Electric combi boilers / solar panels / eco heating solutions

Our install got delayed, due to be installed this week now…

Have you got any info on the extended warranty?

We need a DNO application, so it will be 3 months until we can get ours in.
Haven't decided on which battery system to install yet, the Powerwall 2s are only available approx. April 2023 so would be battery free until then.

https://www.solaredge.com/uk/warranty

301 dollars to extend to 25 years
188 dollars to extend to 20 years

Extending to 20 years seems pretty good value? AFAIK they are the only manufacturer who warranties their inverters that long. Having the whole system - panels, inverter, power optimisers warrantied for 25 years seems pretty good.

Best speak to your installer about getting it extended as apparently it needs to be purchased within 24 hours of inverter shipment.

We have a DNO too, but thankfully they seem to be pretty smooth down here currently.

Thanks for the link, it says 24 months, so hopefully that gives me a bit of time to sort, but makes sense to extend as much as possible, so thank you!

I appear to have misread as 24 hours...
24 months makes a lot more sense!

Here we go:

Solar panels not on yet, because scaffolding company didn’t put quite enough for the panel installers to do their job safely.

Solaredge inverter, Zappi charger and Tesla gateway installed, ready for the panels.

With the Powerwall battery to be installed when available probably March 2023.

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How are you getting on with yours, hopefully its been installed now?

Yep, all installed and going really well, producing lots, but I guess that was always going to be the case in the sunny months...

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Our place is due a full refurb including plumbing and electrics. We're using an architect who's a qualified passivhaus designer, so he's very keen on at least costing some very efficient and future-proofed systems. Interior insulation for external walls (the cavity is very narrow), 300mm of loft insulation and new windows are the no-brainers and then he's suggested an ASHP along with an MVHR to avoid wasting heat. On the ground floor at least it looks like underfloor heating will be the best bet to save wall space (which isn't in massive supply), especially since the floor will be up anyway to insulate that.

Our roof is also bang-on South-facing so PVs seem like a good idea, except for the fact that the roof structure is a bit flimsy (we're getting it re-covered with lighter tiles/slates), so I'm wondering whether solar-thermal collectors feeding into a pressurised cylinder might be a better bet.

Our budget isn't endless and there's a lot to do on the house, so there may be some difficult decisions to make about which of these systems we can afford and which are best VfM.

Solar panels aren't that heavy, and you could have it designed to be integrated into the roof, so don't need a roof covering?
With electricity prices increasing (even with a price cap, though we may be in for a massive shock in 2 years) solar panels makes sense.
You can also get electricity diversion, so it uses surplus solar energy to power a tank immersion heater.
Don't know the energy efficiency comparison between solar-thermal collectors vs similar area of PVs powering an immersion.

A lot of the cost of solar panels is the scaffolding and labour, which would be similar for both types.

Honestly good luck to get claiming warranty on anything with a 25 year one.

Don’t you install gas boilers? Ours had a 10 year warranty as long as we service it.

Love your persistent scepticism at renewables!

I've generally had good experiences with long warranties (25y - lifetime) for a variety of products.

The Solaredge 25y warranty is transferrable to the new owner of the house, so should we sell and move, its a bit more peace of mind for the new owner, and while it might not be a selling point, might sweeten the deal.

One side on!

I’m also using the scaffolding opportunity to clear the gutters, a tricky job on a three storey townhouse.

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Yep but even then the manufacturers have created a something that they will have a get out of jail for already and these are 10 year ones never mind 25 years.

Realistically a boilers life span is 10-12 years, they certainly aint built like the old ones.

Looks like I need the Modbus energy meter to get consumption data on the solaredge ecosystem, which is a pain.
The Tesla powerwall app should do the same sort of thing, but isn't active until the battery part is installed sometime in Spring 2023.

People with solar panels might already know this, but Octopus energy is offering very high purchase rates for exported electricity.
15p/kwh flat rate, or an agile variable rate that ranges from 12p-33p/kwh.

If you had a battery, you could combine that with their intelligent octopus tariff where its 10p/kwh purchase for 6 hours at night, and you could tactically charge your battery to full at night, and discharge it at the peak rate between 4-7pm with some left for night time use.

Are there any MCS certified solar installers on the forum? I'm doing a self-install but Octopus only accept PV setups that have been certified by an MCS person.

Ideally I'd like to do the install myself then hire an MCS certified person for an hour or two to check the setup and certify...

Best solar generation day so far this year.
28kwh generated so far, of which 8kwh went to the EV, 4kwh went into the hot water tank and 8kwh exported to the grid at 15p/kwh.

Makes me feel a bit better about the money we’ve sunk into the solar panel project!

Fucking nesting pigeons...
What a racket.

Fucking nesting pigeons...

What year is it? 2023 - and we still fuck this kind of stuff up systemically.

Would make sense to bird proof solar panels when they are installed. According to the pest control people that I've been ringing, solar panel companies neglect to offer bird proofing as an option, because its fiddly, low margins, and not having to provide some kind of bird proofing guarantee.
As my house is a 3 storey townhouse, that means more scaffolding, or an extremely tall cherry picker. Both of which is £££

Would make sense to bird proof solar panels when they are installed.

Yep, I can't believe the cunts that installed them didn't do it. It's fucking obvious from just looking at existing installs that omitting them is a real problem.

Shame the folks who install this stuff are so basic, really.

An extra £500-1000 for bird proofing messes with the return on investment calculations, I expect.

Going to cost about £1100 to evict pigeons on both sides of my roof, disinfect, and birdproof the panels.
Original install company would insist on full scaffolding and would cost about £2600...

An extra £500-1000 for bird proofing messes with the return on investment calculations, I expect.

Then they need a better fucking product

Thinking about this as an option:

https://solaskirt.co.uk/?gclid=CjwKCAjwx_eiBhBGEiwA15gLN3h4AE-w5zHYOUQFp2-FJ88euUWqAY_LHMd88mC8GW8G0CidXwjCgRoC7FcQAvD_BwE

Looks smarter than just mesh, though airflow looks compromised.
We have had some loft condensation issues after the panels were installed (reduced airflow, shade on roof tiles, remedied with additional lap vents) so not sure if these would make the issue worse, or would actually make it better (less water on tiles, warmer environment under the panels)