Yeah nice to have some decent generation today although no neat graph as out panels are not south facing! Reminds me, now we are getting some reasonable export I need to remove the overnight battery charging!
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We also donât have south facing panels - like yours, theyâre on both sides of the roof, but strangely, we do get a neatish curve.
Yeah, I think its just some shading on the front panels from a gable end roof (and chimneys), we have had a few days with a smooth curve but not on a âpeakâ sunny day in June to show the full capability of the system,.
even on our high generation days (3 days just under 84kWh in June 2024) its not been sunny all day!
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To be fair, last year was rubbish for solar (lowest annual output since we had our panels in Nov 18).
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Closed out on 450kWh this month. To put that in perspective, last year we generated 311kWh 
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Best March since we got the panels (Nov 18). 493kWh here, more even than March 2020 which was 488kWh.
We will need to go some to beat May 2020âs total of 890kWh though.
1.05MWh here, although the Solar Edge Web App did a big update a week back and has reset all the figures⌠
And via the App
Iâd like to have gone to this. I was aware of it beforehand as FoL2 was involved somehow with arranging the electric buses that were used to get people there & away.
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Only by the wilfully wrong.
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Yeah, given the BBC are still reporting it as âofficials are still trying to work out whyâ that headline is egregious. I wish I could say I was shocked/surprised by this.
I suspect it will be something similar to this but on a bigger scale (and the underlying subtext is that fossil fuel generation a) is more likely to have old control systems and b) canât react to demand from spare capacity anything like as quickly as wind/solar).
Recap:
Just over 3 months ago had a 8kW heat pump installed by Octopus for ÂŁ500 (plus them getting the Boiler Upgrade Scheme dosh).
Background:-
Replaced 11 year old 24kW system boiler and 300L hot water cylinder with 8kWh Daikin Althema 3 and a heat pump compatible new 300L water cylinder.
The heat pump use started off in the cold weather of Jan / Feb and is now only on once a day to heat the Domestic Hot Water.
Same temperatures of both home and hotwater required and provided.
In fact the 24/7 nature of the heat pump has meant the home is much more comfortable!
Consistent even temperature everywhere.
Music loft is now warm all the time whereas before it was at around 10C winter time and we blasted heat in when we wanted to use it..
Feb and March bills have been lower than they would have been with gas!
In fact weâve reduced the direct debit to adjust accordingly and still we are building up too much of credit, so will reduce again!
Efficiencies:
So far the overall Coefficiency Of Performance for the period do far has climbed to 3.88.
The initial Octopus installer settings were not very efficient - Iâve enjoyed trimming the system for comfort and economyđ
I reckon weâll see an overall Seasonal COP of >4. But time will tell.
Usage:
We donât switch off during the higher tariff times but knock the Leaving Water Temperature back back a few degrees. Most efficient that way.
Come the warmer weather the heating is off of course.
The DHW runs daily to heat the water tank and uses 1 to 2kWh during the Octopus Cosy low tariff time - 1pm to 4pm / when the weather is warmest / heat pump efficiency is highest.
Weâre getting between 4 and 7 times more energy out then we put in for this!
At the new April electricity price of just over 14p/kWh and with gas around 7p/kWh and at best 0.95% efficiency.
You do the mathsđ
Octopus say weâve saved 1600kgs of CO2 since January.
Caveat: 10 year old house with very good insulation and UnderFloor Heating means water temps can be kept much lower than radiator systems (unless of course you have huge radiators).
Conclusion: for us / the property, ÂŁ500 was a no brainer.
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these posts just depress me, our house is too old and big to insulate well enough, guess we will have to wait for local scheme type energy generation
if anyone has tips on how to get the most out of the Octopus tracker tariff then please share - I have the apps which made a big difference to tracking down rogue usage which combined with the lowish rate at the mo (hoping it will get cheaper over time) has allowed us to halve our bill last winter so worth checking out
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Right
Itâs ÂŁ200 to get Octopus to come and quote for a heat pump. No risk as you get it back if you donât want one. Probably to put off time wasters.
So I am about to see what they say - no loss decision. The house is a modern self build and very well insulated. It has three floors and they range from cold (less sun) to hot so would benefit from zones.
We have a one boiler radiator system that is only on in winter for the rads (in summer itâs for water only). Loads of room to do it so no issue there.
Any reason to not even go there with the quote??
Operating noise levels is personally the only thing that I would need assuring of.
My main fear is cost of running and suitability.
The garden at the back has room to hide it away and noise wonât be any issue.
The house is usually so warm in summer we need it cooler, and in winter we would benefit from less imbalance across the whole building, which means heat at the bottom and less at the top.
Might not be mainstream but I read something about a system (air source heat pump I think) that can be run to cool in summer and heat in winter
Not a problem I suffer from as itâs always cool in our house even in 25 degree sunshine outside but might suit your need if itâs too warm in summer
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If you are on an EV overnight tariff and/or have battery storage then you can run a heat pump very cheaply. We only end up crashing the battery on days where it is close to freezing.
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