Beth's story: Greater energy security with solar and battery
We caught up with Beth, Head of Transformation at Good Energy, who recently experienced the customer journey first-hand by having solar panels and a battery installed on her home in Birmingham.
For Beth, going solar wasn’t only about reducing energy bills. She and her husband wanted to generate more of their own renewable electricity, rely less on the grid and have greater control over their energy future.
📍 Location: Birmingham
✅ Set up: 14 solar panels and a Tesla Powerwall 3
☀️ Annual generation: 4800kWh
☀️ Annual savings: £1050 (projected)
⏱️ Return on investment period: 10 years
An ambition to become more energy independent
Beth and her husband both often work from home, which means they use electricity throughout the day, rather than just evenings and weekends.
Their new solar and battery system will allow them to make the most of the renewable electricity generated on their roof while they’re at home.
Their Tesla Powerwall 3 battery also gives them more flexibility over when they use their home-generated electricity, including using stored energy to help charge their electric car overnight.
Greater energy independence was one of the biggest factors for them when making the decision.
Following in her dad’s solar footsteps
Beth’s interest in solar started around 15 years ago, when her dad installed panels through the government’s Feed-In Tariff scheme.
Seeing how much renewable electricity her dad’s system has generated and exported over the years showed her what solar could achieve over the long term.
After moving to Birmingham and deciding it was where she wanted to settle down, not to mention working for a nationwide solar installer, installing solar on her own home felt like a natural next step.
Beth’s takeaways from the solar installation process
Beth’s solar installation took around three days from start to finish.
Scaffolding went up on the first morning, followed by work to install the Tesla battery and gateway. The mounting system and 14 solar panels were then fitted over the following two days, with seven panels installed on each side of the east-west-facing roof.
For Beth, going through the process also gave her the chance to experience Good Energy Services from a customer’s perspective. From the installation itself to seeing her new home energy system take shape.
How did installing solar make her feel?
For the Redfern family, the biggest benefit is the greater sense of energy security that comes from being able to generate and store electricity at home.
Having seen the performance of her dad’s system over the past 15 years and now beginning her own solar journey, she sees generating renewable electricity at home as a way to take more control of both her household’s energy use and its future.
Knowing that we’re securing our own energy for a lot of what we do will make quite a big difference. Saving money is a good thing, but having that energy security is probably the bigger impact for us.
