Homeowner Blog

In December last year, it was announced by the government that battery only installations will qualify for 0% VAT from the 1st February 2024. Previously, battery installations were only exempt when installed alongside a solar PV system. This makes it the perfect time to consider a battery installation in your home, whether you have an existing solar installation or not.

It's been a while since we updated our readership on the full range of export tariffs available on market. Here at Spirit we work closely with a variety of energy companies to help you get the best rates for your solar PV system. With that in mind here is an overview of the state of the market for getting you the best value for excess energy. 

Maybe you’ve seen the uptick in the number of your neighbours installing solar panels recently, and why you may ask? What are they getting out of it? Surely it can’t make any real sense. It might seem like a daunting investment, but once you weigh up the costs and benefits, we think things will get a little clearer.

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From start to finish Spirit delivered an exceptional level of service in getting my full PV system in place. From providing sensible and occasionally challenging advice, they guided me to the most appropriate configuration to meet our needs.
The technicians managing the installation were a delight to work with keeping me well-advised at each stage of the project.
Overall very happy with my new power station.

Mr. Crowe
May, 2023
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Although energy prices are expected to fall this summer, bills remain as unpredictable as ever, with energy prices double what they were in 2020. The government Energy Price Guarantee which effectively subsidies the unit rate of electricity and gas is due to come to a close in June, so our energy bills will once again be subject to Ofgem's price cap.

A smart meter is an upgraded version of a traditional electricity or gas meter that can communicate wirelessly and automatically with your energy supplier. When your supplier installs one, they also give you an in-home display (IHD) - a small screen that shows your usage in monetary and kWh terms, both in real time and historically.

In just a few months, an energy crisis has become a cost of living crisis.

The energy crisis is largely driven by the cost of natural gas, which has rocketed due to global supply issues, Covid, and geopolitical tensions. The wholesale price of gas in January was about 4 times higher than the previous year:

The Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) has now been in effect for over two years, since it came into law on January 1st 2020. It’s the mechanism to ensure solar PV owners are paid for the power they send to the grid, ending the policy void that existed since the Feed-in Tariff closed to new applicants in March 2019.

According to the SEG, energy suppliers with over 150,000 customers must offer an export tariff with a rate greater than zero. The SEG is available for customers with an MCS-certified renewable energy system under 5MW and a second generation smart meter.

With zero as the minimum, at the very least you can’t be charged for being relieved of excess solar power. However, suppliers don’t have to give you very much for it. So how much are they offering in practice?

We often get enquiries from people who already have solar panels installed on their roof, but are keen to increase the amount of renewable energy they can produce. This might be because they had a battery fitted, or maybe their consumption has gone up with a new heat pump or electric car.

So what steps are there to overcome if you want to add more solar panels to your existing system to try and reduce your electricity bills even further?

Our clients are often keen to see what happens during the installation process ahead of time. As the proud recipient of Tesla’s Performance Excellence award, we’re delighted to pull back the curtain and give you a behind-the-scenes look at a recent Tesla Powerwall installation.

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.