Nick and Zoe’s solar journey

We caught up with our customers Zoe and Nick to see how they were getting on with their solar and battery install a couple of months down the line. Before we installed their system they already had an EV car and a heat pump operating. They wanted the solar to help offset the costs and to further reduce their footprint.

Getting Started

Zoe and Nick had looked at a quote from a national installer before coming to us. The problem was that the quote had been done remotely, off Google Maps, and the suggestion was four or five panels at best. When Chris visited the site properly, the picture looked very different. Similar price, significantly more generation. For Zoe and Nick, that, combined with working with someone local made the decision straightforward.

"You actually came to the house and looked at the roof properly. You were similar money, more panels, local. It was a no-brainer really."

How It's Going

Two months in, the system is working well and they're already engaged with monitoring it. Nick has found an app which tracks the heat pump's flow temperatures, efficiency, and power draw in real time and uses it alongside the solar monitoring to get a clear picture of where their energy is going.

On a cold day in November, the heat pump used around 18 kilowatt-hours for heating and hot water. On a sunny day, the battery stays topped up and the heating barely makes a dent. They're on an overnight cheap-rate tariff to charge the battery, and the difference between a cloudy day and a sunny one is already noticeable.

"Yesterday the battery had depleted by half nine because of the heating. Today with the sun it hasn't depleted at all. The solar is definitely making a difference."

They're also looking ahead to summer, when hot water demand drops to around three kilowatt-hours a day and export earnings start to add up.

The installation

Commissioning wasn't completely smooth, the battery wouldn't communicate properly on first startup, and the battery was too low to properly initialise over the first few days. Both issues were sorted quickly. The car charger also needed a small setting change via PodPoint, and staggering the start times for the battery charge, the heating, and the car overnight sorted a minor overload issue. Small tweaks, nothing serious. What stood out for Zoe and Nick wasn't that there was a snag it was how it was handled.

"Being able to WhatsApp Chris on a Sunday afternoon; that's something you'd never get from a big company. You'd just be raising a ticket into the void."

The Personal Stuff Matters

When we asked what had made the experience different for them

"You cleaned up every day, you cleared our gutters. When we had some bugs you were on it straight away. That personal stuff sounds small but it really isn't. We don’t think you would get that level of service with large installer brands"

Zoe and Nick's system is a 9kWp solar array with battery storage and an overnight cheap-rate tariff. If you'd like to talk through what a similar setup could do for your home, get in touch.