When you have solar panels you become much more conscious of how much sunlight you are getting. That is especially true as we go through the darker months with shorter days. January has not been too bright, but I can feel the days getting longer. Winters in our part of the UK can be cold and damp, but we do not get much snow. When we did get a little snow most of it seemed to slide off the panels.
We generated less than in December, but actually exported about twice as much. That may be due to a few brighter days when the battery got charged up earlier. On other days the battery barely lasted until it was time to charge it again on cheap rate. I have been fully charging it each night, but will adjust that as we generate more through the year.
We used more from the grid for January, but then we may have charged the car more times.
We made more from exporting, but it may be the most expensive month so far overall.
Our rates with Octopus are 27.1p/kWh at peak times and 8.5p/kWh between 00:30 and 00:05:30 with a daily standing charge of 48.8p. We get 15p/kWh for export. We pay flat rates, but there are tariffs that vary depending on demand. Prices have gone up since we got the system, so savings ought to increase, especially as they are paying us a lot more to export now.
I will note that we paid £129 for gas last month. That is for all our heating, hot water and some of our cooking. It has been pretty cold at the start of the year. Despite that and our reduced payments we are still in credit. Last year we had four months where the export covered all electricity and gas cost, but not all the standing charge. With the better export rate we should improve on that.
Our system has 8kW of panels, a 5kW inverter and 9.5kWh battery. In about 11 months it has generated just over 6MWh.
Previous reports:
I have seen others posting about their system and it is interesting to hear about how it works out in different parts of the world. Feel free to ask questions.
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