Brilliant video, full of facts and details which gives confidence that this is the future for homes and cars. No advertising spin, no politics and the green aspect is a by-product of a good design so everyone should take note that the future is affordable and exciting. Thank you 👍👌
I think your last point is missed by most people, what with all the "excitement" of renewables. It is *FAR* more beneficial (if a lot less sexy) to CUT CONSUMPTION in the first place, before looking interesting ways to generate more renewable energy. So, having done that, I am now trying to get myself onto the Kaluza/Octopus V2H trial. I looked at home battery storage, then realised I already had one! (Nissan Leaf and bidirectional charger)
I have found this really useful. It has been on my mind to have a home storage battery and I see the Pylontec as being a great option. Our house is not suitable for solar unfortunately but we can fill batteries cheaply overnight and discharge them during the day for normal use. Wish I'd done it rather than be influenced by the naysayers only three years ago.
Well done Jonathan for a very interesting video. Thanks very much. I live in Morayshire. I have 14 Solar panels and an AHP . I have ordered a 16.5 kw Sonnen battery which will get fitted in October. Your video has given me a lot of encouragement as i was concerned at the cost of the latter but now think after watching your video it is the right thing to do.
totally agree with this. I have had solar and EV for 4 years and joyfully drive past queues at the petrol stations and listen to people who said solar is a waste of money now stressing over the cost of energy. It is not too late for you and I will be looking at the add ons that Jonathan has now alerted me to. Nice one JP
Thanks for showing us your system Jonathan. I can't wait to get rid of my oil boiler. A cost not always mentioned with oil and gas boilers is maintenance and breakdowns.
Just subscribed, exactly what I want to do before retirement, only 5 years left, and moving to North Wales as soon as possible. Great set up, and location will probably binge watch your videos, off work this week.👍 Regards Russ..
Excellent walkthrough of your setup. I am going down the pylontec route myself in a few months. I have 4kw solar array, ground source heat pump and rain water harvesting system. House is super insulated and all devices are A++ as a minimum. Like you i am interested in the technology, but specifically want my house to be as cheap to run as possible for when i plan to retire in 10 years at 60. My current Go tariff and electric bill come to £1350 a year, but my FIT is £1500 making me a small surplus for the last 2 years of living here. (Solar installed. 8 years ago by previous owner). My new tariff from Go based on actual usage is £2780, so i want o upgrade my panels to 10Kw and put in a battery solution to harvest the solar as currently i send the majority to the grid. I have a Nissan Leaf which is cheap as chips to fill up. My water bill is £65 a year and we do not have any form of oil or gas so no bill to pay except for the cost of logs for our fire which is £200 a year. Solar and batteries have never made so much sense financially as they do now. Would be really interested to see what you do about the wind turbine as i live at the top of a hill which gets plenty of wind. It seems a no brainer to me as i have a large agricultural barn i could put 2 or more on which is away from the house but fairly close to the solar array and the inverter. Cheers again. Convinced me with pylontec.
Great video. We are in our 70’s, and just about to have “the conversation” (wrt batteries and PV). On top of the Pennines means we will only get about 100 days generation a year; and a North / South roof apex! Batteries I think I can justify. Thanks again for the presentation, and advice you gave me two years ago about buying an i3. 😀
Super interesting (especially since I'm thinking about adding pylontech batteries to a Solis inverter centred setup), but your "closing monologue" is great. 100% agree.
Good setup Jonathan, thanks for sharing. You're absolutely right with the ROI. I don't really care that much. I just want to get as much renewable generation as we can and eventually remove our use of gas. We still have GCH so an ASHP is definitely a future project for us 👍
Great to see your setup. At the last house I only got as far as a Mitsubishi ASHP, 4kW Solar and hotwater diverter though I've been driving EVs for years being inspired by your early videos. Currently looking into home storage batteries so this video is much appreciated :)
Great video JP and very informative. Thanks for taking the time to post. I agree on the ROI point you make. This is the way that I think about it. If you have the money in the bank then you'll get a better return with the money on the roof rather than the next to nothing interest that savings accounts give. Just a point on the Zappi. I'm about to take the plunge after mulling this over for too long. I'd be interested in seeing how you configure the Zappi so that it charges on excess solar and not your stored power. Keep up the great work.
Thank you for sharing. It seems like you need a very good installer/ electrician. I was encouraged to see that you have evolved from a more basic solar system. That may be a first step for those of us weighing up the benefits.
Thanks for answering my question Jonathan. It's good to know that if yours stand up to the wind and weather we should be OK down south. Everything is conspiring to delay our start in renewables financially, we came close to getting solar pv a while back but just couldn't stretch to it in the end. Really hope we'll be able to start with an ev in '24 when our biggest outgoings are paid off. 🤞 Forgot to say that your ASHP set up was unexpected, I thought it had to go through radiators. You've given me more food for thought, cheers. 👍
Thanks for the honest and very sensible video. Putting a small solar battery system in for my home office and workshop ( self) and a house battery ( someone else) for the cheaper overnight electric. I’m doing it because I can and I will save a money on my calcs but I’ll also be reducing the use of unrenewables ! Keep up the enthusiasm I’ve subbed so interesting to watch back and future vids. Take care
Great video! I have the AF1 turbine mounted to my steel shed, and it's noisy, don't mount a turbine to your house, have it mounted to a pole on the ground, also the airforce controller is the only one in the market that has a remote stop, so when the pylontech battery is full the contact port on the battery trigger the remote stop and shuts down the turbine, if you don't do this you will get over voltage alarms in your batteries
Great video. I had Solar panels installed about 8 years ago and based on the generation I get of about £700 per they should pay for themselves in a couple of years. Only thing I have never known is are my electric bills less as a result of my solar panels.
Just love your outlook to PV and EV's simple and practical which perfectly fit with your life style and budget, no mention of future proofing and self-sufficiency but I bet they were motives high on the agenda at the start of this project. Do you keep a log on a day/ week/ month costs as I think you will surprise yourself how quickly you set up will repay you. Our bungalow runs 2x 4kw arrays with 2 inverters and has a Powerwall for back up, 1 system gets the original fit payments and using Octopuses Tesla scheme we show a very healthy profit over the year for both systems. Having followed your Kia E Niro reviews we bought one and it is everything you said it was and the Zappi is just brilliant at juggling supply to demand. Keep up the good work!
JP, excellent video! I've started the journey myself. I've a Moixa system using pylontec batteries and solar, a Kona and an I-Pace, a Zappi and Eddi. The Sunamp and ASHP are prob my next steps .. it's so good to hear someone else say they did "because" .. because I wanted to, it interested me, and it just felt right. I'm also now a Ripple member, I just want to keep doing more. Also with Octopus on Go Faster (5 hr @ 5.5p)
Totally agree with you. Would love a similar setup. Lacks of time to do research and a funny shaped roof are all thats holding me back. I will make an effort to get on with it,. Thanks for sharing.
Just charging and discharge of 24kWh of batteries on OctopusEnergy GO tariff every day on new rates will save £2000 per year without taking PV into consideration. Add the free energy and the savings on EV miles. Guesstimate would be twice that figure.
It was v interesting to see this as I'm just about to have all the same components set up in my house in the central belt of Scotland. 7.2kw of PV a 5kw solis inverter and10.2kwh pylontech batteries. So it was good to see them working together. Canny wait.
Fantastic attitude. I'm getting quotes this weekend. Shame I haven't got the simple sloping roof, for maximum panels, but what I do have faces south. 👍
Hi Jonathan really great video thank you for sharing all your knowledge and experience. I want to be able to run off my batteries in the event of a power cut so the point about the earth rod was a brilliant heads up. Thank you again Jonathan I owe you a pint. Cheers Terry
Great video Jonathan. Completely agree with the ROI chat. If you can afford it then there's no excuse not to go for it. I'm in a flat without roof access unfortunately so can't. But am joining Ripple. Thanks for answering my wind turbine question - hadn't considered the noise question. Keep us informed.
Very informative Jonathan. I wish I could afford batteries for my 4kwh system here in Glasgow. Best thing I did was keep my hot water cylinder and I use a Solar iboost which gives me free hot water from March until October.
@@JonathanPorterfield morning Johnathan I live in Bromsgrove a long way from your home .I've only got 3 pylon tech 3000 batteries yours are awesome.i get obsessed about the weather and I look alot at the inverter app to see what's happening. Happy motoring and thank you for all your videos Elliott
Thanks JP great vid and a brilliant set up, agree about ROI, incidental as it makes us independent and that little bit less damaging to the environment, although most of us think it’s cheaper to run everything. Justified alone now with the price of petrol/diesel.
Thanks Rob for your comments 👍, i agree , if we can all play a small part in reducing carbon based energy use , its a win win 🏆 😉, its not all about saving money 😉
Thanks for making the video, brilliant information. I have a solar PV and Tesla powerwall, looking at the options to both expand the PV and heat the house and water instead of the current gas combi boiler. Sunamp and air to air heat pump look the best, especially as you can cool also. Thanks again.
