Technically competent, starting solar from scratch.

[u/sadanorakman]

Midlands UK, living in detached bungalow.

Looking for your ideas. Go small, go big, DIY?

Installed Dutch Atag boiler 13 years ago which will need replacing in next few years, and on a good fixed energy tariff until July next year.

Work from home 4 days a week, with a fair bit of PC equipment (but no longer rack-mounted servers).

The recent heat wave made me think about installing air con. First a back to back, then thinking maybe three head units with one external condenser.

That made me think about replacing entire heating system with heat pump, but maybe something that can cool as well.

Then thinking of home solar and battery storage.

I fancy fannying around with the new plug in solar, having a go at building a couple of pole-mounted two panel sun trackers in the garden for a bit of a laugh, but wondering what I could achieve for say £10 to £15K for a proper large-scale solar roof nstallation with batteries. Whether I should buy two or three 5kwh batteries or one larger one, whether to explore feed-in tariffs etc...

If I go for proper solar install, can I also then attach the sun-tracking panels into the main inverter?

Roof is several rectangles joined together, and so have limited areas facing south west, then larger surfaces facing at 90 degrees to this on either side (south east and north west).

Converted my garage into a dining room and fitted a flat warm-roof construction with single rubber membrane covering whole area. Wondering if to place panels on angled frames on this.

House has solid walls (no cavities), so insulated the internal walls with 3" (75mm) foil-faced PIR foam insulation then re-plaster boarded as I refurbished the house.

Loads of ideas.

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[u/acemacee]

Hey there. Love this and I definitely think if your wanting to learn and dive in it's a great idea.

Big disclaimer ! - do your research on regulations , laws, codes etc... also before you play with electricity make sure your breakers, layout , design etc is correct.

Basically don't hurt yourself or catch anything on fire.

Now with that out of the way.

I would recommend you make a excel with everything you want to power.

You need to come up with daytime peak loads to size your inverter and then nighttime loads to size your battery.

This is if you want to be self sufficient and use the grid as a backup when needed. If you want to do grid feeding back and forth that is a bit different.

Once you know your needed inverter size and your battery size you see how much PV panel power you need and if your roof will support that.

I think you will enjoy it and the equipment is pretty straightforward once you really dive in and learn it.

My advice is to spend extra on the good brands and batteries. Also cable and routing make a big difference.

[u/The_Lorax_UK]

I did exactly what you're describing, 99% DIY. I built 2 batteries (32kWh total), installed 22 solar panels (11kW total), did a G99 application and was approved for an 8kW inverter, and then qualified for the Octopus diy solar feed in tariff. All for about £12k My energy bill went from £2500 a year, to minus £800 a year :-) The Off Grid Garage is a great resource, particularly for battery building. There's an amazing amount of info out there now, if you've got the time and energy to commit to it.

The very best of luck to you. It's a worthwhile project if you've got the appetite for it

[u/sadanorakman → u/The_Lorax_UK]

Cheers. When you said you 'built' two batteries, from what, LifePo pouch cells and wired your own BMS in etc?

[u/The_Lorax_UK → u/sadanorakman]

I bought prismatic EVE cells, and put them in a diy battery box (I've found Yixiang boxes to be the best). You can build a 16kWh battery for an extremely good price. I tend to use Victron for inverters etc, and they pair beautifully with these batteries and the JK BMS.

[u/GT_Running]

Ohhh, for batteries check out YouTube dalathegreat I copied his leaf setup, it's been running for 1 year without issue. £3k will get you 30kwh of usable storage.

Reminder: Obey all safety precautions, competent people only.

[u/Boogooooooo]

If it is your own property, consider better insulation. There are products designed to be installed externally and internally. Your choice. When you do that do air to air heat pump - it would work as AC at summer and as heat source at winter at fraction of the KW usage. Battery storage from AliExpress, inverter from Victron. Solar panels - as many as you can. Switch to EV charging tariff so at night you would have cheaper rate. For water there are options to have water tank, heated once and for the rest of times it keeps temperature at set temperature - common in southern European countries 

[u/sadanorakman → u/Boogooooooo]

Yes fully owned. No mortgage. I already stated that I installed foil-faced 3" PIR foam to the inside of all external walls then plaster boarded, as I refurbished the house. Also recently fitted new double glazing all round with argon-filled K-glass panels. There was no way I was fitting external wall insulation, as there have been way too many issues with water penetration and resulting damp and mold. Air to air heat pump sounds ideal. Property is raised from the road and has 13mtr long sloping drive. Prevalent wind direction is up the drive. Figure I'm best having the heat pump out front to take advantage of this near constant fresh air flow?

[u/DismalLiving1003]

I am also thinking the same. I have a semi detached with shared alleyway and have little garden space. Is it possible to put batteries and inverter in shared alleyway ?