Things you might not know about Solar:
Just because you have batteries doesn’t mean that you won’t be blacked out in a power cut. In order to be able to use your solar power during a power outage you need to have a Gateway fitted.
Any surplus electricity that your system generates can be put back into the grid where the JEC will credit your account at 9.3 pence per kW.
If you contact the JEC they will send you a half hourly breakdown of your electricity usage for the last year. It’s a lot of data but makes interesting reading if you want to know exactly where your money goes.
If you are on a reduced tariff, e.g. E20, Comfort Heat or Economy 7, you cannot use solar on that part of your supply. You can, however, use solar on the standard part of your power supply.
The JEC own the network that you’ll be joining onto, therefore households have to get the JEC’s permission before solar panels can be fitted.
Listed buildings and ground mounted arrays require planning permission, however, non-listed buildings DO NOT require planning permission to have solar panels installed.
Modern solar panels are a lot less susceptible to shading, however, if panels are likely to get shaded during the day an “optimiser” greatly reduces the effects of shade on the system.
Standard solar panels are usually 1.134 m x 1.750 m in size and will generate up to 450 W – 500 W per hour. However, other sizes are available and depending on the design of the roof it is sometimes a better use of the available space to fit non-standard panels to maximise the generating capacity of the system.
The cost of solar panels has dropped by about 90% in the last 10-20 years and many manufacturers guarantee their product for 25 – 30 years.
Solar panels efficiency drops very gradually in time, although most panels should still be 85% -90% efficient after 30 years.
Under normal conditions solar panels don’t need cleaning. Obviously if a bird has taken to roosting over part of an array or some other debris has accumulated it should be removed, but current analysis advises that unless soiling is heavy any reduction in efficiency due to dust is minimal.