Free solar power system. Is it a scam?

Pennylane

thenudeone wrote: »

Because if you come to sell your house the next purchaser may not think that the "cost" of having panels on the roof + having to allow access to someone else is worth it for a relatively small saving.

If the panels were owned by the householder, they could expect to see income + savings of £1300-£1500 pa (pre-FIT changes) which is quite a sum and IMO enough to outweigh the visual impact of the panels. I'm not sure £50-£100 is, although for a "green" buyer it could still be.

If you don't expect to move for 25 years there's no problem.

When people discuss the visual impact of SPs it always reminds me of a woman who lives near me. The people opposite had solar panels and she was complaining to anyone who would listen about how awful they looked.

Her complaints got back to the people with the SPs and they wrote her a note listing all the things they had found unsightly about her house since they'd lived there. Badly painted house where she gets cowboys in and they only ever do half a job and leave rust marks running down the wall. Guttering hanging off, scrap car in front garden, weeds everywhere, tiles missing on roof etc.

I have no objection to solar panels personally and if I were in the market to buy a new house I most certainly would not be put off by solar panels.

noncom_2

Cardew wrote: »

Nobody called you an idiot, they simply stated that your personal definition and adherence to a 'Green' principle is atypical. Less than 0.03% of accounts are with your company.

British Gas Standard rate is 12.24p/kWh(before discounts) in my area, and for those to whom money saving is the motivation, 10p/kWh is easily obtained.

OK, I concede no-one actually used that word, but some of the posts came pretty close iirc (not yours, for the record).

My attitude is undoubtedly atypical. That's the problem (unless one is a climate-change denier, in which case there IS no problem!). People have got used to the cost of things (fuel, transport, food, goods) etc delivered in an unsustainable way. Now they want the same things at the same prices, delivered sustainably. It's fairly obvious why this is unlikely to happen.

And, as I said in my post, our local Standard Tariff (in the Midlands) is 15p for Tier 2, so maybe you are "atypical" in living in an area where it is 12.2p.

All my post was trying to point out was that the price Solar PV owners / RAR customers pay for their electicity will vary according to a number of factors - where they live, their financial circumstances, their supplier etc. It is not fair to suggest that everyone is exaggerating their savings based on a unit cost that may well not be available to them.

larkim

Cardew wrote: »

Then how about 1 penny a year?;) £1 a year?

You sign a legal agreement for 25 years to allow a firm to make scores of thousands of pounds out of using your roof and you get a pittance!

Some might consider that exploitation!

Yes, but without signing up for it I get nothing at all; I don't actually see what someone else makes out of it being at all relevant.

I don't ask Fiat how much money they've made out me buying their car. I don't ask Boots to tell me how much profit they make from selling me toothpaste. Petty jealously about someone else with capital to invest being able to make a profit doesn't interest me at all.

Matt

larkim

On the aesthetic side, the bizarre point is that the only people that can see our solar are people that don't own our house! You cannot see our panels from anywhere on our property, especially not in the back garden where I hope to be sipping a nicely chilled beverage in the summer, chilled by free electricity (well, sometimes!).

So if we've devalued anyone's property from an aesthetic perspective, its our neighbours!!

Matt

larkim

Cardew wrote: »

Then how about 1 penny a year?;) £1 a year?

In principle, why not? Would I prefer to be better off for no cost or effort to myself? Of course I would.

I signed up with Eon when I believed I would have to pay £99 for the privilege of getting the panels installed.

Of course, the likelihood of me actually signing up for 1 penny's benefit is almost nil. £10 per year? Possibly not, as much because it would indicate that the carbon benefit of having solar installed was minimal.

Matt

Cardew

noncom wrote: »

And, as I said in my post, our local Standard Tariff (in the Midlands) is 15p for Tier 2, so maybe you are "atypical" in living in an area where it is 12.2p.

I also live in the Midlands(West) and as stated British Gas Standard Tariff is 12.24p/kWh(before discounts and including VAT)

In fact for the same electricity price(gas is cheaper) you can have BG Energyshare Tariff with 100% Green Electricity(whatever that means)

Extended hours 0800 contact centres
100% green electricity
Free Energy Efficiency gadget
Green Energy Certified tariff

Try for yourself on a comparison website.

Cardew

ctdctd wrote: »

Not sure I agree with this after the current price rises - I am on the cheapest dual fuel tariff available in my area given my typical use (Bedfordshire, 2500kWh PA). My electricity is single tier 12.32p / unit.

Options for a lower unit cost gave a higher standing charge and were more expensive. Tier 1 / 2 tariffs were also more expensive.