Just signed up as subscriber. At the doing serious research stage here - tho already have 1/3 share in 11kW wind turbine, an air source heat pump, electric range oven, one EV and about to add phev to replace a diesel. Am concerned that prices are so jacked up now for installations that I should maybe wait until things calm down. Last 12 months We imported around 13,000kWh (car 3k but that will go up with phev, ASHP 4.5k, oven 5k, then heat recovery ventilation system and usual appliances) but with turbine probably using around 18 and adding phev will increase further. Eek! No gas (not available) and got rid of oil in last 2 years Anyway thanks for the video
Well said Jonathan. I am qualified in electrical and plumbing as a self-employed builder. Regarding solar etc ... I get asked all the time " when will it pay for itself ?" I reply " when will your motorbike / caravan / car pay for itself ?" I installed 2.4 kw solar just before the F.I.T was scrapped and i spent about £ 5500 on a self install and had the system M.C.S inspected and professionally signed off. I've received about £9 grand in FIT payments since March 2012 , so that's a plus. (approx £900 a year at about 43 p a kwh , whether i use the energy or not ! ) Sorry to gloat, but ... Just 15 years of income left to enjoy then it stops ! Then there's the energy produced too which i was occasionally able to auto - divert to an immersion heater to augment the gas boiler output. Again. Result. Then i installed a dual, solar-thermal system which heats the hot water tank when the sun is out for free. My next plan is to install a battery system, DC - coupled Hybrid inverter and extra solar PV to offset the ridiculous price-hikes in energy bills we are all being subjected to. This investment will set me back about 8 grand doing the work myself. I dont consider payback, just a feeling of independence and some inevitable liberty from energy costs. Our EV will also succumb to needing a home-charger such as the Zappi .( im a registered installer) Once i get signed up to an off-peak tariff and subsequent "smart meter install" before next winter i guess ? I love all this stuff !
What made me chuckle was your unspoken mild irritation that your wife had the temerity to go out in the car when the sun was shining! I’ve found myself holding back from going out in order to harvest as much electricity as possible on a sunny day. Enjoyed your video Jonathan. Just waiting for my 9.5kWh GivEnergy battery installation in July, so I can drive the car in the sunshine without regret.😅
What a great explanation of your set up Jonathan. We had a 7.5kw set of panels installed last June, along with a 4.8kwh of pylon tech battery storage. At first glance we appear to have the same Solis hybrid inverter as you, but my version of the app gives no control over when I might want to charge them from the grid off peak. Although I’m with bulb currently, so no differentiation in pricing. I already wish we had gone for more storage & the capability to run when the grid goes down (not too frequent in north Norfolk). That’s next years project I feel, along with getting an EV, so we send far less excess power to the grid.
@@JonathanPorterfield Hi, I've also got the same Solis/Pylontech setup, but like the commenter above, the solis app I have doesn't allow me to enable/disable charging the batteries from the grid. The app purely allows me to monitor the setup, not control it- does yours? If it does what is it called? The browser version is the same.
@@chezlong Hi Mel , i go into the menu on the hybrid inverter and turn the timed charge of the battries 'on' or 'off' , bit of a faff i know. Im in the 'off' setting now these last 2 weeks , and must days the battties are full come 4/5pm , and im waling up to 70% full , ready to top up the next day , so as of late march ive no need to charge from the grid at 5p between 00.30 and 04.30
@@JonathanPorterfield Thanks for the quick reply, that's good to know, as that appeared to be the only way I could do it too. They really need to improve the app to all us to control things, especially if the inverter is less accessible, like the loft! Would also like local monitoring instead of relying on Solis cloud.
Thanks. Your thinking and installation is what I want. Yes got the EV already, and solar panels and Pylontec batteries coming in 2 weeks. The supplier is proposing 2 batteries with circa 7Kwh, but I will be asking for 3 at about 10 Kwh. Yes as I already have the EV, I am on Octopus Go, so will adopt a strategy of maximising my off peak rate, which is going up to 7.5p/Kwh soon.
Hi mate well bought the brodex 40ft (cheaper version around £230ish) and cleaned our 4kW setup soon after we moved in in sept 20 but I noticed there was still a residue in sunlight so I bought some flexible 2inch thick medium density foam and enveloped it around the head of the brush with cable ties and whala next wash left no residue but increased the kWs from the panels. Happy days. Cheers
Hi , my pole was £100 from amazon , i thought that was a lot 😅, i only bought mine to clear snow , as we get enough rain and wind to keep my panel clean !
I have a similar modular system 5kw solar, 3.7kw inverter and batteries by Fox-ess. Very happy so far. Also have gone with Ripple energy wind farm for cheaper electricity, if interested they are linked with Octopus energy. EV car is next on list. All the best.
solis inverters are great, I noticed that the chassis of yours don't appear to be earthed? on the right side of the solis towards the bottom there is a little earth screw which I think needs connecting otherwise your warranty will be voided? could be (and probably am) wrong 🙂
Great setup, we have 4kwp solar and ASHP but no batteries yet. With a new build 5 bed house and a Tesla M3, we are on minimum 40kwh/day so could really do with another 8-12kwp perhaps on a ground mount in the garden. Really need to look at these Pylontech batteries, probably the same setup as yours!
Albert Gibson Great video Just wondering did you inform the DNO and completed a G98 or G99, due to the size of the PV array you have installed. Also, are you taking advantage of the Octopus flux tariff?
Yes ive a G98 from the DNO , and ive not looked to export for a income as most insist that the system is installed by a MCS installer ( not that it means anything as to its install !)
Great video very interesting is it worth just going for solar panels with the batterys. a heat pump I don’t it wroth it . as I’ve got no radiators and no central heating in the house just gas fires
@@JonathanPorterfield The 3:1 ratio for the Air to air system sounds excellent. I guess in the summer it will also cool your house. Did you buy your Panasonic system new, and did you size it on previous heat loss requirements, or just an assumption on requirements?
@@garyroberts6554 Hi , the system was built into the house when new ! Yes it can cool , but Orkney never sees more than 24 degrees ! Then the cows are bought in by farmers as they get too hot !
Brilliant video Jonathan, I really enjoyed it and completely agree with your conclusion that if you can afford it, do it. I certainly haven't looked back since getting my 16 panel (5.6kW) solar panel array installed in July 2020 and so far it has exceeded the annual output that was forecast by the company I chose to supply and install the system. I made the decision because I wanted to get an EV and use solar power to charge it as much as I could. I got my first EV (Hyundai Kona 64kW) last June and have done 8,600 miles so far. This has used 2,270kW and cost just over £208. Solar has provided 44%, Economy 7 has provided 46% and the 10% balance has been via public charging when on holiday. I have a Zappi charger and Eddi immersion controller and will soon have a pair of 5kW Sofar Solar Amass storage batteries to try and avoid sending any energy to the grid. I'm with Octopus Energy and was pleased when they put up the export tariff to 7.5p/kW from the 1st of February, but I'm aiming to avoid importing any electricity at peak rate, like you're doing. Still got a gas boiler for the central heating and hot water in the winter months but expecting to swap this out for an air source heat pump at some point in the not too distant future. You're right about it becoming addictive! 👍😅😅
Thanks Robert for your comments 👍 and its great that so many of us have realised that solar and evs and being energy savey is great ( and really addictive) 😀
Thanks. Very interesting. You have a huge solar array. I'm getting quotes for battery and solar at the moment. 6.2kw solar + power wall = £20k. Your system seems to be much better value and I like the idea of predicting tomorrow's sunshine to minimise the off peak charging. Anyway thanks
Please can you tell me how many 🔋 🔋🔋 are need it ,to have electricity 24 hours like a normal electricity? My second question is does it power the whole house 🏡 ? Can you use heaters fridges, computers laptops , bulbs everything at the same like a normal?
Hi , depends on your usage we just live normally , heater on , cups of tea etc and cooking. At night or early mornings i just stagger boiling up for a cuppa , with the toaster ( these will pull around 2 kws each) battries will give out 3.6 kWs of power before i have to use the grid to top up. In the day im covered ,( the zappi i can set to eco or fast ) i only pull off the grid if i was to plug in the EV at 7kWs draw,( fast setting on zappi ) this rarely happens as with 260 plus range its easy to plan for a long trip before and fill up on solar or cheap overnight 5p rate electric. So last week i spent 70p on grid electric ! Normal week , normal usage around the house.
Hello Jonathan, a bit off subject, do you know of any wind turbines that the pylontech system are compatible with. We have panels, pylontech batteries and a lux inverter. Thank you
Hi , yes my sparkie friend Chris has a small turbine as well as battries etc , so it is possible, when hes back from his holidays i will ask him to comment on here 😉
Great video, thanks for sharing! I've got two of those Pylontech batteries with my system. Is there anything more to it than just buying an additional one and plugging it in? I would like to get more but just would like to be sure it's a simple plug in and off you go!
