Your MCS certificate should reach you within 30 days of your system being commissioned, and without it no supplier will pay you for exported electricity under the Smart Export Guarantee. That deadline sits with MCS rather than with your installer, and it applies to certified domestic installations across the UK. The month after commissioning is when the certificate, the grid paperwork and the export application all need to happen, and none of the three is automatic.
These nine mistakes account for most of the money lost on a UK solar and battery installation, and nearly all of them are made at the quotation stage rather than on the roof. The most expensive is fitting fewer panels to bring the price of a quote down, because the panels themselves are only around 5 to 10% of the total cost of the job. Spirit Energy has designed and installed these systems since 2010, and the same errors still turn up in the quotes homeowners bring in for a second opinion.
Topics: Battery storage, Maintenance, Tariffs, Solar PV, Tesla Powerwall, Inverters, Benefits of Solar PV
Britain will see its deepest solar eclipse in decades this evening, with as much as 96% of the sun blocked by the moon in parts of the country, the closest the UK has come to totality since the total eclipse over Cornwall in 1999. The dip lasts around two hours and will barely register on a typical home solar system's annual output, since the effect behaves much like a passing bank of thick cloud. It matters far more to the national grid than to your roof, which is why Octopus Energy is running a UK wide power down session between 6pm and 8pm tonight.
Topics: Battery storage, Maintenance, Off grid, Solar PV, Benefits of Solar PV
To find out what constraints having an older roof puts on your potential solar installation, we asked Tok Charles, a Technical Designer here at Spirit some questions that anyone might have.
Topics: Maintenance, Solar PV
In summary, yes! But you probably shouldn’t. Here’s why:
Topics: Maintenance, Solar PV, Environment
More and more of our clients are investing in solar battery storage alongside their PV. In this time of energy crisis and price hikes, it pays to use as much solar power at home as you can, rather than shelling out for grid electricity.
When choosing your storage solution, it’s worth considering solar battery monitors. Whether you’re a techy person or not, you probably want to be able to see what your battery is doing. Physically it won’t give anything away, so the only way you can tell how much energy it’s stored or supplied to your house is via its monitoring system.
Topics: Battery storage, Maintenance
As the UK settles in for another lockdown, we want to take the opportunity to reassure you about all the measures we’ve taken at Spirit so we can continue the drive to sustainable energy during this challenging time.
Topics: Spirit Energy news, Maintenance, Solar PV
Solar panels perform best when they are clean. Any dirt or growth on the modules can block out sunlight and have a substantial impact on power output. Perhaps the hardest form of soiling to remove is lichen on solar panels.
But why does it grow on solar arrays and how can we deal with it?
Topics: Maintenance, Solar PV
We’re regularly contacted by customers, who have received an unsolicited call or letter from another company, offering them a ‘free solar panel health check’ or warning about their solar PV system being at risk of failing. This is a common scam.
Topics: Maintenance, Solar PV
One of the most appealing aspects of solar PV is that it requires very little maintenance in return for decades of functioning lifetime. With no moving parts, solar panels aren’t put under the mechanical stresses inherent in other generators. But the system is a significant investment - with most of its return based on using its electricity - so a little upkeep is worthwhile to ensure it’s always performing at its best.
Topics: Maintenance, Solar PV
