Tony, Worcestershire

Our client’s path to solar starts from an usual position – with the purchase of an electric vehicle. We suspect this story will be repeated time and time again as sales of EVs increase.

Wishing to fuel the car for free, Tony looked at how much solar pv would be needed and asked Solarkinetics to advise. “I have an older property with dormer windows so instead of installing the solar on my roof, I wanted to have the PV ground mounted in a field adjacent to the house. This required planning permission, and thankfully Solarkinetics helped and guided me through the planning process.

In 2021, Solarkinetics installed 30 x 370Wp REC Twin Peak 4 solar modules on a ground mount nearby with a SolarEdge 10kW single phase inverter and a SolarEdge Smart Energy 3kW Hot Water heater in the house.

Tony’s main motivation is to do the right thing for the planet, reducing his carbon footprint but also for it to make financial sense. With this installation, our client can charge the car, heat water, provide power for house load and export back to the grid.

Then a year later, 2 x 10kWh SolarEdge Energy Bank batteries were added. Tony says “These were transformative” – he estimates the pay-back time has reduced from around 8 to 5 years.

Here’s why. Not only can the batteries store excess power, for use in the evenings, they can also store imported power overnight. On the Intelligent Octopus Go tariff electricity costs 7.5p/kWh over a 6-hour window, while exporting during the day is 15p/kWh. “I can charge the car, heat water and store power during the night and then maximise export from the panels and battery the following day.

The batteries also provide additional financial benefit and help to balance national grid loading through being able to participate in the National Grid’s Demand Flexibility Service (DFS) – this can be achieved by joining Octopus Energy’s ‘Savings Sessions’ or through SolarEdge’s own scheme.

Wishing to significantly reduce oil consumption for heating the house, our client is now seeking to install an air source heat pump to heat frequently used rooms in the winter. This will require additional solar, battery and the SolarEdge Home Hub inverter to provide back-up functionality in the case of a power cut.