Interesting component choices in our heat pump.
It’s a Mitsubishi, so it looks like there is a Japanman influence…
It’s a Mitsubishi, so it looks like there is a Japanman influence…
Nice. Solis/Fogstar is high on my list. You didn’t happen to use Always Off Peak did you? I think they are based in Harpenden.
Also, in the context of that picture, the daisy-chained extension leads are very funny.
Yeah looks like the whole thing plays through a couple of cheap 10A mains extensions!
Yes it was Always Off Peak. I try to use local companies, and in this case I don’t think it cost me that much extra!
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Have you listened to them yet
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It should be something by ACDCACDC or thereabouts
I’m expecting veils lifted on the hifi
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Not with those extension leads you won’t.
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Would you recommend then? I may try to convince them to come up here because of their preference for that combo
They were very keen on referrals, so maybe that route would work? Happy to help.
In terms of recommendations, they seem good and good value. They had to add a couple of extra fuse boards as mine was full, and they did this for free. Conversely the installation is right next to the first board, so there’s no awkward cabling. Their communications were generally good.
Value? It cost £6300. The batteries and inverter would have cost me about £5500, and I think that £800 is good value for two electricians to spend a full day, plus some paperwork in advance. Sure I imagine they made a turn on the hardware, but still I’m dead happy.
The value to me is actually rather high. Let’s look at before and after:
I was on a standard tariff, as I didn’t have guaranteed parking and couldn’t always charge the car, so an EV tariff wasn’t worth it. I was paying about 26p for each of my 10k kWh, so about £2600.
Now I have an arrangement with the neighbour where I can charge my car using his space, and I let him charge for free. All my electricity will be at 7p, so I’ll be paying about £700, plus maybe £100 for the higher use charging his car.
In addition, I will use superchargers less, as I can charge more at home, and I can push some of the heating onto the air con units (wasn’t worth doing that before as gas heating is the same price as heat pumps at standard rate).
Overall I expect to save over £2k per year while this 7p tariff exists. I hope that’ll be long enough to repay it in 3-4 years.
Even if the current tariffs come to an end there will still be some kind of off peak saving to be had. I don’t expect the savings to go below £1k per year.
The batteries are guaranteed for ten years. I sized them generously, so even at 80% they should do a full day’s energy use. And adding extra ones later down the line is dead easy and cheap.
Finally, Always Off Peak did mention about some company that is offering a deal for battery owners where they pay £1 per kWh for short notice peak time availability. If that works then it could end up covering my whole electricity bill. Which would be nice!
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Sounds like Axl, octopus are doing a similar deal as well now.
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That’s Axle which I have posted about in here. I will contact you about a referral I want to see what the damage is on the heat pump will be first, but I may do the battery/inverter upgrade anyway if they’ll do the G99/G100. It would probably be like a new install as I would imagine the wiring would need an upgrade over what was put in for a 3.6kWh inverter.
Right, signed up for Axle, let’s see the money come rolling in!
Nice!
How many batteries would I need to fuel a heat pump using say 3000kWh/year and your current use for home and car.
I take it you are still on gas CH?
I’m still on gas central heating. That’s under consideration, but a heat pump conversion will be complex and expensive.
You really need to analyse your electricity bills in detail to work out your usage. I looked at my annual usage, subtracted the car (since the charger app gives you the number, that’s easy) and did a guesstimate for the air con as I know total usage but not times.
I think it’s sensible to over estimate, as then you’re covered for when the batteries wear a little, and you can prolong their life by not fully charging and discharging every day.
In my case the requirement was usually in the low 20s, so 32kWh of battery made sense to me. This allows for heavy days (back from holiday with loads of washing, that kind of thing).
While it’s fairly easy to add extra, as all the cabling is in place, it fitted with the battery sizes. Even two Tesla batteries would give only 27kWh, which would often be marginal.
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It’s fairly easy to derive and also depends whether you want full battery coverage for the day. I would say my peak electricity usage in winter is probably 25kWh. My plan is to get 32kWh of battery and have some headroom for energy arbitrage and natural battery degredation.
Today I only have 5.5kWh usable which is partly a function of what the battery market was like 5 years ago and the cost reductions/storage bumps available since.
When you had your first battery installed it was a reasonable size, but now I can’t see any reason to do just half the job. The batteries are so much cheaper and more reliable.
The only issue might be inverter size if you have a heat pump. My 8kW is sufficient for everything unless I’m running both ovens, the air con, washing machine, tumble drier, kettle and toaster. Unlikely! Add a heat pump, though, and you might want slightly more. Or just put up with some peak time electricity for those moments.
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Even my current inverter covers my house usage 98% of the day and it actually can’t deliver more than 3kW to AC. So an 8kW would easily cover a heat pump here.
I would like to chance my arm with a G99 app though to see what I could get away with on export over my current G98.
What have they allowed you?
They allowed me the full 8kW
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I’ve had a peak of 3580W today, although the 15m sampling means that you can’t see the full peak size. The broader peaks this morning were probably dishwasher and washing machine.
I think that 3kW would be marginal for me, 5kW probably ok.
A factor for me specifically, though, is that I don’t want it working hard and making noise.