You have to make sure all packs are around the same SOC ( state of charge) new units are sold at around 50% , so make sure your existing ones are at 50% as well when connecting up. Thanks for watching 👀 🙂
Hi Jonathan, great video. I have a solis hybrid inverter just like yours and I would love to add an additional inverter as you have done but the installation manual for the solis hybrid inverter says this should not be done...how did you get around this??....did you just get them hooked up and see what happens? Thanks
Ive 2 inverters both doing differant jobs , the 4kW inverter is grid tied and dumps any excess onto grid , the 8kW hybrid inverter is for the 20 panels and for charging storage battries etc. No issues at all.
Does the 4kw inverter supply any power to the house or does it feed in all it's production back to the grid? A video explaining how it's all set up would be great, more content for your channel!
@@eamonnhenry8161 Hi , my 4kW inverter ONLY dumps onto the grid if everything is full ( heat batteries, storage battries, and EVs are full) and no demand from house, then and only then, do I loose power to the grid from just this 4kW inverter.
at 13.24, the hybrid is topping up the battery and the other inverter is feeding into the grid even though this is not shown on the hybrid display...that's why I was asking...obviously CTs are set up in a particular way to allow this to work for you
@@JonathanPorterfield Great video very informative Do you have a few batteries to meet that capacity. Approx how many panels are you using. I thought 10-12 would work for my needs. I want to install underfloor heating in a new build and have a combination of solar PV, batteries, heat pump, wood burner and electricity as backup (No gas connection). Do you find the 28kw is able to run your house for most of the day. Are you using a gas for central heating. I found I'm using 100kw per day in winter in old 1970s house in currently in, which has poor installation and electric and gas only. My main energy usage is over winter on heating with gas. Many questions though you seem to have the experience to answer real world questions.
@davidoconnell2057 Hi David , i have several other videos about my set up in this playlist on my channel th-cam.com/play/PLHhiqu7LB3YXAQhdOiMaHuERX8L6au1HP.html
Interesting; I'm just starting this journey with 4kw solar + 6kw battery to get some experience. Is there any way around the active decision/daily process over charging the batteries overnight, vs. leaving space for the solar to top them up? I guess having twice the battery capacity the house uses with the second bank charging from overnight 5p, but only being used if the solar bank runs low? and/or setting the solis charging limit so it only ever manages to charge a proportion of the battery capacity?
Hi Richard, i set the Hybrid inverter to charge in winter at 3kWs at 5p from 00.30 till 04.30 this fills the pylontec batteries to around 50% , leaving room for any winter solar to top up. Your correct that the 'trick is' to watch weather forcast for following day , and if i need to top up me e niro etc. Since early March , ive not charged the batteries on the 5p rate as eneough daylight to fill our needs most days. Im planning a 1 year round up video around October with more numbers. Thanks for watching 👀 🙂 🙏
@@JonathanPorterfield Thanks for responding. Winter to 50% sounds like the way to go. I'm thinking on the solis to set the 00:30-04:30 as its charge time with 0 volts during the summer to stop the battery charging the car during off peak - I'd rather my car charge at 5p overnight, and the battery discharge during the high rate periods. Ideally there would be a calendar in the Solis inverter, or opportunity for an external switch to automate that - but I can't see a way of doing that from the docs.
I have had my SolaX Pylontech set up for 3.5 years, my observed round trip efficiency is around 93-94%, i'm in the central belt of Scotland and manage to be self sufficient from early Feb 'till early Nov and top up the Pylons every 2 or 3 days depending on the weather Nov-Jan. Make sure you get your base load down and only buy A++ rated appliances, slow cooker, air fryer, 1 cup kettle and led lighting, it's a total package. I've seen people on FB pages with 25-30 kWh daily usage trying to cover that with solar, FWIW, I've averaged 4 MWh a year generation from a 3.7 kW inverter, 5.3kWp array and 19.2 kWh (400 Ah) battery.
We can get better rack mount batteries here in Canada today. 6-14 Kwh units. for $2400-$6700 LifePo4 chemistry so safe and durable. I wish we could get the equipment you have access to in the UK with sunamp and myenergy etc. We have nothing that compares to it here.
With the latest energy prices my system should pay for itself in 4 years. However, I’m struggling to get the off peak battery top up configured and it’s still drawing some peak time power when it should be all off peak. Any advice?
We have about 3.5kW air source heat pump and it's an absolute KILLER as far as the electricity bill goes. Just invested in a 7.5kW solar array and 24.6kWh of GivEnergy batteries. Will be interesting to see if this manages to reduce the bill significantly.
Hi Jonathan. I enjoyed this video about your solar setup at your home in Orkney. I saw you have a Panasonic heat pump AC heating/cooling system which you said heats your whole home in winter? We are getting a Fujitsu system installed in May and I wondered if I could ask you about your system? What heating/cooling power is it? BTU or KW? You have 2 indoor units? What heating output can each provide. On the coldest winter's day, does it really heat your whole house (other than your heated towel rail in your bathroom)? Is your house very highly insulated like an "eco house"? How much electrical power does the Panasonic system consume when on full heating, and how much energy does it use on a typical winter's day? We are getting a 24,000BTU (7.1kW) multi-split system with 3 indoor units, 12,000BTU (3.5kW) in the kitchen diner, and another 12,000BTU in the lounge, and a 7,000BTU (2kW) in our main bedroom. We plan to provide individual heating, if needed, in other less frequently used rooms using Far IR radiant panels of between 700W and 900W as required, with individual room thermostatic controllers. Sorry for all the questions but I am really interested to see how you get on with your air to air heating system in the depths of winter. We have a 4kWp PV system (expanding to 6.4kWp later this year), and 19.2kWh (15kWh usable to 80% DOD) of Pylontech batteries, and an Economy 7 tariff for overnight charging in Winter. We plan to "retire" our oil fired combi this year and replace it with a 250L Mixergy tank, and PV diverter. Also hope to add a 12kWh electric storage heater in the downstairs hallway, as a "thermal store" for use on sunny days in the shoulder months, (Oct/Nov, and Feb/March) when the sun might shine a lot to "charge" it, and heating is still needed, and maybe selectively overnight in the coldest depths of winter to supplement the Fujitsu heat pump/IR panels if the weather forecast looks to be particularly cold. 🙂. Thanks for all your PV/sustainable encouragement. Very best wishes, Paul Buglass, York, UK.
Very good video very informative. I still have a few questions, i hope you can help, so your extra Solis has a DC to DC charger for the batteries, How does that work with the Eddi for the hot water? Doesnt the Eddi not use CT clamps AC? Can you charge batteries at same time from solar edge and solis? Can the Solis dump the kwh back to the grid too to make up the 4KWH.
Hello Jonathan. I think you got a great setup there. But I don't understand the usefulness of the smaller power inverter. Could you explain to me when you use it?
Basically the smaller 4kW inverter is grid tied and so 'can' export a max of 3.68kW onto the grid as an 'overflow' if i make too much. The larger hybrid inverter is for filling the pylontec batteries and everthing else. This keeps the DNO happy 😊
Thanks, first time I’ve viewed your site. Really enjoyable, also an enthusiast. I unfortunately only have a 2.0KW array presently with a Zappi charger and Hyundai Kona EV. It seems like the Zappi only charges from the array when producing over 1.4KW. If not and the house on using say 0.6KW, it dumps the excess to the grid and not the car. Is this your understanding please? Pete
Hi peter , and thanks for watching . EVs will only charge from 1.4kWs , anything less and the car doesnt charge. Have a look at heating your hot water with your set up too , the eddi will divert every tiny bit of excess solar into heating your water , ie an immersion tank.
@@JonathanPorterfield Thanks so much for the reassurance. We have a Worcester Bosch flat plate solar hot water system to a twin coiled tank. It does have an Emerson heater so will investigate the Eddie. A company are coming round next week to advise if we can fit more PV to the west side, which is the only roof space left. I was reading a paper from Sheffield University to say west facing only slightly less output than the ideal. Pete
hi ,i am looking to put solar on my roof but the front is facing east and back faces west ,in your video when your batteries are full and you back feed the grid do they pay you anything even though you said you were not using feed in tariff
Hi ian , no FIT payments, my electrons will go back to grid and go to the nearest demand, ie my neighbours, whos meters spin when they 'use' my electricity from my panels , and their suppliers will charge them for electricity used ! Strange world eh ! 🤔
I’m having a similar solar PV-setup in south of Stockholm. But we get about the amount of what electricity cost +some extra to sell it to the grid daytime. I charge the car at night and use washing machine, dishwasher on timer to run at night. What do you get from exporting to the grid in the UK? Wondering since you say you avoid ”dumping” it to the grid. I would use energy storage as a buffer running at night filling in the morning and evening peaks here. Not to put solar energy into it.
