Would you go for solar and EV if it meant no more big fuel bills?

Its an appealing idea – especially as the energy crisis goes into overdrive.

• Imagine if you didn’t know the price of petrol any more

• Imagine not having to visit a smelly petrol station again

• Imagine doing a journey on sunshine.

  
  

I can tell you it a marvellous feeling: ‘Sun’s out – plug the car in!”

What’s it actually like?

We have 8 panels on the house – facing east west, so good enough but not the ultimate. Plus 10 panels on the garden room – south facing, so definitely the ultimate

The overall cost of the panels plus 2 9.5 Kw batteries is in the region of £25K. Price of panels is reducing all the time, so always make sure you’re getting the best possible deal.

There are two big advantages of this set up:

Living off sunshine

In summer, the panels power the house and the car whenever the sun is shining. Any extra that we don’t need is sold back to the grid automatically.

This has worked well for us. You need to look into the tariffs offered by your energy provider. We use an intelligent tariff during the summer months which means the algorithm used by the provider automatically takes any excess energy and pays us for the privilege.

It also takes energy from our batteries at peak times (leaving enough for us of course) then refills the battery at cheap rates overnight.

Because summer is the time of greatest sunshine we make enough during those months to pay for all the requirements of home and car.

Cheap nighttime tariffs

In winter, we shift to a tariff that provides cheap energy during the night. So the house is set for everything to go at 12.30 am. Charge up the batteries, charge the car, run the dishwasher and do the washing – running as much as possible at 8p per Kw makes a major difference

So far, the batteries run the house for the day, so the amount on the smart meter first thing in the morning is the same amount at the end of the day. In the region of £2 per day.

End result?

We make more over the year than we use. So our projected annual cost on the energy bills reads £0

Reduce your stress

Of course the state of the world scares the hell out of me just now. But one thing I don’t have to worry about is the cost of petrol.

So if you’re looking for a way to reduce your stress, then solar panels will definitely help. And next car change go for an EV. Then visits the petrol station will be a thing of the past.

Let this encourage you

My accountant did a load of calculations and told me to put my money into solar rather than invest it in the usual way. He said this was a much better return. I didn’t expect that, for sure!

But he’s turning out to be right.

Avoid renovators regret

If this makes you think: 'Whoa, I need to understand more about this energy efficiency stuff before I make mistakes I’ll regret’, take a look at What the Builder Won’t Tell You. I wrote the book to help you get the best out of any energy efficiency work you might do. And it’s all written in plain English, so easy to understand and use.

Let me know if you have any questions.