It's addictive though. Living in the center of the city (The Hague, NL), with a home battery, I'm now 100% self-sufficient electrically for 10 months of the year.
- Did you need/use an electrician to set this up? - How much KWh capacity do your batteries have? - What about fire safety? Did you install outside, or inside? - I assume dec/jan are the months you're not fully self-sufficient, are you allowed to charge from grid to do arbitrage over time, or is that another can of worms?
The battery is 16kWh. Effectively around 14kWh, since you never fully discharge. LiFePo4, so no chance of spontaneous combustion like other battery chemistries.
I'd say the months Nov→Feb are tricky, although since I have quite a bit of excess solar capacity there are even in December plenty of days where the battery pulls me through the night.
Charging/discharging from/to the grid is possible, since I have a retrofit inverter (AC to battery), but not doing it yet, have to do a bit more research (dynamic pricing, tax is >50% of the kWh price in NL, etc).
And the great thing is: this is only if the panel was produced with fossil fuels. So due to increase in green energy everywere, this number goes down too and a PV can easily be used for 15 years and after. After that it might just be more economicly to reinvest in a new set of PV panels while the old ones can be sold and used somewere else.
This is with today's efficiencies. They are of course improving.
[1] https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/cost-of-e...
Product Features:
- Name: VALE MiniPV 880-EF8N
- Control: Free App
- Communication: WiFi 2.4 GHz
- Performance: max. 800 W
- Tension: approx. 230 V
- Frequency: 50 Hz
- Power supply: Solar inputs: up to 60 V, mains current 230 V
- Protection rating: IP67
- Material: Solar modules: glass and aluminium frame
- Inverter: Cast aluminium
- Dimensions: approx. L 172.2 x W 113.4 x H 3 cm (per solar module) approx. L 25,3 x W 22.2 x H 3.5 cm (inverter)
- Weight: approx. 56 kg
- Scope of delivery: 2 x Premium solar panels, each 440WP, Black, Bifazial; 1 x Premium inverter 800 Watt with WiFi; 1 x connection cable (5 m), safety plug; Quick start guide
Ugh.
I have as much love for solar as the next hippy, though I can't be the only one put off by a lack of an open API and, *gasp*, a complete set of physical controls.
This IoT shite has gone too far.
I bought a 1600Wc + 1.9KWh kit (Ecoflow Stream) for +/- 1300€ last summer. It took us about 2h to install (we had to setup a new plug outside), and I already saved 200€+ since July. I am expecting to save about 350€ per year.
Also, as u/jstch said, it's extremely fun to setup and generate your own power!
You have special electric meter and you are distributing solar power into the grid outside of your household?
Or you don't distribute electricity into the grid?
(this is country dependent)
With a e-meter, you will get compensated when you're generating a surplus (+/- €0.04/kWh last time I checked).
However, thanks to the battery, I'm self-consuming almost all that electricity, saving around €0.30/kWh.
Expect 800kWh of annual production per 1kW of panels.
South facing?
Buying supports for PV is actually less economical than buying additional PV panels.
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Given that these store-bought panels are being plugged into house AC, it follows that they have built-in inverters. Many grid-tied inverters are “grid follow”, meaning that they adjust themselves to grid frequency/phase. So, just speculating here… maybe the inverter senses when the mains go down and turns itself off? I would love to know from an EE what is actually happening wrt safety.
Same legislation as the non-plug&play inverters.
Because here, small country in EU, this is not allowed since it would mean ridiculous investment into electric infrastructure.
It's heavily regulated and you need special electric meter, license, etc. and still price of electricity is negative in certain times during the day, because everyone who could, got their solar power plant from EU subsidies.
https://tukes.fi/-/ala-kayta-pistorasiaan-kytkettavaa-aurink...
If you want solar panels without having to get an electrician, you'd need to connect them to a battery that's not connected to the mains.
The economics behind battery-backed zero-export solar are interesting because they keep your local solar energy local, and you can extract maximum benefit from the system. Also, if you have enough batteries and TOD rates for grid power, you can store grid energy when it's cheap (overnight) and use it locally when it's expensive.
Our local utility, National Grid, has a program where, if you have the right inverter-battery combination, they will buy power from you during peak-load periods, and you can make a couple of grand a year.
Batteries, especially local ones, change the dynamics of power generation and use. It's amazing and wonderful.
Usually such installations are only allowed to be done by the owners, not tenants.
It appears your could legally install one of these panels on the 15th of this month, but there presumably won't be any certified to comply with the regs on sale yet.
[1] https://electrical.theiet.org/amendment-4-updates-to-18th-ed...
If they think they can get an ounce more sunshine, they'll hang it over the edge, badly
I wonder for how many people it will work in practice?
Putting panels on the roof should be much more efficient…
Inspection revealed it had two 6 Volt 10 Watt panels in parallel and then 12V to 5V USB-converter.
When panels were reconnected in series it was quite OK.
Little worried about Lidl-quality also on larger scale.
Does it need its own earth? Will it switch off if it detects a residual current? Can it handle spikes in load?
Its even reducing your load on your main line beause the energy directly flows into the next consumer.
German socket has earth, thats fine. It has protection mechanism and shuts down if it can't sync to the powergrid. The panels only produce (in peak!) 400-800 watts. Thats not an issue.
works well and is probably now refinanced.
You speak as though that were a bad thing. I'd rather not have people accidentally burning their houses down.
Once it's approved for an area, you go to your local shop, buy an approved PV system, and plug it in. No fuss, no worries, and your insurer must cover it.
The post is about permission to plug solar panels into your main electricity.
Eg.: Small EU country, definitely not allowed and under huge fines. Without proper equipment, solar power plant license etc. etc.