Hi, if the grid went down does your solar system shut down slso ? I know having batteries will give you a couple of days electric but then what ? If your grid was off for a couple of weeks do you have some sort of way of switching over to solar only ?
Yes , i still need an earth rod , so when the grid is 'off' i can run off my batteries, its coming soon ! Then i calculate with carefull use in summer months i could go for 7 days on battries alone, in winter around 24 hrs with heating etc.
Hi Jonathan, thanks for such an informative and enthusiastic video. The setup in our house, in the Borders, is similar with an Eddi, Zappi and 3.7kW of PV through an SMA inverter. I'm ready to install a battery based on Pylontech and a Solis hybrid inverter. In time I'll add more PV connected to the Solis inverter but meantime I want to be able to charge the battery from the excess power which the existing PV system generates, and overnight through the Octopus Go low rate. I've studied the Solis install manuals and asked Solis support and a few installers but haven't yet had an answer to my question. Your system is so close to what I plan that maybe you can answer. Can the Solis hybrid inverter charge the battery with the excess power from the existing PV system? To do this it would have to monitor the import / export power and vary the charge rate to the battery to use all the excess power, resulting in zero export or import. It can certainly do this with the PV panels connected directly to it but it's not clear if it can also do it with an external PV system (like your top row of panels). On your system it would be equivalent to switching off the PV connected to the Solis and seeing if the battery gets charged with the excess power from the top row of PV. Have you seen this happening? Many thanks in anticipation as I'm keen to get moving with the battery system.
Hi. I think the Solis Hybrid Inverter does do this. If it sees power going to the grid, and has battery capacity, then it will charge the battery even if the excess power is from a different inverter/source. The hybrid can only get so much charge into the batteries, so if you've got all your PV generating lots of power, you may have more than the hybrid can push into the battery system.
Very informative, I also live in Orkney and wondered who did your install. Looking for a similar system and later in the year an ev . Seems like a no brainier to use Octopus these days.
Have you got 8 x 3.5kW Pylontech batteries = 28kW battery storage? If so, what are you doing up in Orkney to ever need to pull off the grid (growing cannabis?)😁
I did math on return on investment. While there are many assumptions and variables -- I projected low to mid teen percentage. That was on electricity price of 15p. I'm paying 28p today and probably more come October. So ROI is probably in high teens now, may be low 20s. If your investment portfolio did that you'd be very happy. As best part is -- it is tax free.
I've had 5.2kw of PV since 2016, JA 290's with a fronius inverter $6k and i also had a Tesla powerwall2 with gateway installed August 2017 $10805.35 fully installed, a sanden heatpump hotwater system $4k. I get 6.7 -7.0mwh per year. I have a free grid ev charging plan sat Sunday midday to 2pm. The electric companies use this to burn off excess solar. At a guess I think that I've spent $200 bucks on electrics since 2016.
Brilliant, information rich video. I note you mention that your Solis Hybrid can shut off ,rather than export... how is this managed, is there a certain attachment.. I have a similar set up 1x Solis normal inverter and 1 x Solis hybrid. Also is there a limit to the Pylontech qty of batteries.. one person said 8 was the limit ? Also re charging the batteries at night using the cheap rate, can this be managed from the app ? Sorry for all the questions Regards James
All the settings for export etc are set on the panel of the inverter. The time to charge battries from the grid are also set video the hybrid inverters screen. The app is only to see the state of charge in the battries.
The hybrid inverter is G100 compliant so monitors import and export and has grid limitation built in. It is set at 3.6kw so not to go over the agreed G98 limit. If the other 3.6kw inverter is exporting less than the limit it will feed some out to grid up the max 3.6kw.
Thank you again for the lovely video. How do you prioritise which device gets Solar energy first please? Is it Sunamp, or the eddie or the battery? I have a 3.92kwp solar power and a solar iboost. Thinking of getting a system similar to you to store energy in a battery. Thank you so much.
A very small amount as it needs a small amount for the inverters to 'talk' to the grid and its earthed to grid too. Next project is to install an earth rod , so when we have a power cut ( in a storm for example ) we can use the battery's power safely.
Hi Jonathan, I had to search back the videos to find this one as I've just had a battery system fitted in a cupboard and was wondering about fitting a fan. Can I ask how much of a difference having a fan makes, do you notice a significant reduction in temperature once it kicks in? Thanks you
Hi , yes the extraction fan does help a lot , if its a really hot day , i crack open the front door to allow fresh air to come into the porch , then air is replaced easily in my cupboard.
Thanks, I'll look into it. Ive added a few vents into the cupboard door in the meantime. Makes for a good heating cupboard for drying clothes at least 😆
Great overview of your system. We are at the start for a Passive house off grid build when complete but at the mo just setting up for our static so have a 3.5kw grid a cheap mpp inverter with pylontech battery to start. will be looking at 25k array and 12 pylontech with GSHP and borehole trying as much to be off grid one question regarding the pylontechs we only have 1 at the moment looking to by another next month i have found every now and again it goes to sleep during the night but when you switch it on it has 3 lights still so 50% full, have you come across this before as not much info on this Cheers
Brilliant video, full of facts and details which gives confidence that this is the future for homes and cars. No advertising spin, no politics and the green aspect is a by-product of a good design so everyone should take note that the future is affordable and exciting. Thank you 👍👌
Thanks for watching and your encouragement, im not the best at editing , but im glad my message come across 😊
@@JonathanPorterfield Great video to inspire us. Thank you
21:33 Your energy bill was £13 to run and heat your entire house, AND running 800 miles in your car. That’s amazing 🙇🏻♂️
Yup 👍
I think your last point is missed by most people, what with all the "excitement" of renewables. It is *FAR* more beneficial (if a lot less sexy) to CUT CONSUMPTION in the first place, before looking interesting ways to generate more renewable energy. So, having done that, I am now trying to get myself onto the Kaluza/Octopus V2H trial. I looked at home battery storage, then realised I already had one! (Nissan Leaf and bidirectional charger)
I have found this really useful. It has been on my mind to have a home storage battery and I see the Pylontec as being a great option. Our house is not suitable for solar unfortunately but we can fill batteries cheaply overnight and discharge them during the day for normal use.
Wish I'd done it rather than be influenced by the naysayers only three years ago.
Well done Jonathan for a very interesting video. Thanks very much.
I live in Morayshire.
I have 14 Solar panels and an AHP . I have ordered a 16.5 kw Sonnen battery which will get fitted in October.
Your video has given me a lot of encouragement as i was concerned at the cost of the latter but now think after watching your video it is the right thing to do.
Top-Notch Jonathan, will watch more and more, extremely insightful, The Future's Bright, The Future's Green, Thank You
Thanks Jeff for watching and your support !
I’ve been in France for a while. Down south - and it’s amazing how little solar there is here. And they have such wonderful sunshine!!
Crazy, if it works up here in orkney , its going to work in France !
totally agree with this. I have had solar and EV for 4 years and joyfully drive past queues at the petrol stations and listen to people who said solar is a waste of money now stressing over the cost of energy. It is not too late for you and I will be looking at the add ons that Jonathan has now alerted me to. Nice one JP
Yes , ive had it said many many times , your wasting your money fitting solar in Orkney , now they ask how i did it , and who fitted !
“I wanted renewables it’s my hobby “ gets a thumbs up for me! Subbed too!
Thank you , appreciate the sub ! 🙏
Thanks for showing us your system Jonathan. I can't wait to get rid of my oil boiler. A cost not always mentioned with oil and gas boilers is maintenance and breakdowns.
Thanks for watching and your comments, yes i remember repairs to our gas combi bolier in our last home in Leicester, always expensive .
Just subscribed, exactly what I want to do before retirement, only 5 years left, and moving to North Wales as soon as possible.
Great set up, and location will probably binge watch your videos, off work this week.👍
Regards Russ..
Thanks Russ for watching 👀 😎👍👍
Excellent walkthrough of your setup. I am going down the pylontec route myself in a few months. I have 4kw solar array, ground source heat pump and rain water harvesting system. House is super insulated and all devices are A++ as a minimum. Like you i am interested in the technology, but specifically want my house to be as cheap to run as possible for when i plan to retire in 10 years at 60. My current Go tariff and electric bill come to £1350 a year, but my FIT is £1500 making me a small surplus for the last 2 years of living here. (Solar installed. 8 years ago by previous owner). My new tariff from Go based on actual usage is £2780, so i want o upgrade my panels to 10Kw and put in a battery solution to harvest the solar as currently i send the majority to the grid. I have a Nissan Leaf which is cheap as chips to fill up. My water bill is £65 a year and we do not have any form of oil or gas so no bill to pay except for the cost of logs for our fire which is £200 a year. Solar and batteries have never made so much sense financially as they do now. Would be really interested to see what you do about the wind turbine as i live at the top of a hill which gets plenty of wind. It seems a no brainer to me as i have a large agricultural barn i could put 2 or more on which is away from the house but fairly close to the solar array and the inverter. Cheers again. Convinced me with pylontec.
