Possibly! It depends on the house’s consumption and generation/roof size. We demonstrate a real-world example below.
An average home in the UK uses 3638 kWh of electricity per year. A detached house will use 4153 kWh per year, according to the Energy Savings Trust.
Add an electric car and a heat pump and you could easily add 7000+ kWh per year on top of your electricity consumption.
Let’s take a real-world example from one of our customers in Dartmoor.
Their energy consumption is 4375 KwH per year. They are able to generate 5294 kWh - 21% more electricity than they need.
They have also installed 10.4 kWh of battery capacity, which means they can store excess electricity during the day for use throughout the night.
As you can see from the graph above, solar panels do produce less during the winter months and peak during the summer.
You are paid a ‘Smart Export Guarantee’ from your supplier for every unit of electricity you export to the grid. If you can export enough during the summer months - this could pay for the shortfall in the winter.
So yes, solar panels really can power your home, even during the winter if you can generate enough excess energy in the summer to pay for the shortfall in the winter.
Sources: www.energysavingtrust.org.uk
If you can stagger your usage so you do not exceed the AC power being sent by the inverter from the solar panels and battery then you could boost your savings significantly and run entirely from the energy generated by your solar panels for most of the year.
| Household Item | Energy rating | Typical usage | Energy used in kWh | Cost (April 2022 Price Cap) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kettle (Russel Hobbs) | 3000W | 1 minute | 0.05 kWh | 1.5p |
| Nepresso Coffee Machine | 1710W | 90 seconds (per cup) | 0.043 kWh | 1.3p |
| Blender | 400W | 5 minutes | 0.033 kWh | 1p |
| Toaster (2 slice) | 900W | 5 minutes | 0.075 kWh | 2.2p |
| Toaster (4 slice) | 2000W | 5 minutes | 0.17 kWh | 5.1p |
| Fridge freezer | 150W | 8 hours (33% duty cycle) | 1.2 kWh | 36.2p per day |
| American Fridge Freezer | 250W | 8 hours (33% duty cycle) | 2 kWh | 60.4p per day |
| Freezer | 100W | 8 hours (33% duty cycle) | 0.8 kWh | 24.1p per day |
| Fridge | 100W | 8 hours (33% duty cycle) | 0.8 kWh | 24.1p per day |
| Laptop | 50W | 8 hours | 0.4 kWh | 12p |
| Charge an iPhone for one year | Up to 5W | Everyday | 1.8 kWh | 54.3p per year Just over 1p a week! |
| 55" Samsung TV | 110W | 3 hours | 0.33 kWh | 10p |
| 75" Samsung TV | 154W | 3 hours | 0.46 kWh | 13.9p |
| Single electric oven | 3000W | 1 hour | 3 kWh | 90.6p per hour |
| Patio Heater | 2000W | 1 hour | 2 kWh | 60.4p per hour |
| Microwave | 1500W | 3 minutes | 0.075 kWh | 2.2p |
| Iron | 3000W | 20 minutes | 1 kWh | 30.2p |
| Dishwasher | 2200W | 2 hours | 4.4 kWh | £1.33 (per day?) |
| Washing Machine | 2200W | 1 hour | 2.2 kWh | 66p |
| Tumble dryer (modern) | 800W | 45 minutes | 0.6 kWh | 18.1p |
| 10 x Lightbulbs - incandescent 700 lumens x 8 hours a day | 600W | 8 hours | 4.8 kWh | £1.45 per day |
| 10 x Lightbulbs - LED 700 lumens x 8 hours a day | 100W | 8 hours | 0.8 kWh | 24.1p per day |
| Desktop computer | Up to 300W | 8 hours | 2.4 kWh | 72.5p |
| Hot tub | Up to 6000W | 1 hour | 6 kWh | £1.81 |
Before starting Leoht in 2020, I designed and installed solar panels on my parent's home with enough battery capacity to make the most of their generation and usage. The long term aim is to reduce their living costs to as close to £0 as possible.
I took a video of their smart meter when visiting in April 2022.
(Note this was taken in April, months before solar panels generate their maximum in the summer).
My mother is quite keen on using as much solar and battery as possible and staggers household energy usage to maximise the use of their own energy. However, even I was surprised that even in the middle of April, they barely used the grid! and during the day on one of those days (17th April) I was charging Leoht's Tesla.
