Free solar panel discussion

pandapaws

We have been accepted by A Shade Greener for their scheme, and are looking forward to our panels being fitted in the next month or so.

Lots of people talking about how much benefit you'll get from daytime electricity - by using timers you can set dishwashers, washing machines and driers to come on through the day. Use a slow cooker. Use an electrical immersion heater in the day rather than gas at night to heat water. Little things like hovering, ironing, charging phones etc while it's sunny rather than at night will all help.

For us, the biggest benefit will be free use of the air conditioning, as that's something that is obviously used in direct proportion to the levels of sunlight coming in through our conservatory. For anyone who uses air con at home it's a no-brainer!

We could never have afforded panels ourselves and aren't in a position to take on more borrowing at the moment. For people like us who don't have 12k in the bank but want a small saving in bills it's a great idea. And I love the green aspect of it too - I'm no eco-warrior but I do like to think that I won't feel that slight twinge of guilt every time I turn the air con on!

zarazara

The whole thing sounds too good to be true.

simesg

Unfortunately one of the stipulations of the scheme is that the boilers are fitted post April 2010 and, you've guessed it, be of an approved tyoe and fitted and maintained by a certificated installer. There is a massive lobby to get existing boilers fitted prior to this (mine included!) in the scheme, but the jury is out on this at the moment.

frankeverett

I am all for renewable energy and have been interested in solar panels for some time. One thing that no one seems to have mentioned - Does fitting solar panels increase the value of your house and, if so, what is the likelyhood of your council tax being raised to a higher band.

Anyone have any idea ?

digitaltoast

pandapaws wrote: »

the biggest benefit will be free use of the air conditioning, as that's something that is obviously used in direct proportion to the levels of sunlight coming in through our conservatory.
I do like to think that I won't feel that slight twinge of guilt every time I turn the air con on!

So let me get this right - you've got a conservatory that heats up your house so you need to put on the AC? Riiight...

OK, well, aircon is about 2.5kWh.
The average power delivered by south-facing 20%-efficient (and that's quite high) photovoltaic panels in Britain would be 20%× 110 W/m2 = 22 W/m2.

A kilowatt is 1000 watts, so you'd need 45 square metres per kilowatt, or 112.5 square metres to run aircon (or kettle or water heater).

This scheme gives you 24 square metres. Good luck with powering anything more than your tv and amp...

neilsedaka

www.cgascoigne.co.uk wrote: »

There are many ground based systems available.

Thanks. Would it be possible to have more than one installation, each one qualifying for a feed-in tariff?

BunnyT

Free solar panels sounds a great idea but in my experience it is well worth making the full investment yourself, particularly if you live near the sea. My 3.6 kilowatt system was installed by Ecofirst at the end of October last year and cost me about £15,500. It has already generated well over 3,000 kilowatthours of power to date. Financial benefits including the Feed in Tariff paid since April 1st have been about £1200. It should give me a return of about £2,000 a year at todays energy prices - a fantastic investment! It will also save about 2.5 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year. There are a few points to note:
1. Having a South facing unshaded roof of sufficient size is vital.
2. Living near the sea is a great advantage, particularly on the South Coast, since the sea breeze blows away the clouds and gives many more hours of insolation each year than further inland.
3. Watching the electricity meter actually going backwards when the sun shines is most stimulating - at least until the power company changes the meter to one with a back stop!

I must add that I do not have any financial or other involvement with Ecofirst but am happy to recommend them as an installer.

Jon_Tiffany

frankeverett wrote: »

I am all for renewable energy and have been interested in solar panels for some time. One thing that no one seems to have mentioned - Does fitting solar panels increase the value of your house and, if so, what is the likelyhood of your council tax being raised to a higher band.

Anyone have any idea ?

This is taken from http://www.aboutloftconversions.co.uk/

"The good news is that adding an extra room to your house will not affect your banding until there is a "relevant transaction", for the majority of homeowners this means when the house is sold"

Its regarding a loft conversion but the same should apply to solar panels. Most people seem to be of the opinion that the panels will increase the value of your home.

albyota

digitaltoast wrote: »

So let me get this right - you've got a conservatory that heats up your house so you need to put on the AC? Riiight...

OK, well, aircon is about 2.5kWh.
The average power delivered by south-facing 20%-efficient (and that's quite high) photovoltaic panels in Britain would be 20%× 110 W/m2 = 22 W/m2.

A kilowatt is 1000 watts, so you'd need 45 square metres per kilowatt, or 112.5 square metres to run aircon (or kettle or water heater).

This scheme gives you 24 square metres. Good luck with powering anything more than your tv and amp...

come on, digitaltoast, get with the programme, A 2 kWp array generates electricity and pumps it into the national grid, you carry on using your appliances as normal, but the feed in tariff from the energy co's pay you for generating 2 kWp/yr, so a 2kWp system in the midlands would pay you about £700 per year, would this not wipe out your leccy bill?....even with your 2.5 kW AC on, incidentally a 2.5kW air con system would only use around 900 watts to create that duty.

MDE

terryf wrote: »

One thing that makes the 'free' installation better for me is that being 'mature', if I put down the cash to have these installed I 'might' not reap the benefit. I doubt whether I could get a mortgage or a loan to pay for the installation. Anybody else got opinions about that situation?

But, if you weren't around for the next 25 years to reap the benefits, how will the contractual lease on the roof of your estate be taken if your estate is liquidated on death? I would not be too happy buying a house that had effectively a lease contract on its roof that I saw few of the financial benefits for.