Thanks J for your comments, and great set up you have , it really does become a passion doesnt it !
Great video update take care and safe travels everyone. Glad to see you about enjoy the sunny weather
Thanks Nickie 👍
Great video. We are in our 70’s, and just about to have “the conversation” (wrt batteries and PV). On top of the Pennines means we will only get about 100 days generation a year; and a North / South roof apex! Batteries I think I can justify. Thanks again for the presentation, and advice you gave me two years ago about buying an i3. 😀
Thanks Geoff for your comments 👍 and great to hear you have the bug too 😀
Super interesting (especially since I'm thinking about adding pylontech batteries to a Solis inverter centred setup), but your "closing monologue" is great. 100% agree.
Thanks Ben for watching and your comments 😀
Hi Jonathan. Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge. It is very interesting and helpful.
Thanks for your comments 👍
this guy talks sense well done mate
Thank you , dunno about me talking sence ( Mrs P may disagree!) I appreciate your comments and for watching 👍
Good setup Jonathan, thanks for sharing. You're absolutely right with the ROI. I don't really care that much. I just want to get as much renewable generation as we can and eventually remove our use of gas. We still have GCH so an ASHP is definitely a future project for us 👍
Thanks for your comments 🙂 👍
Very few people explain their systems this way, thanks
Thanks alan , i like to keep it simple !
Really like your set up. I have panels on my roof and a solar water heater. Here in Malta we get 300 days of sun a year. It’s a no brainer.
Thanks Eric , yes it's a no brainer for Malta ! Had a good holiday there a few years ago !
Great to see your setup. At the last house I only got as far as a Mitsubishi ASHP, 4kW Solar and hotwater diverter though I've been driving EVs for years being inspired by your early videos. Currently looking into home storage batteries so this video is much appreciated :)
Thank you so much for watching , and great that in some small way ive help you get into EVs too 😀 , thank you ! 😊
Great video JP and very informative. Thanks for taking the time to post. I agree on the ROI point you make. This is the way that I think about it. If you have the money in the bank then you'll get a better return with the money on the roof rather than the next to nothing interest that savings accounts give.
Just a point on the Zappi. I'm about to take the plunge after mulling this over for too long. I'd be interested in seeing how you configure the Zappi so that it charges on excess solar and not your stored power.
Keep up the great work.
Thanks Martyn for your comments 👍
Excellent - thanks for making this. Enjoying our new installation too!
Thank you for the comments 👍 enjoy your set up , it does become an obsession 😀 😊
Thank you for sharing. It seems like you need a very good installer/ electrician. I was encouraged to see that you have evolved from a more basic solar system. That may be a first step for those of us weighing up the benefits.
I dont 'need' a good electrician, i already have one with The Wire Brigade , and chris wright !
@@JonathanPorterfield I should have said " One needs a good electrician". 😜
Thanks for answering my question Jonathan. It's good to know that if yours stand up to the wind and weather we should be OK down south. Everything is conspiring to delay our start in renewables financially, we came close to getting solar pv a while back but just couldn't stretch to it in the end. Really hope we'll be able to start with an ev in '24 when our biggest outgoings are paid off. 🤞
Forgot to say that your ASHP set up was unexpected, I thought it had to go through radiators. You've given me more food for thought, cheers. 👍
Thanks Jude 👍 once you can sensibly afford your own set up you wont regret it 😉
Thanks for the honest and very sensible video. Putting a small solar battery system in for my home office and workshop ( self) and a house battery ( someone else) for the cheaper overnight electric. I’m doing it because I can and I will save a money on my calcs but I’ll also be reducing the use of unrenewables ! Keep up the enthusiasm I’ve subbed so interesting to watch back and future vids. Take care
Thanks for the subscribe , and your comments 😀 i appreciate it
Great video! I have the AF1 turbine mounted to my steel shed, and it's noisy, don't mount a turbine to your house, have it mounted to a pole on the ground, also the airforce controller is the only one in the market that has a remote stop, so when the pylontech battery is full the contact port on the battery trigger the remote stop and shuts down the turbine, if you don't do this you will get over voltage alarms in your batteries
Great video. I had Solar panels installed about 8 years ago and based on the generation I get of about £700 per they should pay for themselves in a couple of years. Only thing I have never known is are my electric bills less as a result of my solar panels.
Just love your outlook to PV and EV's simple and practical which perfectly fit with your life style and budget, no mention of future proofing and self-sufficiency but I bet they were motives high on the agenda at the start of this project. Do you keep a log on a day/ week/ month costs as I think you will surprise yourself how quickly you set up will repay you.
Our bungalow runs 2x 4kw arrays with 2 inverters and has a Powerwall for back up, 1 system gets the original fit payments and using Octopuses Tesla scheme we show a very healthy profit over the year for both systems. Having followed your Kia E Niro reviews we bought one and it is everything you said it was and the Zappi is just brilliant at juggling supply to demand. Keep up the good work!
Thats great Graeme to hear youve got an e niro 👍 thanks for your comments and support 👍
JP, excellent video! I've started the journey myself. I've a Moixa system using pylontec batteries and solar, a Kona and an I-Pace, a Zappi and Eddi. The Sunamp and ASHP are prob my next steps .. it's so good to hear someone else say they did "because" .. because I wanted to, it interested me, and it just felt right. I'm also now a Ripple member, I just want to keep doing more. Also with Octopus on Go Faster (5 hr @ 5.5p)
Thanks Peter for watching and your comments, great im not the only one whos doing this because it's the right thing to do !
Totally agree with you. Would love a similar setup. Lacks of time to do research and a funny shaped roof are all thats holding me back. I will make an effort to get on with it,. Thanks for sharing.
Great video Jonathan. As you say payback times v difficult to assess but times shrink dramatically as energy prices increase.
Just charging and discharge of 24kWh of batteries on OctopusEnergy GO tariff every day on new rates will save £2000 per year without taking PV into consideration. Add the free energy and the savings on EV miles. Guesstimate would be twice that figure.
Very interesting stuff you are good at explaining it all looks mega complicated.👍👍👍
Thank you 😊 👍👍
It was v interesting to see this as I'm just about to have all the same components set up in my house in the central belt of Scotland. 7.2kw of PV a 5kw solis inverter and10.2kwh pylontech batteries. So it was good to see them working together. Canny wait.
Fantastic attitude. I'm getting quotes this weekend. Shame I haven't got the simple sloping roof, for maximum panels, but what I do have faces south. 👍
Thank you for your comments 👍
Thanks so much for the useful information, I think solar is way to go with the way energy prices are skyrocketingI’ve just subscribed
Thanks for watching and subscribing 👍😊
Hi Jonathan really great video thank you for sharing all your knowledge and experience. I want to be able to run off my batteries in the event of a power cut so the point about the earth rod was a brilliant heads up. Thank you again Jonathan I owe you a pint. Cheers Terry
Great video Jonathan. Completely agree with the ROI chat. If you can afford it then there's no excuse not to go for it. I'm in a flat without roof access unfortunately so can't. But am joining Ripple. Thanks for answering my wind turbine question - hadn't considered the noise question. Keep us informed.
Thanks for asking the question , it feels like a better watch if i answer questions that folk ask , rather than me bang on about solar 😉
Very informative Jonathan. I wish I could afford batteries for my 4kwh system here in Glasgow. Best thing I did was keep my hot water cylinder and I use a Solar iboost which gives me free hot water from March until October.
Thanks Douglas for your comments 👍
Douglas who did your install im also in Glasgow and looking to get future proofed😂
Hi Johnathan great video I've recently done the same for the same reasons
Here's to a great summer
Are you like me , obsessed with the weather forcast ? Where are you in the world ?
@@JonathanPorterfield morning Johnathan I live in Bromsgrove a long way from your home .I've only got 3 pylon tech 3000 batteries yours are awesome.i get obsessed about the weather and I look alot at the inverter app to see what's happening.
Happy motoring and thank you for all your videos
Elliott
@@elliottkeen9933 my wife used to live near you , in bartley green !
Thanks for a down to earth practical real world review.
Thanks Dinnis for your comments 👍
Thanks JP great vid and a brilliant set up, agree about ROI, incidental as it makes us independent and that little bit less damaging to the environment, although most of us think it’s cheaper to run everything. Justified alone now with the price of petrol/diesel.
Thanks Rob for your comments 👍, i agree , if we can all play a small part in reducing carbon based energy use , its a win win 🏆 😉, its not all about saving money 😉
Thanks for making the video, brilliant information. I have a solar PV and Tesla powerwall, looking at the options to both expand the PV and heat the house and water instead of the current gas combi boiler. Sunamp and air to air heat pump look the best, especially as you can cool also. Thanks again.
