Electric combi boilers / solar panels / eco heating solutions

1. Don't worry, you've got plenty of time.
   

Ah - that's good news, takes the pressure off a bit. I hope we can get it done by then but not good to make decisions against a deadline.

Has anyone had a design consulation with a Heat Geek? If so how long did it take?

Had our 'geek' round on the 2nd of August, but I still don't have a design proposal/quote. Followed up on the 3rd September, then 30th October - didn't even get a reply to my email from the 30th. It's almost been four months and their website suggests after three you should have your heat pump fitted. lol.

It wasn't that urgent before, it is more urgent now as we have builders due to start the second week of December.

I've emailed them again today and will chase on the phone if necessary but even if I get the proposal soon I feel like I've now lost faith that they'll actually fit the heat pump within a reasonable timescale.

In what feels rather simplistic for this thread thought I'd recommend this for anyone who has a similar use case.

I work from home with one room used my office they I'm in most of the day. Thought about a smart heating system but it's only really a single room upstairs I need to control (downstairs is ufh on its own system).

I bought this and would recommend. it's very effective. I now have a nice toasty office without having to turn all the upstairs rads on.

https://www.directvacuums.co.uk/russell-hobbs-rhcth2001s-portable-ceramic-electric-fan-heater-black-silver-like-new.html

I don't know anyone who's actually used a Heat Geek certified ASHP installer, their quotes seem mental, but have you tried reaching out to the Heat Geek mothership about this?

No. Not got to that stage.
About 10 days ago bI signed up for the initial assessment and paid the fee, and not had anything arranged yet.

The first installer I was referred to decided he was too busy and I have a second name, but no word.

I also spoke to another company who I found via Heat Geek on the phone the week before last. They were going to get back to me but haven't.

I get the feeling they are all swamped. Busy time of year?

Is that economic though? Presumably you have gas central heating which is cheaper than electricity.
Some cheap TRV’s and you don’t have to turn all the rads on.

Well I had thought of that but thought I'd try emailing them first. Got a reply straight away this time to be fair apologising and saying they'll try to get it to me next week, but as @frank9755 suspects they've been swamped...

A couple of questions for anyone with knowledge of solar setups (for context we're thinking about a 10-panel setup on our SW-facing roof, to be installed during a full-house refurb):

• Is it a no-brainer to get a battery? I'm trying to work out the pros and cons. Storing excess production and running stuff from a battery would obviously reduce kWh used from the grid, but is the extra initial cost, space and general faff worth it? Would a battery pay for itself fairly quickly?

• The panels would be split (6:4) between two adjoining staggered roofs that have the same orientation but slightly different pitches. The initial schematic that has been worked up shows a single inverter for all 10 panels. I've read that the output of the entire array can be choked by a single panel being shaded. Is it a better idea to have a separate inverter for each roof or even for every panel?

Re point 2, a good designer would probably have factored in “solar edge” panels, which don’t get throttled by the lowest power panel. Usually installed or recommending there’s risk of shading (eg tree, neighbours house etc) so that you can maximise the output across the array. Ask your installer what they are proposing as it may be a non-issue

Inverter will likely be able to handle more than 1 string, usually multiple. So you’ll probably have two strings, one for each ‘roof’ on the inverter. Also as @C4r1s has pointed out you can use ‘optimisers’ on each panel if you/they feel necessary, or even micro inverters for each panel. You can get a bit hung up on this kind of stuff.

I think it’s a no brainer to get a battery personally. Basically it means we hardly import any electricity for half the year because the battery charges over the day and then discharges at night.
It doesn’t take up that much space and you may as well get one while you’re paying for the panel installation, rather than having to pay again for installation if you realise you want one later.

Is it a no-brainer to get a battery?

Yes. If you have space.

Soo from my research it all gets rather complicated depending on what assumptions your using about your usage and the deal that your getting on feeding back to the grid.

For battery it also depends on what assumptions you want to use for expected life. For me the sums of the battery didn’t actually look as good as I thought they would but the deal from the provider made me go for it.

The newest (more expensive) kit has microinverters (Heatable offer these). As I understand it’s more how they are set up in chains rather than how many inverters. You’d need to check this with the company quoting.

In short it’s worth getting lots of quotes and also doing your own sums rather than just using theirs.

The battery is a no brainer, but not just because it stores excess solar.

If you get a low cost night time tariff, you can charge the battery at low cost during the winter, particular when solar is very minimal.

I want a battery for this reason, when I install heat pump. We have a dirt cheap night rate to charge it, however last time I looked the cost v Life span of batteries made It a bit of a non started in actually financial returns.

Electricity is a lot cheaper here in Spain, you pay the spot rate always. Last month on average I paid 0.13 €/kWh.

That’s what I found as well. I’m hoping that they last longer than the ten years.

They is no reason they shouldn’t last more than 10 years, the issue with often quoted 10 year warranties is the battery capacity after that time. Likely that it will be 80% or so compared to new, but will still function the same.

Yes that would be fine

This is cheap!

As I’m effectively saving £0.20 per kw by mainly using cheaper nighttime electricity, based on my usage, I will repay the battery in about 5 years.

As I’m exporting pretty much all solar at £0.15 / kw, if this price continues, the solar will take about 9 years to pay back.