Free solar panel discussion

Cardew

zeupater wrote: »

Hi All

I have monitored energy usage for a number of years now a byproduct of which is the ability to model how declared price changes differ from reality.

I have never yet found British Gas's claims to be accurate in my particular case. An example of this is the last two gas price reductions of -10%(19/02/09) and -7%(04/02/10) which resulted in calculated savings of -1.1% & -2.4% respectively.

The strange thing is, the difference also works in favour of British Gas when their prices increase ..... perhaps, if the regulator actually stopped taking claims at face value, bought a calculator and learned to use it, they would be able to see the same pattern & do something about it ........

Thought ..... a regulator regulating ! :eek:

It was always my understanding that any such claim by a Utility company had to qualified.

e.g. An overall increase of 7% on a combined gas and electricity bill had to be qualified by, say:

7% applies to a consumption of 20,500kWh gas and 3,300kWh electricity with a customer paying by Direct Debit and includes VAT

Certainly that was always how BG used to present their increases - I have such a letter.

Obviously someone with a very low consumption would be adversely affected if, say, tier1 rates were increased more than tier2. However conversely someone with high consumption would benefit.

I am absolutely certain that ofgem could take action if BG's claims were not accurate across the board.

John_Pierpoint

energysavingexp wrote: »

I take it you never did maths at school.
google it.
you can buy them at many corner shops.
stick it along side one of your roof joists.
you will find that your roof could be 0'-90':EasterBun

A roof pitch of 30 degrees is said to be the best.
pitch - degree of deviation from a horizontal plane; "the roof had a steep pitch"

You can also put it on the window cill at noon on a sunny day and draw a line pointing due south by following the side of the shadow on the cill.. This will give you the "azimuth' to use for the on-line calculator. (Especially if you live in Greenwich;))

The free installation people seem to use something like facing up to 30 degrees off due south as an acceptable roof.

Unfortunately some disciplines use due north as zero Azimuth but for this discussion:

Azimuth
The angular distance between true south and the point on the horizon directly below the sun when the sun is shining directly into the room under the roof you intend to use for the PV panels.


You could also work it out by knowing that the sun passes through 180 degrees in the 12 hours between 6 in the morning and 6 in the afternoon, which I make 15 degrees per hour.

John_Pierpoint

Cardew wrote: »

It was always my understanding that any such claim by a Utility company had to qualified.

e.g. An overall increase of 7% on a combined gas and electricity bill had to be qualified by, say:



Certainly that was always how BG used to present their increases - I have such a letter.

Obviously someone with a very low consumption would be adversely affected if, say, tier1 rates were increased more than tier2. However conversely someone with high consumption would benefit.

I am absolutely certain that ofgem could take action if BG's claims were not accurate across the board.

It was not Ofgem that forced National Power to give money back to its customers!

Cardew

John_Pierpoint wrote: »

It was not Ofgem that forced National Power to give money back to its customers!

I specifically said 'could' not 'would'!;)

To be fair the 'sculpting' debacle(which has triggered the rebate) was not connected to an announced percentage price rise/decrease.

My point is that I believe that an announced figure of an x% increase/decrease has to be justified by stating the parameters on which that increase/decrease is based.

zeupater

Cardew wrote: »

.... My point is that I believe that an announced figure of an x% increase/decrease has to be justified by stating the parameters on which that increase/decrease is based.

Hi

I actually queried this with BG some time ago, you are correct that they qualify the percentage as being against a national average usage, they also explained that different supply areas were subject to different percentage changes. However, they couldn't/wouldn't explain why or how the perentage difference at my level of usage was always higher than the advised average ,whether the price was increasing or decreasing .... My opinion is that they simply use the price movements to disguise area specific competitive pricing strategies designed to gain market share in target areas without effecting average national margins.

Doesn't bother me now as I moved away from BG specifically due to this (and possibly swayed by the fact that they weren't the cheapest supplier anymore) mid year .....

Nang

We were originally going with the free scheme.

All I will say is it is worth reading the contract very carefully before proceeding. We got some legal advise and afterwards decided against it, that's why we ended up buying our own.

I don't think the contract really suits the homeowner. I realise we are in a quite privileged position to be able to buy our own but your home is likely to be your biggest asset I would recommend reading between the lines before signing up.

Nang...

SpendyBrendy

Has anyone done this?
Sounds like it could be a good idea but I expect there is some 'catch'.
Will most people save money?

Jon_Tiffany

SpendyBrendy wrote: »

Has anyone done this?
Sounds like it could be a good idea but I expect there is some 'catch'.
Will most people save money?

Plenty of people have done this - both the free schemes and buying their own.

Will you save some money? - Most certainly yes.

The only debate is over how much money you will save.

If you have the money I would say buy your own, if not then consider the free offers - the pros and cons have been covered many times on this forum.

easy12

Seemed like a good idea when I read about it on this site and so I contacted the company featured via their web site. To date zilch not even an automated e-mail as a response. This was many, many months ago. Well not to be deterred I tried another company and this one required a photo of the roof of my house in the initial application, yes you have guessed it absolutely zilch by way of response. My house is in the south of England, is a semi, the roof is south facing and is unobstructed. If this is the norm for a potential customer I wonder what the response would be if anything went wrong. Not impressed.

iscamaid

I applied to Bristish Gas and Homesun. Bristish Gas were very quick in contacting me but as I was not a customer they could not fit the free system. They called me on 3 seperate occasions asking the same thing, which became a bit annoying. Homesun have sent a rep out to have a preliminary look at the roof. Seemed fairly professional and prompt. They measured the roof as being 8m x 5m which I would make as being 40sq m. However they were unable to commit to this being adequate and said it may not meet their 30sq m area needed for free installation. They have now dropped the £500 payment for the solar share option (possibly had very little take up?) and are now operating a £5 per month payment if your roff is less than the 30sq m. I am getting a technical surveyor out to make a more accurate chack in a week and will post then how it goes. Not sure if I would take up the £5 per monthif I am less than the required amount (how they could make this with an excess of 40sq m south facing roof I do not know..............). Holding back judgement for the time being would love it if anyone has had a system installed by Homesun could psot and say how it went.