Thanks for your comments 👍
Just signed up as subscriber. At the doing serious research stage here - tho already have 1/3 share in 11kW wind turbine, an air source heat pump, electric range oven, one EV and about to add phev to replace a diesel. Am concerned that prices are so jacked up now for installations that I should maybe wait until things calm down.
Last 12 months We imported around 13,000kWh (car 3k but that will go up with phev, ASHP 4.5k, oven 5k, then heat recovery ventilation system and usual appliances) but with turbine probably using around 18 and adding phev will increase further. Eek! No gas (not available) and got rid of oil in last 2 years
Anyway thanks for the video
Thanks Tim for subscribing 👍👍
Great video Jonathan. I'm currently looking for a battery system for my PC system so will certainly consider Pylontech
Well said Jonathan.
I am qualified in electrical and plumbing as a self-employed builder.
Regarding solar etc ...
I get asked all the time " when will it pay for itself ?"
I reply " when will your motorbike / caravan / car pay for itself ?"
I installed 2.4 kw solar just before the F.I.T was scrapped and i spent about £ 5500 on a self install and had the system M.C.S inspected and professionally signed off.
I've received about £9 grand in FIT payments since March 2012 , so that's a plus. (approx £900 a year at about 43 p a kwh , whether i use the energy or not ! )
Sorry to gloat, but ...
Just 15 years of income left to enjoy then it stops !
Then there's the energy produced too which i was occasionally able to auto - divert to an immersion heater to augment the gas boiler output. Again. Result.
Then i installed a dual, solar-thermal system which heats the hot water tank when the sun is out for free.
My next plan is to install a battery system, DC - coupled Hybrid inverter and extra solar PV to offset the ridiculous price-hikes in energy bills we are all being subjected to.
This investment will set me back about 8 grand doing the work myself.
I dont consider payback, just a feeling of independence and some inevitable liberty from energy costs.
Our EV will also succumb to needing a home-charger such as the Zappi .( im a registered installer)
Once i get signed up to an off-peak tariff and subsequent "smart meter install" before next winter i guess ?
I love all this stuff !
I love to read about folk doing this ! Brilliant thanks for sharing and watching my video too 😀 👍👍
Execent video , share your passion want to build my solar system shortly to charge my 8 year old leaf ....
Sound advice from a sound bloke, thank you
Thank you 😊 👍👍
Great setup and great video. Thanks
What made me chuckle was your unspoken mild irritation that your wife had the temerity to go out in the car when the sun was shining! I’ve found myself holding back from going out in order to harvest as much electricity as possible on a sunny day. Enjoyed your video Jonathan. Just waiting for my 9.5kWh GivEnergy battery installation in July, so I can drive the car in the sunshine without regret.😅
🤣 i know , but she never watches my videos , so im safe to vent my mild frustration 🤣🤪🤪 thanks for watching 👀 🙂
I like your point of view about what is return of investment. How you will calculate being more independent.
What a great explanation of your set up Jonathan. We had a 7.5kw set of panels installed last June, along with a 4.8kwh of pylon tech battery storage. At first glance we appear to have the same Solis hybrid inverter as you, but my version of the app gives no control over when I might want to charge them from the grid off peak. Although I’m with bulb currently, so no differentiation in pricing.
I already wish we had gone for more storage & the capability to run when the grid goes down (not too frequent in north Norfolk). That’s next years project I feel, along with getting an EV, so we send far less excess power to the grid.
Thanks for your comments 🙂 and its great that you too are on the same renewable route as us !
@@JonathanPorterfield Hi, I've also got the same Solis/Pylontech setup, but like the commenter above, the solis app I have doesn't allow me to enable/disable charging the batteries from the grid. The app purely allows me to monitor the setup, not control it- does yours? If it does what is it called? The browser version is the same.
@@chezlong Hi Mel , i go into the menu on the hybrid inverter and turn the timed charge of the battries 'on' or 'off' , bit of a faff i know. Im in the 'off' setting now these last 2 weeks , and must days the battties are full come 4/5pm , and im waling up to 70% full , ready to top up the next day , so as of late march ive no need to charge from the grid at 5p between 00.30 and 04.30
@@JonathanPorterfield Thanks for the quick reply, that's good to know, as that appeared to be the only way I could do it too. They really need to improve the app to all us to control things, especially if the inverter is less accessible, like the loft! Would also like local monitoring instead of relying on Solis cloud.
Thanks. Your thinking and installation is what I want.
Yes got the EV already, and solar panels and Pylontec batteries coming in 2 weeks.
The supplier is proposing 2 batteries with circa 7Kwh, but I will be asking for 3 at about 10 Kwh.
Yes as I already have the EV, I am on Octopus Go, so will adopt a strategy of maximising my off peak rate, which is going up to 7.5p/Kwh soon.
Brilliant 👏 👍👍
Great video, thanks for sharing.
Thanks for watching !
Hi mate well bought the brodex 40ft (cheaper version around £230ish) and cleaned our 4kW setup soon after we moved in in sept 20 but I noticed there was still a residue in sunlight so I bought some flexible 2inch thick medium density foam and enveloped it around the head of the brush with cable ties and whala next wash left no residue but increased the kWs from the panels. Happy days. Cheers
Hi , my pole was £100 from amazon , i thought that was a lot 😅, i only bought mine to clear snow , as we get enough rain and wind to keep my panel clean !
I have a similar modular system 5kw solar, 3.7kw inverter and batteries by Fox-ess.
Very happy so far.
Also have gone with Ripple energy wind farm for cheaper electricity, if interested they are linked with Octopus energy.
EV car is next on list.
All the best.
Would be really interested in what the device is you are talking about at 6:40 ish that automatically isolates from the grid during a power outage
Video soon to follow up and explain
solis inverters are great, I noticed that the chassis of yours don't appear to be earthed? on the right side of the solis towards the bottom there is a little earth screw which I think needs connecting otherwise your warranty will be voided? could be (and probably am) wrong 🙂
Thanks very useful info and very well explianed.
Thanks for your comment, i have to keep it simple , for me to understand 😊 !
Great setup, we have 4kwp solar and ASHP but no batteries yet. With a new build 5 bed house and a Tesla M3, we are on minimum 40kwh/day so could really do with another 8-12kwp perhaps on a ground mount in the garden. Really need to look at these Pylontech batteries, probably the same setup as yours!
Albert Gibson
Great video
Just wondering did you inform the DNO and completed a G98 or G99, due to the size of the PV array you have installed. Also, are you taking advantage of the Octopus flux tariff?
Yes ive a G98 from the DNO , and ive not looked to export for a income as most insist that the system is installed by a MCS installer ( not that it means anything as to its install !)
Great video very interesting is it worth just going for solar panels with the batterys. a heat pump I don’t it wroth it . as I’ve got no radiators and no central heating in the house just gas fires
Brilliant video. How efficient is the air source heat pump please?
Thanks
Thanks for watching and your comments, this air to air heat source pump , for every 1kW of power , you get 3kWs of heat !
@@JonathanPorterfield The 3:1 ratio for the Air to air system sounds excellent. I guess in the summer it will also cool your house. Did you buy your Panasonic system new, and did you size it on previous heat loss requirements, or just an assumption on requirements?
@@garyroberts6554 Hi , the system was built into the house when new !
Yes it can cool , but Orkney never sees more than 24 degrees ! Then the cows are bought in by farmers as they get too hot !
Brilliant video Jonathan, I really enjoyed it and completely agree with your conclusion that if you can afford it, do it.
I certainly haven't looked back since getting my 16 panel (5.6kW) solar panel array installed in July 2020 and so far it has exceeded the annual output that was forecast by the company I chose to supply and install the system.
I made the decision because I wanted to get an EV and use solar power to charge it as much as I could. I got my first EV (Hyundai Kona 64kW) last June and have done 8,600 miles so far. This has used 2,270kW and cost just over £208. Solar has provided 44%, Economy 7 has provided 46% and the 10% balance has been via public charging when on holiday.
I have a Zappi charger and Eddi immersion controller and will soon have a pair of 5kW Sofar Solar Amass storage batteries to try and avoid sending any energy to the grid. I'm with Octopus Energy and was pleased when they put up the export tariff to 7.5p/kW from the 1st of February, but I'm aiming to avoid importing any electricity at peak rate, like you're doing.
Still got a gas boiler for the central heating and hot water in the winter months but expecting to swap this out for an air source heat pump at some point in the not too distant future.
You're right about it becoming addictive! 👍😅😅
Thanks Robert for your comments 👍 and its great that so many of us have realised that solar and evs and being energy savey is great ( and really addictive) 😀
Have you considered a wind turbine as well?
