Free solar panel discussion

Gizmosmum_2

Cardew wrote: »

see post #1742

Thanks - it was about a month ago I seem to remember a discussion about Homesun scrapping the £5 scheme. Must have been another post/forum.

Cardew

Gizmosmum wrote: »

Thanks - it was about a month ago I seem to remember a discussion about Homesun scrapping the £5 scheme. Must have been another post/forum.

There was some discussion about would they/wouldn't they waive the £500 and/or £5 monthly.

That is what I mean about what the market will stand!

The trouble is that people have an inflated view of how much the 'rent a roof' systems will save.

However to actually pay a firm to make a lot of money from your roof and allow them to have legal rights over your roof(and subsequent owners) beggars belief.

Gizmosmum_2

Q: How much money will I save on my electricity bill each year?

A: It depends on your consumption, but an average figure is £360.


From Sol et libre FAQ's

Outrageous :mad:

Cardew

Gizmosmum wrote: »

Q:

How much money will I save on my electricity bill each year?

A: It depends on your consumption, but an average figure is £360.


From Sol et libre FAQ's

Outrageous :mad:

Not another firm just set up(2010) in the Bournemouth/Poole area. So many Solar firms have started up and gone bust from this area - Court cases - Watchdog type programmes etc

They say their workforce has up to 15 years in the Renewable Energy business.

Our team members have individual experience of up to 15 years in the renewable energy market

£360 as an average!!!! as you say unbelievable!

Doc_N

Tesco give, by comparison, a figure of £112 pa for a 2.115 kWp system assuming 50% usage (881.53 x 12.76p/kWh = £112.48/year). A £360 average is nonsense, by any reckoning.

JustineR_2

I spoke with a contact at Sol et Libre earlier today. He informed me they are installing 3.3kW systems and only throughout the south coast. I checked the anticipated cost savings on the Energy Savings Trust website and this indicates a total generation amount of 2,973 kWh for the southern region. Assuming I consume 75% of the generated total, I calculate my annual saving to be £357 (based on my current cost of 16.01p per kWh)

Am I missing something?

JustineR_2

If Tesco quote a saving of £112 pa - this isn't that different to the Sol et Libre claim of £360, when the following are factored in:

Tesco Sol et Libre
System size 2.115kWp 3.3kWp
Cost per kWh 12.76p 16.01p (What I currently pay)
Assumed consumption 50% 75% (As our home is occupied most of the time)

Also - being on the south coast increased the light intensity, so:
£112 x 1.56 (larger system) x 1.25 (75% usage) x 1.25 (electricity price) + 10% (south coast factor) = £300 pa

Are my calculations incorrect?

grahamc2003

JustineR wrote: »

I spoke with a contact at Sol et Libre earlier today. He informed me they are installing 3.3kW systems and only throughout the south coast. I checked the anticipated cost savings on the Energy Savings Trust website and this indicates a total generation amount of 2,973 kWh for the southern region. Assuming I consume 75% of the generated total, I calculate my annual saving to be £357 (based on my current cost of 16.01p per kWh)

Am I missing something?

If you're not missing anything, then you're on a really terrible tariff. Are you sure the 16p/kwh isn't the tier one price? You should be using your tier two price, which shouldn't be more than 11p/kwh.

Also, even the really enthusiastic don't claim 75% usage as a realistic possibility (at least without specialised control equipment), most seem to think 50% on a 3.3kw system would be a result. Myself, from the evidence of experienced users who post here and having worked in the energy industry, I would say anything approaching 50% would be nigh on impossible without lots of wastage. It's been discussed to death on various threads.

If you try to increase your percentage usage by turning on your immersion, then if you would othwise heat the water by gas, you are gaining your gas price (say 3p/kwh), not your electricity price (which should be around 10/11p/kwh). Of course, if you do this, when the panels don't cover the 3kw of the immersion, you are then losing about 7-8p/kwh for the uncovered usage.

Cardew

JustineR wrote: »

If Tesco quote a saving of £112 pa - this isn't that different to the Sol et Libre claim of £360, when the following are factored in:

Tesco Sol et Libre
System size 2.115kWp 3.3kWp
Cost per kWh 12.76p 16.01p (What I currently pay)
Assumed consumption 50% 75% (As our home is occupied most of the time)

Also - being on the south coast increased the light intensity, so:
£112 x 1.56 (larger system) x 1.25 (75% usage) x 1.25 (electricity price) + 10% (south coast factor) = £300 pa

Are my calculations incorrect?

Graham is spot on.

Firstly I cannot believe anyone pays 16p for a kWh, that must be the tier 1(primary unit) price. There are loads of tariffs below 10p/kWh

Secondly ASG have fitted thousands of 3.3kWp systems and they expect a minimum of 2,800kWh pa

Now admittedly being further South you will get a higher output, but 3,200kWh pa would be excellent.

Now the percentage of that consumption!

With an export meter fitted it is possible to work out exactly how much you use. 2 posters on here - both solar enthusiasts with systems fitted for 3 years or so - have given their figures. One who also lives on the South coast manages to use 1,000kWh pa and another with wife and 2 small children at home all day uses 500kWh pa.

Those sort of consumption figures are typical of other detailed reports available on the web, Not the "My bills have gone down by £xx a month" variety.

You really would be hard pushed to use 50% of that output - even working at it hard. The output varies so much from minute to minute, let alone day to day and season to season.

So £150 pa would be absolutely excellent, even £100 would be good.

You could of course use 100% of your generated output assuming you have a hot water tank and an immersion heater. Switch on the immersion heater, turn on the bath hot tap to full, take the plug out of the bath and leave the hot tap running all daylight hours;)

Perhaps that is the method sol et libre use to get to £360?? - that is a serious comment.

Edit.
Just seen your post above - yes 2,973kWh pa would be what I would expect. To give the benefit of the doubt, I said above 3,200kWh would be excellent.

jellyhead

My husband reckons we would need to sort out the chimney before looking at solar, and we can't afford to get the chimney fixed. It's going to need doing within a couple of years anyhow though, and we'll need to get into debt to do it. I can't decide if we should go for it or not.

I suppose there's no harm getting a survey done - they might tell us that we are not south enough anyway.