5,000 for 20 panels.
I can't make up my mind whether this is a good idea or not and wonder if any other more learned lemons have a view?
Thanks
MM


Hi Maraman, There is much to consider in respect of solar....... But then I bought the very best equipment available at the time – Sunpower 335w panels (for their performance, warranty and appearance – I HATE those silver lines) and a SolarEdge inverter all covered by 20 years warranty. .....

I looked closely at batteries before I had my installation done and decided not to proceed with that and my view on that hasnt changed - yet. My house typically only uses 2-3 units overnight (about £150 a year) so even £3,000 spent on a battery installation would have a 20 year plus payback time for me. And TBH if I was going to get one I wouldn’t buy a cheap one. Batteries aren’t guaranteed to last forever more than about 5-10 years either, and when it goes wrong you get to shell out for another one !. No, I am waiting for technology to improve and the price to come down and ideally I’d like my battery to be in an electric vehicle not some new bulky box inside my house – that tech is coming, saw it on BBC Click just the other day.....

Pref


I will put a vote in for the Sunpower panels ('modules') which are absolutely fantastic efficiency teamed with SolarEdge inverters and DCDC optimisers, again best in world imho
https://us.sunpower.com/solar-panels-te ... lar-panels
https://www.solaredge.com/uk/homeowners

Personally I went with the 'black-on-black' modules. They are a smidge less efficient than the black-on-white, but both are rear contact so no silver lines. I am in a conservation area so I went the extra mile.

When imgur starts behaving I'll post up some of the screenshots from my SolarEdge monitoring system as that will give you an insight into why I chose that.

I cannot get the economics to support a battery buying decision at the moment in a residential context in UK.

regards, dspp

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Re: Solar Panels + Electric Car

#363498

Postby neversay » December 6th, 2020, 3:23 pm

ReallyVeryFoolish wrote:Nothing very exciting, I am afraid. I just thought it was cool that NG were paying my energy bills for me. They have kept paying through the crisis and whilst not very exciting, they should keep paying and my pot of money is still likely to be there should I decide to invest in renewable energy at home. I can't see it happening now.

In my mid 60's, I am not interested in anything with more than say a 5 year payback or needs any maintenance. I am doing everything I can to reduce ongoing maintenance at home, not increase it.

RVF


Ah, thanks. I like the idea of parking my 'eco-bling' fund in an energy-related investment pot.

I'm late 40s and share your enthusiasm for reducing maintenance. Yesterday I was talking with someone who was planning to buy a farm when he retired (albeit a very early retirement). I can understand the attraction, but I'm taking the simple and minimalist route.

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Re: Solar Panels + Electric Car

#366106

Postby dspp » December 14th, 2020, 3:04 pm

I said I would put up some images of the built-in monitoring from my SolarEdge system whem I got imgur working, so here you are.

Regards, dspp


Image

Image

Image

This one means I can monitor the performance of individual solar modules for any faults that would be latent if I did not have a SolarEdge system (or equivalent, and there aren't many that are equivalent). In 5-years of production I have so far had only one on-module DCDC converter fail, and that was auto-diagnosed and alerted to me by the built-in error checking, and replaced within a few weeks. I only put the export meter in about 5-months ago as you can see. The panels have not had a single wash from me in the 5-years, and performance looks as good as new.
Image

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Re: Solar Panels + Electric Car

#372259

Postby funduffer » January 2nd, 2021, 8:16 am

dspp - thanks for posting your data, very interesting.

Anyway, Part 1 of my plan is complete - new roof and solar panels both installed. Power now being generated, more or less in line with what was predicted. It is mid-winter however, so not much is being generated. I have not set up a SEG yet, as I am still awaiting a DNO authorisation.

Part 2 of the plan is the EV. Further reading has revealed a couple of things I didn't know before:

Firstly, the Zappi charger will not divert power to charge an EV unless there is a least 1.4kW available. For my installation (4.225kWp), this means there is no way to generate any useful solar power to the EV during winter. So an EV electricity tariff which allows cheap charging at night will be essential.

Secondly, if we take Octopus Energy's tariffs as an example, I would receive 5.5p / kWh exported using their SEG, and be charged 5p / kWh to buy back electricity for 4 hours each night with their EV tariff. This means I can essentially use the national grid as a store for my excess solar power, and buy it back with 0.5p /kWh profit each night.

So crudely, that is 4 hours x 7kWh = 28kWh each night, or about 112 miles per night in EV range (at 4m/kWh), or over 40,000 miles per year.

I estimate I would export about 60% of my solar power, or about 5.7kWh per day on average, which is equivalent to about 23 miles per day of EV range, or about 8,400 miles per year.

I will certainly do less than 10,000 miles per year (more like 8000), so in principle, if I only charged the EV at night, I could get over 8000 miles per night at a cost to me of -0.5p per unit, or about -£10 per year (i.e. paid back to me!)

Obviously, in the real world, I will occasionally do long journeys taht will require in transit charging, or daytime charging at home, but with a 250mile range EV those will be rare events for me. Most of my journeys are easily within a 200 mile daily round trip.

It seems I will be able to charge my EV almost for free, discounting the cost of the solar installation.

