A Self-Sufficient Solar System For An Essex Home

Energy needs and goals

With a large property and 2 electric vehicles, this Essex homeowner was looking to offset his high electricity usage with solar. By getting solar panels and batteries, he wanted to reduce his energy costs and generate as much of his own power as possible.

Consultation process

Due to limited roof space on his home, the homeowner was looking to install the solar panels on his garage, which had a slate roof (one of our favourite materials to work with!) Though the garage was relatively small, we were able to confirm we could fit 12 panels on its roof.

The homeowner was also in the process of installing a 14-panel solar glass canopy that he wanted to coordinate alongside our solar panel installation, which we were happy to accommodate. We arranged the electrical and roofing work to allow both solar systems to be installed simultaneously.

The kit:

• 12 x Aiko 460W Panels
• Sigenergy Inverter 12kW
• Sigenergy Battery 32kWh
• Sigenergy EV Charger

Installing the battery & EV charger

The customer initially wanted a Tesla Powerwall battery, but ended up choosing a Sigenergy SigenStor for its faster battery charge and discharge times. Altogether, we fitted 4 8kW battery units, totalling 32kW of storage. 

Though this is much larger than the batteries a typical home would need, this customer has high energy usage and lives in an area with occasional power cuts. He wanted to have enough energy to power his home for a day or more in the event of an outage, so we recommended a battery of this size and included backup functionality.

We also installed a DC EV charger and connected it to the solar and battery system. This allowed the charger to take DC power straight from the solar panel to the car, letting the homeowner power his car much faster than typical home charging would allow. 

The finished system

After the installation was completed, the resident’s system started generating power right away, supplying a whopping 9,000 kWh of electricity per year! The customer will now generate the majority of his own energy day to day, and the backup functionality would protect his home from future power cuts.