Solar Power Report: August 2025
Here is my monthly report on how our solar panel system did in July. We have:
- 20x400W panels = 8kW
- 5kW inverter
- 9.5kWh battery
This is the year so far:
| Month | Generated | Used | Exported |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 78kWh | 468kWh | 38kWh |
| February | 192kWh | 554kWh | 146kWh |
| March | 619kWh | 503kWh | 535kWh |
| April | 927kWh | 288kWh | 790kWh |
| May | 967kWh | 292kWh | 845kWh |
| June | 1044kWh | 332kWh | 1037kWh |
| July | 878kWh | 309kWh | 858kWh |
| August | 769kWh | 424kWh | 810kWh |
We have had a fair bit of rain this month, so generation was down a bit. The EV got charged more than last month, so we used more power. We have passed peak sun for the year, so we will be generating less now. The export may be better than last year since I set the system up to dump what we have in the battery in the evening. The battery will keep saving us money through the winter as we can charge it when power is cheaper and it will generally run the house all day.
The installers have been looking into an issue we had with a breaker tripping. Since their last visit in early July it has not happened again.
That is a nice income for the month that more than covered what we took from the grid as well as the gas we used for hot water and cooking. The heating is not being used for now, but that will change in a month or two. Meanwhile we are building up credit to cover the colder, darker months.
We have been happy with Octopus who also installed our solar kit.
We just moved our broadband from Virgin to Youfibre that will save us more money. There is a referral bonus if you use this link. They did a neat job on the install that hooked us up to the nearest pole. We were with Virgin since the original cable from NTL and the price kept going up. I managed to get some deals, but they had expired. Youfibre are dealing with the transfer.
Shine on!
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Interesting to see that even in the winter months the system produces some power.
A pound saved is a pound earned.
I'm surprised that fitting solar panels to new build properties in the UK is still not mandatory.
It's been mandatory in South Africa for at least 20+ years.
Edit. I know your place isn't a new build 🤦♂️😂 just saying. All new houses should have solar panels as standard. 👍
The generation in winter is pretty low, but better than nothing and the battery helps.
Even when they fit solar to new houses they seem to cut corners. Most could have more panels that would not cost much more and save money for many years. It's cheaper to do it all during the build. I think the builders have fought against legislation that would mean putting up prices, but they go up anyway. I just wish we could have afforded panels when we built our house instead of waiting for 20 years.
!BEER
The numbers are good and wish we had cheaper rates for off peak so I could possibly charge batteries then if needed.
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