r/SolarUK

Hello, I recently moved to a new build house with solar panels on the roof. The developer included manuals for everything but the solar system. He said he will ask the installers to visit us to walk us through things but I wondered if anybody could give me any insights in the meantime, or questions I should ask when they visit, as I have no previous experience of solar.

So the main isolator (big red dial) is set to ‘ON’ and next to this is an Emlite ECA2.z meter that has been stuck on 2.85kWh since I moved in. I checked online and it said that this unit has a red LED which flashes when power is being generated from the panels. The LED has been solid red since I moved in. I’ve never seen it flash.

We do not have a battery. This Emlite meter shows IMP and GEN on the display. The 2.85kWh is the GEN figure. It never cycles to IMP and there’s no buttons or anything on this device as far as I can see.

Outside on the side of the house is an electricity meter cupboard. The meter inside (ES-10B) cycles through IMPORT, EXPORT and BILL. The EXPORT figure is 00001 kWh and this has not changed since I moved in. The IMPORT figure is 00497 kWh.

I have not yet registered with an electricity supplier.

In the loft there is what I now know to be an inverter. Google images tells me this is a Fox ESS branded unit (I can’t get close to this as have no lift ladder yet!). Anyway, doing some reading on Fox inverters I downloaded the app and it ‘found’ the dongle and associated inverter which now appear on the app after I followed the steps and connected them to my WiFi.

Earlier today, the app was showing the solar panels generating power and ‘online’, but it could not show what was being used or exported as it said “there is no meter in the system, unable to calculate the values of grid and load”. It’s now showing as ‘offline’, presumably as it’s now dark!

My questions are…. Does this all sound normal? Should the Emlite meter be showing any changes rather than a static number? Does this setup allow for exporting surplus electricity to the grid? Do I have to get a special tariff for this? Does that 00001 EXPORT figure sound right?

As said above, the developer has been really helpful and am sure he’ll send the experts round soon enough, just trying to understand everything and maybe get a head start.

Thanks for any insights and/or advice!

hello everybody!

what a lovely subbreddit!

new to the game and wondering which battery brand (except Tesla!) is best to buy at the moment for quality & support?

Im requesting the same for solar panels, looking for the usual sized ones and wanting to get something current gen.

thanks in advance!

Does anyone have any informed speculation what the loan terms may be? Perhaps based on similar schemes in the past. Please don't flame me if not 🙂

Shared supply ( semi detached ) 80amp cutout , 10 panels and a 3.68 growatt , all good , impressed.

Nobody else on shared supply or locally has solar.

In theory I have room to go add lots more

In total I could have

4 x 3.68 invertors

Or 2x 3.68 plus a 5kw

But everything I read seems to indicate I have very little chance of getting much extra approved

Anybody out there with REAL LIFE experience of getting higher approvals 12-15kw ? Any ideas of the criteria the DNO will apply.

( I’m aware I could go down the battery route but I’m keeping things simple for moment )

This is an odd post so please bear with me....

My elderly parents recently got solar installed. They don't have smart meter and their electric company is Eon. Their meter reading (both peak and off-peak numbers) seems to be going up as normal and Eon is charging them. Their bill has not gone down yet.

I spoke to the installer, and they told me install their app (solarX). On the app its saying today they have produced 26kWh of energy and consumed about 28kWh. There is also battery where the extra came from. On the app it says Grid Imported is 0 kWh.

So if all is working correctly, their meter reading should not go up at all today right since all their energy is coming from solar?

They live in small 2 bedroom house and don't have anything like electric cars etc which makes huge energy.

I live around 400 miles away from them so not been there to check all these yet.

I spoke to Eon, and they said we need to install smart meter so we asked for one. Also asked us to fill in forms, so the excess energy be exported.

My question really is if all is working fine and they are just consuming the electric from solar, then surely the meter readings should not go up?

thanks

Hi all,

I’ve been trying to give some advice to a relative who has just moved into their new home, and I want to run my thoughts past a community of people who will know more than me (particularly when it comes to heat pumps).

