11 months in - my update

oojohoo1 · 06-05-2023 4:55pm #1

Hi all,

So, I would just like to give my two cents to how I found the solar since install at the end of May last year.

Array size: 7kW.

Battery size: 2.4kw Pylontech ( missed the battery grant by two weeks ☹).

Inverter: Solis Hybrid 6kW.

Cost: €13,459 after grant (Yes, I know some got it for a lot cheaper, but that’s the cheapest we could get it for out in the sticks).

Solar PV panels direction: South South West

All in all, its better that what we were expecting. We have spent €125 on electricity in 11 months. That compares with €992.69 for the previous year.

From June 22 to April 23, we have “saved” €1036.29. But I wouldn’t really start call it savings until the system has paid itself off, which it should do in less than 10 years if prices stay approx. the same and export prices stay about the same.

At present, we don’t think an extra 2.4kWh battery would pay for itself.

Imported from the grid 456.36kWh

Lets say we would like to reduce our import by 50% which would seem reasonable which would be 228.18kWh

228.18kWh @ 0.2965perkWh is €67.65. Not sure if the extra battery would ever pay for itself. That would change though if we were to ever go for an EV car, but that won’t be for approx. 5 years for ourselves.

It does seam like a waste sending all that energy back to the grid, but it just wouldn't pay to get another 2.4kWh battery into the rack. We knew the system we were getting was bigger than what our needs, but we said we would do it once, and not go back changing it in 5-10years time when our needs changes.

Our total CEG/FET payment are €568.24 up to March 2023. SSE may be giving good export rates, but the payments are so slow. Hopefully, this year their systems are up to speed with things and there is no delays.

Even in March with clear skies, we were maxing out at 6kW generation at times.

I've added a few snippets of graphs below and attached my excel file that gives a more detailed breakdown if anyone would like to compare or see if this type of a setup would work for them.

CostsVsSavings.xlsx

Below is a graph showing how many days in each month we generated.

Below is showing how much kWh we imported each month

Below is how much we exported back to the grid each month.

Galego · 07-05-2023 7:23am

Quick question. Have you paid for fit yet?

oojohoo1 · 07-05-2023 11:55am

Hi, sorry I don't know what you mean. Do you been have I been paid for the exported energy?

Galego · 07-05-2023 5:07pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120565144#Comment_120565144

Sorry I mistyped that yes have you been paid for fit from sse yet?

I am with them too and they keep giving me excuses rather paying.

oojohoo1 · 07-05-2023 7:11pm

Hi,

Yes, we got our first payment in March 23. That payment was for up to Sept 22.

Oct 22 - April 23 payment is expected in May bill(hopefully🤞). I was told our first payment would be in Nov 22, but it didn't arrive till March, so I won't be getting my hopes up.

Not sure when you signed up with SSE or started generating. But that may be the reason also.

Galego · 07-05-2023 8:32pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120566594#Comment_120566594

I signed up in October and should have been first paid in November but they said they'll include this period in their may payment :-(

I lost all faith I just try to send back as little as I can back to the grid.

oojohoo1 · 08-05-2023 8:27am

Hi,

Yes, I feel your pain. SSE customer service is pretty much non existent. 6 weeks to reply to an email for me :/. Below is from the SSE website.

Customers owed payment from 2022 have now had their accounts credited in January 2023. This payment was calculated between the months of February to September 2022 (customers eligible during these months will have been paid accordingly).

The next payment for 2023 will be applied in May. This payment will be for the months October 2022 to April 2023 (customers eligible during these months will be paid accordingly).

The third payment for 2023 will be applied in November. This payment will be for the months May to October 2023 (customers eligible during these months will be paid accordingly).

This credit payment will appear on your bill as CEG payment. Once the credit is applied to your account, this will appear on your next bill. If you either changed supplier or moved property within these times, you’ll still receive your CEG payment which will appear on your final bill. The rates applied to your export will be reviewed twice yearly.

DownByTheGarden · 08-05-2023 10:12am

Is that €123 including the €800 from the govt and the standing charge and the PSO levy which has been reversed this year?

Im still waiting on our FIT. How do you pay the tax on it?

oojohoo1 · 08-05-2023 11:46am

Hi,

I have not included the amount received from the Government Support Scheme in this breakdown as it wouldn't give a true breakdown.

I'm not aware of how tax will be paid. I don't think there has been any information released by gov on this, and I wont be going asking for it either ;).

JaCrispy · 08-05-2023 4:37pm

Thanks for the realistic figures been shown. I've seen some people erroneously attribute every kWh of PV produced as a saving based on the cost of their unit rate from their supplier. I'm in a similar situation to you except that I have an Eddi and determining savings that go to my Eddi is a little harder to calculate. Stick in an EV and this complicates things evern further.

I've been keeping my own payback calculation. Install of 7.3kw with 5kw battery, 3 optimisers, eddi, BER etc..... 13k including VAT after grant. Install late November and I'm currently sitting at nearly €600 saved.....my hope is to have €1500 by end of November this year but it's looking highly unlikely. I'm looking at roughly a 10 year paypack unfortunately.

08-05-2023 6:30pm

@JaCrispy and @oojohoo1 neither of you have stated hat unit prices will most likly increase over the next few years. This which will reduce the payback and increase the FIT rates too.

Time will tell!

oojohoo1 · 08-05-2023 6:45pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120571597#Comment_120571597

Hi,

I have thought about it, but just using current prices as a base point. I doubt electricity prices will get much higher than they are at the moment. If Ukraine/Russian war is ended in 5 years time and nothing else out of the ordinary, you would have to imagine prices would go back to normal levels with the inflation % added.

