Category: Green energy

With 2024 well and truly over, that completes my first calendar year with solar panels. Was it worth it? Absolutely

Over the course of 2024, I generated 105% of the electricity I used. Not much more to say than that really!

This is pretty much what my bills have looked like for the past 5 years (2020 is estimated as I don’t have the information for the full year)

Some numbers across the year

	Grid import	Solar generated	Grid export	House usage
Best day (kWh)	0.05	30.08	22.99	5.2
Worst day (kWh)	24.53	0.34	0.05	17.3
Total (kWh)	2544.61	3862.08	2363.81	3671.2

My net grid usage was around 200kWh, previous years were anything from 3,300kWh to 3,600kWh

I don’t think there’s much more to say here. Get solar panels if you can! And also get a battery to store the energy which will allow you to buy off-peak to store for use during peak periods

As I mentioned previously, I don’t think a heat pump is for me. But, as I generated more electricity that I used I have decided to get some infrared heating installed. I’m just working through getting that set up and will see how it works out!

Back in November 2023, I got solar panels installed along with a ‘solar’ battery – I don’t like the term ‘solar battery’ as it’s not a thing. The battery isn’t solar, and doesn’t require solar. It’s literally a battery.

I’m UK based, so I used a solar calculator from the Energy Saving Trust to see if my roof would be viable for panels – I did see a roof around where I live that faced the same way as mine, but they only have panels on one side of their house. I wanted to see if I could have more panels installed.

It turned out that my roof is South-East and North-West facing, both are suitable for having solar panels installed on them. However, even though I specifically asked, most quotes I got didn’t accomodate for panels on the North-West side of the roof, which was frustrating. In fact, only two installers listened to what it was that I wanted.

Continue reading Ooh, I got solar!