Free solar power system. Is it a scam?

Cardew

lufc246 wrote: »

Thats OK but you are not renting your roof out. Officially you are renting out the space above your roof.

Being pedantic, you are also accommodating cabling, meters and inverters etc inside your house.

If people are unaware what the term 'Rent a Roof' means

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John_Pierpoint

zeupater wrote: »

.... I'm quite sure that John is aware that if he could access installation costs closer to those available to the 'free installers' then the return at 36.1p/kWh would be better than a consumer priced install at 41.3p/kWh, so the difference would just be gain, or loophole enhanced gain ......

John ......, on a similar point, I was recently talking to someone involved with a group of people in a nearby village who have been looking at a multiple household 'heavily discounted' install. They originally had 'silly' prices for the size of project which they were looking at so looked at completely sponsoring MCS for a local electrical contractor ...... strangely the prices of their quotes suddenly and unexplainably fell considerably inline with, if not a little below, with what I would consider as being 'european prices' ....... :rotfl: ....... They are also looking at a community owned turbine as an alternative but are awaiting planning and funding feedback, so nothing is now likely to happen until next year ....

Regards

I've not got any neighbours and my roof (and 70's style electrics) are not ideal for my own installation; though I have heard that the electrician can install a new board, switches unit etc. just for the panels and not demand an upgrade to regulation version 17 standards (I could stand up in my bath and change a light bulb, if I was really that stupid).

Perhaps I should try to organise a local "greenie group" and see if we could all get a discount.
Ah I think I might have an idea coming on.

K4blades

zeupater wrote: »

John ......, on a similar point, I was recently talking to someone involved with a group of people in a nearby village who have been looking at a multiple household 'heavily discounted' install. They originally had 'silly' prices for the size of project which they were looking at so looked at completely sponsoring MCS for a local electrical contractor ......
Regards

I have heard about this and thinks its excellent. Good luck to them and anyone else who can find out ways to take advantage of the current market conditions.

rajjack

Hi All

I have this system on my roof.
And it's great you pay nothing at all.
When they fit them all the work is done really well and there's
no mess
I did not pay them one penny i had all the same feelings you have
and i can't fault them they did just what they say no pressure
just a job well done.
It's even lowered my gas bill i use to heat my water by gas now i do it for free with the free solar energy.
There by lowering my gas bill
Have it done or you will regret it.:beer:

pauldreed

Sorry to repeat this post from here

but... does anyone know how they route their wiring into the supply line?
Presumably, the invertor would be mounted in the roof space, and a power lead then run (down the outside of the house??) and somehow then connected into the outside meter box or house fusebox??

zeupater

pauldreed wrote: »

Sorry to repeat this post from here

but... does anyone know how they route their wiring into the supply line?
Presumably, the invertor would be mounted in the roof space, and a power lead then run (down the outside of the house??) and somehow then connected into the outside meter box or house fusebox??

Hi pauldreed

Quick search of the web turned this up .... 'picture paints a thousand words' ...... http://sunandwindy.bitz.me.uk/pv_images/PV_Schematic02.jpg ..... should give you a general idea.

Inverter will usually go in the loft space .... I would prefer not to if possible as the loft gets warm when it's sunny (inverters do not like it too warm) and is generally inaccessable .... I have an integral garage with the consumer panel etc, so DC cable run is internal from the loft, down through an upstairs cupboard then down into garage with the inverter being next to the consumer unit. The longer DC cable run power loss is compensated for by using heavier gauge cable .... result is inverter with access to read, cooler inverter (lifespan & efficiency advantages), no aditional DC resistance power loss .... gains all 'round.

HTH

zeupater

rajjack wrote: »

Hi All

I have this system on my roof.
And it's great you pay nothing at all.
When they fit them all the work is done really well and there's
no mess
I did not pay them one penny i had all the same feelings you have
and i can't fault them they did just what they say no pressure
just a job well done.
It's even lowered my gas bill i use to heat my water by gas now i do it for free with the free solar energy.
There by lowering my gas bill

Have it done or you will regret it.:beer:

Hi

Excellent use of the solar pv installation if you have a way to only heat the water when you're generating a lot of energy yourself. Looking at the average cost differential between electricity and gas in an installation with a 3kW electric immersion heater you will probably only save money over gas when your solar array is producing over 2kW ....

All ..... If you use this form of water heating instead of gas when it is not sunny you will probably be paying loads more for your showers .....

HTH

Cardew

rajjack wrote: »

Hi All


It's even lowered my gas bill i use to heat my water by gas now i do it for free with the free solar energy.
There by lowering my gas bill

Welcome to the forum.

I suggest you don't try to heat water with your solar electricity.

Whilst you might make some savings on around noon on a sunny summer day, most of the year you will simply be using the electricity from the mains at three times the price of gas.

Your immersion heater is 3 kW. Most of the year you will be not generating, on average, more than 1 kW(and often much less). If you switch on your immersion heater when your panels are generating 1kW, you will be drawing(and paying for) 2kW from the mains.

pauldreed

zeupater wrote: »

Hi pauldreed
Quick search of the web turned this up .... 'picture paints a thousand words' ...... http://sunandwindy.bitz.me.uk/pv_ima...chematic02.jpg ..... should give you a general idea.

Inverter will usually go in the loft space .... I would prefer not to if possible as the loft gets warm when it's sunny (inverters do not like it too warm) and is generally inaccessable .... I have an integral garage with the consumer panel etc, so DC cable run is internal from the loft, down through an upstairs cupboard then down into garage with the inverter being next to the consumer unit. The longer DC cable run power loss is compensated for by using heavier gauge cable .... result is inverter with access to read, cooler inverter (lifespan & efficiency advantages), no aditional DC resistance power loss .... gains all 'round.
HTH

Thanks zeupate, if it is wired in this manner, I imagine that it would be difficult to monitor power usage via a Power Monitor because the generated power flows back through the fusebox via pigtails to the leccy meter, which would also register...

zeupater

pauldreed wrote: »

Thanks zeupate, if it is wired in this manner, I imagine that it would be difficult to monitor power usage via a Power Monitor because the generated power flows back through the fusebox via pigtails to the leccy meter, which would also register...

Hi

You will find posts describing this very problem on other threads on this forum and elsewhere. You would have the ability to measure total pv generation and imported power (or net power usage if you have certain old meters which run backwards), but if you're used to looking at your Owl monitor to see what you're using on a spot basis things can get quite confusing whilst the sun's up !! ...... if you like to keep your eye on what's happening you'll need to monitor the inverter with a remote unit such as the SunnyBeam ...

HTH