Free solar panel discussion

grahamc2003

digitaltoast wrote: »

Does anyone REALLY believe the FiT's will last as they are, increasing at the rate they are, beyond about 5 years time?

/QUOTE]

It's hard to say how long before reality sinks in. It's basically socially unjust, robbing Tom !!!!!! and Harry to line the pockets of Thomas, Ricardo and Harriet. (Well, not that bad, but generally a transfer of wealth from the poorer off to the better off (and probably even worse, directors of companies), and as soon as statistics are published showing that, the tide could turn). I don't see much sense in driving many of the poorer off into fuel poverty to pay a tax free indexed linked income to the better off middle classes, especially when there are zero real benefits from the systems (i.e. subsidising very expensive power generation may make political sense - 'stakeholders' being supporters - but it certainly makes no engineering sense at all in generating power via solar cells in the UK).

As soon as people realise a high percentage of their elecrticity bills doesn't buy electricity but goes in subsidies of this type for little or no benefit, then they'll get the chop imv. Maybe five, maybe ten maybe 15 years, but I doubt the current plan will run as promised for 25 years.

John_Pierpoint

Here is a list of "starving" land owners farming subsidies as well as sunshine:
http://farmsubsidy.org/GB/

Ron-ski

Hi, has anybody used The Green Home Company? Had a leaflet through the door today from them saying my roof looked suitable.

This is something I've been meaning to look into for sometime as we have a large south facing roof, but I just ended up with information overload last time I looked. Also I couldn't decide whether to go for a 'free' system or buy the system outright - was worried the government may withdraw the payments.

What's peoples thoughts on this?

John_Pierpoint

If you want to do this, buy the panels.

ronlizpatsimon

Ron-ski wrote: »

Hi, has anybody used The Green Home Company? Had a leaflet through the door today from them saying my roof looked suitable.

This is something I've been meaning to look into for sometime as we have a large south facing roof, but I just ended up with information overload last time I looked. Also I couldn't decide whether to go for a 'free' system or buy the system outright - was worried the government may withdraw the payments.

What's peoples thoughts on this?

There's little doubt that buying the panels will give you much more profit than the rent-a-roof scheme.
However; if you do not have the capital (say 15,000); or you do have it, but not much else to spare for unexpected expenses, and you do not want to move your current accessable savings to non-accessable "savings" (the Panels); then "rent-a-roof" could be for you.
Personally I would cash most of my ISAs and then install the panels. However; my wife will not agree so we are applying for free installation from British Gas.

Ron-ski

I think a couple of things are pointing me towards the 'free' option rather than buying, if I understand it correctly you can get £800 a year FIT payments if you pay for your own system. You get the savings with the free electric either way.

1. Now that system could cost around £12k, and that would take 15 years to get your money back, now I've no plans to move, but 15 years is a long time, so in that respect if we did move house we would lose out wouldn't we, the new owners would then get the FITs payments.
2. I don't trust the government, things can and do change.

Item 1 could be cancelled out by an increase in the value of the property, but that's a bit of an unknown.

I'm in the South East, has anybody used any local suppliers or The Green Home Company in this area?

zeupater

Ron-ski wrote: »

I think a couple of things are pointing me towards the 'free' option rather than buying, if I understand it correctly you can get £800 a year FIT payments if you pay for your own system. You get the savings with the free electric either way.

1. Now that system could cost around £12k, and that would take 15 years to get your money back, now I've no plans to move, but 15 years is a long time, so in that respect if we did move house we would lose out wouldn't we, the new owners would then get the FITs payments.
2. I don't trust the government, things can and do change.

Item 1 could be cancelled out by an increase in the value of the property, but that's a bit of an unknown.

I'm in the South East, has anybody used any local suppliers or The Green Home Company in this area?

Hi

Depending on your roof and your negotiating skills you should currently be able to get hold of a decent 4kWp system for around £13k which will return somewhere around £1500/year (index linked). Allow for a replacement inverter (say £1500+installation) at around the ten year mark & put a little aside for some general maintenance.

Your savings on reduced electricity will be around £100/year no matter whether you buy or have a 'rent-a-roof' system.

HTH
Z

Pelican712

Hi

I understand that this thread concentrates on the pros and cons of free installs but ....

"Now that system could cost around £12k"

I have had a quote for a 2.1KWp system at £7.8K - MCS registered etc. This was after much research, one thing that struck me was how much cheaper installs were the further north you lived.

I think prices are dropping as the first reduction in the FITs get nearer. This would be in line with the idea of encouraging early adopters, as was mentioned in a previous post.

I live on the South Coast

PeterZ_2

digitaltoast wrote: »

last night I spoke to an engineer who knows a helluva lot about coal fired power and turbines.
As I suspected and also as mentioned on wikipedia, the idea that you can "wind back" the amount of coal fired power needed when the sun pops its head out is pure nonsense and fantasy. The complete system of a coal fired station is designed to run at one speed and that's it.

While your engineer friend may know about coal fired power stations, its obvious you know very little about how the national grid works.

What do you think happens during the half time when the footies on and everyone turns on their kettles? The demand on the grid surges.

How do you think they cope with a sudden increase in demand if we are so reliant on coal fired stations?

PeterZ_2

Oil is at a 2 and a half year high:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12998807

This is the big issue that we need to address right now. How much longer do you think we can compete with China and the US for oil? Like it or not we need alternative sources of energy.

When people are paying £5 a litre for petrol and cant afford to eat, then we might see riots - but it will be all too late then.

We need action now, a small price today will reap huge rewards later. Renewables and nuclear need to increase massively. Of course since the terrible events in Japan no one wants to touch nuclear now.

We need people prepared to take action now, not an army of armchair critics.

digitaltoast wrote: »

You really think any government of the time will be able to sustain that given the rioting there will be over this?