Yes , my sparkie is testing several out , the 1st turbine lasted 24hrs !
Thanks. Very interesting. You have a huge solar array. I'm getting quotes for battery and solar at the moment. 6.2kw solar + power wall = £20k. Your system seems to be much better value and I like the idea of predicting tomorrow's sunshine to minimise the off peak charging.
Anyway thanks
Thanks for your comments 👍 im even more interested in the weather than i used to be !
Please can you tell me how many 🔋 🔋🔋 are need it ,to have electricity 24 hours like a normal electricity? My second question is does it power the whole house 🏡 ? Can you use heaters fridges, computers laptops , bulbs everything at the same like a normal?
Hi , depends on your usage we just live normally , heater on , cups of tea etc and cooking.
At night or early mornings i just stagger boiling up for a cuppa , with the toaster ( these will pull around 2 kws each) battries will give out 3.6 kWs of power before i have to use the grid to top up.
In the day im covered ,( the zappi i can set to eco or fast ) i only pull off the grid if i was to plug in the EV at 7kWs draw,( fast setting on zappi ) this rarely happens as with 260 plus range its easy to plan for a long trip before and fill up on solar or cheap overnight 5p rate electric.
So last week i spent 70p on grid electric ! Normal week , normal usage around the house.
Hello Jonathan, a bit off subject, do you know of any wind turbines that the pylontech system are compatible with. We have panels, pylontech batteries and a lux inverter. Thank you
Hi , yes my sparkie friend Chris has a small turbine as well as battries etc , so it is possible, when hes back from his holidays i will ask him to comment on here 😉
@@JonathanPorterfield thank you, keep the videos coming, we do enjoy them
@@JonathanPorterfield has your sparkle friend Chris come back from his holiday yet ?
7.25 kws of solar panels and 15 kwhs of battery storage , it was about 13k, but ive never regreted it.
Great video, thanks for sharing! I've got two of those Pylontech batteries with my system. Is there anything more to it than just buying an additional one and plugging it in? I would like to get more but just would like to be sure it's a simple plug in and off you go!
You have to make sure all packs are around the same SOC ( state of charge) new units are sold at around 50% , so make sure your existing ones are at 50% as well when connecting up.
Thanks for watching 👀 🙂
Cheers J.
Hi Jonathan, great video. I have a solis hybrid inverter just like yours and I would love to add an additional inverter as you have done but the installation manual for the solis hybrid inverter says this should not be done...how did you get around this??....did you just get them hooked up and see what happens? Thanks
Ive 2 inverters both doing differant jobs , the 4kW inverter is grid tied and dumps any excess onto grid , the 8kW hybrid inverter is for the 20 panels and for charging storage battries etc.
No issues at all.
Does the 4kw inverter supply any power to the house or does it feed in all it's production back to the grid? A video explaining how it's all set up would be great, more content for your channel!
@@eamonnhenry8161 Hi , my 4kW inverter ONLY dumps onto the grid if everything is full ( heat batteries, storage battries, and EVs are full) and no demand from house, then and only then, do I loose power to the grid from just this 4kW inverter.
at 13.24, the hybrid is topping up the battery and the other inverter is feeding into the grid even though this is not shown on the hybrid display...that's why I was asking...obviously CTs are set up in a particular way to allow this to work for you
How big a battery do you use and if you had a chance would you have more
28kWh total , and yes id have more !
Thanks for watching 👀 🙂
@@JonathanPorterfield
Great video very informative
Do you have a few batteries to meet that capacity.
Approx how many panels are you using.
I thought 10-12 would work for my needs.
I want to install underfloor heating in a new build and have a combination of solar PV, batteries, heat pump, wood burner and electricity as backup (No gas connection).
Do you find the 28kw is able to run your house for most of the day.
Are you using a gas for central heating.
I found I'm using 100kw per day in winter in old 1970s house in currently in, which has poor installation and electric and gas only.
My main energy usage is over winter on heating with gas.
Many questions though you seem to have the experience to answer real world questions.
@davidoconnell2057 Hi David , i have several other videos about my set up in this playlist on my channel
th-cam.com/play/PLHhiqu7LB3YXAQhdOiMaHuERX8L6au1HP.html
Interesting;
I'm just starting this journey with 4kw solar + 6kw battery to get some experience.
Is there any way around the active decision/daily process over charging the batteries overnight, vs. leaving space for the solar to top them up?
I guess having twice the battery capacity the house uses with the second bank charging from overnight 5p, but only being used if the solar bank runs low? and/or setting the solis charging limit so it only ever manages to charge a proportion of the battery capacity?
Hi Richard, i set the Hybrid inverter to charge in winter at 3kWs at 5p from 00.30 till 04.30 this fills the pylontec batteries to around 50% , leaving room for any winter solar to top up.
Your correct that the 'trick is' to watch weather forcast for following day , and if i need to top up me e niro etc.
Since early March , ive not charged the batteries on the 5p rate as eneough daylight to fill our needs most days.
Im planning a 1 year round up video around October with more numbers.
Thanks for watching 👀 🙂 🙏
@@JonathanPorterfield
Thanks for responding.
Winter to 50% sounds like the way to go.
I'm thinking on the solis to set the 00:30-04:30 as its charge time with 0 volts during the summer to stop the battery charging the car during off peak - I'd rather my car charge at 5p overnight, and the battery discharge during the high rate periods.
Ideally there would be a calendar in the Solis inverter, or opportunity for an external switch to automate that - but I can't see a way of doing that from the docs.
Thank you for the video What amount of watts do they use the battery itself ? How efficient
Ive no idea , but the inverters loose some energy through heat.
I have had my SolaX Pylontech set up for 3.5 years, my observed round trip efficiency is around 93-94%, i'm in the central belt of Scotland and manage to be self sufficient from early Feb 'till early Nov and top up the Pylons every 2 or 3 days depending on the weather Nov-Jan. Make sure you get your base load down and only buy A++ rated appliances, slow cooker, air fryer, 1 cup kettle and led lighting, it's a total package. I've seen people on FB pages with 25-30 kWh daily usage trying to cover that with solar, FWIW, I've averaged 4 MWh a year generation from a 3.7 kW inverter, 5.3kWp array and 19.2 kWh (400 Ah) battery.
We can get better rack mount batteries here in Canada today. 6-14 Kwh units. for $2400-$6700 LifePo4 chemistry so safe and durable. I wish we could get the equipment you have access to in the UK with sunamp and myenergy etc. We have nothing that compares to it here.
Ive personally sent a message to Jorden ( who i know well) at Myenergi, and shes looking at Canada 👍😉
With the latest energy prices my system should pay for itself in 4 years. However, I’m struggling to get the off peak battery top up configured and it’s still drawing some peak time power when it should be all off peak. Any advice?
Hi connie , im soon uploading a video on setting the solis hybrid inverter to charge my battries between 00.30 and 04.30, hope this will help you ?
We have about 3.5kW air source heat pump and it's an absolute KILLER as far as the electricity bill goes.
Just invested in a 7.5kW solar array and 24.6kWh of GivEnergy batteries. Will be interesting to see if this manages to reduce the bill significantly.
Key to heat pumps is really good insulation in the home. Thanks for your comments 🙂
Are you using weather compensation?
Hi Jonathan. I enjoyed this video about your solar setup at your home in Orkney. I saw you have a Panasonic heat pump AC heating/cooling system which you said heats your whole home in winter? We are getting a Fujitsu system installed in May and I wondered if I could ask you about your system? What heating/cooling power is it? BTU or KW? You have 2 indoor units? What heating output can each provide. On the coldest winter's day, does it really heat your whole house (other than your heated towel rail in your bathroom)? Is your house very highly insulated like an "eco house"? How much electrical power does the Panasonic system consume when on full heating, and how much energy does it use on a typical winter's day? We are getting a 24,000BTU (7.1kW) multi-split system with 3 indoor units, 12,000BTU (3.5kW) in the kitchen diner, and another 12,000BTU in the lounge, and a 7,000BTU (2kW) in our main bedroom. We plan to provide individual heating, if needed, in other less frequently used rooms using Far IR radiant panels of between 700W and 900W as required, with individual room thermostatic controllers. Sorry for all the questions but I am really interested to see how you get on with your air to air heating system in the depths of winter. We have a 4kWp PV system (expanding to 6.4kWp later this year), and 19.2kWh (15kWh usable to 80% DOD) of Pylontech batteries, and an Economy 7 tariff for overnight charging in Winter. We plan to "retire" our oil fired combi this year and replace it with a 250L Mixergy tank, and PV diverter. Also hope to add a 12kWh electric storage heater in the downstairs hallway, as a "thermal store" for use on sunny days in the shoulder months, (Oct/Nov, and Feb/March) when the sun might shine a lot to "charge" it, and heating is still needed, and maybe selectively overnight in the coldest depths of winter to supplement the Fujitsu heat pump/IR panels if the weather forecast looks to be particularly cold. 🙂. Thanks for all your PV/sustainable encouragement. Very best wishes, Paul Buglass, York, UK.