What could possibly go wrong?

FD

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Re: Solar Panels + Electric Car

#372275

Postby GrahamPlatt » January 2nd, 2021, 9:43 am

That’s all fine, but if you weren’t charging your car, the money from your export would be in the bank no? So it is costing you the full amount to charge you car.

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Re: Solar Panels + Electric Car

#372331

Postby funduffer » January 2nd, 2021, 12:16 pm

GrahamPlatt wrote:That’s all fine, but if you weren’t charging your car, the money from your export would be in the bank no? So it is costing you the full amount to charge you car.


I think I get what you are saying. Put another way:

If I exported all my surplus PV power, I would receive 5.7 x 365 x 5.5p =£114 per year to put in the bank.

If I charge the car each night to achieve 8000 miles per year I want to drive, I will use 8000/4 = 2000 kWh and it would cost me 2000 x 5p = £100 per year.

So the business case for the solar panels gets worse by £100 per year, but the business case for the EV gets better by £100 per year! (I think!)

Seems like the best way to go however. I can’t think of a better way to do utilise the solar panels and charge the EV.

FD

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Re: Solar Panels + Electric Car

#444570

Postby funduffer » September 22nd, 2021, 9:49 pm

A quick update:

I purchased solar panels in December 2020. 13 panels, 4.225kWp in total. Experience over the first 8 months of 2021 suggest I will generate nearly 4000kWh of power per year. I use about 3000kWh in the home each year, leaving 1000kWh that could not be used without a battery or an EV. Without an EV I have been exporting roughly 70% of the power generated.

I have signed up to OVO’s SEG which pays 4p per kWh for exported power. I have also recently signed up to Octopus Energy’s Go tariff which offers 4 hours of overnight charging at 5p per kWh, with the cost during the other 20 hours being 15.18p per kWh.

I ordered a new Kia E-Niro in April, but it was not delivered until 2 weeks ago. It has a nominal 282mile range. I have had a 7.2 KW Zappi charger fitted at home which allows you to soak up excess solar power into the EV. I have only done a couple of hundred miles so far, but I have learned the following so far:

1. The Zappi is very effective on sunny days at soaking up excess solar power into the EV in Eco+ mode. During this dry sunny spell in September I have added between 10 and 20 miles of range each day by this method alone. On the wet, dull days, I cannot charge the EV this way. I have taken advantage of a couple of free public chargers whilst out and about, but I have not yet embarked on a long journey - the first planned in a week’s time. I have not paid for a single mile of travel so far!

2. Even with daytime charging, I will still export a good proportion of the solar power and receive 4p per kWh with OVO’s SEG. However, with the Go tariff, I can import power at 5p per unit so charging the car at night will cost me a nett 1p a kWh, or about 0.25p per mile, at least until I have covered the output of the solar panels. I.e. about 1000 kWh or 4000 miles per year. After that it will be 5p per kWh, or about 1.25p per mile. If I charge during the day when the sun isn’t shining it will be 15.18 per kWh, or about 4p per mile.

3. Charging for 4 hours per night at 7.2kW adds about 110miles of range, which will mean in the winter when solar power is low, I will use this as the main method of charging. I only expect to charge once or twice a week for local driving, which is most of the time.

4. On long journeys I will have to use public chargers which vary from free up to 40p per kWh, or up to about 10p per mile. I do not do many of these per year, but these will be the most expensive miles I do! I have little experience of public chargers, but my main worry is their unreliability, but I will soon find out how good or bad this infrastructure really is.

Overall I am happy with the choices I have made so far. EV’s are expensive cars, but can be incredibly cheap to run. I intend to keep this car for at least 5 years, but whether it turns out to be cheaper than a conventional petrol/diesel remains to be seen. I suspect it depends very much on the residual value of the car in 5 year’s time. On the one hand the e-Niro may be old EV technology in 5 years, but also petrol/ diesel alternatives may also be becoming obsolete as the switchover the electric accelerates.

Hope you find this of some interest.

FD

Itsallaguess
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Re: Solar Panels + Electric Car

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Postby Itsallaguess » September 23rd, 2021, 6:22 am

funduffer wrote:
I have not paid for a single mile of travel so far


A very interesting post fd, and a great position to get yourself in regarding low-cost and low-pollution travel, but unless your solar panels were free, isn't the above statement ignoring the initial cost of the panel installation?

How much did it cost, out of interest?

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

funduffer
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Re: Solar Panels + Electric Car

#444603

Postby funduffer » September 23rd, 2021, 6:28 am

Itsallaguess wrote:
funduffer wrote:
I have not paid for a single mile of travel so far


A very interesting post fd, and a great position to get yourself in regarding low-cost and low-pollution travel, but unless your solar panels were free, isn't the above statement ignoring the initial cost of the panel installation?

How much did it cost, out of interest?

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

You are right of course, the solar panels were not free. They cost just £4K, which I think is a bargain, and shows how cheap solar is these days. I should recoup the cost in less than 10 years just based on home usage, I.e. ignoring the electric car usage.

Overall, the solar cost £4K, the charger £750 and the car £32k.

FD


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