The solar industry has come a long way in the last decade. Solar panels are a fantastic and affordable investment due to the steady drop in solar prices over many years. With increasing energy bills you can gain independence from the grid and expensive fossil fuels by installing solar power on your home.
Once you have invested in solar panels, it’s important to understand how you can get the most out of them. You may need to reassess how you consume electricity in order to reap the greatest benefit. Here are some of the ways you can do this:
Use more electricity during the day
To make the most of the electricity generated it’s best to do your domestic tasks during the day. This can include such washing, dishwashing and ironing all when your solar PV system will be working at its peak. This is effectively free electricity, once the cost of installation is accounted for.
Electricity that you don’t use will export back to the grid. If you’re out, its worth using timers for appliances such as your washing machine, tumble dryer and dishwasher. Different appliances will use varying amounts of electricity to run. Depending on how much energy is being produced it is also a good idea to stagger high-wattage appliances. This might mean waiting for your washing machine to finish before running the dishwasher.
Sign up to the Smart Export Guarantee
The Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) pays you for renewable electricity you have exported to the National Grid. It has replaced the Feed-in Tariff (FIT) scheme, which still pays many solar panel owners for electricity. All licensed energy companies that have 150,000 customers or more are required to participate in SEG since 2020.
To benefit from the SEG you must provide evidence that your generating equipment and installation is MCS (Microgeneration Certification Scheme) certified. Your installation must be 5MW capacity or less. you’ll need a meter that can provide half-hourly readings for electricity export. SEG tariffs can be fixed or variable. A fixed SEG tariff will pay a determined rate per kWh of electricity exported over the length of the contract. A variable SEG tariff will vary the price based on market demand. The only requisite of this is that prices never fall below zero.
Install a Smart Meter
Smart meters measure the amount of energy used by your property like a traditional meter. The information is then automatically delivered to your energy supplier via wireless communication. This does away the need for estimated bills. Smart meters come with an In-Home Display (IHD). This gives clear visibility of how much energy is being used in your property in near real-time. This means that you can see what your solar usage is and act on reducing it which could potentially save you money on your energy bills.
Improve your overall energy efficiency
Relatively low-cost and simple options such as insulation and LED lighting can make a big difference to the overall efficiency of your home. Replacing older style lighting with LEDs can payback within just 2-3 years as they use far less energy. Making sure that your roof, loft and walls are insulated will help keep the heat in your home for longer.
Tree shading
It is important to check that your solar panel system hasn’t become shaded by trees or vegetation. Even shading in one area can have an impact on the overall performance of your system.
Check your inverter
Solar inverters are the hardest-working component of a solar array. The basic function of a solar inverter is to convert the direct current (DC) electricity produced by your solar PV panels to alternating current (AC) electricity that can be used in your home and exported back to the grid. Its job is to maximise the available energy being generated from your solar panels.
You should choose a good quality solar energy inverter as it is an essential part of your solar panel set up. It is intelligent equipment that connects to your system and should be easily accessible. Most inverters now have internet connection capability. This means you can monitor your system online, even when you’re away. The technology can allow you to track your energy use and production. You can also check your system’s health, encouraging you to be more sustainable and save more money.
Install a PV diverter
If you are exporting a lot of electricity to the grid you will want to use more of it. Installing a PV diverter will allow you to use that surplus electricity to power the immersion heater in your hot water tank, storing hot water for you to use later. This has proved to be an effective way of getting free hot water from solar PV. By monitoring incoming supply from the mains, these devices see when electricity is going back to the grid and redirect that energy to an immersion heater, making better use of your free Solar PV energy.
Typically, this is the least expensive upfront cost option for increasing in-home use especially if you install the diverter at the same time as your solar panels. The Eddi is a good example of one of these devices. It is an energy management system which can be used with grid-tied PV systems. It acts as an automatic power controller that diverts surplus power to a designated area – normally a hot water heater but can also be under floor heating, a towel rail or electric radiator, to save energy and minimise your utility bills. The Eddi system is fitted with a clear, graphical LCD display that will detail your saving information.
Install battery storage
Installing a battery is a great way to make sure you don’t waste any of the electricity you generate. There will be times when your PV system will inevitably generate more electricity than you need. With solar batteries you can maximise your ability to use the electricity generated by your solar panels on a day-to-day basis. This means that during times when you need more electricity than your solar panels are producing such as late in the day or at night you can use the energy stored in your battery. As you are using all the electricity you generate with your solar panels rather than sending it back to the grid you will be able to save on the amount of electricity you import so reducing your energy bills.
If you are installing a battery system to an existing PV system you should make sure that any changes to the overall system don’t affect your existing Feed-in Tariff payments. Many people are still being paid for the electricity they generate, and export to the grid through the feed-in tariff system. However, if you can store some of your surplus electricity and use it at a time when you need it, you will still get paid the same for your export but will spend less on electricity bills for your import.
Batteries are not cheap. The value will depend on how much energy you use, when you use it and how much you generate. Prices are expected to come down significantly over the next few years but for the moment you need to calculate the overall cost of installing battery storage with a solar PV system and whether it is worth it to you.
Combine with other renewable systems
- Solar thermal systems use the energy from the sun to heat up water to use in your home. They way they work is quite simple. They absorb the heat from the sun with panels that are called solar collectors. The heated water or heat-transfer fluid then runs from the collectors to your hot water cylinder. This way a solar water heating system can provide your home with free heated water.
- Solar panels and electric vehicles work very well together. If you’re at home during the day, your electric vehicle can be charged directly from your solar PV system. However, if you plan to charge your car at night, you’ll need a domestic solar battery storage system to store the energy generated throughout the day. To efficiently charge an electric vehicle using solar panels, you’ll need to install a home charging unit and a PV inverter unit which converts solar energy into electricity.
