Homeowner Blog

In the old days of solar PV, after your system was fitted, the only way to know how much power you produced was from the generation meter ticking up each day, or reading the screen on the inverter.

As inverters got better and integrated with WiFi, they allowed you to track daily, monthly and yearly production figures using your phone or computer. Although, one thing that you could never be sure of is the total amount of PV energy consumed on site.

But times have changed, and there are now much better ways of monitoring solar export and self consumption.

We went to speak to Mark Sanders, one of our most enthusiastic customers, about his experience with solar PV and Tesla Powerwall.

Watch our chat in the video below:

Many of our clients desire energy independence, to be insulated against rising bills and polluting power. It’s one of the most common reasons for investing in solar PV.

This is why we’re always interested in ways to help people use more of the solar power they generate at home, boosting efficiency and saving money. So today we’re looking at a device that can turn surplus solar energy into heating for your house - the eddi.

If you’ve spent much time trying to find the best energy deal, you may have come across the term ‘time of use tariffs’. It’s more exciting than it sounds - if you’re interested in Britain’s evolving energy system.

Energy suppliers are falling over themselves to launch more innovative tariffs to tempt savvy customers. Just last week, Good Energy announced its ‘Zap Flash’ tariff, with free EV charging when there’s excess power on the grid. So how do these tariffs work, and why do they have the potential to change the grid forever?

Image: SolarEdge.

Since solar panels are static, there’s little to actually, well, see when they’re generating. Sure, it’s nice to start receiving smaller energy bills but, if you’re like most of our customers, you’ll want to dig into the performance data every now and then.

As well as checking when the most solar power is being generated (a useful reminder to turn on the dishwasher and make the most of that free electricity), solar monitoring is great for reviewing past output and comparing performance. Sudden drops can indicate faults that need fixing, or help assess if it’s worth giving the panels a clean.

Wondering which solar PV monitoring solutions are the best? Read on...

Last February, when the world was a very different place, Spirit installed SunPower panels in the roof of my new home - read all about the installation process here.

So it’s been just over a year now that I’ve been living with solar panels. Although not the best of years, it has been nice to work from home to maximise the use of my own solar energy. But how is my PV system doing? Has it performed anywhere near what my quote promised?

We talk a lot about time of use tariffs, but now there’s a new kid on the block - type of use tariffs. The first of these has been announced by energy supplier OVO and is designed to reward EV owners with lower cost car charging.

One of the great things about solar power is how scalable the technology is; you can generate electricity on top of an individual streetlamp or a vast solar farm. When it comes to residential PV, we often just think of rooftop arrays, but recently we have seen a rise in interest in domestic ground mounted solar panels.

The main benefit of ground mounts, if you have the land, is that you can choose the optimal orientation to maximise solar generation, which isn’t possible with an existing rooftop. It’s also a great option if your roof isn’t strong enough to support the weight of a solar array. In a ground mount, panels are fixed to a metal frame, which is secured by concrete or pile-driven foundations. But what else do you have to consider?

With all the recent talk of innovative green technologies, we thought we’d take a look at some of the most ingenious - and eccentric - ideas being explored for solar PV.

We’re facing a winter like no other.

Likely confined to our homes, many of us will be concerned about rising bills from extra heating and electricity usage. But it’s not all doom and gloom. We’ve put together some practical tips for how to save on your energy bills over winter and investigated the impact of on site renewables in the colder months.