Solar iBoost – Free Hot water from your PV/Solar Array - Immersion controller

24 hr delivery from the seller- good start. There are MANY good things to say about this product. It's very well presented and is a quality build. Although this is an expensive item I worked out that, if it pays back over three years (average period claimed) that also works out at about £9 per month in cost - less the payback (I'm not a mathematician!) so a good investment.Look this product up on the manufacturer's website and you'll find the instruction manual (excellent, always a bonus and demonstrates forward-thinking from a smart company) as well as a full description of the equipment and its benefits. It was at this point that it became clear exactly what it can do (not clear from the Amazon description) as it has both a boost and a programming feature for Economy 7 - SO IT'S AN IMMERSION CONTROLLER AS WELL! This was too good to ignore.Fitting (by a competent authority) is a doddle. However, this is a large controller and I had to mount it vertically in the only space available (not ideal).I wondered if the remote sender would be confused by the remote energy monitor I also have attached to the meter tails but it seems fine.The display is a very readable and smart blue LCD text and is very comprehensive and well-lit for reading in a dark cupboard. It's only been fitted for 2 days but worked immediately and does everything claimed for it. Programming for Economy 7 is easy (if a little clumsy as every digit has to be entered for the times) and setting the time etc could not be easier.Further bonus? This is not a product with a translated booklet. It's obviously written in English for the British consumer and has no grammar or syntax errors as might be the case with an EU or 'Chinglish' manual. That was a serious consideration when buying the equipment - it's obviously for the UK market not just everyone.Even more? The display tells me exactly how much energy I've diverted to my new store of hot water rather than the grid. One could try having a battery store for PV but this company's solution is in everyone's home already. I wish I worked for them on commission! I think this is a great idea, well-thought-through, excellently presented, simple, effective and an obvious way for all PV owners to benefit from their investment.I'm a natural sceptic, however, and was concerned that I might be using power from the grid at some point. Checking the display against the meter will ensure you both realise that the sender is facing the right way - and that any surplus power is being diverted to the tank. It was a very mixed day when fitted, with cloud and bright sunshine and the display alternatively told me it was using 10 watts (reads in Kwh, ie 0.01) at one point and 1.3Kwh shortly after. I have a 3.6Kwh rated PV system, the immersion is 3Kw max. Using Economy 7 will hopefully only be to supplement good generation during the day (when everyone's out) so this baby should decrease grid use even further.Recommended? Not arf! Get one. I shall post again, let's just hope that it's a product that lasts. My concern is that it has a safety cut-out at high temperatures and an airing cupboard can be a very warm, closed - and punishing environment - we'll see.Two weeks later and the appliance has saved me 50 Kwh so far. Still working perfectly, does not consume when not generating. Will even send the tiniest trickle to the immersion instead of back to the grid. As our weather is so variable this is one of the best things to buy if you have solar. It's working brilliantly for us when the house is unoccupied during the day - and the sun's at its best. I've reduced the economy 7 boost period to 3 hours (May) and there's still plenty of hot water. This really is a clever and simple device.One year on 368Kwh saved. Not amazing figures but when the boiler is working over the winter and there's little solar generation we're not benefiting from the iBoost. That said it will soon be time to shut the boiler down completely and use the iBoost with Economy 7 3 hours at night (just in case there's little generated the next day.So, it's going to take a LONG TIME to pay for itself but it definitely saves money and is environmentally good. If you care more for greening your kingdom rather than profit then this is a good buy. It's also reduced by £30 in the last year as well..Bought this in 2014 and here we are in 2019. This has worked faultlessly and has saved (it tells you) thousands of kilowatts. In the summer it will save 3-5 Kw a day topping up what was used for showers etc in the morning. As far as I'm concerned it has more than paid for itself and is HUGELY cheaper (and possibly more efficient) than storing with batteries. Just looked into that and kiss goodbye to another £3k - you wish!Again - buy one! I DO NOT work for this company and am hoping that they pick up on my enthusiasm and send me a new one after ten years...(worth asking).

I bought this unit through Amazon in February 2015 and had it professionally installed in March 2015 (a simple job). It worked faultlessly until February 2016 when, suddenly and without warning, it suffered an internal FIRE which caused molten copper to drip out of the bottom of the (plastic) casing. The unit was operating in Boost mode and had been in Boost for about 30 minutes supplying the immersion heater to supplement the central heating's hot water as we had guests staying and we all wanted showers in quick succession. We had used the unit in Boost mode many times since it was installed without problem.If the my wife had not called me because she could smell burning (before the smoke alarm activated!) and we had not seen the orange glow inside the unit; had we not immediately cleared airing cupboard contents near it; and had we not had fast-acting MCBs in the mains distribution panel then I'm certain it would have started a house fire. Luckily I got to the main switch just as the MCB tripped. What concerns me most is that this unit is designed to operate automatically and to feed power to the immersion heater whenever there is surplus solar power available. For us, this meant the unit was operating mostly when we were at work and the house was unoccupied. If it failed then it should have been designed to do so safely.My electrician (a fully qualified professional) removed the defective unit and then checked the immersion heater, thermostat, switches and wiring. Everything was in full working order apart from the badly charred Solar i-Boost unit. I was so shocked by this failure that I will never fit this make of unit again and certainly not in an airing cupboard. If I do fit another make then I will have my MCB protection replaced with the very latest mains earth-leakage protection etc first. I dread to think what would have happened had I still had the old-fashioned type of wired fuse box.Please think very carefully before installing this make and model of controller and satisfy yourself that you have adequate fire protection in place.Amazon have been excellent so far over this matter and have offered a full refund once the they receive the defective item. Just be aware that it is very difficult to find a way to return items older than 30 days on the Amazon site. If you go to your Account and navigate to the Messages area you eventually find the option to send a message about a purchased item which is defective. Amazon responded very quickly once I had sent a message to them.

We installed the iBoost about a month ago & I'm very impressed. I like the fact its was easy to install, the controls & display are simple & it has an in built timer to guarantee a supply of hot water if it's a dull day. To summarise for others to make a comparison we have 3.8kW of PV with 1.7kW facing south & 2.1kW facing west. We have a 3.6kW 320L immersion tank with 2-5 adults living in the house. All it takes is 2-3 hours of sunshine for the iBoost to heat a tank. Note April was fairly sunny but May has been poor, so far according to the iBoost we've saved 170kWh. In reality we would have used some of the surplus PV to heat the water prior to the install as we had a timer set to come on during the peak generation output, so I estimate that we've actually "saved" between 3 & 4kWh per day. It cost £40 to have it installed by an electrician, so in our case at ~13p/kWh the payback time is over two years. However this is not the whole story as during the autumn, winter & early spring, we use boiler to heat the water for which the saving with the iBoost is considerably more, that said during winter it isn't as sunny and the savings will be less, so it's difficult to make a precise comparison. I hope this helps & would thoroughly recommend the iBoost to anyone.

It was compact however. The positioning of it was inconvenient. It also malfunctioned a couple of times in year. It. Also didn’t produce hot water

Sender eating Batteries faster than advertisedUnit diverts Electric to emersion heater which during summer gave a tank of hot water every day

Whilst I cannot say that it is totally cost-effective in the short term -this item is quite expensive and fitting by a qualified electrician is recommended, it is very gratifying to have free hot water without having to worry about using expensive electricity.