Solar Power Report: February 2026

Here is my monthly report on how our solar panel system did in January 2026. We have:

• 20x400W panels = 8kW, facing west
• 5kW GivEnergy inverter
• 9.5kWh GivEnergy battery

The house is in the UK at about 52° north. The system was installed in February 2024. The system was installed by Octopus who also supply our power and gas.

This is the year so far, all in kWh:

February has been very mixed with some wet weather, but then we had a few sunny days. I not too sure what happened on the fourth as we seemed to generate and use a lot of power at home. That may be a glitch so the numbers may be a little off. Ultimately what matters is what we pay. We exported about half of what the sun provided. The rate we get for that is going down from 15p/kWh to 12p, but then it has been quite generous. I think it is still worth charging the battery on cheap rate and exporting the excess at the end of the day as we only pay 8.5p/kWh for five hours each morning. You can see that the balance is shifting between what we pay for power from the grid and what we earn for exporting.

The total energy usage will depend a lot on how many times the EV gets charged as that is our biggest consumer. It still works out a lot cheaper than buying and burning petrol plus the charging happens whilst we sleep so less time is wasted getting to a petrol station.

With the current conflicts around the Middle East the price of fuel may well go up. That emphasises the need for alternatives. Moving big ships full of oil around the world is wasteful and affected by such events, but the sun will generally shine regardless. I keep saying that we are quite a long way north and many people will get much more sun over the year. The economics will vary according to installation costs and what deals the electricity companies offer.

Shine on!

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