Free solar power system. Is it a scam?

beedydad

Cardew

Correct why should the homeowner know how much the PV kit on their roofs generate?

Then maybe the homeowner will wake up and think!!!

Then perhaps the homeowners may actually realise it is not a good deal as all the income generated goes one way!!! and its not in their pocket!

Then perhaps homeowners may ask for some rental income - say £100 per annum for starters!

Regards

Cardew

beedydad wrote: »

Cardew

Correct why should the homeowner know how much the PV kit on their roofs generate?

Then maybe the homeowner will wake up and think!!!

Then perhaps the homeowners may actually realise it is not a good deal as all the income generated goes one way!!! and its not in their pocket!

Then perhaps homeowners may ask for some rental income - say £100 per annum for starters!

Regards

You have made this point before, and the answer is still the same. Why would these companies offer rent, when they can't satisfy the demand for those clamouring to have the system fitted under current arrangements where they only get the electricity they can use from the panels.

You and I may not think it a good deal for the householder, but we are obviously atypical.

joolsleeds

Cardew wrote: »

Lets tell them then!!

ASG will get an income of approx £1,300 a year from the panels on your roof and you will get 'free' electricity worth between £50 and £100 a year!

I (and I would assert most ASG customers!) get the deal - ASG have never hidden the fact that they are running a business. I also take your point that if I'm lucky I'll save maybe £100/year.

I think that where someone doesn't have the means to buy a solar panel system, and save albeit a few quid, then why not?

BTW - I also have a north facing roof - if anyone wants to give me £100/year to borrow that, it's available!!

Thanks for your help with the measurement.

Cardew

I found this thread extraordinary.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2725067

After just being about to change to an "online 19" tariff with NPower I checked to see whether that would still be OK for when we have Solar PV panels fitted and want to benefit from the "Feed in Tariff". I was then told that actually we would then have to change back to the standard tariff and pay 20 pounds for the privilege! This seems a bit contradictory to the scheme and dare I say it a way of the energy provider clawing back some of the tariff.
I don't know whether anyone has had a better experience with other energy providers?

Does anybody know of a provider who seems particularly up to speed with respect to the Feed in tariff?

If that is standard practice, i.e. you need to be on an expensive tariff(and not the cheap internet tariffs) to get FITs it makes the whole ASG type exercise pointless.

Poosmate

Cardew wrote: »

I found this thread extraordinary.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2725067



If that is standard practice, i.e. you need to be on an expensive tariff(and not the cheap internet tariffs) to get FITs it makes the whole ASG type exercise pointless.

Hmm... that's interesting but maybe there is a way around it.

Is it true that you can choose who to "sell" your free generated electric to? So say you buy it off NPower at their online tariff rate and sell it (receive the FiTs) from British Gas?

I'm almost certain that all of the energy companies are committed to supplying a certain percentage of renewable energy - targets set by the Government? I'm sure I have read on my BG electric bill that they are committed to spending something like £9 billion on renewable energies over x many years to reduce the carbon footprint and (supposedly) reduce our dependance on fosil fuels. They all face the same problems with wind farms from the NIMBY's, the tidal floating generators haven't proven to be that successful yet and aren't off shore windfarms quite expensive too? So maybe solar panels and micro generation is the cheapest of the options...?

Interesting though.

Poo

P.S. Forgot to mention, don't have any links and it's too late to try finding them now, I'm off to bed!

Doc_N

I don't think there's a problem, in reality. Npower are notoriously bad at customer service and getting things right, and this could just have been an error by the call centre. For what it's worth, I'm on a cheap e.on tariff, and they're providing my FIT payments. There's been no suggestion that I need to change my tariff.

In any event, FIT payments don't need to come from your power supplier. If e.on raise any concerns (which I very much doubt they will) I shall simply move to another supplier and leave e.on just making the FIT payments - I can't see that that would help them at all.

kelv.r

Solargain wrote: »

No experience of the two companies you mention, but I was in much the same position as you back in May when I first started looking at the options.

My inclination was to go with a local installer, and I had every intention of doing just that until Tesco entered the market. They undercut the local firm by around £4000 (though the gap has narrowed a bit since then) for much the same system.

I had some reservations about using Tesco (the wife rather more!) but we're both now very happy that we did. Can't fault any aspect of the installation - a very neat job, done exactly in accordance with our wishes.

sorry if I am butting in but as you have used Tesco and had the work done and seem very satisfied may I pick your brains. I intend to get sola pannels as rather than putting the money into yet another rubbish interest account it seems far more financialy effecient to go for this as my bill is £1500 annualy for elec. Any info,tips,questions to ask or direction to take would be apprieciated.
I have a massive south facing roof and am looking at the largest system that I can get under the FIT system. I also may be moving to another property and may consider sola for that so there are several things to consider. regards Kelv. R PS dont know if this is posted correctly

XRayDave

Jon_Tiffany wrote: »

I would be amazed if an ofgem approved electricity meter didn't display the cumulative output in kWh.

I have an Iskra ME162 meter and it displays the total kWh.

The GSM meter I have fitted (by ASG) is an Iskra Emeco ME372.

I'm no dummy, but the display on the meter is incomprehensible.

It cycles through several sets of figures but none of then seem to be the cumulative output of the panels for that day, nor of the instantaneous output of the panels. So, I bought an Efergy meter which is hooked up to the o/p of the inverter (the feed to the domestic meter).

It gives me some sort of idea about the panel's production.

XRD

Cardew

kelv.r wrote: »

sorry if I am butting in but as you have used Tesco and had the work done and seem very satisfied may I pick your brains. I intend to get sola pannels as rather than putting the money into yet another rubbish interest account it seems far more financialy effecient to go for this as my bill is £1500 annualy for elec. Any info,tips,questions to ask or direction to take would be apprieciated.
I have a massive south facing roof and am looking at the largest system that I can get under the FIT system. I also may be moving to another property and may consider sola for that so there are several things to consider. regards Kelv. R PS dont know if this is posted correctly

Welcome to the forum.

The largest PV system is 4kWp to attract the highest rate of FIT(41.3p/kWh). Larger systems not only cost more, but get a lower rate of FIT.
So for most people 4kWp is the practical maximum - and needs a big roof.

There are loads of posts on here that give the pros and cons of PV and masses of info on the internet. Be wary of the 'returns of x%' figures that are bandied about.

The consensus of opinion is that solar PV is a good, but very long term, investment. It isn't possible to accurately predict at what point you will break even and start going into profit as there are so many variables. Most people will go for 10 to 15 years.

Mcfi5dhc

XRayDave wrote: »

The GSM meter I have fitted (by ASG) is an Iskra Emeco ME372.

I'm no dummy, but the display on the meter is incomprehensible.

It cycles through several sets of figures but none of then seem to be the cumulative output of the panels for that day, nor of the instantaneous output of the panels. So, I bought an Efergy meter which is hooked up to the o/p of the inverter (the feed to the domestic meter).

It gives me some sort of idea about the panel's production.

XRD

Mine is an Iskra as well, different model number, but similar

It just adds up the cumulative units, so to find out what you have generated in a day, you would have to write down the figure the night before, and then 24 hours later, and take one from the other.

For instantaneous output, you can estimate by the timing of the flash of the red light (hope yours is the same) - 1 flash is 1/1000 of a unit, which at peak is just under 3 seconds for my 1.44kwp system. Of course, you would have to take two meter readings an hour apart to see what exactly it did do in that hour.