Making the most of your solar panels

Solar photovoltaic (PV) panels convert energy from sunlight into electricity. While the sun is shining, solar panels provide free electricity to your home which means you don’t need to use electricity from the grid that you need to pay for. However, because the sun doesn’t always shine when we need to use electricity, you’ll need to think about a few things to make the most of your solar panels.

Shifting your energy use

Run high-usage appliances like washing machines and dishwashers during the day when the sun is shining, although it’s best to stagger their use so they’re not all running at once. Types of high energy use home appliances are;

• Washing Machines
• Tumble Dryers
• Iron
• Ovens
• Microwaves
• Air Fryers
• Electric Showers
• Dishwasher
• Hair dryer

If you are able to shift some of your use to sunnier times of the day, things you could do would be;

• Cook your evening meal in the daytime and then warm it up in the evening
• Have an electric shower in the afternoon
• Boil a kettle at lunchtime and store the water in a thermos to use throughout the afternoon/evening
• Wash, dry and iron clothes in the afternoon

If you have a smart meter you can check how much difference the solar panels make to your energy use.  You can either watch your smart energy monitor when a high energy use appliance is running and the sun is shining or you can check your usage on your energy providers smart phone app.  Your monitor should read low or zero depending on time of day, time of year and how much cloud cover there is.  You can compare the difference by running the same appliance in evening and watching the monitor to see how much electricity it uses from the grid.

Smart appliances and timers

Most washing machines, tumble dryers, dishwashers and water heating systems have timers which can be scheduled to switch on during hours when your solar panels are most likely to be generating.

However, timers do not sense when your panels are actually generating electricity. They can only be set to come on during hours when it is likely that you will be generating electricity. If your washing machine is set to run at midday but it’s particularly overcast at that time, you may not be generating sufficient electricity to run the machine and may be drawing a portion of the energy used from the grid.

Smart appliances are those with wi-fi connectivity and are part of what is known as the Internet of Things. This connectivity allows you to turn on appliances remotely when you see adequate solar generation. Smart plugs allow you to turn a socket on remotely in the same way, but this may be of limited use if you still need to turn the appliance itself on.

If you have a hot water cyliner, you might have an immersion solar diverter where unused solar electricity is redirected to the immersion heater in your hot water cylinder

You can learn more on the following link