Free solar panel discussion

RRatchet

Hi,

Sorry if I'm asking an already answered question (I've only read the first and last pages of the discussion) but does anyone know if there is a company offering free pv in Scotland? I have acres and acres of roof space on our farm buildings which I'd be more than happy to have covered with pv panels. The farm house is already overloaded with solar panels for water heating.

Yours

R

Jon_Tiffany

RRatchet wrote: »

Hi,

Sorry if I'm asking an already answered question (I've only read the first and last pages of the discussion) but does anyone know if there is a company offering free pv in Scotland? I have acres and acres of roof space on our farm buildings which I'd be more than happy to have covered with pv panels. The farm house is already overloaded with solar panels for water heating.

Yours

R

I doubt if any of the existing companies will be willing to cover Scotland, you are probably better off looking into the free wind turbine offer.

Gizmosmum_2

Free wind? Haven't heard about that. IS that only in Scotland?

mary1

I cannot find any suppliers in the north east of England. Would anyone like to enlighten me please.

Jon_Tiffany

Gizmosmum wrote: »

Free wind? Haven't heard about that. IS that only in Scotland?

https://www.solarventus-energy.co.uk - For wind turbines offer, not sure what areas are covered, and there are some conditions regarding suitability - much like the solar offer only being for those with suitable roofs.

I would imagine wind turbines will be a little more involved as its a bigger investment and will need planning permission.

Nang

Hi

If you are considering installing solar panels on your house and paying for it yourself, check out my blog on :-

uksolarcasestudy.co.uk/

We have taken the leap and put a 4 KW system on our family house. We are putting up live data to help others to determine whether it constitutes a good investment or not.

This is completely non commercial, we just want to see a greener UK.:)

Happy to hear feedback.

Andy..

Cardew

Nang wrote: »

Hi

If you are considering installing solar panels on your house and paying for it yourself, check out my blog on :-

uksolarcasestudy.co.uk/

We have taken the leap and put a 4 KW system on our family house. We are putting up live data to help others to determine whether it constitutes a good investment or not.

This is completely non commercial, we just want to see a greener UK.:)

Happy to hear feedback.

Andy..

Welcome to the forum.

This is the link: http://www.uksolarcasestudy.co.uk

A couple of questions/points.

1. If the installer estimates an output of 3,300kWh pa how do you reach such an exact figure of £1,449.79 on the bar chart for for FIT payments?
If it was just FIT(as it states) that is an output of 3510kWh. Even if you add 1,650kWh x 3p it still doesn't add up.

2. You haven't included any savings you make from the generated electricity you use in the house?

3. As your aim is to demonstrate "Is Solar Generation a good / viable investment for a home owner living in the UK?” an essential missing factor is how much you paid for the system. i.e. if you paid,say £17,000 you will surely need to factor in the lost compounded interest to meet your aim.

Is there any reason why the installation cost was not included? or is the £17000 savings in 10 years a hint?

4. To get over 20kWh on several days is excellent. As a matter of interest have you recorded or noted the maximum output your system achieved in kW(not kWh)

Be interesting to see the figures later in the year

Perry525

RRatchet wrote: »

Hi,

Sorry if I'm asking an already answered question (I've only read the first and last pages of the discussion) but does anyone know if there is a company offering free pv in Scotland? I have acres and acres of roof space on our farm buildings which I'd be more than happy to have covered with pv panels. The farm house is already overloaded with solar panels for water heating.

Yours

R

===================================
It is unlikely that any firm would provide solar panels to someone living in Scotland, due to the restricted output.
Your location would not be able to provide the output that a commercial company will require and therefore the profit.
Name the nearest town.

Perry525

lil-smeg wrote: »

I heard about this offer a few weeks back, through the news and this forum.

After reading this entire thread and looking on the companies offering this on their website, I think I can give my option as honest as possible.

What really puts me off firstly is the fact you have to take the agreement for 25 years :eek: - That in itself ruins the offer to me, as I hate being tied into long agreements longer than 12 - 24 months to be fair.
Although many people will not intend to sell within this time, what if you need to sale or change your mind?!
As a new house buyer, I personally would not want to buy a house I had to take a 25 year agreement on minus the 5 years the previous owner had held the agreement.


Secondly, do these panels really provide enough power to supply your house?! - I have known people who have solar panels and unless it is really sunny out you get nothing, and when it is, you get barely enough to power a few items at once.


Although this sounds a good offer, there is the saying there is no such thing as a free meal, and I think, in this case, it is one of those offers!


I would seriously consider all your options and read the terms and conditions before signing anything!

====================================
The offer is not about you creating enough power for all your equipment, although you could do that if you had a large enough roof or garden, it is about lowering our import bill and enabling the power generators to charge more money for providing less energy. They will boost their profits by not having to chase the tails every year as demand goes up, they will not have to provide new capacity at vast expense, they will merely take the power you generate for them and sell it on at a nice profit, while you fund their output, what a nice scam.
This idea was proposed in 1982 and it has taken a while to sink in in this country, although to be fair it has already happened in other industries, where we get less at higher prices.
Think petrol.

Cardew

Perry525 wrote: »

====================================
they will not have to provide new capacity at vast expense,

Unfortunately electricity from solar will not make the slightest bit of difference to the generating capacity required by the electricity industry.

They will still have to cater for the periods when UK ltd is drawing maximum load* - and that isn't when the sun is shining and PV panels generating.

* Those nice Froggies with their clean nuclear power help a lot as well;)