Here is my monthly report on how our solar panel system did in March 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:
| Month | Generated | Used | Exported | Imported | Cost import | Paid export |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 110 | 518 | 106 | 522 | £88.53 | £14.91 |
| February | 237 | 592 | 226 | 580 | £79.08 | £33.97 |
| March | 590 | 484 | 599 | 507 | £74.47 | £68.30 |
March has been another month of mixed weather, but you can see that we generated over twice as much power as in February. The peak was 35kWh in a day, but on others we got hardly anything. That will change in the next few months as the days get longer.
As usual there were days when we used a lot more power due to charging the EV that one of the kids drives. That MG4 is undergoing some repairs so they have had hybrid and diesel courtesy cars lately and are charging less. In the long term we will replace our old (2004) Honda CRV with an EV, but have not settled on which one to get yet. I will be looking at what 
We are currently in debt to Octopus (referral link) as we pay a fixed amount per month, but that should change in the next few months when we earn far more than we are due to pay them for electricity and gas.
The rates are changing so this will shift things a bit. The export rate dropped from 15p to 12p/kWh last month, but from today the imported power will be cheaper. The daily standing charge goes up a little, but the unit rates drop. We do not use much at the day/peak rate. Overall we will still be saving money.
A lot more people in the UK will be able to take advantage of solar power now as plug-in (aka balcony) solar will now be allowed. I think the issues were around safety and standards, but this has been big in Germany for a while now. I believe that eople will be allowed 800W of panels costing about £400 that can just be plugged into a socket to power their house. They will need to arrange with their power company to get paid for any export. The payback time should be just a few years. Energy prices are very likely to rise so this should be a very tempting option.
Some UK political parties are saying we should drill for more oil and gas in the North Sea, but those reserves are running out and prices are decided globally by the markets. Solar and wind will never run out or be affected by regional conflict. You can see here that the UK generated more from renewables than from gas last year. We stopped burning coal in power stations a few years ago.
Over in the USA Virginia has joined Utah to legalise balcony solar. Although they have a national government that seems to be doing the bidding of the fossil fuel industry people and companies can see that solar will save them money. Apart from Alaska the USA is well south of the UK and so will get more solar gain, especially in the southern states. If people are running air conditioning then there are big savings to be made, even without government incentives.
Recent events will be making more people look into alternatives and I think that solar will be a big part of that. We will get people saying it cannot supply all our energy, but nobody really expects it to with wind and nuclear also involved. With smarter power systems and more storage (battery and others) it can significantly reduce the amount of ancient lifeforms we burn whilst saving money. That may be bad for some companies, but things change and we will adapt.
Shine on!
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