Keep FiT tariff or get battery storage?

[TPMB12]

We moved into a house a year ago with solar power installed under the original scheme where half the possible generation gets b paid for whether you use more than half yourself or not. It's a good deal but is there a better option with battery storage?

I assume tariffs go out the window with storage. But will it work out cheaper or more expensive long term? We found our smart meter showed only the daily standing order until 930pm some days before we drew from the grid,  other times we were drawing all day.

So does anyone have some knowledge or experience of this? Any advice,  comments or suggestions?

[felstedrider]

For this to really work you need to make sure the smart meter is switched to half-hourly metering.  You can then have time of day tariffs and can work out whether to charge or export.  As far as the FiT goes, they are usually paid at the point of generation so it doesn’t matter whether you export, use the energy on-site or charge a battery.

There was a supplier - Social Energy - that specialised in this but they were one of the exits last year.  Your best bet might be Octopus who do have some clever tariffs, or maybe Ovo.

I haven’t looked at the cost of domestic storage for a while.  There’s the Tesla power wall and Duracell did have a solution.

[aidan.f]

You need to leave the existing solar 'as installed' and fit an AC coupled battery  storage system. It's just slightly less efficient and lower peak power  than hybrid converters
I'm waiting for my giv energy AC 3.0 to arrive....
https://www.givenergy.co.uk/products

[lissotriton]

A hot water tank could be a simpler/better value option for storing energy, instead of batteries.

[Polar Bear]

A hot water tank could be a simpler/better value option for storing energy, instead of batteries.

or even a Sunamp battery.

[chrisbainbridge]

If you have a hot water tank then this is a quick and easy win. As soon as you start returning electricity to the grid it kicks in and heats your hot water.

[ElyDave]

Our excess goes into the hot water, seems to work fairly well

[Polar Bear]

Given the increasing cost of mains electricity and presumably little or no shift in what you are paid on feed in, if we had solar (we are contemplating it) then I'd be looking at using 100% of what we generate.

[Canardly]

Will be looking at trickle charging an immersion heater here as we still use a system boiler with HW cylinder and using what we will generate if at all poss. Our current provider is OVO who only pay 4p per kw/h whereas Tesla is 10p. Will see what the batteries cost in due course but they ain't cheap.

[Wombat]

A hot water tank could be a simpler/better value option for storing energy, instead of batteries.

But you can't power your house in the evenings off a hot water tank!  Yes, its a form of storage (and avoidance of actually paying money to heat your water) that I use, but its nowhere near as useful as battery storage, which can run your lights, TV, etc for the evening.  I'm hoping to get battery storage at some point in the next year or two.  I will not be using Tesla products, largely because I consider Elon Musk to be an utter tosser and control freak, who won't let customers have any control over what they have bought.

[aidan.f]

If you have FIT you cannot receive additional battery export payments.

I like the GivEnergy battery systems for two reasons. UK design, excellent support, my enquiries answered in minutes plus comprehensive technical documentation regularly updated. Thobut like stuff these days control and monitoring  is via  their servers:-(

[Wombat]

Will be looking at trickle charging an immersion heater here as we still use a system boiler with HW cylinder and using what we will generate if at all poss. Our current provider is OVO who only pay 4p per kw/h whereas Tesla is 10p. Will see what the batteries cost in due course but they ain't cheap.

Dunno about "trickle" charging, from mid-March to some time late in the year, all of our hot water is provided by the overspill from solar, the rest of the time its just most of the hot water.  On a really piss-poor day, we might need to run the boiler to heat it for 45 mins or so.  18.2 kWH generated yesterday.  Water is fully hot (about 65 deg C) already today.  We do not have children, so no water temp safety issues, and the higher the temp, the more storage you effectively have.

I've just taken an initial look at GivEnergy, i'll be investigating further.  A question is, can a battery system be configured to wait till the water is hot before it takes charge?  This does of course raise a question for winter months, which gets priority, hot water, or running the telly and lights in the evening?

[Kim]

Water is fully hot (about 65 deg C) already today.  We do not have children, so no water temp safety issues, and the higher the temp, the more storage you effectively have.

Stored hot water should be above 60C anyway, as lower promotes the growth of legionella.  If there's a temperature safety issue, it's best addressed with thermostatic mixer valves at point of use.

[Canardly]

65 deg C is the usual set point for a cylinder stat.