The house is a detached 4 bed in the north of England, entirely electrically powered (with heating being the main issue).

The house is nice and warm, but they have been in for 2 weeks and have used 1,000kwhs of electricity, costing about £250. It has been quite cold for this time of year, including a day of full heating to warm a house which was previously empty, so I’m assuming that’s not far from how their typical winter usage would be. They don’t have any more accurate estimated numbers for winter electricity usage.

They intentionally saved a good chunk of money to do solar etc, and their main aim is not necessarily a return on investment, but minimising their bills going forward (without compromising on the temperature of their home).

Octopus have given them a quote for 19 panels + 13.5kwh battery, no heat pump. However, in order to maximise the house’s efficiency I’ve suggested a heat pump would be very beneficial, and doubling up the battery to get 27kwh would likely be very effective.

Can someone please check/challenge my rationale: The daily consumption has been approximately 70kwhs, so I’m assuming c.50 of that is heating. My understanding is a heat pump could reduce that to c. 1/3rd. (Is that reasonable?), which would bring their daily usage down to somewhere like 35kwhs. On the coldest/darkest months, they probably only make 2-3kwhs of solar per day, so it would be a case of filling the batteries at night on a cheap tariff (one third price for example), and use that all day. I’m assuming this reduces their bills by a huge factor. Eg half the usage, 1/3rd cost overnight, reducing their bill by a factor of 6, and that’s without factoring in the electricity generated through summer and exported.

Questions:

Are any of my assumptions way off base here?

Does the idea of the heat pump make sense? Is this the most important of the 3? (The house is well insulated, but I know they may need to upgrade some radiators)

What would you expect the total cost to be? For 19 panels + one battery they have been quoted £15.9k. Is that reasonable, and what would you expect the cost to be to add heat pump and an extra battery (Tesla PW3).

Are there any potential government grants to be had? They are not on benefits or anything like that, and I believe heat pump grants are only to replace gas boilers, so not applicable here? Just confirming my assumption that there aren’t.

Any other options? I’ve also mentioned the potential benefits of smart radiator valves to not heat empty rooms etc.

Thanks all, I know there are likely people in this community who have done something very much like this, so I’d love to hear about people’s experiences and advice.

Cheers

Over the last 3 days, my solar system has been actinh strange. Through out the day the inverter will have "waiting" displayed on its screen and my solar panels will be producing 0. My battery also stops feeding my house so i am forced to draw from the grid. This happens 5 or 6 times a day sometimes for 10 minutes at a time. What is going on, the install is less than a month old and worked perfectly before

Hello,

With off peak prices tumbling in the UK in April 2026, I should act.

(all the qualifiers because this is a global forum at a time of change!)

Eventually I would like solar and ASHP heat pump too. But funds don’t allow me to do everything. Considering what’s possible now.

Already have an EV, and house uses some 6-8KWh /day.

I would like a smart, integrated everything from a single brand; it needs to just work. Not keen on calling back the installer, who says one thing isn’t/ can’t be integrated with another; or mandatory firmware updates breaking something when I have different brands.

I start with EV charger.

Installer cost is lower overa if they do ”more” per visit; separate EV and battery will be more than EV charge, then battery.

So, need EV charge and battery.

I also want to work off grid if necessary.

So, now I need EV charge and battery and gateway/ transfer switch.

The next phase will include ASHP, then solar PV.

Givenergy offer everything in a single brand, but seem to have a poor and declining reputation.

TESLA offer everything, but the EV charging smarts are only for Tesla EVs. Also the other thing I can’t say in this sub. So Tesla is out.

that leaves…

Sigenergy

Fronius

Both are relatively expensive premium products, if course.

Anyone care to…

• offer thei thought and experience
• opinion on Fronius
• opinion on Sigenergy

TIA

hi all

this about my third post on getting quotes so apologies but it is a bit of a mind field.