Well I live in the Midlands and the 3 cheapest dual fuel tariffs with NPower, Scottish Power & OVO, (for the average user 16,500kWh gas and 3,300kWh electric) gave prices of 9.786p/kWh, 10.443p/kWh and 10.24pkWh including VAT and before discounts which bring them all below 10p/kWh

Pennylane

Well, we seem to have done OK with Energy Saving Group. We've had the panels up over a week and they did a good job, we have the inverter in the garage and the 3 men who came were really nice guys who worked everso hard to get the job done. They were from "My Energy Station." (I'm sure we all know now that ESG use MES to fit them and the contract is with Norton Energy.)

The scaffolders came a few days before the panels arrived and then came and took it all down a few days after with no probs at all.

We've done OK actually because the whole deal has cost us just £500 which really isn't much these days. While the scaffolding was up hubby made full use of it, replacing guttering, cleaning barge boards etc so that was a bonus too!;) We couldn't have done those jobs so easily without it!

Start to finish this has taken a year (see my earlier posts on this thread) and, while things did go very quiet sometimes we just hung on and MES have been really good I have to say.

I've heard some strange conversations on TV and radio with people saying things like "I've paid my £500, got no solar panels and now I daren't use any electricity in the daytime.":think:

I rang our local radio station (who were discussing this) to say we had received our panels and were happy with our deal and I'm sure I can't be the only one. All they want to broadcast are people moaning about ESG.

£500 is approx a tank of heating oil for us or a few trips around the supermarket so it's not like we're talking thousands.

Oh and way back when we first dealt with ESG they also offered cavity wall and loft insulation. We have both at this house but we have a small property which we rent out and they did the CWI there and did a first class job. Our tenant has just been made redundant so that was completely FREE.

noncom_2

Cardew wrote: »

I also live in the Midlands(West) and as stated British Gas Standard Tariff is 12.24p/kWh(before discounts and including VAT)

In fact for the same electricity price(gas is cheaper) you can have BG Energyshare Tariff with 100% Green Electricity(whatever that means)

Try for yourself on a comparison website.

OK, I don't doubt you. Ecotricity promise to match the Standard Tariff of your "local supplier" which in my case is Npower. I am under no illusions that this is anywhere near the market cheapest deal.

British Gas's "100% Green Electricity tariff" is, as I'm sure you are aware, almost entirely meaningless. They are obliged to generate some of their energy from Green sources, and so if they can persuade some of their customers to pay more for this electricity, they are laughing. Unless the usage of the customers opting for their Green tariff exceeds the amount of electricity they have to generate from those sources anyway, they are under no obligation to increase their clean generation one iota beyond their legal requirement.

The reason I use my supplier is because they are committed to building new sources of renewable supply, and on a not-for-profit basis, invest hugely higher percentages of their income in building new sources than any other company. Paying extra for electricity from them actually makes a difference.

Anyway, wildly off topic now. Sorry, let's return the thread to the actual subject at hand.

Cardew

Pennylane wrote: »

Well, we seem to have done OK with Energy Saving Group. We've had the panels up over a week and they did a good job, we have the inverter in the garage and the 3 men who came were really nice guys who worked everso hard to get the job done. They were from "My Energy Station." (I'm sure we all know now that ESG use MES to fit them and the contract is with Norton Energy.)

The scaffolders came a few days before the panels arrived and then came and took it all down a few days after with no probs at all.

We've done OK actually because the whole deal has cost us just £500 which really isn't much these days. While the scaffolding was up hubby made full use of it, replacing guttering, cleaning barge boards etc so that was a bonus too!;) We couldn't have done those jobs so easily without it!

Start to finish this has taken a year (see my earlier posts on this thread) and, while things did go very quiet sometimes we just hung on and MES have been really good I have to say.

I've heard some strange conversations on TV and radio with people saying things like "I've paid my £500, got no solar panels and now I daren't use any electricity in the daytime.":think:

I rang our local radio station (who were discussing this) to say we had received our panels and were happy with our deal and I'm sure I can't be the only one. All they want to broadcast are people moaning about ESG.

£500 is approx a tank of heating oil for us or a few trips around the supermarket so it's not like we're talking thousands.

Oh and way back when we first dealt with ESG they also offered cavity wall and loft insulation. We have both at this house but we have a small property which we rent out and they did the CWI there and did a first class job. Our tenant has just been made redundant so that was completely FREE.

Are you aware that Energy Saving Group has gone bust? Not trading any more.

I wonder where the FITs for your roof are going.