If there only was a source of cheap electricity on hot, sunny days...
this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2026
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Stop with the riddles, what is it? π€£
Joke aside, right now here in Denmark the kWh price is 0,8 Euro, and tomorrow at this time it's 0,96 Euro.
The above is in DKK and it takes about 7,5 DKK to buy 1 Euro.
Source: https://stromligning.dk/elpriser?reduceret-elafgift=ja&netselskab=cerius_c&produkt=nrgi_time&omraade=DK2
Luckily we have batteries on our solar panels, that currently cover our use of electricity for making dinner and overnight easily.
In fact it's good for us, because this year we actually get a little bit of money from selling surplus electricity.
I have 40 panels on my roof and a 20kwh battery in the basement, haven't used any grid power since end of February when I started to stop heating at night (heat pump of course).
That should be enough if you are single. π€£ π€£
Joke aside, that's a very cool system, and the way to go. π
Depending on the power of each panel, I'm guessing you have around 16 kW combined with 40 panels.
We have 11 kW, the package was 10 kW, but we wanted it to go to 11kW to have that little extra power you need sometimes. π
It's a bit eccentric, because it was as reference to the movie spinal tap. π
Our battery is only 7.5 kWh, but we would clearly have bought a bigger one if they hadn't been so expensive at the time (2023).
Our neighbor bought a year earlier than us, and he paid the same for only 6 kW panels and 5 kWh battery.
The year after we bought our system, the prices dropped almost as much again.
We haven't got the heat pump yet, we bought an electric car last year, and that took a bit out of the budget too.
Maybe we get the heat pump next year.
I can't say we haven't used grid power since February. In March, we used 110 kWh from the grid, and we sold 650 kWh. and in May we bought 60 kWh and sold 1.3 MWh. So not bad IMO, but of course we will use more electricity when we get the air to water heat pump for our central heating. A bigger battery would clearly make our numbers better, but in the winter we don't get much from solar here in Denmark.
What panels are those? It sounds like a lot of output (16 kW) from 11 panels? We have 16 panels with a theoretic max of 7.04 kW (I believe) but with actual output of 6.5 kW (maybe bottle neck somewhere else).
We have just added a heat pump and it has taken a hit in sold power production :D But no more gas here and free heating (and hot water) these days. We want to upgrade our batteries from 10 kWh to 20 or 25 kWh - maybe next year - to let us take more advantage of the sun earlier and later in the year. When we get access to netbalance we will see if a battery upgrade is feasible sooner.
PS:
your user name sounds like you are from Denmark, but I don't see how you can drive a heat pump fully from solar in December January and February?
Our system can generate 14 kWh on the shortest day of the year, if it's a totally clear sunny day. We were lucky enough to have that 2 years ago. But we have days and days with heavy clouds where we generate jack shit. In normal cloudy weather in the summer we can make good power, but not in the winter.
We live 20 km north of the absolute most southern part of Denmark, so there shouldn't be anywhere in Denmark that is much better than here.
Edit:
Sorry you did write from March, but you also wrote you had free heat, but I guess that's from March too.
Yes, Denmark - DK2 in the house! The free heat is "these days" as right now with lots of sun and not a lot of heating required (mostly floor heating in the toilets). Have only had the heat pump for a few weeks now so I am yet to see when we start using grid power because of the heat pump. We have used a little grid power for it but that has just been some odd times like initial heating of the buffer tank and water tank, and other times using lots of power on other stuff after sundown. When we see that pattern of power usage from the heat pump, we can see if bigger battery capacity would be feasible, however there is no way we can go all though winter on pure solar power + bigger battery capacity.
there is no way we can go all though winter on pure solar power
Sorry that was me misremembering something you wrote.
We are currently using wood pellets that are still twice as expensive as they were before the gas crisis.
Everybody on our road has switched to heat pump now, so it's a bit embarrassing that we haven't switched yet.
We used to be 5 houses that bought wood pellets together. Now we are alone. π₯
But my guess is the upcoming season will be the last where we need to buy wood pellets.
11 kW, I didn't remember the number of panels off hand but it's 28 panels.
It was a response to my guess that you could have about 16 kW. I edited my post to be clear on that.
the number of panels are really not that relevant, it's the total power output that counts.
I just felt like I might be doing something wrong, not getting the max output :D Thank you for the update.
Holy shit
Aktshualy, solar panels work best when it's sunny and cold
Couldn't be using the sun's power directly... or some nice water flowing... or some breeze... or controversially even some radiation...
First of all, nuclear isn't cheap. It is, in fact, the most expensive way to generate electricity.
Second, nuclear has problems during heatwaves. Had we more nuclear in the mix, chances are the prices would be even higher right now:
The heatwave [β¦] led to lower output at some nuclear plants in France, where high riverwater temperatures are making it more difficult to cool the reactors