Very good video very informative. I still have a few questions, i hope you can help,
so your extra Solis has a DC to DC charger for the batteries, How does that work with the Eddi for the hot water? Doesnt the Eddi not use CT clamps AC?
Can you charge batteries at same time from solar edge and solis? Can the Solis dump the kwh back to the grid too to make up the 4KWH.
Excellent video.
I'm considering Sunamp for instant hot water, charged via excess solar. Would be interested in your feedback.
Thanks
No regrets on my sunamp set up !
Hello Jonathan. I think you got a great setup there. But I don't understand the usefulness of the smaller power inverter. Could you explain to me when you use it?
Basically the smaller 4kW inverter is grid tied and so 'can' export a max of 3.68kW onto the grid as an 'overflow' if i make too much. The larger hybrid inverter is for filling the pylontec batteries and everthing else.
This keeps the DNO happy 😊
Thanks, first time I’ve viewed your site. Really enjoyable, also an enthusiast. I unfortunately only have a 2.0KW array presently with a Zappi charger and Hyundai Kona EV. It seems like the Zappi only charges from the array when producing over 1.4KW. If not and the house on using say 0.6KW, it dumps the excess to the grid and not the car. Is this your understanding please? Pete
Hi peter , and thanks for watching . EVs will only charge from 1.4kWs , anything less and the car doesnt charge. Have a look at heating your hot water with your set up too , the eddi will divert every tiny bit of excess solar into heating your water , ie an immersion tank.
@@JonathanPorterfield Thanks so much for the reassurance. We have a Worcester Bosch flat plate solar hot water system to a twin coiled tank. It does have an Emerson heater so will investigate the Eddie. A company are coming round next week to advise if we can fit more PV to the west side, which is the only roof space left. I was reading a paper from Sheffield University to say west facing only slightly less output than the ideal. Pete
hi ,i am looking to put solar on my roof but the front is facing east and back faces west ,in your video when your batteries are full and you back feed the grid do they pay you anything even though you said you were not using feed in tariff
Hi ian , no FIT payments, my electrons will go back to grid and go to the nearest demand, ie my neighbours, whos meters spin when they 'use' my electricity from my panels , and their suppliers will charge them for electricity used !
Strange world eh ! 🤔
I’m having a similar solar PV-setup in south of Stockholm. But we get about the amount of what electricity cost +some extra to sell it to the grid daytime. I charge the car at night and use washing machine, dishwasher on timer to run at night. What do you get from exporting to the grid in the UK? Wondering since you say you avoid ”dumping” it to the grid. I would use energy storage as a buffer running at night filling in the morning and evening peaks here. Not to put solar energy into it.
Hi, if the grid went down does your solar system shut down slso ? I know having batteries will give you a couple of days electric but then what ? If your grid was off for a couple of weeks do you have some sort of way of switching over to solar only ?
Yes , i still need an earth rod , so when the grid is 'off' i can run off my batteries, its coming soon !
Then i calculate with carefull use in summer months i could go for 7 days on battries alone, in winter around 24 hrs with heating etc.
Hi Jonathan, thanks for such an informative and enthusiastic video. The setup in our house, in the Borders, is similar with an Eddi, Zappi and 3.7kW of PV through an SMA inverter. I'm ready to install a battery based on Pylontech and a Solis hybrid inverter. In time I'll add more PV connected to the Solis inverter but meantime I want to be able to charge the battery from the excess power which the existing PV system generates, and overnight through the Octopus Go low rate. I've studied the Solis install manuals and asked Solis support and a few installers but haven't yet had an answer to my question. Your system is so close to what I plan that maybe you can answer. Can the Solis hybrid inverter charge the battery with the excess power from the existing PV system? To do this it would have to monitor the import / export power and vary the charge rate to the battery to use all the excess power, resulting in zero export or import. It can certainly do this with the PV panels connected directly to it but it's not clear if it can also do it with an external PV system (like your top row of panels). On your system it would be equivalent to switching off the PV connected to the Solis and seeing if the battery gets charged with the excess power from the top row of PV. Have you seen this happening?
Many thanks in anticipation as I'm keen to get moving with the battery system.
Hi. I think the Solis Hybrid Inverter does do this. If it sees power going to the grid, and has battery capacity, then it will charge the battery even if the excess power is from a different inverter/source. The hybrid can only get so much charge into the batteries, so if you've got all your PV generating lots of power, you may have more than the hybrid can push into the battery system.
Very informative, I also live in Orkney and wondered who did your install. Looking for a similar system and later in the year an ev . Seems like a no brainier to use Octopus these days.
Thanks Nick for your comments 👍
Have you got 8 x 3.5kW Pylontech batteries = 28kW battery storage? If so, what are you doing up in Orkney to ever need to pull off the grid (growing cannabis?)😁
We're ALL electric, and last time i looked in the loft , i wasn't growing anything up there 🤣🤣
I did math on return on investment. While there are many assumptions and variables -- I projected low to mid teen percentage. That was on electricity price of 15p. I'm paying 28p today and probably more come October. So ROI is probably in high teens now, may be low 20s. If your investment portfolio did that you'd be very happy. As best part is -- it is tax free.
Thanks for posting....great info
Glad it was helpful!
Hi. Can I ask? Is the solis dc coupled and the 3.6 inverter ac coupled? And would love to see a schematic of how it is all connected? 🙏😌Many thanks.
Hi Nigel Both are ac coupled. hybrid is master unit and monitors non hybrid inverter output.
I've had 5.2kw of PV since 2016, JA 290's with a fronius inverter $6k and i also had a Tesla powerwall2 with gateway installed August 2017 $10805.35 fully installed, a sanden heatpump hotwater system $4k.
I get 6.7 -7.0mwh per year. I have a free grid ev charging plan sat Sunday midday to 2pm.
The electric companies use this to burn off excess solar. At a guess I think that I've spent $200 bucks on electrics since 2016.
Brilliant, information rich video. I note you mention that your Solis Hybrid can shut off ,rather than export... how is this managed, is there a certain attachment.. I have a similar set up 1x Solis normal inverter and 1 x Solis hybrid. Also is there a limit to the Pylontech qty of batteries.. one person said 8 was the limit ? Also re charging the batteries at night using the cheap rate, can this be managed from the app ?
Sorry for all the questions
Regards James
All the settings for export etc are set on the panel of the inverter.
The time to charge battries from the grid are also set video the hybrid inverters screen.
The app is only to see the state of charge in the battries.
Nice video. What stops the hybrid inverter exporting to the grid when your batteries are fully charged?
The grid 'only' sees the small inverter , and its how chris my sparky has wired it up , ill ask him to comment too !
The hybrid inverter is G100 compliant so monitors import and export and has grid limitation built in. It is set at 3.6kw so not to go over the agreed G98 limit. If the other 3.6kw inverter is exporting less than the limit it will feed some out to grid up the max 3.6kw.
@@wirebrigade4306 thank you
Thank you again for the lovely video. How do you prioritise which device gets Solar energy first please? Is it Sunamp, or the eddie or the battery? I have a 3.92kwp solar power and a solar iboost. Thinking of getting a system similar to you to store energy in a battery. Thank you so much.
Hi which Solis model do you have
Yes plz, I have the same question!
These ...RHI-5K-48ES- 5G
and 1P 3.6K-4G
Hi, may i ask does your setup still use the grid power even if your batteries are full ?
A very small amount as it needs a small amount for the inverters to 'talk' to the grid and its earthed to grid too. Next project is to install an earth rod , so when we have a power cut ( in a storm for example ) we can use the battery's power safely.
Hi Jonathan, I had to search back the videos to find this one as I've just had a battery system fitted in a cupboard and was wondering about fitting a fan. Can I ask how much of a difference having a fan makes, do you notice a significant reduction in temperature once it kicks in? Thanks you
Hi , yes the extraction fan does help a lot , if its a really hot day , i crack open the front door to allow fresh air to come into the porch , then air is replaced easily in my cupboard.
Thanks, I'll look into it. Ive added a few vents into the cupboard door in the meantime. Makes for a good heating cupboard for drying clothes at least 😆
Great overview of your system. We are at the start for a Passive house off grid build when complete but at the mo just setting up for our static
so have a 3.5kw grid a cheap mpp inverter with pylontech battery to start.
will be looking at 25k array and 12 pylontech with GSHP and borehole trying as much to be off grid
one question regarding the pylontechs we only have 1 at the moment looking to by another next month i have found every now and again it goes to sleep during the night
but when you switch it on it has 3 lights still so 50% full, have you come across this before as not much info on this Cheers
I've not heard of this before re the pylontec shutting down , maybe a comms / sorfware issue ?