Here is my monthly report on how our solar panel system did in October. We have: * 20x400W panels = 8kW * 5kW inverter * 9.5kWh battery
This is the year so far:
| Month | Generated | Used | Exported | Imported |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 78kWh | 468kWh | 38kWh | 434kWh |
| February | 192kWh | 554kWh | 146kWh | 514kWh |
| March | 619kWh | 503kWh | 535kWh | 430kWh |
| April | 927kWh | 288kWh | 790kWh | 330kWh |
| May | 967kWh | 292kWh | 845kWh | 173kWh |
| June | 1044kWh | 332kWh | 1037kWh | 337kWh |
| July | 878kWh | 309kWh | 858kWh | 294kWh |
| August | 769kWh | 424kWh | 810kWh | 465kWh |
| September | 560kWh | 421kWh | 576kWh | 445kWh |
| October | 209kWh | 405kWh | 251kWh | 452kWh |
| November | 151kWh | 445kWh | 157kWh | 452kWh |
As the days get shorter the opportunities to generate solar power decrease, but our system still saves us money by allowing us to use off-peak electricity stored in the battery.
You may notice a gap in the middle of the month and I am not sure what happened there. Even on a dull day we usually generate something, but I cannot think what the weather was then. It is matching up in the inverter app, web site and the Octopus site. I know that I have not had to reset anything recently, but I will keep an eye out for such discrepancies.
We paid more for imports than we gained from exports, but that is to be expected in the winter months. There were several days when the car got charged up, including during the day on peak rate, but it still works out cheaper than petrol.
The government just announced in the budget that they are looking to charge EVs 3p per mile, but I do not know how they will operate that. This is to offset the revenue they are losing from the heavy duty on fuel. EVs will also be subject to the annual tax of £195. Petrol and diesel cars can pay a lot more depending on their emissions with a top rate of £760. Well that is for vehicles registered up to 2017. After that it seems you pay what can be a large amount in the first year and then it is £195 after that, I think. It has become more complex in recent years. We have an old Honda car so I had not been monitoring developments. Our next car is likely to be electric.
I have adjusted how much I dump from the battery in the evening as the system was switching to import as the battery got low. We can still earn a few extra pennies from that. Even with paying just £30 per month for gas and electricity we are still currently in credit and I am interested to see if that will last until our balance starts increasing again. It was just a number I came up with based on very little calculation so it may need some correction.
If you are in the UK and are considering changing energy provider then I can recommend Octopus. The also lease electric vehicles, so I would consider them for that too.
If you want a better deal on broadband then I can suggest Youfibre. We both get paid if you sign up through the link.
I plan to do a report on the whole year of solar in the new year as this will be my first full calendar year with it. Others do their reports in the Hive Solar Energy community. It would be interesting to hear about experiences in more countries.
Shine on!
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