A common question: Do I need direct sunlight to generate Solar Power?

Solar Panels will generate viable amounts of electricity so long as there is light in the sky. By this we mean the inverters are pushing out a measurable amount of electricity. They can even do this in pre-dawn conditions.

In the example below the inverter is pushing out electricity from 0420 hrs, on a day when sunrise is at 0510 hrs.

How much electricity is generated at 0420 hrs? 0.02 kW. This is not actually a useful amount of electricity. It isn’t really enough to turn on one LED bulb.

However, the total amount generated during the day was 14.2 kWh, which is more than the average UK household consumes in a 24 hr period.

What about cloudy conditions?

In the example above, generation swung wildly depending on whether the sun was shining or not. You can see that it was hitting peaks of over 3 kW (more than enough for your electric radiator), only for it to fall the next minute to 0.7 kW (about enough for your fridge, freezer, TV and lights).

Home Storage Battery

The only sure-fire way to marry up supply and demand with solar is to have a Home Battery Storage solution.

That way you can align consumption patterns with generation. The best return on investment occurs when the customer maximise your self-consumption, and therefore minimise their reliance on the grid.

Solar panels

Solar panels are excellent value for money, delivering a very competitive return on investment.