Not even God knows though.. But we all know what we will be paying if the Green's are still about :/

in 2021 I was paying 17c per kWh. Now paying 29c per kWh.

08-05-2023 7:06pm

Somehow I don't see prices ever returning to "normal". As more wind turbines are connected to the grid I would expect the cost per unit to increase.

oojohoo1 · 08-05-2023 8:47pm

That is the rabbit hole one finds themselves of trying to predict energy prices..

One could say, when less of a focus is on energy prices in 3-4years time and the government sees all the money people are getting for exporting energy. We will have to start paying tax on it, therefore increasing the pay back time on your Solar install.

Or it could be done sooner once a new government is in place, they can land a few extra taxes on us straight away, cause they know they have 5 years ahead of them.

con747 · 08-05-2023 9:24pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120572213#Comment_120572213

There is already a tax to be paid after you receive more than €200 FIT as it is, this can be circumvented by adding extra names on your account if eligible because each name on the account has a €200 exemption afaik. Nobody will be getting rich on FIT with small systems 4-11kWp that are being talked about here. It will take the sting out of a few winter bills is about all.

09-05-2023 8:00am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120572350#Comment_120572350

Interesting, how is that tax imposed? Do you mean add additional names to the electricity suppliers account, such as the names of other people living at the same address?

09-05-2023 8:10am

We had our solar panels fitted nearly four years ago, cost nearly nine thousand, we have noticed a saving of around 7-800 per year. My main worry is as the years pass by will the panels become less effective or will we be told we have to upgrade.

DC999 · 09-05-2023 9:18am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120573232#Comment_120573232

Nah, they drop in output very, very marginally AFAIK. So you can leave them there forever. Inverer will die at some point and need to be replaced. That costs 500 to 1k type thing. But panels themselves will keep going.

Would only need to upgrade the panels IF you decide to get higher output ones that will be available in time. Could then move the older lower output ones (lower to what will come in time) to a shed if you wanted. So still could get use from them.

oojohoo1 · 09-05-2023 11:23am

Uh, Did not realize we have to pay tax on anything over €200 :/..

I better have a look into it and see what I can get away with. I think it should be done fairly easy on ROS.

con747 · 09-05-2023 5:58pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120573218#Comment_120573218

AFAIK you self declare it, and yes if you have 2 people or maybe more living at the same address you can have both names on the account to avail of €200 each.

DownByTheGarden · 11-05-2023 11:11am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120575702#Comment_120575702

I heard you dont even need names on the account. Every person living in the house is using the solar, so the say there are 2 adults and 2 children living in the house. That solar is generating for each one of them and should be divided by 4. Take the money that you made and dish it out between the 4. Then whoever owes tax on it can pay tax on what they generated and were paid for.

DownByTheGarden · 11-05-2023 11:33am

We have solar just over a year now. Hard to calculate the savings though.

Cant compare it to last year as I was charging the car at work up to Feb last year.

Now charging the car off solar when i can. Also solar is feeding the hot water. Used gas for it before. So using far more electricity than we ever did now. Plus hot water is hot all the time instead of just heating what we need, so probably more going into that than we need in it.

So I asked a neighbor with a roughly same sized house and household, but without an EV how much their bills were for the last 12 months. They are interested in getting solar too so we were trying to work out the figures.

So we looked at their bills and paid about €2300 over the last year. May to May.

Our bills have been negative over the year even discounting the €800 from the government, we are €200 in credit at the moment. Im still owed about €500 for FIT and at the moment FIT is about €75 per month and may be more in the summer.

So taking all that into account I figure we are saving €2300 electricity + €500 FIT. Plus what goes into the car from solar but i havent been tracking that.

Since our system cost 10K after the grant I figure thats 3.5 years to payback. All very rough though. And you have to take the standing charge and tax out of the calculation too, but i think 3.5 to 4 years is about right. The batteries help keep the day units down too. System is 8.4kwh, 10 kwh battery, South.

con747 · 11-05-2023 11:51am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120582348#Comment_120582348

Any links to that from revenue? It was posted on some thread before the revenue link about the exemption being for those named on an account. I'm not sure how a child would self declare tax if that is correct.

This is from revenue.

“Act of 1999” means the Electricity Regulation Act 1999. (1) “generate” has the same meaning as in the Act of 1999. “micro-generation of electricity” means the use of renewable, sustainable or alternative forms of energy to generate electricity at a qualifying residence. “qualifying person” means an individual who purchases electricity for own use. In effect, this means the individual or individuals named on the electricity bill for the premises in question. “qualifying residence” means a residential premise (to include any garden or grounds) located in the State which is occupied by an individual as his or her sole or main residence during the year of assessment concerned. “residential premises” means a building or part of a building used as a dwelling. “renewable, sustainable or alternative forms of energy” has the same meaning as in the Act of 1999.

Link is in post #2357 here https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058094040/pv-feed-in-tariff/p79

DownByTheGarden · 11-05-2023 12:15pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120582538#Comment_120582538

No links at all that I know of. Is there anything to stop you putting a childs name on an electricity bill? Time to start making your kids pay for the electricity they use out of their pocket money :)

Also what about even rented houses with a few people in them. Whenever I rented we always had just one persons name on the bill. I guess nowadays it should be possible to have more names on it.

11 months in - my update

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