Free solar panel discussion

Jon_Tiffany

Mcfi5dhc wrote: »

Agree with your first sentence 100%

However, I (with an export meter) can only manage to use about 50% and I have only a 1.44kwp system. We do use things in the day where we can, though we don't set timers. I calculated my usage of the ASG system would be as little as 15%, or about £40 a year

In conclusion:
If you have a backwards spinner, winner

I have to admit that I would have thought you would be using more than 50%. My plan is to use the washing machine and dishwasher on the sunny days in the 10am to 2pm period where the out put is at its max. We have children so the washers are used every other day and should fit well with the UK summers.

Without any major appliances running my house is consuming somewhere around 300w to 400w - so thats the fridge, TV, laptop and a few things on standby. So on a typical day when the panels output peaks most of the electricity would be exported, in this case.

I will admit that if I dont manage to use more than 50% of my production I will be very disapointed. My routine will be 10am washing goes on, 12pm cook lunch (electric cooker) 1pm dishwasher.

I love your quote!
If you have a backwards spinner, winner :T

suntechsolar

dbreeze wrote: »

As a home owner, I would probably be better of extending the mortgage to cover the cost of the Solar system (I have a fantastic south facing roof), and taking both the buy back payments *and* the increase in value on the house.

My mortgage is less than 25% of the value of the house so this is probably a no brainer for me.

Darren B.

I purchased a new home and my one stipulation was the roof needed to be south facing as far as possible and as much of it clear of shade.
I paid £120,000 in 2000 and invested £8,000 in a rain water harvesting system, back shed solar PV battery storage system, at the front of the house a 44 tube heat pipe collector, 250 litre thermal store to provide support heating as well as 100% tax free hot water in summer months. A second tube batch solar heater as a pre heat to the mains water, a micro wind turbine coupled to 400 watt of PV all tied into 6 x 100 amp batteries for emergency back up power at 240 volts.

I asked an agent round to value my house this year as last year it was valued at £250.00, now its value is £265,000
Out of all these technologies, the biggest return on invested (no grants) is the rain water harvesting system with the pumps powered by the batteries and inverter.
Very people seem to know that by bypassing the water meter, you pay less sewage, as sewage is charged from water passing through the meter.
The next biggest saving away from any Utility or Government involvment is my solar water heating system which over the past 3.5 years has registared kWh savings of 35,246 to date.
Unlike solar water heating only, 100% of all our solar genarated heat goes into my central heating to maintain a temperture in the house during the day time to stop the house dropping back to 14c after heating it to 23c.
To reduce my electricty bill which is 25% of our total bills, we purchased the most efficent appliances and changed all our light bulbs to latest LED.

If we have power cuts which is looking likly from 2013, our lights will stay on, my gas boiler pump will run from my UPS battery back up system as wll my solar central heating side.
Those who have been sold into a heat pump to heat water and heating will freeze if we have winter power cuts

suntechsolar

Gizmosmum wrote: »

Be careful with assumptions about RHI unlike FIT it hasn't been approved yet and many in the industry (including DECC) are very cautious about the added burden on the poor of subsidising RHI in addition to FIT. There's absolutley no guarantee that RHI will go ahead FIT as an investment is on the table now and guaranteed for 25 years.

If, like me, you've addressed all the easy energy saving options FIT gives you a "feel good" investment opportunity. I get to save the world and a bit of cash too. :j

Gizmosmum, if the RHI does not go ahead as you are sugesting an awfull lot of plumbers and heating engineers will be well P---- off including the 3 companies I supply evacuated tube collectors to as well as the latest in waterless heat pipe radiators that our new advanced collectors can work with.
I dont have anymore roof space for a large scale PV system, so will need to sell the house and looking to by a new house with more roof space.

Being involved with the supply of both solar thermal and PV systems, our new direction as an alterntive to just PV is to promote our PVT panel that provides electricty and heated water, but only up to 40c in summer, so no chance of over heating, but ideal for heating pools in summer and support to heat pumps for heating

saintstan

With a south facing roof and a 4kwp system installed, could you expect to produce 10kwh per day on average over teh entire year, or is that overly optimistic ?
To me that equates to around £1500 per year in FiT's alone (I think...) if achieveable.

Answers on a postcard to...

Mcfi5dhc

saintstan wrote: »

With a south facing roof and a 4kwp system installed, could you expect to produce 10kwh per day on average over teh entire year, or is that overly optimistic ?
To me that equates to around £1500 per year in FiT's alone (I think...) if achieveable.

Answers on a postcard to...

Based on the last two years performance of my system, you would get about 9.3 units per day on average, about 3400 units

Which at 36p per unit, is £1224, plus your exported, say £50-£100 (41.3p is for sub-4kwp)

Thanks

Jon_Tiffany

I dont think thats too far off - my 1.9kW system will produce 1400kWh per year, so you should get around 3000kWh per year.

Mcfi5dhc

Jon_Tiffany wrote: »

I love your quote!
If you have a backwards spinner, winner :T

I'm working towards something like:

If you have a backwards spinner, winner
If you have an export meter, lose out

Or
If you have an export meter, forget it

Or
If you have an export meter, you've just rented out your roof for the next 25 years at a return of about £50 a year

Haven't quite got them as catchy yet

Perry525

saintstan wrote: »

With a south facing roof and a 4kwp system installed, could you expect to produce 10kwh per day on average over teh entire year, or is that overly optimistic ?
To me that equates to around £1500 per year in FiT's alone (I think...) if achieveable.

Answers on a postcard to...

=============
You must understand that the output from a solar panel is dependent on the angle of the panel and your location.
Name the nearest town.

Gizmosmum_2

suntechsolar wrote: »

Gizmosmum, if the RHI does not go ahead as you are sugesting an awfull lot of plumbers and heating engineers will be well P---- off including the 3 companies I supply evacuated tube collectors to as well as the latest in waterless heat pipe radiators that our new advanced collectors can work with.
I dont have anymore roof space for a large scale PV system, so will need to sell the house and looking to by a new house with more roof space.

Being involved with the supply of both solar thermal and PV systems, our new direction as an alterntive to just PV is to promote our PVT panel that provides electricty and heated water, but only up to 40c in summer, so no chance of over heating, but ideal for heating pools in summer and support to heat pumps for heating

I understand the challenges of the RHI going ahead - I work with a lot of worried contractors at the minute who have a substantial part of their business on the assumption that RHI would go ahead.

At a recent meeting with some of the big guys in the industry Decc indicated that it is far from a done deal and certainly has the potential to be dumped. Not sure how that will help green Britian but there certainly seems to be a degree of unfairness if those who can least afford it are subsidising those who can afford it to go green.

khris210

If I have a roof of 4kwp which produces 9.3kw a day(as above), but reduce that to 8kw for safety, thats 2900 kw a year. My consumption over the past two years in this house has been an average of 2700kw, therefore fuzzying over the figures even more, I would break even. This means that FIT would pay me 2700 divide by 2 = 1350 x 41.3 = £557 + 1350 x 44.3 equals £598 equals £1155 p.a. Thats on the 50% rule. Plus the electricity I no longer pay for, thats about £270, minus the lost interest on the capital investment, I'm going to assume £13000 x 2.75% = £318 means my total income from the investment of £13000 will be £1107 which is tax free and inflation proofed. Plus electricity prices will rise. This is an interest rate of 8.5%. That's pretty good. My average usage at any one time according to my stand alone smart meter (the Owl) is about 350 watts excluding washing machines and lawn mowers etc, so the panels wouldn't cover my peak needs. But selling half my production to the grid at 44.3p and buying it back when I need it at say 10p is good business, yes?