Since the introduction of a fee for feeding solar power into the grid in the Netherlands in August 2024, operators and homeowners have been looking for ways to consume the generated solar electricity on site. With one project, Austrian supplier of solar electric heating systems My PV is showing how this can be achieved in single-family homes.
By installing the continuously variable AC Elwa 2 electric heating rod, a Dutch homeowner was able to increase on-site consumption of solar power – significantly reducing grid feed-in and the associated costs. The owner of the 50-year-old single-family home in Lekkerkerk operates a 15-kilowatt solar system on his roof, which has so far covered most of his electricity needs. In addition, the system, which is oversized for a typical single-family home, has generated a substantial energy surplus. Since August 2024, this surplus has incurred high feed-in fees.
Plenty of solar power fed in so far
As only two people live in the household, far more electricity was generated than the house actually needed. On sunny days, a large share of the energy remained unused and was fed into the grid, despite the installed electricity storage system with a volume of 10.2 kilowatt-hours. Accordingly, the homeowner focussed on efficiently increasing his self-consumption of solar power through photovoltaic heat.
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Continuously adjustable electric heating element
To achieve this, however, the homeowner required a device with continuously variable control. This was the only way to ensure optimal use of every surplus kilowatt-hour of available solar power for both domestic hot water and space heating. This task is now handled by the My PV heating rod, which offers stepless control and real-time tracking via the My PV cloud.
Self-consumption increased by half
The results are clear: by using solar power in combination with a heating rod, the homeowner was able to increase their self-consumption rate from 54% to 85% across two comparable days, each with nearly identical solar generation of 23 kilowatt-hours. As a result, the amount of electricity exported to the grid was reduced from 10.5 to 3.6 kilowatt-hours.
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Feeding less electricity into the grid
Based on the improvement in self-consumption during the first few months of operation, the homeowner is projected to save over €450 in feed-in fees over the course of a year. With a surplus of 48 percent of the solar power generated, he would otherwise feed 7,525 kilowatt-hours into the grid annually, incurring a charge of €787. Thanks to higher self-consumption through photovoltaic heating, he is now expected to feed in just 3,213 kilowatt-hours per year. According to calculations by My PV planners, this would reduce the fees to just €330. (su)
