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Free solar panel discussion
Comments
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i think a rethink is required regarding the way householders can access ways to take advantage of this green technology
I forgot to add, soon, I believe in April 2012, there will be the Green Energy Loans (not sure if that's the right name for them).
But basically, you take out a loan to pay for the fitting of your system and pay it back with your FiTs payments. So far the talk on this has been that your loan repayments will be less than your FiTs payments.
Not sure how that will work as in April 2012 the FiTs payments go down to 36.?p per kWh generated and if we have a dull year your FiTs payments will be reflected in this, so will the "loan" companies take the rough with the smooth in receiving fluctuating payments from year to year.
This scheme will make this microgeneration ability more available to the masses.
PooOne of Mike's Mob, Street Found Money £1.66, Non Sealed Pot (5p,2p,1p)£6.82? (£0 banked), Online Opinions 5/50pts, Piggy points 15, Ipsos 3930pts (£25+), Valued Opinions £12.85, MutualPoints 1786, Slicethepie £0.12, Toluna 7870pts, DFD Computer says NO!0 -
I need decent workers! I just keep getting the sharks who sense desperation and triple the asking price. I treat my regular guys who do the best they can like royalty! They have lunch in my garden, and munch on my water melons. When it's cold, I put on the gas heater and make them filtered coffee and tea. I provide masks when it's dusty work, and rush out to buy spare parts so they don't waste time.
Come up to the North, we'll show how you look after guys AND GALS
we call that good manners 
Target of wind & watertight by Sept 2011
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Your panels are metered so you know how much has been generated (actual generation) and this is what you are paid FiTs on. Say your system generates 1200kWhs in the first year you'll be paid for 1200kWhs, if in 20 years time they have degraded or become less efficient due to dirt and poopy build up and they only generate 900KWhs, you'll be paid for 900kWhs. Just as if the sun shines brightly one year and you generate 1400kWhs or if we have a miserable year and only generate 800kWhs.
The FiTs are based on what is generated which is variable. The only "fixed" rate is the level of the FiT payment - currently 41.3p + 3p on top export payment for 50% of whatever is generated.
50% is the deemed amount of export as most companies reckon it's difficult (if not near impossible) for a normal household to use 100% of the solar generated electricity.
Poo
That drastically alters the payback equation.
Each time you want to replace a panel, a scaffold will be needed, so it could easily cost £800. If you replace one panel every five years, that will add about three years to the payback time.
If you don't replace it, you get less FIT payment, which also increases payback time. Looks like I will never get in on the freebie, since I need more PV panels to compensate for lack of south facing roof.
Change of plan, buy some wood land, grow solid fuel.
If oil and gas get too expensive, wood will get popular.
Am I allowed to shoot wood poachers?
Use them for fertiliser, damn pesky critters.0 -
I forgot to add, soon, I believe in April 2012, there will be the Green Energy Loans (not sure if that's the right name for them).
But basically, you take out a loan to pay for the fitting of your system and pay it back with your FiTs payments. So far the talk on this has been that your loan repayments will be less than your FiTs payments.
Not sure how that will work as in April 2012 the FiTs payments go down to 36.?p per kWh generated and if we have a dull year your FiTs payments will be reflected in this, so will the "loan" companies take the rough with the smooth in receiving fluctuating payments from year to year.
This scheme will make this microgeneration ability more available to the masses.
Poo
Green Investment Bank - due to be set up in some form in the next 6 months subject to funding availability after the car crash on 20th October. The government is going to save some cash by putting the green quangos together (only rumour but makes sense) but the people who know (and who I can't remember
) reckon it'll take 2 billion a year for the first couple of years to get it going.
Fingers crossed something will come soon.Target of wind & watertight by Sept 20110 -
That drastically alters the payback equation.
Each time you want to replace a panel, a scaffold will be needed, so it could easily cost £800. If you replace one panel every five years, that will add about three years to the payback time.
If you don't replace it, you get less FIT payment, which also increases payback time. Looks like I will never get in on the freebie, since I need more PV panels to compensate for lack of south facing roof.
Change of plan, buy some wood land, grow solid fuel.
If oil and gas get too expensive, wood will get popular.
Am I allowed to shoot wood poachers?
Use them for fertiliser, damn pesky critters.
The panels are garanteed for x many years by the manufacturer but their supposed product life is 25 years at least.
Buying a wood would be wonderful just because there's something magical and sinister at the same time about woods. I think you might have to be licenced to shoot wood poachers though, probably by the secret service, but they're so secret you wouldn't be able to find out how to apply for a licence so I guess that bit's a no, no!One of Mike's Mob, Street Found Money £1.66, Non Sealed Pot (5p,2p,1p)£6.82? (£0 banked), Online Opinions 5/50pts, Piggy points 15, Ipsos 3930pts (£25+), Valued Opinions £12.85, MutualPoints 1786, Slicethepie £0.12, Toluna 7870pts, DFD Computer says NO!0 -
ASG have one standard system size comprising of 18 panels, and do not fit bigger nor smaller systems, therefore will not acheive any 'larger returns' if the roof space is bigger than the minimum size required to accomodate the 18 panels.....these companies only take on the properties that in there opinion will generate alot of power and therefore give them a larger return on their outlay.....
The companies do not claim funds from the government, but from the supply companies....even though they are supposed to be able to claim funds from the government
Look through the thread, you will find a number of people who have been accepted. (lots of other who havn't too!)i know alot of people who applied and been turned down and have yet to meet anybody who has been accepted0 -
I wonder how much Vattenfall are paid for their green electricity, having invested over £900million in their large off shore wind farm .....?
Our Utilities haven't paid them to install their wind farm off the coast of Kent but I bet they will be buying some (if not all) of the electricity they produce.
Our Utilities are not paying the likes of ASG or HomeSun or Isis nor us to install the apparatus that will generate electricity but we do know how much they will be paying some of us for the next 25 years (41.3p +3p on some of it) for the electricity we generate.
Collectively, all of the solar pv generators are just the same as one single huge company such as Vattenfall. The only difference, of course, is we don't know how much our Utilities pay the large companies for their electric.
Our suppliers will be buying every bit of electricity the windmills generate - they have to, legally, via the renewables obligation. They even have to buy it when they don't want or need to, like in the middle of the night when demand is low and there is a surplus of cheap electricity.
The suppliers pay around £150/Mwh (=£15p/kwh, a price fixed by the government) - roughly 3 times the average price of electricity, and over the 25 years life of the new array, the subsidy will abount to around £1.2bn (for this single array alone) - all going to the Swedish owner, via (again) an increase in all electricity bills.
As with solar, because the wind is intermittant and the array will sometimes generate nothing during periods of maximum demand, none of the electricty can displace conventional power stations - so we'll need exactly the same number as if the array had not been built.0 -
The panels are garanteed for x many years by the manufacturer but their supposed product life is 25 years at least.
Apologies if I'm stating the obvious ... bear in mind that the panel supplier will simply supply a new panel upon return of the old one - unless the entire installation is warranted the system owner will bear the cost of the labour to remove and refit. Some of the installation companies I spoke to were cagey about this fact - the system warranty is typically quite short.0 -
I'm glad you've talked yourself out of this con. There's always Anaerobic Digestion too. Nobody's considered that yet.Change of plan, buy some wood land, grow solid fuel.
If oil and gas get too expensive, wood will get popular.
Am I allowed to shoot wood poachers?
Use them for fertiliser, damn pesky critters.0
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