A customer contacted Westdale requesting a quotation for Solar Panels to be installed on a domestic detached two-storey house with a pitched roof.
The property was located in South Yorkshire and built circa 1985. Externally it was brick construction with cement tiled roof and fink type roof trusses.
The requirement was for solar PV to supply electricity to the property throughout the day, on the basis that there were pre-school children at home most of the time and washing machines etc were in constant use. In addition, batteries were required to store unused power generated throughout the day to supplement evening power usage. However, the customer was concerned about the lack of space inside the loft itself.
Additionally the property was fitted with an Electric Vehicle wall charger for the family’s electric car, and when the vehicle was not being used, surplus power could be used to charge the vehicle after the batteries were charged, or vice versa.
A Westdale assessor attended the property and discussed the requirements and expectations of the customer, in order to establish if the requests were both practical and achievable.
A survey of the property then commenced and the following items noted:
- The orientation was 133°, 0° being North and 180° being due South, and therefore suitable.
- The pitch of the roof was measured as 35° degrees to the horizontal and would be able to take advantage of the sun’s heat for acceptable returns.
- There were no overhanging trees or chimney stacks to create shadows and thus reduce output.
- The adjacent property was set back allowing the customers property to take full advantage of the sun as it moved across the sky.
- The internal roof trusses were found to be in good condition with no rot or deflection and measurements were taken to be forwarded to a structural engineer for weight and wind loading. In this case the results confirmed the roof was suitable.
- No defective tiles were noted and access for scaffold was available.
- A small skylight ( 55cm x 98cm ) was situated to the top right of the roof resulting in one (1) PV panel being unable to be fitted.
Due to the reduced space and accessibility issues of installing the Inverter and Batteries in the loft, it was discussed and decided that these would be sited outside the property in an area identified as not in general use by the occupants, and against an exterior wall. The Inverter and batteries chosen were approved for outside installation and their compact design which fitted the chosen area for sighting.
Calculations and costing were undertaken and presented to the occupants. Included in this were estimates of the payback time and PV decay percentage. The customer was advised that these figures were subject to changes in weather patterns and not guaranteed.
All legal consumer rights to cancel and cooling off period were explained at length and the customer was happy to agree the contract. A deposit was paid and was protected by Westdale’s Deposit Protection Guarantee.
Part of that contract was that Westdale would apply on the customer’s behalf for a Distribution Network Operator (DNO) approval. This is a notification to the Power Network operators that an PV installation has or is to be installed.
The install must be fitted by a Microgeneration Certification Scheme approved installer (MCS).
Without a DNO certificate the occupier is ineligible for the Small Export Guarantee (SEG) scheme which pays the customer for excess power sent to the grid.
Scaffold was erected and installation took place. Time taken to install was 1 ½ days.
The customer was on an electric tariff which allowed for cheap electricity to be used between 12 midnight and 5am. This was primarily for charging the family’s electric vehicle. However, the benefits of the system allows for cheap electricity to be used to fill any charging gap in the batteries should they have been depleted or poor weather. This then permits use the following day should there be little power generated from the sun.
In the event of a power cut, the system will shut down so as not to send power back down the line possibly injuring people trying to fix the outage. This system however allocates a percentage of the batteries power to be separated which can then be used to provide power to a single socket within the property, which can be used for lighting etc, a useful addition which can be altered on the App provided with the system.
The system was then fully registered and tested for safety and compliance. The customer was then able to take full advantage of the power generated.
The system specification was:
- 9 Solar panels
- External inverter
- 2 external batteries
- Telephone App (providing live updates on generation levels and user options)
- Generation Meter and associated electrical components.
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