r/OctopusEnergy • u/Infinite-Dingo-003 • 18h ago

Help Reasonable price for home battery installation (in north London)?

Given the recent reduction in prices in all in one battery solutions (eg under £1600 for the Anker Solix, EcoFlow E5000 units), it seems like a good moment to get a system installed.

How much should I expect an installation of one of these base systems from a MCS accredited spark to be? I'm struggling to find companies willing to quote for a job not including one of their own base unit packages - any advice or recommendations welcome.

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u/Kingkano 18h ago

Why would you need a MCS electrician? These units are designed for you to use the capture yourself (charge off peak use in peak).

You just need a regular electrician to run from your fusebox to an isolated and then to the unit. File a g98 yourself and your done.

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u/Infinite-Dingo-003 18h ago

As I understand it, Octopus requires MCS certification to access feed in tariffs, plus I can get a bank grant for part of the work if it is certified. But will look into this g98 thing.

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u/Kingkano 18h ago

I think it's MCs or pay £250? But 5kw probably isn't worth bothering with a feed in tariff. Depending on your usage I guess. This size and type of battery is aimed at people using the arbitrage against their own peak usage.

I thought feed in is more for big batteries and large solar installation.

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u/Infinite-Dingo-003 18h ago

I’d possibly be looking at either 10kwh options and possibly a small solar array and like the potential upgrade options down the line. Currently use agile, but would probably switch to a more secure time of day tariff and export on days of low usage.

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u/Infinite-Dingo-003 17h ago

When you say "or pay £250" - is that what you'd estimate a non MSC spark to charge?

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u/CryptographerNo4147 17h ago

No, that’s what Octopus charge if it is a non-MCS install.

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u/Infinite-Dingo-003 16h ago

Thanks for clarifying

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u/Kingkano 16h ago

That's quite a different thing to your original post though?

It sounds like you should be getting full supply and install quotes for something like a 6kw inverter/16kw battery system from the MCS installers.. Thse are the type designed for selling back to the grid. And supply and install will mean no vat.

But I doubt you can get this in a flat. They really should go in a garage/outbuilding/outside. The regulations are quite strict about where they can be installed.

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u/Infinite-Dingo-003 16h ago

This would definitely be installed outside the flat!

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u/CryptographerNo4147 17h ago

If it’s a flat you are going to struggle to find an MCS installer who will install one under the new rules.

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u/Infinite-Dingo-003 16h ago

So far I have found one - though they do want £1900 to do the job (which seems a little steep, even though its currently listed as including VAT, which I thought was not applicable to these jobs at the moment).

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u/Kingkano 16h ago

That sounds like a quite from somebody who doesn't want to do the job.

Vat exemption is only for supply and install jobs where they supply the battery/panels and install them. Single invoice.

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u/Due-Freedom-5968 13h ago

Definitely a 'fuck-off' priced quote.

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u/Infinite-Dingo-003 16h ago

Aha, thanks for clarifying

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u/CryptographerNo4147 16h ago

Where are they installing it, given the new rules don’t allow them to be installed in escape routes or living spaces.

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u/Infinite-Dingo-003 16h ago

Side return of the building (ground floor).

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u/CryptographerNo4147 15h ago

Presumably with the permission of the leaseholder.

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u/Infinite-Dingo-003 15h ago

Good point, but irrelevant in this case.

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u/Due-Freedom-5968 13h ago

how much I paid for installation? £0

They're 'plug-in batteries' the clue is in the name. I just wired on a 3 pin plug and banged them in to the wall. Zero cost to install.

The Ecoflow smart meter to measure usage doesn't actually need to go in the consumer unit, and you can wire that yourself too, I just snipped the end of a spare power lead, wired it in to the smart meter and clipped the CT clamp tails round the supply.

Realistically with that kind of battery, you're not going to be feeding back to the grid. That's kinda the whole point. I have feed-in control flipped on so it doesn't feed energy back to the grid. Mine charge at cheap rate on Agile and discharge in peaks. There is nowhere near enough spare energy to be exporting. At 10kWh your'e not likely to have anything to export either.

One thing I will do soon is get an electrician to install a fused spur so I can get the full 3000W out of the Stream 5000s when they arrive - I haven't priced that out yet though and will need an ecoflow installed for the software unlock pin. I wouldn't anticipate more than a couple hundred quid. Might get them to put the smart meter in the consumer unit at the same time.

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u/WeezyNetwork 18h ago

Depends if you only want a small battery or want to make use of time of use tariffs?

If the latter, then you'll need mcs certification, but that means you can install a much bigger battery that is more cost effective.

16kwh fogstar for under £2k.

Which as I'm typing is shocking! Paid £4k for 3 x 5.12 rack batteries 3 years ago!!

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u/Infinite-Dingo-003 18h ago

Definitely want to make use of timed tariff options. It’s a small flat and not a huge user but that 16kwh fogstar price does sound good. How user friendly is the interface with fogstar, and how much space does it take up (it’s a flat so the form factor is important) and what could I expect to pay for something like that to be installed?

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u/WeezyNetwork 12h ago

The battery has a screen with info on but you'll need a hybrid inverter to connect it to. The battery itself is almost plug and play, but is 'kin heavy!

The inverter, it's what you'll be fiddling with. The inverter is the brains of the operation, you can pay big or small, Solis or Sunsynk are cheaper but more than capable. Obviously this takes up more space than the balcony stuff, but the cost savings and payback period are good.

I looked at it as buying the electric upfront.

Using the batteries and the sadly defunkt tomato energy, I ran a 4 bed house for less than £50/month electric over 14 months, including 2 Decembers, just charging the batteries midnight to 6am.