r/PlugInSolarUK

I’ve been desperate to get plug in solar. I’ve just had the garden landscaped and have a 4 meter south west facing balustrade. Ended up going DIY with 2 JA panels and an ecoflow stream with a 2 panel balcony kit.

I have had to return the lot for a refund. I know this is all on me for not paying enough attention and running in and doing it on the cheap but maybe it will help others not do the same.

1. Panel size and fitting. I thought I’d measured up properly but when it came to it there was absolutely no way I could get the panels to fit on the balustrade. They are much bigger than you think! The panels were reported with their shortest side (portrait) on city plumbing so that’s what I measured for but I need to put them longest side (landscape) for the balcony bracket. Balustrade was long enough, but not tall enough to accept the top and bottom brackets. There was no way I could attach them. I naively thought the attachment points could be varied but the bracket needs to attach at the very top and very bottom of the panels and unless you have a very tall balcony at least the same height as the panel the bottom arms don’t extend out far enough to attach the panel. I could look for another bracket now I know this but it was an awful lot of hassle getting to this point.

2. No path to power. I thought I could just tack the cable along the bottom of the fence and then to the plug. It would need to cross one patio slab so was going to put one of those wire protectors over that one slab. Apparently that is a no go has to be armoured cable buried or the rubber cable in conduit the whole way and not under any foot fall. There is no way I can do that without a load of extra cost and digging up the patio.

3. Alternative mounting options are prohibitively expensive. 2 panels could go parallel to south facing wall but will lose efficiency as can’t be tilted because of the regs and no way I can do this myself without the cost of a professional. Also have space for ground ballast mounting. When I priced the kit up, by the time I‘d added all the bits it came to more than the panels and inverter combined, essentially doubling the cost.

I ended up aborting the whole thing. If you have the space and can easily mount yourself and can route power easily then it’s a no brainer but double check you can easily do these things before you order the kit or your costs are going to quickly get out of control.

I may try and revisit it when the kits come out and there are a few more examples around of mounting kits being used in the UK but I think I’m out of the early adopter gang, the experience broke me!

I have a background of electrical/electronics engineering so have worked through the basics of current voltage resistance phase etc. I am not sure how a source of power from plugin solar is distributed solely to your own devices and not exported to everyone on the same street/circuit? I can see that the solar plug can detect the voltage and phase when connected and will provide current in phase. As far as I am aware there is just copper wire to the consumer unit that is then connected to an entry point at the meter. So if no block on power flows out of the consumer unit what’s stopping it leaking out?

I already have solar panels and 5kw battery installed and I am looking to increase battery storage....spoke with Octopus who installed my solar/battery and they are saying £3500-£6000 for another 5kw battery installed. Thats a little steep so I have been looking at adding the Indevolt to the house which my electrician is going to add through a spur.

Will this get fed from solar this way or does it need to be connected directly to my panels?

I am looking for more storage to fill at night on cheap rate and the solar is not a real concern going forward.

Hello I’m looking to get a kit just not sure where to start at all ideally I don’t want to have an electrician do anything and would like to spend around 300 if possible.

I know my fuse box is fine and I have a outside outlet already

4x Aiko Neostar 3s 475w panels

1x Ecoflow Stream Ultra X 3.84kWh

1 x Ecoflow smart mater

Mounting rails

Cable and earth spike.

That will be connected to a fused spur by an electrician mate.

Have I missed anything out?

I’m putting together a small ValkBox3 solar setup and need the standard 300×300 concrete slabs (~9kg each) for ballast. I need 24 slabs total, but the delivery fees from most places are almost more expensive than the slabs themselves.

Has anyone found a cheap UK supplier that doesn’t hammer you with a £50–£80 delivery charge?

ny tips for avoiding big delivery fees — e.g., local builders’ merchants, farm suppliers, reclamation yards, or places that do cheap click‑and‑collect?

Evening all,

With the new rules coming in at the end of the month I was very interested in dipping my feet into plug in solar as a full roof top system is just prohibitively out of my reach and would like to get some benefit from the sun (other than life on earth)

I've been speaking to a few electricians for various pieces of unrelated work but also been asking them on their thoughts on plug in solar.

Their responses have not been very positive at all. Now those who stand to potentially lose work I can understand (though disagree as I'm never paying anyone that much to fit solar, its out of my reach so the only way the industry is getting my cash is plug in anyway) but also those who wouldn't touch solar installation regardless (I assume they don't want the hassle of certification for it).

I'm wondering if anyone has had any recent (i.e. after the government announcement) dealings with electrician on the topic? Are they all this negative on this. Other than the ambiguous "safety" concerns can they legitimately say why this is ultimately a disastrous idea for every situation? (I get houses that need a rewire might not be in a good shape for this but I don't think I've owned/rented a home my entire life that wouldn't be safe for plug-in solar).

Earlier this year I had a HanchuEss battery and inverter installed so I could buy/sell Octopus Agile. This was professionally installed and export etc is working ok. Question. If I bought a plug in solar would it charge the battery? My house uses 250w in standby mode so a aay 500w plugin would have excess. I could spend £4k on rooftop solar but my roof isn't optimal, partly shaded.

I like the idea of balcony solar, but where do you run the cable? Do you just stick it in a window opening, allowing hot or cold air and rain to come in? Am I missing something? Are you expected to drill a hole in the wall to get the cable inside?

I am currently looking into the benefits of PiS (and hopefully a battery) for my house, but I am not clear on what the best solution would be for my needs or whether my preferred connection approach would even work.

I have two Consumer Units in the house. One covers the whole house (inc. Utility w/WM + TD) except the Kitchen/ Diner/ Family Space. The second covers the Kitchen/ Diner/ Family Space and has a feed going to the shed (10mm2 armoured, 36A breaker). The Whole House CU also has an 'empty' 36A breaker that used to feed the shed.

For various reasons I cannot look at roof mounted solar for the foreseeable future.

Ideally I would like to put panels on the roof of the shed (c.20ft long, 5ft wide) that feeds a battery that then plugs into the shed CU (I have a spare way, so could put a single socket on that).

The other option is to utilise the 'empty' 36A breaker on the whole house CU. This is on a 10mm2 wire as well. I can extend this down to the shed. A bit more work, but doable.

Ultimately I'd like the panels on the roof of the shed so they can be there all year. I'd also like the battery in there so it isn't in the house.

With either of these options, my thinking is that the power would then flow back from the shed to the CU in the house and get used.

Does it work like this? I might be getting it all completely wrong.

Any thoughts or advice would be very much appreciated. Cheers.

Hello All

Guys, someone have Ecoflow Stream Pro/Ultra?

I have a few questions:

1. What do you think of the station? Does it work well? Are there any known issues/problems? (I was firstly watching a Martek venus A(cheaper), but the reviews are terrible—lots of defective units.)

2. Can the AC input without solar power be adjusted? (I mean charging from a wall AC — I saw in videos that the input is rated at 1,050 watts; can it be set to 500? Or 800? To extend the battery’s lifespan)

3. Can the station be charged from a standard, ungrounded wall AC outlet? (It’s an old house with 2-wire N and L phase only)

I plan to use the station as usual(as Delta2/3, but for low-power devices (up to 650 watts) during power outages.

If there are any owners out there, please let me know. I want to order one from Germany and then use it in Ukraine. Will everything work? For me very important question about charging from AC without ground, because i know that Growatt don’t working.. (in reviews watched)