So far I have 3 quotes ranging from 11k to 13.5k for between a 5.8 and 6.85 kw system and each time you are dealing with the companies it's the usual tactics of we are the best everyone else is guff etc.

the one constant has been them bragging about what accreditations they have and insurance they have (HIES). I'm always dubious of these claims as these accreditations can be bought and are sometimes self regulated. what should you be looking out for as a minimum as I really want to avoid the cowboys.

Hi!

The solar production shown on the app and inverter are always the same, and can only see the battery storage changing. I’ve also started the Outgoing Octupus tariff which seems to have coincided with this problem.

Has anyone seen this happen with their setup? I’m still waiting for support from the installer…

Thanks!

Morning all. I'm in Scotland. A reluctant geek. Loving my panels and batteries.

I need technical verification on a connector mismatch. My 2021 install Solis inverter has a circular, 4-pin Exceedconn RS485 COM port with a threaded locking collar (round pins). Solis support is insisting that the current S2-WL-ST or S3-WiFi-ST dataloggers will fit. However, my understanding is that these new "4-pin" sticks use a flat JST-XH style connector (square pins, friction fit) designed for internal PCB headers on newer S5/S6 models.

Can anyone confirm:

Do the S2-WL-ST / S3-WiFi-ST units actually use a flat JST-XH connector?

Is there any official Solis adapter to mate a JST-XH stick to the older circular threaded Exceedconn port?

Has anyone successfully "plugged in" an S3 stick to the old threaded round port without custom wiring?

Trying to prove to support that "4-pins" does not mean "same connector." Thanks.

Hello, please could I get some feedback on this system quote?

31 x Aiko 475w panels

1 x sigenergy 12kw energy controller

2x sigenergy 10kwh battery

1x sigenergy gateway

£20k

The installation is approx 30m away from CU so includes AC cabling for this length.

Panels to be installed on 3 aspects of the house and a detached double garage (E,S,W) so a fair bit of scaffold is required.

North east England.

I have heard of Dyness Powerbox G2 batteries having a slow charge rate in cold weather being fixed after a firmware update to activate the internal heater earlier.

Has anyone had this issue (of slow charging in cold weather) and successfully fixed it completely after a firmware update?

Hello, could someone cast an eye over these Electric Radiators Calculations? I have always steered away from Electric Radiators due to higher costs but wonder if there might be a way to reduce these considerably? 

A house with 8 radiators ( 2 x 1000 Watts and 6 x 500 watts) total output 6 KW if running for 1 hour. With zoning (setting each room according to use via app) I am sure that this could be reduced to about 4KW. Secondly there is the question of modern electric radiators cycling, using thermostats to switch off when required temp is reached. The main Electric Radiator firms claim that this may result in 1/3 energy use when used. However, perhaps they are lab tests, real world heat losses and situations would not be so good. If they they are even much higher 3/4 energy use on their claims, that would perhaps reduce 4 KW to 3 KW for total house output. So 3 KW for I x hour would be £0.90 ( 3 KW x £0.30, current cost). Then say 6 hours a day the cost would be (£0.90 x 6) = £5.40 x this by 30 days is £162 per month, expensive yes! Now comes the final reducer, cheap tarrif 7.5p overnight IOG, batteries needed I realise, 20 KW but if you could use that it would decrease costs considerably. (£5.40 x 7.5p) = £40.50.

Please note, I appreciate Heat Pumps may be better but not possible at this house. Heating Oil at the moment, wish to stop as soon as possible. Also hot water not included but might go Sunamp Thermino, (not much space). Appreciate that if I use electricity which has been imported overnight with (3KW x 6), 18 KW, other electrical usage would be at higher rate. Having said all of that, £40.5 for a month's winter heating ( I have a wood burner as well, but free wood) sounds very reasonable to me or have I got my calculations wrong and its all just wishful thinking.  In summary with zoning, assuming radiators use less electricity when cycling on and off and applying cheap tarrif from battery charged overnight might they be much less cost than is assumed, as I certainly did.  Would be appreciate any observations, thanks for reading, hope it made sense!

Hi

Quick question.

Should I be concerned if the dno application is not submitted before the inspection?

Any particular implications?

Thanks